Wish I had taken Accutane a decade sooner

I was refractory to every birth control, topical treatment, antibiotic, and diet. Several derm recommended but I had heard negative things and hoped my acne would disappear by my mid 20's. It didn't and once I had a steady job with good health insurance I found a conveniently located experienced derm practice and started monthly blood draws/pregnancy tests, then 30mg daily for 1st month (I weigh 135 lb), then 40mg daily for 6 months. We discussed increasing to 60mg but I had good results and wanted to keep side effects manageable (which I felt was worth an extra 1-2 months on the medication). The 1st month a few more cysts on my back, after that ~1 tiny pimple per month that resolved quickly on its own, a year later skin has stayed clear and scarring is lighter with topical acids. In terms of side effects my triglycerides increased 1 month likely related to labs not being taken fasting, first week dose increased I had diarrhea, was slightly tired and less social (though didn't affect day-to-day life and it was wintertime), dry (constantly drinking water and moisturizing), mild muscle pain toward the end, and derm mentioned poor wound healing can occur as a cyst early on burst and took longer to heal.

I wanted cheaper products available at local pharmacies so I used the classic aquaphor healing ointment for lips and kept one in several locations (if you want some color try vaseline rosy lips), systane ultra eye drops, cetaphil or cerave eye gel cream, to avoid nose bleeds used aquaphor ointment or petroleum jelly in my nostrils and ultra-sonic cool mist humidifier while sleeping, cerave moisturizing cream (pick creams for your face/body in jars as they are thicker than pump bottles), dove deep moisture body wash, cerave hydrating face wash, la roche-posay cooling water face location sunscreen SPF 60 (though expensive and a little greasy but worked well), and used makeup fit for dryer skin that contained SPF, still looking for the right makeup remover, and I used gentler shampoo since my hair was dryer (and it did fall out toward the end of my course but after a few months was back to ~90% fullness). For hair removal I had to switch to shaving, tweezing and threading. I also avoided alcohol, and replaced my regular multivitamin (as it contained vitamin A) to ProRenal+D with Omega-3 as renal multivitamins don't contain vitamin A!