Accutane Solved One Problem by Creating Another. NOT WORTH the Scarring. Maybe Worth It if You Avoid Scarring, Here is How..

I first started to get acne when I was around 13 years old. I did the typical thing all of us did, seek a Dermatologist. You can all guess what happened during my visit, much like every Dermatologist you see. He came in looked at my skin for 30 seconds, wrote me a script for antibiotics and then took off. I couldn't complain at the time because it really cleared my acne and made me feel great. Looking back now I realize how bad of a Dermatologist he really was. He never in any way shape or form explained to me the side effects these antibiotics can cause. Minocycline was what I took, but I was never told this medication can cause photosensitivity as well as becoming antibiotic immune. A year and some months pass and I start to notice I am really breaking out now. My chin, all around my mouth and neck became full of ruby red zits no one wants. Knowing what I know now it was obvious that I became immune to my antibiotics as well as raging imbalanced hormones that occurs when younger kids are getting introduced to their new developing hormones. This flare up motivated me to take another trip to "the guy you see for a few seconds then next thing you know hes gone and you have all these creams and prescriptions" yeah that guy. Anyways this trip was a little different, he had wide eyes and was really advocating this "cure" for acne. I was a ignorant kid and heard the word "cure" and was sold on the spot, without any research whatsoever I signed the waviers as fast as I could (didn't even read the wavier papers, dumb right?). Anyway he said it can cause birth deffects, suicidal thoughts, and that it usually gets worse before it gets better. I get my script and start taking it as planned excitted that I might never have skin problems again. About close to a month or two in, I started to get huge nodules all over my back and shoulders. My face was only affected by a few more zits on my chin, not bad compared to how my back reacted. So I see my Dermatologist again to show him what was going on and he said,"yeah, in a small percent of patients taking this will experience an initial flare up." He put me on another antibiotic along with it to counteract the flare up side effect. So after hearing that the flare up I was experiencing was somewhat normal, I took his advice and went home. After the doctor visit I didn't think too much more about the acne or the flare up on my face and mostly my back. At night after a long day I would lay in bed and feel the cyst like pimples that emerged from being on the Accutane. Feeling them lead to lightly sqeezing them to see how full the nodule was and if it was ready to be extracted. I remember reaching back to feel the big zits on my back and noticed one of them having a soft full feeling, signaling that it could be popped. I didn't think twice, so I popped it and was startled at the noise it made. These pimples were so large on my back that when they were popped, it could be heard by someone a couple feet away from me. Anyway, after hearing the noise that my huge zit made I ran into my bathroom, very egar to see what it looked like. The huge zit that was there was visually deflated and puss was all over my shirt, running down my back. I was shocked and fasinated because I have popped pimples before but not like this. Well, I didn't think much of the popping, probably even thought they would leave faster if I did pop them. So, I continued to feel them and subconsciously popped my huge cysts one by one and destroying any shirt that I was wearing when I did it. I didnt think anything of it, I had spent years popping my pimples without having damaged skin from it, so scarring never occured to me. After all the big zits on my back were squeegeed to death and no more were appearing, it all started to really dry up and crust. At this point I left the areas alone because they were not full of fluid anymore. Weeks and months go by and I notice that all the zits I popped were still dry and healing like only been a few days had past, it had been months! This was very strange to me but the crusty scabby skin would not heal or go away. This is when I cealed my fate, I hade a "brilliant" idea of exfoliating the scabby skin so it could heal faster.Because you always hear exfoliation is important healthy for yor skin, not in this case. I couldnt have been anymore wrong, using a loofah, I filed the scabes down to skin level while I was in the shower. Some started to bleed and one made a complete inch deep hole in my shoulder. I explained and showed what had happened to my parents and they about fell over. They fixed me up with healing balms coving the injuries and bandaged the affected areas up(what should have been done instead of exfoliating). My mom was having a fit about what was going on with my skin and took me asap to my Dermatologist. He said that he was sorry this was happening and to leave it alone, uhm.... duh! During all these visits he never onced warned me of the poor wound healing or the flare up that "only happen in a few patients" while taking accutane. After that I decided to let my areas heal, finish the rest of my course and be done with Dermatologist and acne. So I never messed with the areas on my back or face again, but it was too late. The areas had healed a little but what was left was mixed boxcar and rolling scars that I still have even almost a decade after Accutane. My face got lucky, I managed to only have a few ice pick scars on my chin from shaving through the scabbed pimples that formed during the flare up. I will say, Accutane did really clear my face for the longest time, but 3 years after treatment I started to get my usual mild acne on my chin, like how I used to breakout before ever going on Tane. Same thing again, saw a new Dermatologist he looked for a few seconds then left immediately after percribing me an antibiotic. After a 2-3 years of more antibiotics, I began to take less and less to the point where no longer need them. At the age of 22 now I no longer worry about a face full of zits or bacne. Instead I have something worse, shoulders/back have obvious boxcar and rolling scars while my chin has around 4 ice pick scars. Honestly, these scars are on my mind everyday and it has really made my already existing depression MUCH worse. I feel I would have had much greater success by not going on Accutane and just waiting for my hormones to balance out. I say this because even a couple of years off accutane I still had the mild acne I've always had before and after Tane treatment. I know for a fact that Accutane and all the contributing factors that came with it is the reason for my acne scarring. I have never healed so poorly and scarred so easily IN MY LIFE like I did on Accutane and still to this day have not. I see on websites that poor or delayed healing is now a proven documented side effect of Accutane use. I am not totally against this drug but the Dermatologist who are prescribing this medication are not stressing or informing patients on how bad scarring and flare ups can be from the use of this drug. I feel someone could possibly make it through an Accutane course scar free. That is only if the patient and DOCTOR are well informed about the scarring and able to control any initial flare ups that may occur.Also, if the healing scabes from the acne are covered with a protective balm like Vaseline and never ripped off while skin is still healing. It is almost like Dermatologist pretend it doesnt happen or tip toe around the subject about how mangled your skin can be left after treatment with this drug. They should be informing us how brittle our skin is during treatment, so maybe we could have a scarless outcome after treatment. Look at everyone on this website and talk to others, every one of them has scarring to some degree from the acne they had or got from this medication. Now I am stuck with scars and it seems like from reading others from this site, that the acne scar treatments are scarring them even more. It is like all the efforts from the field of Dermatology are never successful solutions and if they are they only solve a problem to cause another and do not want to acknowledge it. All in all I just want everyone to know the truth about Accutane. And if you choose this route of treatment, be ready for flare ups and be super cautious with your skin during any healing it has to do. Not following these tips could easily lead to a great deal of scarring.