10 months on Accutane & 4 months later...Final Update

I have two months and a week left on the accutane. We've given the cycle an end date. More so cos I will no longer have extended medical come Dec 31st at midnight. (company wide lay off- generous severance package though)

Thought I'd update what it's been like to be on the Tane for 8 of the 10 months so far.

Starting age 38, turned 39 in June 2011.
Female. 5'2".
Meds - Synthyroid. Daily dose 125mcg for hypothyroidism.
Advil only when absolutely needed.

February 2011
- Get all mandatory blood work (cholesterol, liver function, negative pregnancy test) so we know where my levels are at and how to gauge how much medication to receive.
- Learn there will be no sex (chose not to take a secondary birth control) or alcohol for the next 6 months.
- Can not donate blood during or for 6 months afterwards.
- Can not wax during or for 6 months afterwards.
- Learn of all possible and common side effects.
- Buy all moisturizing arsenals.

March 2011
- Blood work is good. It's a go.
- Starting dose 40mg.
- Day 3, inner nose is ridiculously dry, slight bleeding.
- You learn immediately why the doctor says to PAT your skin, DO NOT RUB!
OW HOLY F$%#
- Day 10, increasingly tired, and thirsty.
- Blood work.

April 2011
- Dose 80mg
- Daily sunscreen. Experiment with different kinds til you find one you're happy wearing every.single.day. No joke. Every day.
- Nose bleeds on a regular basis.
- Lips are so dry they feel cakey.
- Vaseline, my finger and inner nose are very intimate now.
- Baby Oil and dry skin are best friends now.
Apply after the shower for best non greasy results. Trust me.
- Day 39 extreme fatigue sets in and a little depression (pre existing)
- Slightly annoyed, all the time. Apparently this will pass.
- Blood work.

May 2011
- Dose 80mg
- Daily sunscreen. Staying out of the sun for the summer months.
- Heavy aches and pains. Like you're coming down with the flu, but never get sick.
- Nose bleeds regularly.
- Minor headaches, bouts of sleepiness, sleeplessness, and lost of appetite.
- Had my nose cauterized. It helped.
- Started drinking Becks non alcoholic beer.
It's summer, need something to take the edge off.
- Acne starts to dry out and flake away. (this does pass- don't pick, skin is fragile)
- Hair so dry only washing it once a week with shampoo. Conditioning frequently.
- Blood work.

June 2011
- Learned my cholesterol spiked in May from 2.3 to 5.2 and liver function went down.
- Dose lowered back to 40 mg.
- Daily Sunscreen.
- Scalp is itchy and hurts to scratch.
- Adapting to the aches and pains.
- Gained some unexpected weight.
- Arms feel like they are about to snap off at the shoulders. Learning that once you get use to the aches and pains in one area....it moves. In a constant state of mild annoyance and in pain.
- Quit yoga. It hurts too much and recovery is extra long due to the drug.
- Start taking calcium, and omega 3 oil.
- Blood work.

July/August/September 2011
- Dose 40 mg.
- Cholesterol down to 4.2(July), then 3.8(August), and now 3.2(September).
- Daily sunscreen.
- All of September was really bad for side effects.
- Bone pain is intense. Hurts to walk, and to sleep on my side.
- Noticing my hair feels thinner. Maybe it's the new hair cut.
- Bones feeling fragile.
- Ready to be off this drug. It's kicking my ass.
- The side effects one by one are minor. But as a cluster and constant. It's exhausting.
- Eyes are itchy. Not allergies. Turns out I had extremely dry eyes and plugged lid ducts. high performance eye drops from the pharmacy(non prescription) and Lid-Care wipes, hot compresses all make a huge difference. (DO NOT USE VISINE).
- Learn that accutane is actually an anti-cancer drug. Type of chemo pill. Had I known this before hand, I could have mentally prepared myself to handle the side effects differently, rather than forcing myself thru some of the pain.
- Blood work.

October 2011
- Dose 40/80mg daily switch until my blood work says otherwise.
- Daily Sunscreen, on any remotely sunny day.
- Nose doesn't bleed anymore, but I've got my finger up there so often with Vaseline, it's too lubed to become dry and bleed anymore.
- Notice slight rashes on my arms. Not unusual due to the dryness. Reversible.
- Got the flu Halloween weekend. Thought I might die.
- Coughing is a new pain in itself. Taking a bit to recover from the flu.
- Hair is noticeably thinner. No bald patches,but definitely thinner. (I normally have ridiculously thick hair).
- Blood work.

November 2011.
- Dose 40/80mg switch.
- Cholesterol down to 2.8. woot woot!!!
- Approved for the last 2 months!!! Dec and Jan 2012. 

December & January 2012
-Same as November.

This is where it ends for the moment. I'll copy/paste this again when it's complete and still bitch about it in the mean time. I hadn't mentioned the hair thinning cos it's embarrassing. Plus it's not forever. It will thicken out again about 3 months after I stop taking the drug.

I wrote this post about managing the side effects. Like my Accutane survival kit. Have a read. For those of you that find this blog while on Accutane, it could definitely help. Remember, everyone manages the side effects differently, some do not feel many of them.

UPDATE: May 30th, 2012.

I took my last pill January 20th 2012.
It was only a matter of two weeks before I saw a difference in the side affects subsiding. Each week everything lessen a little more and more.

It's 4 months later and I feel more human every day. I am however having an issue with my nail beds, both hands and feet. Finding my nails to be very fragile. That wasn't an issue during the cycle.  My face, has unfortunately broken out a little since I took my last pill. Although, it's significantly diminished from what it use to be. *I* could very well be one of those people you hear about who might have to do a second cycle.

