Roaccutane progress

Herpes during Isotretinoin treatment

2009-05-31T01:58:00.000-07:00

Ah, god. Its so painful. I got one herpes labialis yesterday on my upper lip and it is extremle painful I can tell you.
I also dont really know what to do. While you are on Isotretinoin(roaccutane) you dermatologist will advice you to moisturise your lips a lot. When you read about this herpes labialis everybody advice you to keep the area as dry as possible.
The standart date to this herpes to go away is 7-12 days. I got it yesterday and I am already trying the advices on the internet. I have Zinc here in both topical and pill way and I also took B vitamin. Those seemed to be the most frequent advices for lips on the internet to treat herpes labialis.
Some are advicing Zovirax as a treatment or Aloe Vera creams and some natural products. Zovirax is the official treatment that a doctor should give you if you come with a herpes like this.

When I googled what is the contraindication between Accutane/Isotretinoin I find out that it is this drug is even used for the herpes labialis treatment. It was a little bit shocking for me. On the other hand I also find out that herpeses lesion on lip is occuring in shorther intervals during Isotretinoin treatment. Therefore, I expect that this is not the last herpes I am getting, but I believe it will last soon.

If anybody has any idea other idea, please, let me know. I will be extremely greatful. Of course, I will also let you know how it ended and what I think helped me with it.

Month of Roaccutane and acne

2009-04-28T09:47:00.001-07:00

Yeah, first month of my treatment is gone. Thanks god. This drug is not pleasent at all, I can already tell. But it is finally something that is helping. Yep, roaccutane or isotretinoin is really helping with my acne and my fordyce spots.

To acne...

I do not have new break-outs. Thats perfect. Also blackheads are going away. Roaccutane made his job here really well. I dont know yet what will happen with scars and places where breakouts were, but are not healed yet.

To fordyce spots...

Helping. Yeah. Isotretinoin is helping with fordyce spots. Thats awesome. Its like...90% of them dissapeared and the other 10% are still there without any change. From those 90% I still know that there are there, there are just extremly small. I can feel them when I touch them and I concentrate on them...but they are not visible...

To side-effects...

As you know, I am taking 70mg/day. Right now I have eczema on both of my hands. I was consulting it today with my doctor. He gave me "Betacorton U" which containts a corticoid called Halcinonide. I applied it for the first time several hours ago and my eczema seems much better already. Otherwise, I feel dry on my skin, on my lips and on my eyes. Every part of my body is dry, hands, feets and face.

I am very happy that I started taking Roaccutane, as it is really helping me. But I am really looking forward for August, when this 20 weeks long treatment will end...

Where is my acne?

2009-04-12T02:13:00.000-07:00

20 days. 70mg per day. That's 1400mg of isotretinoin for now. Until I reach the last day of myRoaccutane treatment I am supposed to take 9800mg. But already...my acne got incredibly better.

In last week I had just one little eruption for approximately 2 days. It is even more unbelievable that a whitehead on my face go away just in two days when it used to take even a whole week.

That is really perfect. Only thing that looks bad right now on my face are the scars that are left here after acne. My doctor told me that acne scars are life-time issue, and I am not going to get rid of those. Souds bad, but when not to get rid of the scars, at least I want to get it better so I have some creams and so...I will let you know.

Side effects of Roaccutane right now...

I have extremly dry lips and skin on my face. I dont have problems with dryness of my skin anywhere else. My lips needs special attention, I need to use lip balm several times a day and I need to carry it with myself everywhere. Even after eating my lips get rid of the lip balm and I need to use it immediately, otherwise the feeling is terrible.

The other problem that occured to me is what you see in the picture. I have no clue what it is, but I am going to a doctor this week, so I will ask him. It is just on my shoulder, nowhere else. Any ideas?

Fordyce spots and isotretinoin

2009-04-02T06:01:00.000-07:00

Roaccutane is helping! Awesome..

I find out just nine days after I started using Roaccutane and they already seems to be smaller. They are there, when you look close or when you touch your skin properly, but 50% of them are already not visible! BTW...my weight is 78kg and I am taking 70mg/day.

Thats really amazing, I hope I will get rid of fordyce spots as soon as possible. Fordyce spots is a condition that is really annoying for me.

After 8 days...

2009-04-01T04:02:00.000-07:00

When I heard that everyone who uses Roaccutane (isotretinoin) has dry lips, I thought to myself...I can stand that, my lips are cracked time to time also without isotretinoin, I am used to that.
I am not... I have extremely dry lips. I was not even able to imagine that lips can be that dry. I am using different products that are out there on the market for my lips, but it is still kind of bad. I have to use products against dry lips several times a day and they are still dry... Even my friends started to notice, when one of them asked me about it.

