So as you know I have now finished my course of roaccutane. Just to report the breakout type thing I had seems to have disappeared. One thing I guess helped was to look in the mirror and say to myself “nobody would look at me now and say ‘look at her terrible acne’ or ‘hasn’t she got a lot of spots’ or ‘aint her skin awful’ anymore” because its not. It is really nothing like how it was before I took roaccutane. If I had the means to post my before and after pics I would but I don’t have my own computer and I mostly come on here using a mobile (which for weeks, until the site was updated, meant I couldn’t add or reply to comments). If possible I could email the site my before and after pics or something? Is that possible? But anyway as it is the end of my course I thought it was about time I told you which side effects I have suffered with, about what time I suffered them and how I dealt with them:
DRY LIPS: Well duh! The whole way through, even now. What I found helped was once I moisturised my face, put a little moisturiser on my lips, followed by a layer of aqueous cream (which is what I used for my dryest facial parts) followed by a layer of nipple cream (thanks for that one Abi!) and just before going out or for any touch ups “Blistex Relief Cream” and the lips were under control.
Dry Skin: On and off from day one. Cleansed with “Simple Foaming Moisturising Facial Wash” Then moisturised with “Simple Replenishing Rich Moisturiser” or on really dry days “Eucerin” or at night “Simple Restoring Night Cream” (which by the way was LOVELY). On my dryest parts (round my mouth, side of nose, crease of chin) I applied aqueous cream which seemed to stop the flakiness. On my hands I used Johnsons 24 hour hand cream. I found this a couple of years ago when my little one was a baby and I had to wash my hands a lot which dried them out and its PERFECT!
Hair Loss: End of month 2 until end of month 4 on and off (I think) Now don’t get me wrong, I didn’t go bald! It wasn’t even noticeable to other people. All that happened was when I washed my hair a lot seemed to be coming out and it broke easily. I kept my hair tied back so you couldn’t see if there was less than usual or not. Having said all this I did speak to my friend who is a hairdresser who has seen a few roaccutane patients (ALL with positive first time results) and while she said that yes the roaccutane was probably affecting it to some degree, it could also have been the time of year as apparently we all shed an extra amount of hair at the same time of year so no need to panic! My hair wasn’t greasy anymore so that was a bonus. I only washed it every other day rather than every day. It wasn’t exeptionally dry though I don’t think but again I wore it up a lot. When it was down it felt dryer.
Rash: Sometime in month 3 or 4? On arms and legs which at one point started burning. Hydrocortisone cream (thanks to Jo) cleared it up in a week. Weirdly when I stopped taking roaccutane the other day it came back, about the ame time as the breakout vanished. Magic?
Bad Headaches: First month. Ibuprofen helped.
Joint aches and pains: First two months. Hot baths and plenty of rest.
Depression: I can’t solely pin this on the roaccutane as I have been under a lot of stress but I just didn’t feel I was dealing with things as well. I even told myself I was “worthless” on several occasions and questioned my very existence. I would put this down to years and years of many forms of abuse. I was abused as a child and also in my relationships. I would say roaccutane actually to some degree lifted this. It gave me hope in something that made me utterly miserable, something I couldn’t end no matter how many times I moved home or changed my name. It also made me feel like this was at last something I had a handle on. It was like proving to all the bumholes in my life that I had changed. They could SEE I had changed. The more my skin cleared the more confidence I had, the more confidence I had the more I felt I could take on these lame excuses for people. I am Nikki. (hear me ROAR lol) And I’m still here. Look at me now.
Anyway that pretty much covers it. As much as it would be great to say “see ya, don’t need this place anymore” I think I’ll stick around to be whatever help I can to those of you going through this. I don’t know what I would’ve done without this site so I feel I should return the favour in some way. I will also update now and then. But HOPEFULLY I won’t be needing to do a diary like this all over again. This is one journey I hope I have completed. Forever.
THANKS TO EACH AND EVERYONE OF YOU WHO HAVE GIVEN ME HELPFUL ADVICE, KIND COMMENTS WHEN I HAVE BEEN LOW AND A KICK UP THE ARSE WHEN I NEEDED IT. THANKYOU AND ALL THE BEST TO ALL OF YOU XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX love Nikki
