I started my journey and came across Ellacor middle of 2022. I had 3 consultations, 2 being in California and one in Miami. The one in Miami was my deciding factor, as, like one reviewer stated, they are a dermatology office and not a plastic surgeons office, therefore less expensive. One in California wanted $5,000 the other $3500 and Miami was less and on Dr was part of the team of providers for the testing/reviewing of Ellacor. The cost of flying there and the treatment was half of the cheaper in California. I have tried a lot of procedures, Ultherapy~2 times, don't waste your money ladies, and other laser treatments. I won't do the fillers in my checks or lips or a facelift. I don't like the look of fillers, and I'm just not ready for a facelift, maybe never. I had my treatment on a Thursday and flew home the same day. Procedure itself was painless, because of the numbing and lidocaine that was done before hand....OUCH is all I can say about the lidocaine, but after that, all has been quite a breeze. I have had no pain, but a lot of swelling and of course the redness, and dryness of my skin. My suggestion is sleep propped up, as it will help with swelling and keep moisturized. The jury is still out on if this procedure has done what I am looking for, but it has only been a few days. I will update in a few days. As for the provider, they have been great with answering questions and following up on how I am doing! Updated on 18 Feb 2023: I am still unsure of this procedure, I can see some difference but barley. I will be getting another session done next month and hopefully I will be satisfied. I do have to say, my healing process was a breeze! Updated on 2 Oct 2023: This is "current", well after 6 months of getting my second treatment. Something funky happened around the upper corners of my mouth, not sure what happened. I've tried multiple things and have yet to come across anything to help lower face. I thought for sure Ellacor was it, it wasn't. Next thing I will try is deep chemical peel, and lower facelift.
My name is LaQuanda and I am an African American woman from Miami,FL. I would like to start by saying, Thank you to my beautiful Dermatologist Dr. Kristin Haushalter and Miami Dermatology and Laser Institute. For the excellent customer service. Dr. Haushalter was absolutely correct Absorica (Isotretinoin) is amazing and really changed my life, so much so, I feel compelled to share my experience dealing with severe nodular acne. I know you are probably thinking, “wow” this is a very long testimony, maybe even looks more a like a biography. Nevertheless, it is worth the read, if you have been affected like me. This has truly been an exhausting and extremely long road for me. I have always had clear skin, prior to dealing with the nodular acne I never had a problem with acne bumps on my face. ? A few months after the birth of my son is when I experienced the first breakout. It happened very suddenly; several large and small bumps broke out on my face. At that time, I thought it was an allergic reaction. Then after my first dermatologist visit, he said that it might be my hormones after the pregnancy. He gave me a prescription and a cream that didn’t work. So, I went to another dermatologist who said it could be something I’m eating or something I have taken, they gave me another prescription and cream and that didn’t work either. There is where my frustration and anxiety began.Over a five year span, I had seen about eight to ten different Dermatologists. I had tried just about everything and spent thousands of dollars on prescription creams, lotions, foams, cleaners, antibiotics, over the counter products etc. I then began to try products on television or online. I even tried home remedies that I had seen on YouTube. There was one video I saw which was posted by an African American lady. In the video, she stated that she used Tea tree oil to dry out her bumps. Looking at her before and after photos, I said to myself this has to work. So, I went to the store and bought the Tea Tree oil, I got home that night and rubbed Tea tree oil all over my face. If you don’t know what tea tree oil smells like, it has an odor very similar to the original Pine-Sol. It had a very strong and distinct smell, especially, if you use the amount I did. My entire house smelled like Pine-Sol and gas. I was desperate and I just wanted the Acne and spots to go away and I didn’t care what it smelled like as long as it works, but it didn’t.I then went to this dermatologist who came highly recommended for his expertise in skin care especially with African American skin. He didn’t accept any insurance and his product based on my financial situation was too high. However, I needed a solution. I made sacrifices and saved up the money to go. I spent hundreds of dollars with him and months later, there were absolutely no positive results with my skin. I am not saying that the Doctor was not a good doctor, and I’m not saying his products don’t work. The same thing goes for Proactiv both the regular and MD or any other product or prescriptions I have tried. It’s just that those things didn’t work for my skin condition.Nothing was working and the break outs in my face only got worse. My entire face was covered in bumps some were so big that it looked like boils. Some became inflamed and looked like sores, and the spots covered most of face. My face was very dark and