My Accutane Story - Garland, TX

Today is my first day on Accutane and I thought I would share my journey since many of the stories I've read have helped me so much in making the decision to get on Accutane. I'm 31 years old and have struggled with acne my whole life, even before I reached puberty. I've always had sensitive skin. Once I got on birth control after my 1st child which was around 19 my acne calmed down. It was actually controllable with a few minor breakouts here and there but nothing that caused me major anxiety. After my 2nd child however, I was 30 and had such horrible skin during my pregnancy but I thought after breast feeding and getting back on birth control it will get better. I have had the worst breakout ever and unable to calm it. My dermatologist told me about Accutane and at that point I was desperate. I took the pregnancy test that was a requirement (my tubes are tied by the way) and the blood work. That entire month of waiting to get on Accutane I read so many reviews. Some were super scary and gave me anxiety while others were positive with great outcome. I am bracing myself for the dry skin, eyes, nose, and lips. I am also going to prepare myself for joint pain. My dermatologist advised if I work out a lot then the joint pain may occur more than usual. So those are side effects I'm ready for. The scary side effects that I have to call my dermatologist for is bloody stool, pounding migraines in the middle of the night, and sucidal thoughts. I'm just going to hope and pray I can avoid those. I've posted these horrible pics of what my current skin situation is looking like. I hope that in my updates to come it will look better.

I'm on the 30mg dosage of Accutane so no crazy side effects so far. A little dryness of the skin and lips which kicked in around day 4 or 5 but nothing major. I've provided pics of me with makeup on and as you can see my pores or so congested and horrible. Seriously my skin has never been this bad. I actually feel like with makeup on, all the little bumps are super noticeable. Although my dermatologist advised me to discontinue using skin care products since it may dry me out even more but until Accutane actually starts working on me I'm continuing my skin care regimen to prevent any other major breakouts. Currently in the morning I use Cetaphil ant-bacterial moisturizing bar soap for dry skin, I use the CeraVe AM facial moisturizing Lotion with Ambi Fade Cream (I have enough blemishes to cover the faces of 10 people, it's really embarrassing). In the shower I used a product from Lush called Black Angel which is an all natural clay like product with activated charcoal. As a toner I use a Lush product called Tea Tree Water to make sure there is no dirt or makeup left over after I cleaned my skin. That's my skin care regimen for now and I'm very OCD about. I'm just really hoping that by month 2 i can begin to see changes for the better. I'm not expecting anything major to happen this first month due to the low dosage. I will update in month 2 unless something crazy happens before that time.

I'm happy to say I'm going to be graduating from the 30mg to the 60mg next week. Overall the 1st month was really just my body adjusting to it. Nothing major occurred except for dry skin, lips, and eyes. Nothing Vaseline, eye drops, and a good moisturizer couldn't take care of. My face doesn't really appear to look any better. The photos I've posted are from yesterday. I guess one of the positives are that the huge cystic acne is gone. It's just the little pimples left and clogged pores still. I believe the blemish is going to be the worst for me because I know the Accutane is not going to help with that. Clear skin to me is not only being free of acne but also not having any blemishes either. My optimism that the acne will stop is high but my expectation for 100% clear skin at the end of this journey is pretty low. I'm sure my dermatologist will have to prescribe me a cream to get rid of my blemishes post Accutane. I'll post another follow up a week after my Accutane dosage increases.