4 months IN

4 months into Accutane & Chill and shit went crazy. So last time I posted was around the end of August. I had my follow up with Dr. Schaen on 8/23 and flew out to NOLA on 8/26. I had to make a call to the pharmacy and let them know that I would have my brother pick it up before the iPledge deadline of 1159pm on 8/28. When my flight landed and I settled into my hotel room, I called the pharmacy to see if the order would arrive on Monday before the deadline. The answer was yes. I enjoyed my mini vacation, but bright and early Monday morning I called the pharmacy and they hadn't received the order. They offered an option to pick up my Rx at another CVS pharmacy. They transferred the Rx and I sent my brother there.

 

I returned home Tuesday morning and saw the pharmacy bag on the table. I opened it and there was only 1 box. My Rx is for 2 boxes. Some days past and I realized that my one box was coming to an end and I've yet to hear about the 2nd box. I called my regular pharmacy and inquired about the 2nd box. They said the shipment never came, so I asked where is my 2nd box? They advised that the CVS they transferred my Rx to should have it. I called the 2nd CVS pharmacy and they didn't have it. I spent 2 hrs back and forth between 2 pharmacies who couldn't tell me who owed me my 2nd box.

 

I called my dermatologist office and they said X amount of days had passed and the iPledge program is requesting that I come in and give a urine sample and go thru a full follow up. How am I going thru this, when it's the pharmacy that didn't fill the Rx as written? I didn't want to deal with CVS anymore and asked to have my Rx sent to Kroger or Walgreens.

 

All of this happened on Friday 9/15. The dermatologist couldn't get me in with Dr. Schaen, so I was set up to see Dr. Ngozi, Monday 8/18 @ 1pm. Pissed I agreed. Monday came and I was pleasantly surprised to have been seen by an African American dermatologist. Leaving the office, I set up my next follow-up for 15 days out with Dr. Ngozi(will no longer be seeing Dr. Schaen. Personally I feel as a black woman, I should be seen by another BLACK women.) They need me to fast so they can draw blood and test my cholesterol and make sure my Liver is intact. The Rx they sent in that day was only for a 15 day supply and was ready 2 days later. They sent it right back to CVS. I gave up on trying to change that. By the time I picked it up, I had been without my daily CLARAVIS dosage for 6 days. Thankfully my skin is at a stage where I'm not breaking out, so it didn't revert back.

 

My blood work will be done at 7am on 10/4 and I'll be put back on my full 30 day dosage of 60mg of CLARAVIS.

 

My skin has been doing it's thing. I attended a wedding in Columbus, GA. The wedding was BEAUTIFUL, but it was so HOT outside, my face was red the entire time. I'm still using the Sebuderm to minimize redness and it does what it's supposed, unless I'm overexposed to HEAT. IT's semi blotchy in areas where the cystic acne was most prevelant. I guess that will fixed itself with time or something topical in the future.

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Showered

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Got dressed and headed to work

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settled in at work

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and here's my face

 

Will be back after my follow up Wednesday!

 

 

1/4 year

Had an interesting month for my skin... I'll talk about it later... progress photos to come.

Here's to day 120 (4 months of #accutane&chill)

90 days in & 90 to go

Made it this far. 

My follow up with Dr. Schaen was on 8/23 and things are going as expected. I have redness that needs to subside. I asked the Dr what her guesstimated endtime would be and she suggested another 3 months. I'll need to come in for a follow up and she'll need to see no pimples at all on my face, neck, chest, back and or shoulders before she can end my treatment.

YAY

{INSERT SARCASM}

Improvement is all that can take place from there. Still looking way better than day 1, so here's to clearer skin

With flash

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Showered

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settled in at work

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and here's my face

Here's to another 90 days...

60 Days...

Bihhh...I MADE IT.

60 days ago I started my #Accutane treatment. Brand: #CLARAVIS - 6/1 20mg > 6/14 40mg > 7/26 60mg. No alcohol, direct sun, waxing or sex. Upped my water intake. Ate kinda clean. Still indulged a few times. Most treatments are 4-6 months long. Hoping to be off it by October... Skin clearing up. Glow up soon come.Documented my progress via pics with and without flash. 

Day 1 vs day 60...

57 days in...

With flash

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and here's my face

With time

So, I've been gone for a while......