purple looking. It looked like I had been beaten and my face was badly bruised under the bumps. If I wore makeup it only covered the spots not the bumps of course. It made me feel like I looked like the back side of a nestle crunch bar. Then my back and chest started breaking out, at that point I had become anxious for a solution and felt hopeless.Although I have never believed in witch craft, spells, or Roots as most blacks call it. I was starting to think that maybe it was real, maybe someone had put an ugly spell on me. Prior to the severe nodular acne my self-esteem and confidence, which always had been very high, turned and I felt low and disgusted with myself and my life. I didn’t feel like myself at all. I have always made the best out of any situation I have encountered. God knows I have been through so many difficult situations, dealing with being morbidly obese, involved in a bad accident in which I could have died that caused me to have to learn how to walk and how to control my bladder again. Doctors said because of the accident, I would never be able to have children. For many years, I thought I would never experience motherhood, and my mother would never become a grandmother. Amongst a ton of other situations, I have been in. However, the experience I endured with serve nodular acne still doesn’t compare.At this point I had become very detached from my close friends and family, ashamed of what I looked like, and worried about what others thought about me when they saw how bad my skin condition had gotten. I was tired of the comments oh my gosh what’s wrong with your skin, and you need to do something about your face, like I was choosing not to get help and wanted to look like the crypt keeper. Even though that is how I felt, their comments didn’t make it any better. At the time someone that truly loved me and had my best interest at heart, at least that’s what I thought, told me that I needed to hurry up and do something with my skin. He said if he didn’t know any better, he would think something was wrong with me. That’s just one of many hurtful things he said and did during a time when I needed him the most. It’s crazy how things are revealed to you about some people at the most difficult times in your life. I honestly believe that when people show you who they really are believe them.I felt like no one understood my pain and frustration. People who have never been in this situation will probably never understand. I was once told by someone to get over it “you act like it’s the end of the world. There’s people in worst conditions some that are dealing with life threatening issues. Although Acne is not life threatening it can have a major effect on your life and mental health. It can get to the point that people contemplate committing suicide. I once read in an article that stated something like, most teens with bad acne are at greater risk of having suicidal thoughts and mental health issues. Bad skin can be mentally devastating when someone is trying to form their self-image, personality and confidence, in which I agree. In my opinion what most people do not think about is. When someone is dealing with a life-threatening illness, their peers are more sympathetic, loving and caring, and they show compassion more to your situation. Opposed to someone who is dealing with a bad skin condition, most people look at you as if you are disgusting or contagious. I have never heard of Acne being Contagious and transmitted from one person to another. However, some people still have a disgusted demeanor. Some people have this reaction without realizing it and some just don’t care. Some whisperer and have side conversations about your skin condition. That feeling when you know are being talked about and people are having side conversation about you and not in a good way, can sometimes be the worse feeling in the world.I literally went to work and back home daily. Truthfully, I really didn’t want to go there. Family gathering or events with friends was a no for me. It had been over a year since my close friends and family saw me. Many days I thought long and hard about quitting my job, so that I wouldn’t have to see anyone at all, but I had too many responsibilities, so I couldn’t. I thought about doing work from home, but I needed my benefits. I used to cry on my way to work, cried at work, cried on the way home, cried at home, I just cried. I cried so many days and nights for so long I could have filled a pond with all my tears. I probably need a tear transfusion because I don’t think I have any tears left in me, I want to cry just writing this. This time it’s tears of joy, looking now and looking at pictures of myself and how bad my skin was just a few months ago. This reminds me of how affective Absorica is and how it has changed my life.At one point my only outlet had become sleep-aids and alcohol. As long as it said sleep on the bottle or on the commercial, I bought it and tried it. If the bottle said take two I took four along with one to two alcoholic beverages, even though most, if not all, state do not consume with Alcohol. I didn’t care I Just wanted to go to sleep. Every night this is what I looked forward to sleep aids and Alcohol. Over time my body got Immune to it, so, I increased the dose. Now that I look back I was really abusing sleep aids and Alcohol, at one point I could take six to eight Benadryl’s and it wouldn’t have