To acne...I think it is still getting better and better. In side effects of isotretinoin there is mentioned that a lot of people experience their acne getting worse, before it gets better. After 8 days of usage I can tell that it is getting better and better. I have had two big eruptions from my skin in the last days. I usually have had much more. And even those two treated themselves in 2 or 3 days(normally took 7).

From side effects excluding dry lips I experienced dry skin and sore throat. Nothing else right now. Sore throat little surprised me, but it is not such a big deal. I dont really feel good about lips and skin dryness, but I hope I will get used to it and I will find some effective products for those.
Any ideas?

5 days of usage

2009-03-29T10:49:00.000-07:00

...what you are reading on internet is not always true...

I learned this one is definitive truth when speaking about roaccutane treatment.
I read that my roaccutane is not going to work for first days or weeks. I started to feel first changes after 2 or 3 days of using. Its started as pretty unnoticeable changes on my skin. Now its fifth day.
My skin is dry and my lips are in pain. I can tell you, it's not a good feeling at all. But it must have been a pure optimism to expect good feelings from dry skin in the first place. On the picture you can see what happened to my skin. It looks like dandruffs in my eyebrow. But according to what I read, this side effect is kind of good. It shows you that roaccutane is working.
Also other thing is showing me that roaccutane is working and that's my acne. Already after 5 days I see that I don't have that many whiteheads and cysts as I used to have. I used to wake up over and over every morning with new pimples and cysts. Gone. Today I woke up and I have no new cysts on my face. Also black points that I have on my nose are slowly going away...

I feel good about it, but I read it can be just the beginning and that the acne can come back even worse during first 2-3weeks. But that is the reason why I created this blog. I have had bad feelings about taking roaccutane after everything I read online, so I created this diary to keep you posted about what problems it really does to me and create a good source of information from the first-hand.

No noticeable changes to my Fordyce spots yet.

What is isotretinoin?

2009-03-29T10:04:00.000-07:00

I think that this article is pretty important when you want to start taking this drug.

Roaccutane is a drug containing isotretinoin. Isotretinoin is a retinoid. The retinoids are a class of chemical compounds that are related chemically to vitamin A. It is a pretty strong drug. It is used to for treatment of severe acne and it is sometimes used also for chemotherapy!

Oral isotretinoin is available also under following names: Accutane , Amnesteem , Claravis , Decutan , Isotane , Sotret , Oratane and Izotek. Isotretinoin can also be used as a local treatment. Local treatment is marketed under names Isotrex or Isotrexin.

What is cool about this drug?
It is efficient also in treatment of very bad acne. Worst acne cases are mostly treated with isotretinoin. And isotretinoin helps. It also shows you the results pretty fast. It helps tremendously also for acne located on other parts of body, not just face. Monk BE published in Dermatology journal article:"Fordyce spots responding to isotretinoin therapy." That means isotretinoin can be used also for this condition.

What is bad about this drug?
If you are a woman you are going to hear this one a lot of times. It is a teratogen. This word is originally from Greek language and it means "maker of monsters". And its really serious. If you are taking this drug and you get pregnant you are going to have pretty big problems. You CAN NOT get pregnant during taking it or there will be high possibility of malformation of an embryo or fetus.
It is also going to make you pretty dry. Your skin, your lips...everything is going to be dry. You can also have psychical disorders, problems with night vision and many many side effects that are seldom occurring. You have to be informed about all of those and if you experience any of those or anything else, contact your doctor.

My skin problems

2009-03-24T09:33:00.000-07:00

I have problems with my skin. I have severe acne with a lot of cysts. I also have fordyce spots.

I was speaking with my doctor about my acne approximately year ago. She told me that I should be using roaccutane. She asked me to come tommorow for a blood test. Immediately after I came home I googled what roaccutane is.

There was a lot of pages informing me about Roaccutane, but...one was saying I am going to have tons of problems and the second one way saying me that isotretinoin is a miracle. When I read that I am going to have extremely dry skin, problems with my liver, depressions, problems with eyes and so on...I decided not to take it. I decided not to take it and I hoped it would get better.

It hasn't. And I already have a lot of scars. After a year my acne was even worse. So I decided to visit my doctor again and undertake this treatment. I took the blood test and according to my weight I got prescribed 70mg per day. I should use 50mg in the morning and 20 in the evening. I will be taking it 20 weeks.

I created this blog http://roaccutane70.blogpost.com to inform you objectively about what problems roaccutane made to me and how effective and successful this isotretinoin treatment was.