Readjusting after vacation. Working crazy overtime hours. Trying to rest in between. More recently, I've been doing all 3 in addition to trying to have somewhat of a social life. It's been interesting to say the least.

July 19th, I went for my follow-up visit. It wasn't a good visit for me due to the fact that the dermatologist office that I've went to for the last 2 yrs was bought by a new company. My dermatologist that started me on my treatment was no longer there. I saw a new dermatologist and it was very off putting to me, because I wasn't not familiar with her. 

Needless to say, she advised that I'll be going up to 60mg CLARAVIS, taking a 30mg capsule twice a day. In addition to upping my dosage, she Rx'd me a topical ointment called SEBUDERM to minimize redness. 

I did not like that at all. I feel like the treatment can become harsher and to add in another Rx would be too much. I left feeling MEHHHH, for a lack of better words.

The weekend came and went and I had so much going on, that I missed taking the last 2 of my 40mg capsules on 7/22 & 7/23. On 7/25 I finished off my last 40mg capsule and started taking 2 30mg a day on 7/26. Today, 7/28 marks 57 days I've been taking CLARAVIS and with each day that passes I feel more and more like my old self. Is my skin 100% clear? NO, but it's that it's been in months and I am happy with the progress.

Looking back to move forward

Comparing June 1st, 17' to July 1st, 17'.

Some of the things I've noticed after these 30 days:
■ Less cystic acne.
■ Less pustule acne.
■ Fewer clusters of pimples.
■ Some patches of clearer skin that I haven't seen in months.
■ Face is no longer paintful to the tocuh where acne was it's worst.
■ Less itching wherever the acne was.
&
on a more mental/emotional note
■ I'm a bit more sociable and less to myself because my face is improving.

Here's to the next month on Accutane.

30 days into Accutane & Chill

I MADE IT and it hasn't been that bad,

Of course there was dryness, the initial breakout, me popping some of the pimples more than i should of... but other than that things seem to be improving.

From June 14th(day of my 1st follow up) until now, I have been on 40mg of CLARAVIS.

I went on vacation and made a decision to enjoy it fully and carefree. That means I went out without covering up, I didn't wear additional or reapply sunscreen. I drank water, but not enough. I even missed a day and freaked out for about 2.5secs. I noticed drying out happened more often and in patches here and there. Crossing my fingers, that it doesn't get much worse than this.

Returned from vacation and within 24hrs, I slid right back into my routine. Sleep & work, that's it. Since starting my Accutane journey, I posted progress pics every Thursday night. I missed last week because I was on vacation. This week, I chose not to post on Thursday because the very next day 6/30/17' marked my 30 days into this journey.

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Thursday night before work.

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and here's my face

14 days in

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and here's my face

On 6/14/17, I went to my Dermatologist for a follow up appt.

I informed them that even though I picked up my pills on 5/22/17, I didn't start them until 6/1/17.

The nursing assistant asked how have things been going and I shared with him the

■Dry lips
■Dry Scalp
■Losing eyelashes daily during days 1-7
He had me give another urine sample. No blood work was done.
He advised that going forward I'll always be 2 weeks ahead of the usual 30 days before a new Rx is written and dispersed.

Dr. Bellamy came in and we chatted it up as she analyzed my face.
She made me aware that I am in the "initial BREAKOUT" phase, then advised to start doubling up.
Instead of taking 1 20mg CLARAVIS capsule, I should start taking 2 20mg CLARAVIS capsules.
Here's where I start to experience more of the drying out of my skin.
The next Rx she writes will be for 40mg CLARAVIS.
She didn't specify if to take 1 in the AM and the other in the PM or both at the same time.
I'm choosing to take 2 at 1 time, because I'll forget, especially since my sleep pattern isn't consistent.
I made her aware that I'm an avid pimple popper and of course she advised against doing so as it leads to scaring. With that being said, she suggested a facial cleanser caller AVAR.

I'm to use on the areas with prominent puss filled bumps. This will help dry them out so they won't get to that stage where I'd usually have the urge to pop them.

The nursing assistant came back in to check me out and I picked his brain about it being SUMMERTIME and what my options are regarding pools and beaches and just being out in general
He advised to cover up as much as I can and to use SPF 30+ with ZINC and sunscreen that were labelled waterproof & sport and provided me samples of different brands of sunscreens:

Onto the next...

