I won't post a full diary for my second course
as it was much the same as the first course, 75mg per day, except:
Initial Outbreak
The dryness started from day one, my lips were
noticeably dry and tight and by the end of the first week the grease had
reduced, however in the second week I had a really bad outbreak, this is the
initial outbreak that I thankfully avoided the first time around. It lasted for
about 10 days and was the worst my skin has ever been. I had a weeks worth of
acne everyday, minutes after washing the spots would start surfacing, I picked
and squeezed but within an hour I was covered again, and to make things worse on
the surface my skin was dry, tight and peeling with all this acne pushing itself
up from deep down. I took a week off work and stayed indoors feeling sorry for
myself! Luckily I knew that in the long run Roaccutane would help and so just
kept that in mind, I can well imagine if this had been my first course I
would've been pretty disheartened thinking Roaccutane was going to fail me.
Plain Sailing
By the third week my skin was almost clear,
whilst on Roaccutane the few spots that I do get disappear very quickly and with
little or no scarring. The side effects that I'd experienced in the first course
were noticeably reduced, the dryness was much more bearable, and the muscle
pains in my legs were less frequent, disappearing completely after the first few
months. I carried a small pot of moisturiser with me to work so I could tab the
corners of my mouth a couple of times a day, particularly after eating the skin
there would crack a little, and a lip balm as I have done ever since my first
course. The dryness of the skin on my back helped to fade some of the scarring
there.
Acne Returns
Approximately one month after the second course
my skin began to get greasier and after two months the acne returned and
gradually worsened, although it was significantly better than previously, my
back and shoulders in particular were mostly clear except for scarring. Knowing
that my dermatologist appointment in 4 months would be wasted if I hadn't been
on Minocin, I obtained a repeat prescription from my GP. To my surprise, Minocin
now worked as well as it had done when I first took it some four years ago, as
my face wasn't nearly as greasy as it had been and I was generally nearly spot
free I was quite happy. When I saw my derm in January 2005 I expected her to
send me on my way with more Minocin but to my surprise she seemed quite
concerned with the few marks I had on my face and suggested I begin a low dose
treatment after persevering with another 3 months of Minocin.
