20 Years Old, Just Starting Accutane - Perth, AU

I'm up to the 7th month mark now and tomorrow is meant to be my "final" appointment with my derma (if all goes well). To be honest I don't know what my face is mean to look like after you finish the course of Accutane so I guess he'll assess if he's happy with my face and if I'm finally done or if I need to be on it for another month or so (Accutane makes no real impact on my life so I wouldn't be that bothered if I did have to go on a little longer).
As you can see my from pictures my skin isn't 100% clear and lovely - though I didn't expect it to be considering how many years I've had acne. What you see in the picture though is only remaining marks from pimples that have gone away (we all know it can take weeks for the redness of pimples to subside) and possibly a bit of scarring (not super sure yet though) - though I will say I have NO active pimples on my face at all! :) First time in 9 years I haven't had any active pimples - and it feels amazing.
Though I did have a breakout of 2-3 pimples a few days ago (just before my period) but considering that's pretty normal for women I don't know if that's a sign I need to stay on longer or if I'm done with the dose.
Things I'll be discussing with derma tomorrow:-
+Do I need to stay on longer or are you happy with my face/the final product?
+I broke out a few days ago, is this ok considering it was just before my period and I always do?
+How much of my skin is lingering redness and how much is scarring?
+How long do I have to wait to do treatment for my skin?
I'll update you guys on all his answers hopefully tomorrow :) I was well aware of the fact that I'd have to have some sort of treatment for my acne scars/marks after my treatment - so this is no surprise for me. I have to say though I'm really happy with the results, my self-confidence has improved greatly and when I wear make-up now it looks so much better without big red lumps underneath it! :)

Hey guys I wanted to let you know and warn you about something that happened to me a few weeks ago. [Not to do with Accutane but relevant to acne]

I had a cystic pimple on the corner of my right eye, foolishly as it was rather sore and I've been squeezing pimples for years I squeezed this one hoping to relieve the pressure, nothing really happened when I squeezed it so I let it be so that it wouldn't look bad/scar.
The next day though I woke up the my under-eye was swollen - it was only mild swelling but I was shocked as I've never had swelling on my face before. I took some antihistamines and ice-packed my face to leave it be.
Sunday, the next day, my eye was still swollen and I noticed that pimple I'd tried to squeeze was very tender/painful.That skin of my face was very tender/numb and I struggled with work. I decided to book in with a doctor the next day as I knew something wasn't right.

Monday; 1st Doctor. I went to the first doctor who completely brushed me off, acted like there was nothing wrong with me and told me to go home. But I knew (as I'm a nursing student) and with how painful/tender my face was that I had an infection, I booked in with a 2nd doctor on the same day at a different practitioner and he confirmed what I thought - I had an infection.
Turns out it was a pretty serious infection too called STAPH INFECTION - my pimple had burst inward rather than out and the bacteria from that pimple was in my skin/tissues/and reaching my blood. If left untreated it can infect your blood stream and if left can cause organ failure and sometimes be fatal.
The doctor immediately prescribed me antibiotics and told me if I got a fever or my swelling got worse then I should go to hospital ASAP.
Thankfully though I caught the infection in time with antibiotics and it cleared up within a few days!

I just wanted to warn you guys to be careful, you should:
-Always try and resist popping pimples, but especially cystic ones. If they're deep enough they can pop inwards
-Go to a doctor if you think something is wrong asap:
+Pain
+Swelling
+Tenderness
+Redness
, don't leave it because you're not sure.
-Trust your instincts! If I listened to that first doctor I could have been hospitalized or worse. If you think something is wrong seek a second opinion, stay safe :)


I've had acne for 9 years and (foolishly) popped pimples for that amount of time too and had nothing like this happen to me in all that time. So it goes to show these things can just happen. Just thought I'd warn you guys so you know to go to a doctor if this ever happens to you :) Stay safe xx

I'm 4 and 3/4 months into my treatment now and am pretty happy with my process! I still have the odd pimple on my face but considering I used to have 10-15 active pimples on my face and I'm now down to 2-3 pimples (and sometimes even less than that) it's extremely obvious that the drug has had a massive effect on my skin. And considering I still have just over 2 months left on it, I'm really looking forward to the final results :)
I've noticed with my skin clearing up I'm a lot more confident now to, changed my make-up and I use less of it now because I don't have much to cover, I'm not crazy insecure when I tie my hair up or my boyfriend sees me in the morning. It's just little things like that that show I've had improved quality of my lifestyle/self-esteem.


A side-effect I wanted to let you guys in on is my very dry arms/hands (seen in pictures). It's not super obvious in the pictures but I've noticed the drug drys them out like crazy, it's not constant dryness though, I'll go a week with them being fine but they might go extremely dry/cracked for a couple of days then back to normal. It's a very random pattern. They can be a bit sore if you don't put on moisturizer and obviously not the nicest to look at but otherwise they're an easy to deal with side-effect and if it means me getting clear skin I'm happy to deal with dry arms for a little bit haha Other than that though I have no other side-effects I'm aware of :)