accutane update #3

**if you are already on accutane or have been in the past, you can skip through this next bit because you will already know how it works.

this morning, i met with my doctor so that i could get my prescription for this next month. (the way it works is kind of strict and tedious, but you can only get one month of pills at a time. so you have to go to your doctor, get your blood drawn (they check your levels and to see if you are pregnant or not as well as check up on your liver and other stuff i don't understand.) and then they go through a list of questions asking how you are feeling and what symptoms you are having. then once they have done this and have checked your levels and whatnot, they will go online to the ipledge website (this is the website we are required to visit every month acknowledging that we are using birth control, not sharing our medicine, and being safe) and put in that you can go onto your next month of pills. once this is done and you have done your part online you can go to the pharmacy and pick up your medicine. 

**and this part is important, you will have a 6-7 day window in which you can pick your medicine up, if you miss the window you have to start the process all over!

(also depending on your insurance you may have to get prior authorization, meaning your doctor has to contact your insurance and then they contact the doctors and pharmacy acknowledging the approval. this can take a long time, so make sure you know if this will be needed.)

the good news, everything still seems to be working properly and I'm good, more good news, the doctor upped my prescription. so instead of one pill every day i am doing the 1:2:1 method where i will take two every other day. i am actually excited about this because as of now, i have noticed small improvements, but hopefully in doing this i will see bit more. my doctor said that because of my weight, he doesn't want to start me on two pills a day quite yet, so we will see what happens.

i don't know about any of you, but i have a hard time not popping, touching, or picking at the acne on my face, which is bad. it leaves more scaring and takes them longer to heal. so my doctor suggested doing my best to not touch my face and to use a warm washcloth to bring those zits to a head and them pop them by not squeezing them but by pricking them with a sanitized needle (alcohol or fire will sanitize it) or just lightly pulling on its sides to get the top portion out.
so i will definitely be trying that and we will see how long i last!

i think one of these next times i will try to post about what moisturizers i am using and what i have found to be helping the most.

allyson 

accutane update #1

so here i am, on day 22 of accutane, having just slathered all types of moisturizers and creams on my face as i get ready for bed because thats the life of a person on accuatane. yet, I'm not mad about it at all, if anything it's teaching me good habits. (and they smell good, so no arguments there)

so update: my body seems to have adjusted to the medicine a bit better now, I'm still drying out, but it  is controllable and not as terrible as it was at first. i get random pain in my joins every now and then but nothing terrible. i am always tired and have the worst chapped lips 24/7. but honestly, i feel like it could be worse, considering the worst part is the chapped lips which is controllable with chapstick and aquaphor (which is heaven sent, like seriously! if you ever go on accutane, do yourself a favor and buy a TON of it. )

also, i just found this out today, but there are certain foods one should stay away from if taking accutane. these foods are ones that have high amounts of vitamin A, because accutane is basically high doses of that, ingesting more of it can harm your liver. 

so stay away from:

carrots 

fish/fish oil 

dark leafy greens

sweet potatoes 

pumpkin

cantaloupe 

I'm actually sad about the sweet potato one, i love those and since its thanksgiving i feel like ill be eating plenty of that. oops..

**UPDATE**
as i was talking with my doctor today, he said these foods shouldn't have much of an effect unless you are consuming HIGH amounts of them. although he did say, the one food you should stay away from is liver, which i would never go near anyways..
he also suggested eating fatty foods when taking the medicine because it helps your body process it better. one thing some people have done is eating 2tbsp of peanut butter along with it. however he did advise not eating as much fat during the day because it messes with how your body processed it throughout the day. 

other than that i don't have too many tips yet.. 

until next time,

Allyson 

my first week on accutane

for anyone that knows me, you know i have been battling with acne since after High School. there will be times where it seems to be going away, and times where all it seems to do is get worse. and for the past 5 months now, it has just gotten worse and worse. and its not like i haven't tried to fix it, I've been to the dermatologist multiple times and tried all kind of different products. nothing. 

so a couple months ago i decided that i needed to just suck it up and go on accutane. so after meeting with a dermatologist, and going through the steps for preparing for the medicine, i am now on it. it has almost been a week and i can already feel the effects of the medicine. 

for those of you who don't know what accutane is, it is an oral drug used to treat the highest forms of acne. normally, when people take it, they are on it for about 5-6 months. it is the only drug known to "cure" acne. meaning for most individuals, it will clear it up and keep it that way, although i know some people who have been on multiple times. it works by slowing your bodies production of oils, which in turn will help in stopping the formation of acne.

if any of you are thinking wow, this drug sounds amazing, unfortunately, you are completely wrong. the side effects are actually the worst and require you to change how you go about doing simple everyday tasks.

these side effects include:

-dry skin

-constantly chapped lips

-never ending thirst

-achey body and joints

-more susceptible to sunburns

-can cause severe birth defects, so as a female you are required to be on two forms of birth control. 

there are more, but these are the most common.

as for me, i have been on it for about a week now (I'm starting on 40ml per day) and have already felt all of those symptoms. my nose is peeling pretty bad and it is not only drying out my skin but bringing to surface all of my acne. although the worst has been how achey i have been feeling. i literally laid i bed most of the day yesterday because i was drained and in pain. but i have friends who have taken it and have had totally different experiences, it just hits everyone differently. 

i tried doing as much research as possible before going on it and i found that there aren't that many things on it. there are some vlogs and brief blogs, but nothing substantial. so i thought that by me posting on here every so often about my experience with it, that it might help those considering going on it. or even just give tips for those who need it.

keep checking back for more updates!

ally