1 booklet, first 10 days down

Onto the next...

7 days in

With Flash

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and here's my face

With Flash

Without Flash

A couple of things I've noticed/experienced within these 7 days:

■Days 1-4 while at work, I noticed my eyes felt more tired than usual.
{Could be an onset symptom of the dry eyes, but we'll see as time progresses}

■Days 1-7 I'm losing eyelashes.
■Day 4 I picked at my face after waking up and seeing larger than normal puss filled bumps
{I'm going to minimize picking at the bumps with time}

■Days 1-5 I'm applying the Aquaphor Lip Repair{ALR} more frequently.

■Day 6 I applied ALR when I was leaving home. I got to my hair appt at 9am and wasn't able to reapply until close to 1pm. My lips felt very dry and wilted.

I did not get my gallon of water in on a daily basis nor did I eat as clean as I could have.
I have been keeping away from dairy 98% of the time. I've also been reading labels in search of soy in foods/items that appeal to my eye. Trying to keep that to a minimum as well.

Kiehl trip

So a few posts back, I mentioned going back to Kiehl's to get some more products.

Accomplished that Sunday morning.

I got off work at 8am, headed home to have breakfast then headed to the mall around 930am. Thinking the mall opened up at 10am on a Sunday, i was surprised when no one was in there except for some old people walking laps. Then I noticed not one store was open. To google I went and opening time was 11am on Sundays.

I joined the oldies but goodies and got a few laps in as well. Then I sat at a charging station across from the Kiehl's store and waited.

1059am, the door was unlocked. I walked in and was asked "what are you looking for?" I said "Ultra Facial Cleanser" and was pointed in the section where it was shelved/ Grabbed it and advised that it came in a travel size as well. Pleasantly surprised, I grabbed that too coming to the conclusion that it would be good to carry in my handbag. Lastly, I grabbed the small Ultra Facial cream with SPF 30 to have in my handbag as well.

Got checked out and was asked "were there any samples I'd like to try?" I declined as I still had samples from my first visit, thanks to Arthur.

She smiled, I paid and was outta there.

Start: June 1st

After picking up my RX on May 22nd, I decided to start taking Accutane on June 1st.
Memorial Day weekend was approaching and I had wine I needed to finish.

With that time in between, I thought about what time of day I'd take my pill, because it's suggested that it be taken at the same time every day.
730pm worked out best for me. It's the time I wake up to go to work and on my days off I'm usually going to bed later than that.

So date and time set

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Thursday, June 1st 2017, I woke up at 730pm, walked into the kitchen, grabbed one of these

because it's also suggested that you take the pill with fatty foods such as avocado.
Seemed like regular avocado aren't in season and I hate HAAS avocado, so this will do for now.
Walked back into my room and on my night stand, there it was, ready to be taken:

Before getting in the shower, I took pics of my face {bed hair included}, so I can compare later on.

With flash

Without flash.

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Here's my face

after using Kiehl's Ultra Facial cleanser and then applying the Ultra Facial Cream with SPF 30

Product HAUL

I finished up most products I already had at home.

The timing of me starting Accutane and this product haul was on point.

Every product I purchased emphasized HYDRATION, MOISTURIZER & SUNSCREEN.

Going into this battle strong with:

On my nightstand

In the bathroom

 {I plan to return to Kiehl's and purchase a travel size supply of the Ultra Facial Cream with SPF30 as well as a bigger supply of the Ultra Facial Cleanser}

In my handbag

The Derma-E Hydrating Facial Wipes I have yet to use.
I bought it in the event I feel the need to refresh my face during my 10hr night shift or if I'm not going straight home after work.

At my desk at work

These I had prior to prepping for Accutane.

I'll continue taking Biotin daily. A vegetarian soft gel with Cold-pressed organic coconut oil that supports nail growth/strength and fuller/healthier looking hair.

The Flurandrenolide Lotion is a milder version of the Clobetasol Propionate Cream.
They both aid with itchy skin, which I'd been experiencing since I came back from Ft. Lauderdale intermittently.
No visible signs as to why my skin itched, it just did.
I use it as needed and not daily, because I realized only when I'm HOT do I start to itch.
So staying cool and taking cool showers keeps me from having to slather up constantly.