Not looking forward to it. As I've described being on Accutane in my late 30's the hardest thing to do. But that is me. Someone else may not have a single side effect.

In high insight it's taught me to keep my hands off my damn face! :)

Acute Acne or Allergic Reaction? You Decide.

Did I not just very recently mention my body was betraying me?

Three months ago I started taking some meds and a topical cream for my face.
Stopped (cycle over) and whola, my face is a mess.
I have an appointment with my dermatologist tomorrow, nice timing.

When you see the photo's, please explain to me how I'm suppose to tell her the treatment worked, until now.

Today was Remembrance Day, a statutory holiday in many countries including Canada (excluding 3 provinces). Realizing I had run out of coffee, I ran to the cafe to grab something and treat myself to something a little more special than drip brew and enjoy the parade. Overwhelmed with the decisions, I opted to go for drip coffee with sugar free hazelnut syrup. YUM.

The parade starts and finishes in front of my suite, so I do not even have to brave the cold to watch it. :) After shedding a few tears and waving back to the vets who wave and wink at those of us on our patio's, I thought it's time to shower. 
 As soon as the water hit my face I knew something wasn't right. It burned like a thousand suns, and stung like I had road rash on my face.

When I got out and looked in the mirror, this is what I saw. Note: it did NOT look like this prior to having my coffee.

Please forgive me, these are not pretty. My face is extremely sore, and swollen.
The lighting sucks, I couldn't find the back-light features.

Picture No.1

Picture No.2

Seriously, how do I explain to the doctor that my face was clear and that it's not an excuse to avoid another treatment.

Even worse, I have to go to work tomorrow looking like this and I can not wear ANY makeup. not that any amount of studio makeup could work any magic right now, nor to I want to anger whatever this is, anymore.

I took 20mg of reactin allergy pills to see if it would help or lessen the burn.
Nope. Cold compress from a frozen mug, gave me temporary relief. It is so hot, the frozen mug thawed in minutes. :(

So, I think I'm warranted to say FML! No one is going to date me looking like this!!!

Update - Adult Acne

It's been only two weeks since I started on the topical cream and penicillin for my acne.
WOW! The topical cream is amazing!!!

My face looks amazing! Getting compliments how I look like I've just worked out, and/or glowing a little.... well that would be the cream burning off the first few layers of my skin lol

Although I have to stay the hell out of the sun. Even when I wear sunscreen, shades and a hat, if I'm not careful I start to rash up a little... when these meds said "stay out of the sun" they were damn serious!!!

I start taking the bcp's very soon, and can not wait to see the long term results.

It wasn't til right now that I've realized just how self conscious I was about it. Now I'm smiling more than usual, not wearing ANY makeup and still look good (I still wear eye makeup) and I'm loving it!!!!

That's all for now readers, Happy Tuesday.

Adult Acne = Awesome Sauce!....not.

Since I turned 30 my face started acting up a little.
At 35 I thought I might have to go live in a cave. Nothing massive just consistently pimples popping up here and there. Now at 38, whatever was going on with my face, moved to my boobs and my back!!! SEXY! (shoots herself)

Now not only do I have to content with being overweight and working on it, I have the added stress that if anyone were to see me naked right now, they wouldn't touch me.

Off to the dermatologist!!!! She is my age, hip, trendy and gets it. Really gets it.
We've tried a type of penicillin in the past but it's not enough anymore.
It's only suppressing it, not clearing it up.

She suggests I go on Acutane for 6 months. Really? This shit is serious stuff.
It requires blood work every few weeks to make sure your liver is doing it's job of moving it out of your system. Great.

I begged for a less severe option. We discuss my health history, current and past sexual history, and family .We decide that we'll go with birth control pills, a topical cream to be used at night and 3 months worth on penicillin. Awesome.

If there is not a significant improvement, I'll be moving over to taking Acutane for 6 months.
Which means NO ALCOHOL at all for 6 months, blood work every 3 weeks and more SPF 60 sunscreen on every inch of my body, everyday. Not just my face (which I do now - fair fair skin)

Some of you are probably saying, just do it, you'll be glad you did.
What you don't know is I have a rule about how many pills I take, (never more than 3, ever) and I'm lazy.
Lazy. Lazy. Not sure I'm making this clear. LAZY!

Now I'm not thrilled about being on birth control.
It was a decision I made 13 years ago not to take it anymore, as it no longer made sense to me to take a synthetic hormone to control the hormones that have worked on their own for millions prior to this wonderful invention. Plus if I hadn't gone off it, we would never had properly diagnosed having hypothyroidism.

This is where the 3 pill rule applies.
1- Thyroid, once a day for life
2- Motrin as needed
3- reserved for any meds I may be on for infection or whatever etc.

After growing up watching my siblings and mum take meds for their aliment, then something for the side effects of the meds taken for the aliment, etc they ended up on a cocktail of meds that were never necessary. I made the decision as a teenager to never do that to my body.

Now I'm at 3 + 1 cream
1- thyroid
2- birth control
3- penicillin.
4- topical cream

Ya it wont be forever. Just 3 months. I'll suck it up and stop complaining. But if I end up on Acutane, you're all going to hear about it daily! For the side effects are heavy. More on that if we go there.

When it comes down to it, I'll have to make the decision which is more important.
Maintaining soft, smooth, sexy blemish free skin, or tough it out and deal with any scaring that may occur as a result of scabs/bra bands etc. ugh. FML. 

Why couldn't my body have dealt with this like every other 13-19 year old on the planet at the time when I was 13-19!!!!!