Accutane Week Three (Isotretinoin)
January 31st, 2008
WARNING: Accutane is a serious drug that can have long term effects on your liver, skin, joints and more. Try the Acne Products out there first. We recommend Murad Acne Complex.
Week Three is dunzo! I have seen a few new developments this week, very interesting actually. Here is effects of Accutane on skin
Dry Skin: My face is still a little tight and dry after I wash it and dry it off. I stopped putting on any topical medications with the exception of trouble spots when necessary. All I really have to do is put moisturizer on after I wash my face morning and night and I am pretty much good to go. Also, I heard that wearing make-up would be nearly impossible once starting this shiznit because my face would be so dry. That is really not the case. I am able to wear just as much make-up as I used to and even less because my face isn’t nearly as oily as it used to be! Hoorah!
Breakouts: Some words of advice: do not touch your face when you are taking accutane. I think I only did flare up for the first week or so but I am still getting some tasty little pimples every day (however, not nearrrrly as much as I used to which is deffinetly a plus). Just leave them alone because it does take a little longer for your face to recover from anything seeing as it is a lot more sensitive. My face is red all the time as well. It isn’t fire engine red (like the color of my face when I get embarassed, which is often), it is more of piglet pink similar to my physical appearance. If I am feeling sassy next week, I might even try a tanning experiment. I feel pretty confident that my face can handle the bed without getting burnt but I’m not gonna try anything drastic like that on the weekends where potential lovemates can spot me looking like a nice little lobster. = 0 I heard you burn really bad and should wear spf all the time however I haven’t really felt the need to do this quite yet. I’ll let you know if I follow through and how my little experiment turns out…
Lips: It is not so much that they are dry, my lips are just really tight. I’m sure if I went like a full five minutes without licking them or putting on chap stick than they would crack or something to that effect but i’m not ballsy enough to play that game. I just put on aquaphor every single time that I feel as though I am dry or it has worn off. Little tip: always have chap stick or something of that nature easily accessible, it is vital to your comfort level…trust me.
Body: Odd but I have this tiny dry patch on both my hands (not palm side). It’s like I’m a scaly little dragon when you touch it haha, creepy but true. Also, I went to blow my nose the other day and it was bloody! ah! I heard that bloody noses happen to people on this acne treatment but it wasn’t that bad so it’s ok. Gross…but I’ll take it. Furthermore, let me just say this much… I am not exactly the healthiest person in the world. With that I mean that I do a lot of things that are really bad for me. I drink -not heavily- but a decent amount, I smoke cigarettes, and engage in some light recreational drug use haha (I may or may not be serious about that last one, you decide). These things are most likely made a lot worse by taking Claravis. I’ll explain further… Here is my theory: you know how a hangover is due to dehydration of your body and such because of the alcohol? Well, I am convinced that the hangover is much worse because of the accutane. It’s main side effect is the drying out of your body and face so I don’t think it’s too far off to think that the accutane enhances the negative effects of the alcohol. My liver must be shot, whoops! I have realized recently that I wake up hungover as hell when I useda just be able to drink some water before bed and wake up refreshed and ready to go. I thought I was just getting old and couldn’t party like I used to, let’s pray that this is not the case.
This is pretty much all I have noticed this week aand i’m looking forward to Week Four….not. Haha, you’ll be hearing from me soon…toodles!
February 2nd, 2008 at 4:43 pm
I just started my first pills today! Thanks for sharing your experience! I am excited but am wondering how bad the side effects will be…We shall see!
March 19th, 2008 at 11:05 pm
Jessica, how is it going?
March 20th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Thanks for posting this. I am about to start Accutant in one month and your blog is a little less discouraging than some of the others. My dermatologist specificalled warnmed me against drinking for two reasons: 1) liver damage - the Accutane causes liver damage and liver enzyme problems and 2) the metabolism of Accutane by the body is negatively impact the body. It causes the body to store a toxic by-product of Accutant in your body fat for some lengthy period of time (let’ssay three years) which means it is is stll hanging around years later when you, let’s say, want to have a baby. I’ve decided not to drink at all.