My Accutane Journey | Month 8: No more Accutane!

This morning I had my regular Accutane check up at the hospital and was given the brilliant news that I could now stop taking my medication! Eight months in and the end is finally here!

It’s been a strange old journey so far – I was expecting to feel much worse than I have done over the course of the treatment. After all, I’d read many a horror story during researching the drug to decide whether I wanted to go ahead and take it. Don’t get me wrong, some days have been really rough trying to keep on top of aching joints, viruses and bacterial infections that didn’t heal as quickly and left me feeling exhausted and the infamous dry lips (although my lips never cracked or bled like some poor people experience. I’m very serious about my lip balm application!)

Out of all of the months of taking Accutane, month 8 was definitely the hardest month for me. My dose had been increased by another 20mg during month 7 making my daily intake 80mg in total. I found that I struggled the most with achey and sore joints to the point where I’d really struggle to stand and get moving again after being sat down. The only way to keep on top of it was to keep moving and exercising gently day by day. After around two weeks on 80mg, I started to feel the side effects level out and the achey joints didn’t feel quite so horrible.

I had my regular blood test on Friday last week and was told today that certain levels of my liver function test were a little high and would need to be monitored, so I’ll need another blood test in January to check on my levels once again. The nurse said it was nothing to worry about and we’ll keep an eye on them to see how they go. She also talked to me about aftercare and told me that the drug would remain in my system for around six weeks, and that my skin could still be sensitive for up to six months, so to take extra care and treat it gently.

In January, I’ll go back to visit the dermatologist and have a skin check up to see how everything is settling down. I’m hoping and praying that everything will be okay and that the acne that once plagued me will be kept at bay for good.

It’s seemed like such a long journey on some levels, and such a short one on others. On the whole and at the moment I’m so glad that I ended up going down the Accutane route. It really was the last option for me after trying countless therapies, medication and topical treatments so I’m so happy that I finally found something that worked for me in the quest to clear my skin.

I’ll post another update in January to let you know how I got along at my follow up and how my skin adjusted post-Accutane.

© Rachael Divers 2017.