End of Week Eleven

End of Week Eleven

Dear Diary,

I am seeing amazing results with the isotretinoin!  I have noticed I still breakout around the time I get my monthly cycle, but they usually go away after 3-4 days.

K

End of Week Ten

End of Week Ten

End of Week Nine

End of Week Nine

End of Week Eight

End of Week Eight

Dear Diary,

I just got back from camping in Idaho this weekend and received a terrible sunburn on my arms and legs.  I went jet skiing for 4 hours and have some wonderful wetsuit tan lines.  My face however, did not get burnt – probably because I had more layers of sunscreen on it.

The sunburn blistered and oozed and hurt worse than any other sunburn I’ve ever had!

K

End of Week Seven

End of Week Seven

End of Week Six

Dear diary,

It has been a crazy week!  After meeting with my oral surgeon, we agreed not to do the wisdom teeth extraction until December when I am off of the isotretinoin.  On top of that I am getting ready to finish off my summer quarter finals for university.

I am still seeing awesome results as well as getting compliments.  My dryness had gone away for much of last week, but is now back.  My hands and arms are not peeling anymore.  Most of my dryness is on my chin and near my nose.  I also have some dryness on my ears.

End of Week Six

I am also still getting some breakouts but not as many.  I do get bloody noses if I forget the Vaseline!  Other than that, things aren’t too rough.

K

End of Week Five

End of Week Five

Dear diary,

I have gotten several compliments on the improvement of my skin!  I also see a difference and feel a difference.  There hasn’t been much peeling on my face, so I’ve started using the CeraVe lotion, which is a lot lighter than the Eucerin stuff.

K

Update on the Eyes

Dear diary,

I had my eye exam this morning and everything checked out okay!  He put some yellow dye in my eye to check the cornea and he said he did not see any spots, which means that there is no severe dryness or any damage.  He then put some red dye in my eye to check the white of my eyes and he said he saw a few sports, but nothing major to worry about.

The reason your eyes dry out on isotretinoin is because, as you should know by now, it reduces your oil gland size and the amount of oil produced.  On your bottom eyelid, you have several oil glands that put oil on your eye to help seal in the tears.  When there is no oil produced to lock those tears in, they evaporate as soon as they make contact with the air.  Therefore, your eyes are constantly drying out due to that lost oil barrier.  When the ophthalmologist examined my eyes, he said that he noticed my oil glands on my bottom lid were waxed over, like they had not produced oil in a while.  Which is to be expected on isotretinoin treatment.

He then gave me some options as far as keeping my eyes from being irritated:

1. Using eye drops (gel or liquid) as much as needed
2. Using a heat compress about twice per day
3. Having a small cap put in on each eye lid to prevent tears from draining to the nasal cavity – essentially keeping as much of my tears as possible on my eye
4. Going in for him to put a Q-tip in between my bottom lid and my eye and squeezing the waxy substance blocking the oil glands almost like squeezing toothpaste from the tube in hopes of unblocking them and producing some oil again.  He said he had never tried this in an isotretinoin patient, but it has worked well for other patients.

I am opting for options 1 and 2.

After the ophthalmologist cleared me, my dermatologist called in my isotretinoin Rx so that I could start up again right away.  So essentially, I only missed the dose this morning.  I am still on 30mg per tablet twice a day.  I am seeing amazing results, so I am glad that my eyes are doing well.

On another note, my dermatologist also gave me a prescription for Dr. Dan’s CortiBalm.  It ended up only being over-the-counter, but my pharmacy had to special order it.  It took them about 24 hours to have it in and it only cost $4.99 (it is not covered by insurance as it is not prescription).  This stuff works so much better than Aquaphor.  It was getting annoying applying Aquaphor and having it wear off within 5 minutes.  Dr. Dan’s has hydrocortisone in it as the main active ingredient.  It comes packaged just like a regular lip balm in a stick form.  It makes application easier and less sticky.

My hands and arms are also still peeling, but not as bad.  I’ve found that CeraVe lotion works well on them because it is lightweight but powerful.  I still prefer to use Eucerin on my face as opposed to CeraVe though.

K

End of Week Four

End of Week Four

Dear diary,

I just finished week four of isotretinoin.  Things are starting to look really good as far as results.  I went to the dermatologist today and my right I was quite red and irritated, so they want me to have that checked out before they give me my next prescription.  I have an appointment tomorrow morning to have everything looked at.  If it turns out that my cornea is swollen, they will more than likely give me a prescription eye drop to clear it up.

I’ll update tomorrow after my eye exam on how things are.  But take a look at those photos!  Do you see the improvement?  I see and feel it!

K

One Month Blood Test & More

Dear diary,

Today I had my one month blood test. I will go in to the dermatologist on Thursday to make sure all the tests check out, then I will get my next prescription for Claravis.

The blood test was a little scary today. When I arrived, the phlebotomist at the front counter was obviously new and in training, as the other phlebotomist was getting upset that she was entering the data wrong. I was hoping that she wasn’t going to be the one to draw my blood, but alas, she was. She took me into the room and decided to take the blood from my right arm instead of the usual left. I’m not a huge fan of having blood taken from my right arm, but I decided not to say anything and just go along with it. The first time she poked, put the vile in, and no blood was coming out. She explained that she thought maybe it was defective, and took the needle out. In comes the second needle, this time it all seemed to work. She took the three viles and we were done. But as she was putting pressure on my arm with the gauze, I started to feel a little light headed. I told her I needed to hold still for a minute and she had me lay down and brought me a glass of cold water.

This was my first time ever really feeling light headed after having blood drawn. I don’t know if it was because it was in a different arm than I am used to, or if it was the multiple pricks, or something completely different that I am unaware of. Oh well, that’s out of the way!

On another note, I have noticed a lot of dryness with skin peeling on my hands and forearms. It’s a little annoying because no amount of lotion or vaseline that I seem to put on will help. I’ve tried applying Eucerin, but it just makes me feel sticky. Vaseline probably works the best out of anything, but it is difficult to carry vaseline around all of the time because it makes a mess of everything.

Until next time,

K