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products when taking roaccutane

77 replies

justjuanmorebeer · 17/03/2015 21:25

I have just started taking this drug.
Can anyone tell me what skin products they got on well with during treatment please.

Everything I already have is for oily and acne skin so will obviously need things less drying.

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Neena28 · 29/03/2015 16:39

L fingers crossed you don't get more purging. That will be bloody unfair after the first one. Agree tho that if it was unsafe someone would have said so and advised you not to take them. I've got the cicoplast and like it. My neck has been horribly dry and have been slapping it all over that and on the scabby bits I have, it works well and make up sits well over it which helps in those drier areas.

I have a couple of spongey areas where I've had big non headed cysts. They are steadily reducing and certainly aren't getting any worse, although they are the ones I find never quite die off properly and tend to come back time and time again so fingers crossed they do totally go.

It is certainly a fairly brutal treatment tho. Let's hope it works for us all.

LtheWife · 31/03/2015 00:36

I know what you mean about the cysts that keep coming back Neena. From what I'm seeing so far I'm pretty confident the roaccutane will sort them out for good. A lot of mine flared up during the purge, but the few that didn't seem to be healing. It's almost as if the blockage has been cleared, the lack of oil has dried out the contents which are slowly being forced to the surface and out through the newly unblocked pores like a blackhead.

I'm thoroughly fed up with the nasty cracking weeping scabs left by the purge. I had a day off work today and the Cicaplast hasn't arrived yet so out of desperation I've spent the day with a thick layer of sudocrem on top of moisturiser smothered over my face. Sudocrem has done nothing for my acne in the past but it's only bloody worked today! I think it trapped enough moisture in to soften and lift the scabs and the zinc helped enormously with healing. Instead of the usual horrible bright red scars that eventually fade to brown pigmentation I'm just left with slightly pink patches of new skin. It's bloody amazing! I do still have one or two scabs left from the most recent eruption so I'm not sure it's ready to heal fully yet, but I'll keep covering them with sudocrem and keep my fingers crossed for similar results.

How are you getting on now Justjuan?

justjuanmorebeer · 31/03/2015 10:34

Well I am on day 16 now. Unfortunately I now have the dry and itchy eye symptom. It is horrible. Worse in the evenings but was bad all day yesterday.
I have also had two nosebleeds. I think I am one of those people that if I am going to get side effects I just get them all.
Skin seemed best it had been in ages yesterday and I was pleased.
However woken up with three pussy spots today and more bumps under the skin. Great.
Still greasy.

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gingerfluffball · 31/03/2015 10:36

Just you've probably already thought of this, but fake tears from the chemist are amazing for dry eyes. I stupidly didn't realise why my eyes were sore for ages on roaccutane and the first few eye drops when I did were the most incredible relief!

LtheWife · 31/03/2015 10:54

Yes, artificial tears are great, I think the bottle the pharmacist gave me (generic hydromellose eye drops) cost less than £2. I've now got a roaccutane survival kit that I keep in a makeup bag in my handbag. Currently contains Eucerin lip balm, Deleor moisturiser sample, Clinique moisture surge spray, a small tin of Vaseline and cotton buds incase my nose feels dry, eye drops, aveeno hand cream and sunscreen.

justjuanmorebeer · 31/03/2015 13:25

That kit sounds good. When I am back at work on the 13th April I am going to set up something similar for my laptop bag.

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justjuanmorebeer · 01/04/2015 20:29

I have a rec for products now. The balance me range is very good.
It is usually quite pricey, think neals yard/liz earle price point but Glamour mag are doing 4 products from the range as samples this month so I bought 3 x copies of the mag to try them and they are very good and gentle indeed.
I also bought nivea bb cream to wear instead of foundation which has been good if a little shiny on the forehead.

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LtheWife · 04/04/2015 21:49

A little OT, but does anyone have any high fat breakfast ideas for taking the morning dose with? I don't normally eat breakfast at all so I'm really struggling to come up with ideas. I've been having tesco finest yogurts for the last few mornings as they're quick, easy and higher in fat than normal yoghurts but they are obviously quite high in saturated fats and still less than half the recommended amount of fat for taking Roaccutane with.

justjuanmorebeer · 05/04/2015 01:13

An avocado?
Should I be doing something special foodwise here? All I was told is to take mine with food and that's it! Can anyone give me the info?

