Journey Through Accutane

Week 3 - Day 1

2005-12-25T20:17:00.000-08:00

I lost track of the days, so I'm gonna say today is the start of week 3. Yea, that sounds about right. Well, the pimples are starting to come in nicely. I have a nice little red patch on my left cheek. My right has many as well, though not grouped together like the left one. And my forehead has about 5 at the moment, including one that seems to really be breaking some cells as it grows. It hurts.

Still no side effects that I can tell. No headaches or muscle pains. Of course, it is only day 5 since I started retaking the pills at this lower dosage of 40mg. Last time they started around day 8, so we'll find out this week. If things go well and I don't feel much, I'll ask the doc to bump me up to the 60 I was on when I go see him on the 11th of January.

Restart

2005-12-20T18:00:00.000-08:00

My fever finally broke yesterday, and today it hasn't really returned, so I think it's gone for good. I still have a cough and congestion, and that will probably last for a week or so more. My primary physician gave me some medicine for it. Afterwards, I called the Dermatologist office and asked if I could take both together. He said I could, so I will be restarting my Accutane for the second time tomorrow morning. I hope stopping and restarting my dosages like this doesn't affect the impact it should have on my skin. If nothing else, the doc can just keep me on it for a few extra days when I near the end of the 5 months.

Still sick

2005-12-17T18:12:00.000-08:00

Yup, still sick. I've had a fever constantly all day. The Tylenol I took in the morning helped, but then the fever came back. I took another few Tylenol, and my fever actually went up a few degrees to about 102. Finally I took 600mg of Ibuprofen, and that seems to be helping a little more. The way things are going, I won't be able to start my Accutane again until probably Monday.

Delayed Yet Again

2005-12-16T22:03:00.000-08:00

I've become sick from the flu. I have a fever and am shaking with cold sweats. I need to take Tylenol to reduce it, but I'm not sure if I can take it with Accutane. So I'll be holding off on the Accutane until I get past this. I don't want to overload my liver.

UPDATE: I called a few pharmacists to see if I could take both at the same time, but they seem to not know much about Accutane and what you can mix with it. One told me it was fine. Another told me not to take it. One didn't know what she was talking about. So to be safe, I'll hold off on the Accutane.

Weed 2 - Day 3

2005-12-15T22:28:00.000-08:00

I decided to keep the days going as scheduled. Since it's a 5 month treatment, and I did start it, I didn't think I should have to start over and lose those 10 or so days i've already done. After all, the medicine already had an effect on my body, so that should count as part of the 5 month treatment.

Anyways, let's talk about what's new on my face. There's a difference from the last time I started this medication. Before, the right side of my face broke out initially. Now the left side of my face is starting it's own little breakout party. Since I started taking it again yesterday, I already had a whitehead pop out of nowhere on my forehead. Anyone have any idea how long this initial outbreak lasts? A few weeks? A few months? I hope it's a few weeks, because this is not that nice to look at.

And we resume...

2005-12-14T19:06:00.000-08:00

Went to my dermatologist today as planned. Told him about my headaches and reminded him that he told me to stop taking it. He asked me what I wanted to do. I thought "Well, just let me go finish medical school, do a few years of residency, and get my medical license, then I'll tell you what I think I should do." How should I know! That's why I came to see you. Give me options. *sigh*

He went on to tell me that most of his patients that take Accutane experience headaches, but they go away after a week or so. He said I could take Advil to relive the pain, something I didn't know I could do before. He offered me the Accutane again, except instead of 60mg per day, I'll now be on 40mg per day. I think I'll be able to handle it now that I know I can take Advil if I need to. If the headaches last for more than two weeks, he said, then I should stop taking it. That would be a pretty good indication that they're not going to subside, and that Accutane will not work for me. I'll have to go back to anti-biotics and topical creams.

Accutane, do your worst...

Hiatus

2005-12-02T13:05:00.000-08:00

Well, the nurse from the dermatologist's office just called me. She said the doctor says to stop taking the Accutane and go in to see him. My next scheduled appointment is on the 14th of December. A few days before that I'll go get my bloodwork done. At least this way I'll be able to see if the Accutane was doing anything to my liver.

I hope he continues my treatment at perhaps a lower dosage, then gradually go back up to the 60mg that I'm at now. I'll be back in two weeks.

