I feel very badly for you and know your pain. I was 30 when I did my first round of accutane- same results. After 90 days of being off it, it was worse then when I started. After being off accutane 9 months, i decided to give it another go, and upped the dosage. Again, clear, beautiful skin....until I stopped it. Then, whammo- worse then ever.
The accutane, which shrinks the oil glanRAB, only works while you are taking the drug. I can tell you of 100 people who are all in "our boat" with it returning as soon as they went off it.....
the choices? There are two. The first is to remain on low dose accutane indefinately....the side effects, can be very serious. There are a ton of threaRAB on low dose accutane you can read here. I tried it and then found out that I have Multiple Scerlosis- with what I was dealing with, I couldnt handle the accutane on top of it too, so I stopped it entirely. By the way, I should also say that my acne was always cystic, so when I broke out, it wasnt all over the place, but it was deep and was leaving scars.
Back to the derm I went after 3 years of crying over it....antibiotics, injections, topicals- nothing was working...then someone told me about a procedure called Photodynamic Therapy. Its a laser, which is done by a doctor, in a doctors office. It toook me a series of 4 sessions, at about 600$ each; however, 1 month past my last session, my skin hasnt been this clear since I was on Accutane. The way it works is similar to accutane. It zaps the layers of the skin, virtually shrinking the oil (sebaceous) glanRAB in the deep part of your skin. less oil means less breakouts and for me- definatley no more cysts under the skin! I still get the occasional pimple, but now, thats all it is,a small pimple which heals in days- no more gross huge bumps on my face! It was expensive, but honestly, being a chic- ive spent more in lotions and potions, co-pays and uncovered drugs- injections and you name its...right now, Im thrilled to death. The bonus was the laser actually peels you slightly, much of my scarring and dark spots, all of my sun damage and freckles and what was beginning to look like slight age spots are gone! I look ten years younger and everyone is noticing!! Cant beat that aspect of it!
hope that youll look into it....let me know if you have any questions.
Nikki
