Living with chronic acne and my Sotret experience

If you read through my blogs you will know how paranoid I am with my chronic acne condition. It’s been there since my preteen days and never quite left me. I could always relate to those commercials that had a pretty girl, with a forever surprising look, who wakes up every morning to new breakouts. That was exactly my story (except the pretty part) but sadly no OTC med could cure me of my breakouts totally. In subsequent days, I was made to believe that my acne will go away once I become older. However, things got worse over the years. Much later, a few years ago, my routine blood workup detected under active thyroid gland and low vitamin D level. I was started on Levothyroxine and on Vitamin D replacement.

My daily care routine to keep off acne 

And my pimple saga continues

Almost two years have passed since and I am doing fine except for the acne part. I can tell you it’s most annoying to live with something that makes your life less extraordinary. It’s not worth to live with a constant pain of not being able to get rid of an apparently benign medical condition. There must be a cure and I must see the end and I decided to see a dermatologist.

The first visit

The doctor heard me out. He sat through my ramblings, examined my face and asked for a few blood workups and started me on medication. These are new blood workup for me.

LH (Luteinizing hormone), FSH (Follicle stimulating hormone), Prolactin, Testesterone, TSH (Thyroid stimulating hormone)

He also started me on:

Mizoz ER (Minocycline) antibiotic x 1 month

D Acne Foaming Facewash

UV Acne Sunscreen

Deriva BPO Gel

Asked me to stop all kind of cosmetic and market products

Asked me stop all natural products (yogurt, honey, facepacks, eggs, besan etc.)

After 3 weeks of first visit:

I was feeling much better inside and out. The itchiness had reduced, the cystic pimples dried up. A few fresh bumps did show up but those were of harmless kind and subsided soon with Deriva BPO gel. The only disappointing thing - the acne had started to leave dark scars on my face.

On the second visit after 4 weeks

My doctor told me that I look better. My general pathology is reasonably good. Meanwhile I also did ultrasound to rule out PCOS and it was normal too. He then asked me if I am pregnant or planning to get pregnant because he wants to start me on a medicine called Sotret which pregnant women cannot take since there is high risk of serious birth defects. 

Sotret is Isotretinoin molecule prescribed for treating severe nodular acne and is supposed to be very effective with my kind of chronic acne. I was bit apprehensive but then I was willing to go to any extent to get rid off my acne. 

So, on the second visit I was started on:

Sotret 20 mg OD x 1 month

Emolene hydrating cream

So, he started me on Sotret 20 mg once daily and asked to drink profuse water along with it. With all the goodness Sotret comes with some noticeable changes and my side effects got prominent pretty soon. Within 3-4 days my face got noticeably tan, skin dried up, lips, throat and eyes were considerably  dehydrated. This is inspite of applying the moisturizing cream 2 times at least. I also started applying eye lubricant.

After 3 weeks of second visit:

I am on the third week of Sotret now and have not been too much cranky as many on Isotretinoin complain of. However the hyperpigmentation, dry skin and withered look continue to pull me down off and on.

My third visit is pending on the third week of July. Will keep you posted.