Week 2 - Day 2

2005-12-02T10:17:00.000-08:00

This morning I woke up and most of the headache was gone. I still feel something, but it's not really pain as much as a sensation that there was pain there... if that makes any sense. I called the dermatologist's office and left the nurse a message asking what I should do about my headache side effect. Should I lessen my dose for a while? Keep taking it? Stop taking it? Go in for a visit?
I should be getting a call from them soon. In the meanwhile I have no choice but to keep taking it as scheduled.

Maybe I should spend less time on the computer and watching tv. Maybe that's what's giving me headaches. Or maybe it's the increased cranial pressure that will slowly but surely crush my puny little brain.

Week 2 - Day 1

2005-12-01T20:31:00.000-08:00

A new week, a new day, the same problem.

The same pimples are still there. I'd say it's gotten better by about 2%, but that's a rather insignificant percentage. Drier skin means more lotion, which I'm not putting on as much as I should. Drier lips that are splitting faster than John Goodman's pants. And a nose that's so dry and full of mucus, that it's an interesting adventure every morning to get it all out of there.

But I must persevere. I must continue.

Tonight I'm having a very bad headache. Of course, I had a bad day, so maybe that contributed to it. I have two areas of my head where it hurts. The front part, on my forehead and near the top of my eyes. The other area is on the back of my head, but there's a pimple growing there, so maybe that's the 'root' of the pain. I hope I can get to sleep with this pain.

Week 1 - Review

2005-11-30T19:11:00.000-08:00

This was the first week on Accutane, and many changes were seen.

At first nothing much happened. Then the white-heads started popping up all over the place. It was not pleasant, especially since I couldn't really pop them because of possible scarring. Sensitive skin side effect and all. The pimples dried up a bit and now there's only one or two white-heads. They have been replaced by red-heads. On a scale of 1-10, I'd say it's 7 bad on my face.

Dry skin and lips started kicking in around day 4-5, as well as dry nose and somewhat dry eyes. Some random muscle pains that weren't that bad and dissapeared after a few hours. Towards the end of the week I began having gooks of mucus mixed with a little blood (because of the dry nose) every morning when I'd wake up and blow my nose. A headache has been present since around day 3-4, and has gotten steadily worse everyday.

Week 1 - Day 7

2005-11-30T15:06:00.000-08:00

Well, my first week has ended. I'll do the week in review in a separate post.
Today I woke up feeling very dry. Yes, the first day that I've actually felt it. Not only that, I could taste and smell the dryness, if that makes any sense. My nose was very stuffed up. I had to blow my nose several times to get it all out. Afterwards it becomes very dry. I'm sure the nosebleeds will soon follow. My hands are now becoming dry, more-so than before. My lips are also dry. My eyes, not so much. My contacts aren't bothering me much yet.

Today I haven't felt a headache as I have for the past 5 or so days. Maybe I've adjusted to that side effect. I'm also not feeling any more joint pains, which means I'll be able to workout now. I was holding off on doing that because I didn't want to make the pain worse. Still drinking lots and lots of water and trying to stay out of the sun. But if I do have to go out, I wear lotion with SPF15. It's not much, but then again, it is winter. Plus I tend to wear a hat anyways, so that gives me some more protection.

Week 1 - Day 6

2005-11-29T14:29:00.000-08:00

Less white-heads, more red-heads. No, I'm not talking about women (I prefer brunettes by the way). Same amount of dryness as yesterday. They seem to get redder after I put on lotion. After about 40 minutes it calms down a bit, but still red. Hey, what do you expect in the first few days of taking this stuff. My nose was very runny both last night and this morning. I also feel it becoming drier though. I've read that because it gets so dry, nosebleeds occur. Some advice was to jam a nice amount of vasoline up there to keep it moist and lubricated. It's not THAT dry yet, but if it does get that bad, I may just end up doing that.

I'm actually noticing a few more coming out on the left side of my face. Not as big as the ones on the right, but still noticable.

*sigh* Is it month 5 yet?

Week 1 - Day 5

2005-11-28T13:10:00.000-08:00

I woke up this morning with partially dry skin. My dry throat from a few days ago has been slowly going away. I still feel something there, but it's less dry than when it started. This is starting to look more and more like another side-effect. My nose and eyes are also becoming drier slowly but surely. I'll be putting on my contacts soon. I'm going to take my eyedrops to school with me this afternoon.

