The following is not an advertisement or endorsement of Accutane. It is a personal account that shares one person’s real life experience with the medication.
I’ve had acne for most of my life. I remember when I was growing up, one of my family members had severe acne and I always quietly wished to myself that I would not develop skin like that person. So I washed every day, and I stayed away from oily foods. But when I hit puberty, there was little I could do. My acne flared up and it was really embarrassing. I always felts I has the worst acne in high school, and this might very well have been the case.
It started off with small pimples on my cheeks, I remember that clearly. Then I found myself dealing with blackheads in addition to the other stuff. But then I would get them on my nose and chin. At the height of my acne, it would appear anywhere on my face. I always found the big ones under my nostrils to be the most annoying. But then again, the ones right above my eyebrow would be pretty bad too. I didn’t just have regular acne. I had cystic acne and that caused quite a bit of pain on my face. They were deep and would grow to tremendous sizes. I lost a lot of time hiding from people because I felt I was so ugly.
I tried almost every medication that was available at the time. I was initially resistant to seeing a dermatologist. I was afraid at what might happen, and maybe even saw it as a sign of weakness. But when I finally saw my first dermatologist, I was glad that I did. I remember I was prescribed some antibiotics and a topical cream. It took a few weeks, but it worked! I remember the feeling of having clear skin and it was wonderful. Unfortunately, as with many acne treatments I tried, the acne eventually came back.
So I would go back to my dermatologist or sometimes I would visit a different one. Each time I was given a combination of some antibiotic and a cream. And each time, they worked for a while. I eventually resigned myself to the fact that my acne would always come back no matter what I did. Keep in mind, by now I was roughly 20 years old and well out of high school.
A good friend of mine finally recommended a good dermatologist that had been seeing. I heard from several other sources that he was one of the best around. So I saw him and was glad to see he was really friendly. He acknowledged that my acne was indeed very severe so I appreciated his honesty.
He didn’t sugar coat anything and he said he would pursue an aggressive treatment. I told him of everything else I had tried, so he decided to go with Accutane. If you don’t know already, Accutane is very powerful and is often considered to be last resort when nothing else works. So he gave ma prescription, but not before giving me a bunch of shots in my face. I don’t remember what the shot contained, but they certainly helped with my cystic acne. But I remember the shot were really painful and I’m really not exaggerating when I saw I got 30 of them in one session.
When I started taking Accutane the side effects (or maybe intended effects) were brutal. It actually accelerated my acne to the millionth degree. So that means my acne actually got worse. A lot worse. But my dermatologist said it was normal so I stuck with it. For about a month my acne on my face grew tremendously.
There were days when I had trouble talking because my face was so swollen. And when I went back to my doctor I still remember his reaction when he said, “Whoa!”. My face a big swollen mess, but he said that was part of the treatment. I also generally felt nauseous and found it hard to leave the house. But in about 2 months, my acne cleared up. I was really surprised but it actually worked. It was one of the worst experiences of my life, but I guess the results were worth it.
If I had to do it over again, I guess I would. But that Accutane was some powerful stuff. No wonder it has such strong side effects. I’d be a bit worried about altering my body chemistry so drastically, but I guess there was no other option. I had tried everything else and it didn’t work. Thank goodness my skin is clear today. I still have the occasional pimple, but it’s nowhere as bad as it was. It took me until the age of 26 to get free from adult acne – better late than never.
- Jenny Kahler,
Seattle Washington
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