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LtheWife · 05/04/2015 12:42

I was told the same Justjuan, it's only through doing some digging online that I found people talking about taking it with high fat meals. Turns out that Vitamin A is a fat soluble vitamin, therefore for your body to absorb it best you need to take it with enough fat (isotretinoin is a Vitamin A derivative). Here's what I found.

'For optimal absorption, isotretinoin must be taken with high-fat, high-calorie meals.3 The FDA defines “high fat” as 50 percent of total caloric intake of the meal, while “high calorie” refers to 800 to 1,000 calories (150 from proteins, 250 from carbohydrates, 500-600 from fat).4 Clinical trials evaluating the efficacy and safety of isotretinoin are all performed under those conditions. In the real world, where many patients do not even eat three meals a day, let alone high-fat, high-calorie meals, absorption of isotretinoin may be much lower. Moreover, many dermatologists are not educating patients on the true dietary needs of patients on this medication.'

A bit more digging turned up a couple of studies, one suggesting that more than double the amount of isotretinoin was absorbed when taken with a meal containing 20g of fat compared to fasting, another suggested 50g of fat more than doubled the amount absorbed.

It's also believed that one of the potential reasons for relapse is underdosing. I really don't want to have to do another course of roaccutane if I can help it so I'm trying to stick to the high fat recommendation to give it the best chance of working. That said, I also want to keep it to good fats where possible as I don't want them to lower my dose due to skyrocketing cholesterol levels! So for now I'm aiming for 20g of fat per dose and have switched my doses around so I'm taking the low dose with breakfast (when I struggle to eat enough fat) and the high dose with dinner.

justjuanmorebeer · 06/04/2015 00:01

Sorry, forgive me. I am lucky enough to have never struggled with my weight so have never counted calories or grams of fat etc. What sort of thing would 20g of fat be then?
I eat pretty well most of the time with a few bad days thrown in ie today ooops.
I take my meds just once a day. What is the reasoning behind splitting the dosage into twice a day anyway?

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LtheWife · 06/04/2015 00:37

I'm not sure of the reasoning for splitting the doses. I was on a single dose per day whilst taking 30mg but now I'm on 55mg per day they've split it.

As far as fat is concerned a McDonald's double bacon and egg mcmuffin has 20g of fat, 2 slices of a Dominos medium stuffed crust meat lovers pizza has 22g of fat, a 100g avocado has 15g of fat.

Neena28 · 06/04/2015 10:40

Oh bloody hell the high fat thing is the icing on the cake!! I'm trying to lose some weight! I wasn't told anything other than take it with food too but have read up now and looks like high fat would be beneficial. I take it with my dinner as it's when I knew I'd remember so hopefully that's ok? Will ask derm at next appt too.

My skin is awful at the mo and so dry that everything is bleeding badly too. Have got the cetaphil now but not helping a lot. Lots of baths with lots of oils have helped my body a lot plus a heavy body moisturiser. I'm finding it brutal. Lips are so sore and I ache like mad. Coupled with it all being worse and worse I'm at crying stage!! Someone tell me it's worth it?! I'm a day or so under a month now.

justjuanmorebeer · 10/04/2015 12:25

Still been thinking about this fat thing. My recommended daily intake would be 20g.
Therefore if the meds ideally need that to be absorbed then does that mean I need to eat my daily fat intake in one meal then eat salad for the rest of the day? help.

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LtheWife · 10/04/2015 13:15

I'm by no means a dietician so feel free to take my advice with a pinch of salt! But I would say in an ideal world, if you're wanting to follow guidelines, then yes, ensure you get enough fat in the meal you take your dose with and be careful the rest of the day.

However as you've never really struggled with your weight you might want to try eating normally the rest of the time and see how you get on. You'll only be on Roaccutane for a few months so shouldn't pile loads of weight on in that time anyway. Plus, I'm like you in that my weight is pretty constant without thinking about diet, but if I do overindulge and gain a few pounds it comes off again pretty quickly and easily when I start eating normally again. I'm just being a bit more cautious than normal because of the change in my cholesterol levels.