After I took a shower this morning, with fairly hot water, a few more of my pimples burst. They seemed to have dry patches of skin covering them, so those came right off. I pushed a little and the white stuff spewed out. I very carefully shaved, and washed my face with Cetaphil. It feels ok, but still a bit itchy. I suspect this is from the dryness, so I'll wait an hour or so before putting on lotion. This is to give those pimples that popped a chance to heal a bit.

UPDATE: I didn't have any problems with wearing the contacts. They didn't get extremely dry, and the eye drops weren't even needed. I ended up driving at night, which I was hesitant to do. One of the side effects of Accutane is diminished night vision, so either it hasn't hit me yet, or it's not going to. Again, since I'm only in the first week of this treatment, it's too soon to tell.

Week 1 - Day 4

2005-11-27T16:41:00.000-08:00

My face is starting to become more dry, as I realized today after washing my face. I haven't put any lotion on it yet, but I think I may do that tomorrow. Especially since I'll be shaving tomorrow as well. Nothing much new to report. The same one's are still there. The right side of my face is more active than my left, but that may change as more time goes by.

Week 1 - Day 3

2005-11-26T10:59:00.000-08:00

Woke up with what can only be described as a sore muscle in my upper left back. I didn't plan on working out until this afternoon, so I think this is another side-effect kicking in. Of course, I also woke up with a very dry throat. In the past I've gotten this symptom right before I get sick, so we'll see what develops from this. Still drinking plenty of water, approx. 2 glasses per hour. So if this is a virus trying to invade me (which another member of my family currently has), I should be able to flush it out pretty quick.

The white-heads continue to be there. If anything I developed one or two more. Normally I'd pop them and let it heal, but Accutane tends to make the skin much more sensitive. I've heard of people developing bad scars because the popped white-head wouldn't heal properly. So I have to sit here and just watch them.

When I washed my face in the afternoon, I found that one or two of the white-heads had popped, so I pushed a little on it and took out the white stuff. I didn't push too hard, so I don't think most of it came out. I tried applying a little pressure on other white-heads, and a few popped. Those that didn't I just left alone. I think with a bit of hot water to open up the pores, I should be able to pop a few tomorrow.

On a sidenote, I'm also probably going to post pictures. Cropped, because the pimples are disturbing enough without having to see my ugly mug. I've been taking pictures everyday, but they're still on my camera. I'll have to do a bit of editing tomorrow.

Another thing I'm planning on doing is making a weekly summary. I'm sure most people probably don't want to read 150 entries on taking this medicine, so I'll shorten it out to about 20. This way you'll get the highlights and hopefully see how the medicine is working from week to week.

Week 1 - Day 2

2005-11-25T14:41:00.000-08:00

Things are a changing. I have many more white-heads than I did just last night. My face is still oily, though not as oily as yesterday. There is still some itchiness, but again, not as bad as yesterday. And I think once I wash my face again with Cetaphil soap, that should help it even more. It usually does.

I had that slight headache from yesterday follow me to this morning, but it's mostly gone away by now. I have noticed my left elbow seems to hurt once in a while. Could this be those 'joint pains' they warned me about in the instructions?

I have to shave my "beard", which has been left to grow since Wednesday. That should be interesting. I'll update on that later tonight.

UPDATE: The shave went pretty good. No rash or reaction from the sharp blade. I washed my face with the Cetaphil afterwards, and it was pretty good. It took a bit of patience and control to get the hairs in between pimples, but it looks decent.

Week 1 - Day 1

2005-11-24T18:27:00.000-08:00

Today I took my first pills of this new medicine. I took the first two around 11am, and the other at about 7pm. I actually noticed a new pimple that came out of nowhere. Usually you'll see it start to pop out slowly for a few hours, if not days. This one wasn't there this morning, and I just saw it this evening. Right on my forehead too. Well, I've heard that it may get worse before it gets better. In a way, this is good news. If I didn't have that bad of acne, I wouldn't be responding this way. This reaction seems to indicate that it's starting to go to work.

