u/screamingtoilets

I had my 4 month appointment today and going into it I was excited because I thought I was more than halfway through my course. In May, I had to make an appointment with a different derm than the one I normally see because of iPledge and timing before leaving for vacation, but I ended up sticking with the second derm because she seemed more organized and transparent. However, I just found out from her that at the rate I'm going, my treatment would be well over a year! My first derm had me at 40mg daily (I'm 175lbs, female) and told me it would be about 6 months for treatment. My new derm said no, at the rate I'm going I won't reach cumulative dose until maybe a year from when I started.

I didn't want to increase my dose because I've had a lot of side effects, but I also don't want to be on this shit for that long. We compromised at 60mg instead of doubling to 80mg, but man I'm annoyed that I'm only 1/3 of the way into treatment 😭

And it also makes me nervous when providers give you different information, especially in the same office!

I had clear skin all through high school and college, but then I started to get really persistent hormonal acne around 3 years ago out of nowhere. I did Spiro for almost two years with little effect. I'm halfway through Accutane (four months), 40mg daily and I'm seriously worried it won't work for me. It has considerably reduced the amount of acne I get, but it just won't freaking go away. When one spot heals, another pops up. I've also read posts recently about relapsing because Accutane is a bandaid for hormonal acne. I feel so defeated, I hate looking in the mirror and feel like I've lost the last few years of my life trying to hide. I'm supposed to be enjoying my 20s but instead I'm so sad. I really hope it works because I don't want to keep living in hiding.

I just really needed to vent.

This one is for those who bear boobs and it'll probably seem so obvious...but avoid boob tape at all costs. I taped the girls for a dress to wear to a wedding and the directions tell you to soak the tape off with an oil such as castor oil. Well I'm lazy and the last time I used the tape I wasn't on Accutane and just removed it like a bandaid and had no problem. This time it never occurred to me to be cautious so I did the same thing and literally ripped skin off my chest. So stupid. Don't be lazy, and if you can help it don't use boob tape during treatment. That is all.

A few days ago I posted about my extreme dry eyes as a result of Accutane. As a refresher, I'm on 40mg daily. I already told my derm that I want to reduce to 20mg and she approved it - but until my next appointment I'm taking 40mg every other day to try and lessen my symptoms.

I had to go to an optometrist due to extreme dry eyes and found out my eyes were no longer producing oils like they should. It's been about a week and I'm doing much better! Not fully back to normal, but I'm not in pain and the dryness is more manageable. Hopefully I caught it in time before permanent damage could happen.

In case this can be helpful to someone else, here's what I'm doing: AM/PM Prescribed Cyclosporine drops, outside of that I'm alternating between Omega-3 eye drops and regular (both without preservatives), a warm compress 3 times a day, and overnight dry eye ointment RIGHT before I go to bed since you have to apply it inside the bottom eyelid. (I HATE this, but I think it's what has helped the most)

Accutane caused the dry eyes, but I dug myself a grave because I was using Rohto brand drops which are meant for reducing redness and have preservatives. So I was literally sucking my eyes dry by putting them in too often!!

My eyes have never been more red though and I smoked grass for a fair amount of years, hopefully that goes away so my coworkers stop asking if I'm high or if I've been crying 😂

I'm on my first month and some change of Accutane and overall have had pretty minimal side effects aside from dry skin. I take 40mg per day and my derm said she wanted to double to 80mg after my next appointment.

About a week ago I started experiencing really dry eyes and eye drops didn't help at all. The last couple days it progressed to constantly feeling like I had sand in them. It got unbearable so I went to an optometrist yesterday and basically it's the Accutane preventing my tear ducts from operating correctly and thus not producing the oil layer that eyes are supposed to have. She said she was really glad that I came in so quickly because it could cause permanent damage if I let it go for too long. She prescribed eye drops to help them operate as normal throughout the course of my treatment.

I just wanted to post this as a PSA! If your eyes feel slightly dry and regular eye drops help then that's normal. If no eye drop helps and they feel excessively dry or gritty, see a doc ASAP!