an effect on me. I was taking Benadryl, melatonin (tablets, gummies or liquid), unisom, and Z-quills (tablets, gummies or liquid), sometimes all at one time with alcohol just to cry myself to sleep. I have also tried Peptiva which is a probiotic with a sleep aid. That’s after the prescriptions for promethazine and muscle relaxers ran out and my doctors would no longer refill them. I really didn’t press the issue because even those stopped working.None of my family or close friends knew just how depressed I was. They knew nothing about me abusing sleep aids and Alcohol. I stayed away from everyone, my mother lives outside of town so it was easy to hide from her. I live in a gated community, so no one could pop up to my house. When my friend would Face-Time me it was either dark or I wouldn’t point the camera to my face. Then one day I had to go to my god mothers to take her something and there was really no way around it. When she saw me, she didn’t say anything about my face but I’m sure she saw it because it was very noticeable. I know she could tell I was uncomfortable because she knows me.Just a few days later she called to tell me about this young lady at the school she works at. She told me how this young lady’s acne was once very bad, but her skin is very clear and beautiful now. She got the Doctors contact information and thought I should call and make an appointment. It took me a month or two to call and set up an appointment, because I was discouraged and felt like it would be a waste of time and money that I didn’t have. Finally, I decided to give it a try and I called the Miami Dermatology and Laser Institute and got an appointment.At my first Doctors visit I took a duffle bag filled with tons of the products and prescriptions I had tried. When I meet Dr. Kristin Haushalter she was very nice and informative. After looking very briefly in the duffle bag, she advised that none of those products will work for my skin condition. She said I needed to use Accutane, and she assured me that it will work and after a month or so after being on Accutane, I will thank her and then by the 4th month I will love her, and she was right.Just after the first few weeks I noticed a difference and I feel like finally God has finally answered my prayers, Dr. Kristin Haushalter (Miami Dermatology and Laser Institute) has been a lifesaver. It’s been a long hard road for me. I can’t say that taking Absorica was easy, there were side effects to deal with, but it was definitely worth the struggle and if I had to, I would go through it again. I cannot thank Dr. Kristin Haushalter, Miami Dermatology and Laser Institute, Accutane, the Inventors of Absorica, I-Pledge, and all others that are a part of the Accutane program. I never thought I would be able to feel like myself again. I thought I would never have clear skin again. A few weeks ago, I realized that I haven’t used any sleep aids in a while and I fall asleep on my own and sleep thru the night. When I look at pictures of my skin from less than a year ago and prior to taking Absorica, I get so emotional and filled with joy. I just feel so blessed and thankful that I tried Absorica and stuck with it to the end. I honestly cannot thank Absorica enough, it truly changed my life. Updated on 13 May 2019: I want to do this to give hope and support to anyone whom has dealt with or is currently dealing with severe nodular acne. They need to know that they are not alone and there is not only a light, but a bright light at the end of the tunnel. Updated on 17 May 2019: Thank you for Acknowledging my email I greatly appreciate it. I started taking Absorica in August of 2018 and completed the treatment March of 2019. I must say the results with skin is amazing completely unbelievable. I actual started to see improvement in my skin within 2-3 week after starting the treatment. The first month on Absorica I was taking 40MG Capsules once a day. The second month I was prescribed 40MG Capsules twice a day. Then the Third month 40MG Capsules three times a day for the remainder of the treatment. The further I got into the treatment to worse the side effects became, but its was expected. Since Dr. Haushalter was very clear on what I should expect during the treatment. My lips and skin became very dry including the bottom of my feet. I became dry in places I never imagined such as my nose, the back of my legs and neck. Basically, I was dry everywhere. So dry that some parts of the skin started to crack, and bleed like under my bottom lip. I also experienced very bad joint pains as well, but Dr. Haushalter told me that I would. At one point my eyes was so dry it felt like sand was in them. However, as I was feeling the side effects my skin condition continued to improve. The further along I got in the treatment. I started to see less and less bumps and most of the spots started to clear up. This gave me the motivation to continue the treatments and the strength to endure all the sides effects. Every day I gave myself pep talks as I looked in the mirror at the improvements in my face. Throughout the whole treatment Dr. Kristin Haushalter has been wonderful, she is very supportive and informative. Which was very helpful, and it made it a lot easier to deal with the side effects. Since I have completed the Absorica treatment months ago the dryness in has gone away my skin looks amazing, and I receive complements all the time.