Obviously I won't be seeing many changes occur today, so I'll have to wait a few days or weeks to really see what it will do to me. I did notice that I had a slight headache. Very slight. I also have a bit of a delayed reaction when I turn to look at something. Not as bad as when you've had a few and are starting to feel buzzed, but enough to notice the delayed reaction.

UPDATE: As night approached, my face began itching quite a bit. And I might be paranoid, but I think I noticed another pimple that I hadn't seen this morning on my forehead. A lot more white-heads as well. Some are coming out on their own. It's very weird. I washed my face with Cetaphil and it calmed down. Still oily, but perhaps it's pushing everything out as it's suppose to.

Nice packaging

2005-11-23T15:35:00.000-08:00

I swung by Walgreens today after school to pick up the medicine. There were quite a few people there, because it's going to be closed the next few days. After about 5 minutes, they finally found my medicine and rung me up. The box was bigger than I thought. I'll post a picture of it soon. There were so many instructions that he just told me to call him if I still had questions after reading the information that came with the package. I also bought some Cetaphil soap and some Chapstick.

90 capsules. 20mg each. I'm suppose to take 3 per day - two in the morning and one in the evening.

I'll be starting tomorrow morning. One last evening to splurge and eat everything I possibly can.

Ordered

2005-11-22T20:04:00.000-08:00

This morning I checked my messages and found that my dermatologist's office had left me a message. They told me that they had reviewed my bloodtest, and everything was fine. My prescription was now waiting for me at the front desk. So after I went back to sleep for another hour, I got ready and went to pick it up.

After this I headed over to Walgreens to drop it off. They asked me if I wanted a generic brand, or the name brand from Roche. I asked them how much the co-pay would be on each, and it was $45 for either. The name brand had to be ordered from the warehouse and wouldn't be here 'till tomorrow, but the generic was in stock. I couldn't pick it up until tomorrow anyway, so I had them order the name brand. She was shocked when she checked the retail price. A bottle for a month's supply of Accutane retails for $1000. Thank goodness for insurance.

My face is itchy. I think it knows what's going to happen to it starting tomorrow.

Documentation

2005-11-21T12:05:00.000-08:00

I still haven't heard from the dermatologist, so I don't know when I'll be able to start taking Accutane. I called and left a message on the machine inquiring on the status of my prescription. They say they'll answer in less than 48 hours, so I guess I have that to look forward to.

Since this treatment is going to take 5 months, a lot can happen during that time that may be worth documenting. Perhaps other people are looking to take this medicine in the future, and reading about someone that's taken it could help them decide whether to take it or not. So I'll be setting up a separate journal to keep track of my experiences with this medicine. This is all assuming that I actually get to take the medicine, because they still have to check that bloodtest.

More in a bit.

5 Months to go

2005-11-16T10:25:00.000-08:00

I went to see the dermatologist today. I was determined to get treated for my acne this time. And sure enough, I got what I was looking for, perhaps more.

I told the doctor I had been on acne treatments before, including antibiotics. And while they seemed to work for a while, as soon as I stopped taking them, the acne returned. So he offered me another solution - Accutane. I had heard about this from lots of different places, including Zizi in a previous post. He talked about the side effects, which include mostly dry skin, dry lips...dry everything - back pain, nose bleeds, weight loss. I'd have to get blood tests every month for five months (which is how long the treatment lasts) to make sure my liver was doing ok. However, according to him and the statistics, about 95% of the people that take it have their acne cured - for life. Yes, it's suppose to never come back (though I've been reading where it says it lasts from 1 year and perhaps more). He made the comparison of antibiotics as a small hammer, while Accutane was a sledgehammer.

I was hesitant to accept this treatment, but what else could I do? I don't want acne, and here is a promise that there's a 95% chance it will clear it up for life. Obviously anti-biotics haven't worked (unless you consider killing all my white blood cells working), and neither have any of the other over-the-counter treatments like Clearasil, Neutrogena, ProActiv, etc... This Accutane is not an anti-biotic, but rather a derivative of Vitamin A.

We'll see how it goes. I just got back from getting that blood test I need. Something I found funny was that I asked them if eating chocolate increases your acne, and they said no. Then as I was checking out of the office I see a bowl full of chocolate for people to take. They must really be sure about it then, lol.Now I have to go get ready for my LES305 presentation in a few hours. TTFN