Accutane

I had acne since 8th grade, and now I’m 20. You name a treatment and I probably tried it, so I finally wanted to go for Accutane. I went to my dermatologist and after evaluating my skin, he agreed to prescribe me, but made me understand about the tedious journey that I was about to start. I went to see him sometime in the 2nd week of February and he told me that I had to wait a month to actually start on the medicine. That day he did my pregnancy test and gave me a blood test requisition form that I would need right before I came next time.

Basically, in order to get the Accutane, I need to to do a routine blood test, then follow up to the dermatologist who checks the blood results to make sure I’m not pregnant, then prescribes it, then I need to go online to iPLEDGE system to answer comprehensive questions swearing that I’m taking two forms of birth control and I will not get pregnant, finally when I’m done with those, the system will automatically send the prescription to the pharmacy. This cycle has to b followed every month for the entire course of the medication.

Here’s the craziest part: there’s a deadline for the medicine to be picked up from the pharmacy. The day I do the routine blood test, that counts as the first day, so from that day to next seventh day, I MUST pick up the medicine from the pharmacy. If I miss for any reason like let’s say, my insurance took longer to authorize the medicine, then I’ll have to wait twelve days to start the cycle all over again!

The authorization of insurance actually took longer for me, but fortunately my dermatologist was excellent and made sure that I was able to pick it up last minute before my deadline. Usually the lab results take two days to be ready, so from now on I will make sure to make advanced appointments first at the Quest Diagnostics, then I’ll go to the dermatologist two days later that way I’ll still have three days in my hands to pick up the medicine.

I was given Claravis for 40 mg per day for now and I started on it on the 21st March. I’m giving my cheeks pictures for better understanding. I had a lot of scars on my cheeks, one of the issues that we are targeting to fix, so hopefully that improves. I’m breaking out a little bit with red pimples that has white nodule inside. However, other than that I had no side effects like body/muscle aches or rash or severe dryness. I’ve had terrible skin before, so these little pimples are bearable and I’m trying to be positive and hopeful that these will disappear very soon.

I will try to update every month, so hopefully it’ll be helpful to you.