How are you getting on with the roaccutane now?

I haven't had a second flare up thankfully but my skin is definitely drier on the higher dose. It's also started peeling quite a lot, almost like mild sunburn without the redness, even my palms are peeling. I'm also getting lots of tiny pimples over my chest which I think is a mini purge. On the plus side, other than scarring my face has been clear for over a week now! And I can now go three days between hair washes!

LtheWife · 10/04/2015 13:21

Neena, I hope that you're feeling a little better today.

justjuanmorebeer · 16/04/2015 19:49

How's everyone doing? had my dosage upped by 5mg to 30mg. Still annoyed as I think it is too low to work. Ho hum.

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LtheWife · 16/04/2015 20:06

You might find they keep you on a low dose but for a longer time justjuan. It's the total cumulative dosage that matters most, not how much you take each day. On the positive side a lower daily dose does mean the side effects should be less severe.

I'm not doing too badly. No new spots for a couple of weeks now which is great, but side effects are getting worse. This week I've been so tired I've been falling asleep on the sofa in the evenings, I keep getting nosebleeds, I ache all over and the sides of my lips keep splitting overnight. My skin is very flaky now, I'm keeping well moisturised so the flakes aren't at all dry, they're just peeling and look like mild sunburn. And the skin on my body is very fragile, I reached into a box earlier and gently scraped my arm on the edge which gouged a chunk of skin off.

justjuanmorebeer · 16/04/2015 21:01

My side effects sound like yours Lwife tbh. As long as I keep on top of them I am fine but have developed excema on my upper arms too which is less than ideal. Been given some steroid cream just about to use it for the first time.

I was hoping to just do max dosage for my weight and just blast it for 4 months rather than dragging it out to be honest. That is the bit that I am most disheartened with. I just want to get it all over with now.

With the 5mg increase no side effects have increased at all it has just stayed the same.

I am experiencing the tiredness too however I am ALWAYS tired as I'm a single parent and a teacher. Last night though I went out like a light, usually I have big trouble dropping off due to mind buzzing.

Has anyone been getting really vivid dreams?! I have been having some wild ones.

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Norfolkandchance1234 · 16/04/2015 21:10

All i can add is that when I took it 20 years ago my skin got so itchy I had to keep having cool baths all the time. That said it cleared up my skin permanently forever after a few prior traumatic years of bad skin.

So I can't recommend it highly enough.
I would advise perhaps trying aveeno or Nivea for moisturiser and clarins for foundation. Keep it simple, actually I think I did actually use simple moisturiser

justjuanmorebeer · 17/04/2015 11:13

Sorry but has anyone else been really constipated on these tablets? Sad

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LtheWife · 17/04/2015 11:55

Yes to the constipation but no to the dreams (but I don't often dream anyway).

Just been for my blood test ready for the review on Tuesday. Fingers crossed upping the dosage hasn't had a negative effect.

justjuanmorebeer · 17/04/2015 14:39

Maybe they are full of iron or something

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justjuanmorebeer · 21/04/2015 13:45

I have been having good results with the body shop vitamin e skin range. Carmex on lips constantly. How is everyone else getting on?

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LtheWife · 25/04/2015 22:22

Glad to hear you've found something that's working for you justjuan. Hope the side effects aren't causing you too much trouble.

Had my second review on Tuesday. Cholesterol has gone up again but it's not reached dangerous levels so they're happy for me to continue at my full dose of 55mg a day but do want another blood test before my next review.

My face has been completely spot free for weeks now which is amazing! I'm still getting some small ones crop up on my shoulders though. My biggest problem now is the scabs from my initial flare up just aren't healing. The nurse said its completely normal to heal much more slowly whilst on roaccutane so I'm not worried, I'd just like them to go as it's been 5 weeks now. The scabs have become very thin now but they're almost like dry lips, every time my face moves they split and they're growing because of it. In desperation I've started using lip balm on the scabs to try and keep them soft and supple as normal moisturisers just aren't cutting it.

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