The First Month of Accutane In Pictures

As many of my Youtube followers know, I've been doing a video series of my experiences with the highly controversial acne drug "Accutane". I started the drug in late December, and as of February 4th, have started my second month on the drug. While I have done video updates each week, I've also been trying to take pictures every few days to show a very accurate and real image of how exactly the medication is working, and how my skin is looking as the weeks go on.

I've been a bit lazy on actually posting these photos, but I think it's important for people wanting to seek this treatment or get a better understanding to see them. Now, while these are the world's most unflattering photos, I hope that people may be able to see how the medication works. 

Please keep in mind that I'm posting these pictures by the approximate date that they were taken. I may be off a few days (a picture in week 3 may actually be early week 4, etc).

My skin before Accutane:

I think this picture really shows most of the problems that I have. As you can see, my acne is really a mixed bag, but I unfortunately suffer from most common acne problems. My biggest problem is what is known as "rosacea", which is the redness that you can see on my face. My face is always red, and this makes it appear as if I have more severe acne then I actually do, and it also makes the scarring on my cheeks very visible. I also, of course, break out and I've always got a pimple somewhere, but my main goal before starting the treatment was to at least minimize things. To minimize the redness, scarring, and to hopefully stop breaking out entirely in the future. 

After starting Accutane (Week 1)

My first week of Accutane was more about getting used to some of the side effects then it was about getting results. For the first month, I was told that I should expect some breaking out, as the medication is attempting to "pull out" whatever puss, dirt, etc that was under the skin. This gives you a pretty good idea of what my skin looks like on a daily basis though. The pimples on my face weren't sore at this point, just very red and embarrassing. My face started to dry out as well, as that's one of the most common side effects, which can be a little bit uncomfortable.

Week 2

As week two drew to a close, my skin was looking really rough. I was definitely starting to break out, which was unpleasant, due to the extremely dry nature of my skin (as shown in picture #2). I tried to reassure myself that I'd only have to deal with a few days of dryness before the pimples would dry, shrink, and my face would look better. At least I knew to expect the breakout, but it was still difficult when it came. This was the point that I realized this medication is pretty serious stuff.

Week 3

As I moved on past the initial break out in week two, I was disappointed when my skin seemingly kept getting worse. I was breaking out into large pimples that were either inflamed or full of puss. It was difficult to ignore it, and I felt really down about the entire treatment that week. My lips, eyes, skin.. everything felt dry and itchy. When I tried to take matters into my own hands and pop one of the pimples, you can see it bled and left a scab (right side of face, first picture), which only made the healing process for that particular eyesore longer. As tempting as it is to try and speed up the process by squeezing out blood/puss yourself, take it from me that it's a bad idea. 

Week 4

I was feeling a bit happier (although tired) here. My skin was still incredibly dry, but the accutane had seemed to run it's course, and the appearance of what acne I had was at least minimized. I kind of screwed this up for myself, however, and I'll tell you why.

I had a few days of pills left at this point, and was ready to finish my first month's prescription. I, unfortunately, got the flu, which caused me to be bedridden for about four days. During that time, I didn't take my prescription, as I felt that my body was fighting off an infection as it was, and I didn't want to keep pumping accutane into myself. I felt better after a short while, but my face really suffered because of it.

This happened. I had what has got to be the worst break out that I've had since starting this treatment. I'd take 10 small pimples over these two monstrous, swollen, fluid filled volcanoes. They were both incredibly sore, hot, and red. I think this was from a combination of not taking the medication, and also my body's lowered immune system during the time of having the flu. I learned my lesson!

End of the first month

After I felt better, I started to take the medication again. Even though I only had a few days left, I knew I had to finish the prescription. I had already broken up the schedule so much (missing a day, not taking them for illness, etc), that I knew it would be best to finish it so that I could report how I was doing to the dermatologist.

As you can see, the pimples that had shown up earlier had now shrunk down in size. Even though my skin was still looking pretty rough, there is a clear visible difference between week 1 and week 4! My skin stopped drying out as badly as my body adjusted to the medication, and as I made sure to use plenty of moisturizer. Although there are pimples still there, they are certainly smaller, and there are far less of them then there once was! Even my scarring on the sides of my face/cheeks were starting to feel less visible. 

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The first month was a real learning experience for me. Although I didn't expect immediate results, I was disappointed that this seemingly miracle drug wasn't showing MUCH result, as my acne's severity really depends on the day. The side effects were something that I was prepared for, but still had some difficulty dealing with when the problems arose. It was a constant struggle, and there were days in which I was very happy, and days where I didn't want to leave the house because I felt my acne was just that visible. I've been dealing with acne for years though, and I know that it's something I must deal with day by day. The only thing I can really do is stick to the program for the next 5 months, and hope that my skin's appearance improves with each passing month.

I still hold hope that this will without a doubt be a life changing experience for me, and so I will continue to record my progress through videos and photographs. I must be vigilant and patient, and then I will hopefully be rewarded!