Tue. 11/4/03: Month 1 post-accutane
I went to see my derma today. He prescribed me Triaz to clean my face. So, I'll be using that twice a day from now on instead of Cetaphil. My oil is coming back anyway, so I don't mind using something with benzoyl peroxide; Triaz contains 3% BP.
I am a little more calm about my hair now. I am still losing more hair than usual while in the shower. I haven't gone 2 weeks without washing my hair after that one time. I remember I went for one week of not washing my hair after that. And then, after that, I had to wash my hair like every 3 days. Amazing how quickly the hair gets oily now.
Yet, I'm fine with the oil, because it means that the side effects are reversing.
I see oil on my nose a few hours after I wash my face now. While on accutane, I can probably go a day or two and still not be oily.
I still have a few zits on my face, but overall, red marks are the biggest problem I have. My derma also prescribed Mederma to use 3 to 4 times a day. I hope it works. If not, I think I will get a glycolic acid peel in about 6 months when my skin is less sensitive.
I just stopped taking the calcium supplements a few days ago (maybe a week ago), because it has vitamin D. I think I read somewhere that a high dosage of vita D can cause hairloss, too. I don't think the calcium supplements have a large amount of vita D, but just in case, you know. So, I take only:
500mg of Vita C;
400iu of Vita E;
and 5mg of Biotin daily.(Notice that I cut the Vita C and E dosage by half now.)
Another thing that calms me down about my hair is that I read about hairloss a bit on the Net and I came across something called "telogen effluvium," a form of temporary hairloss, caused by stress, medication, or pregnancy and hormonal changes. I think I have this form of hair loss and in a few of the articles, accutane (or a high dosage of vitamin A) is quoted as a culprit for this type of hairloss. The good news is that this type of hairloss is temporary and hair will usually return to normal in about 3 to 6 months.
However, when I mentioned telogen effluvium to my derm, he didn't especially say anything about it. In fact, when I first asked him, what he would call my type of hairloss, he said alopecia, which I guess means hairloss in general and telogen effluvium is a type of hairloss under alopecia, so he was no help. He did say that my hairloss, if it is related to accutane, will grow back in 3 to 6 months.
In telogen effluvium, parodoxically hairloss means hair regrowth. What happens is that accutane can cause up to 70% of hair to go into resting (telogen) phase. While it's resting, hair is still on the head. Then, when hair decides to "wake up" or enter the anagen phase, the new hair pushes out the old hair (telogen hair), and thus, causing the hair loss. And a new hair grows in its place.
This is the only thing keeping me sane and that is what I will believe. My hair loss means hair regrowth!
Side effects are definitely reducing and reversing. Not too much exhaustion anymore. Contacts feel fine in the eyes. No more itchiness from dryness and thus, no more rashes from scratching the dry skin. Overall, things are returning to normal, I think.
I do notice that the red marks on my face takes forever to leave. In fact, it doesn't even seem to have faded at all, which sucks, so hopefully Mederma will help.
Since the termination of accutane, I've had about 3 zits in this one month, which is definite progress as compared to a few zits in a week (or sometimes a day) during pre-accutane and the accutane breakout stages I've had.
Still using Klaron. It is by far the most gentle acne medication in the world. So gentle that sometimes I don't know whether it is working or not. I wonder sometimes whether time itself or Klaron is the one killing off the acne, because improvement is slow and the zits I had during the end of my accutane days are still here, but smaller and flatter. Yet, it isn't causing any harm, so I will continue to use it.
Daily regime (starting tonight):
Morning:
wash with Triaz day
apply Mederma in the morning, afternoon, early evening, evening (or whenever I can fit in 4 times)Night:
vita E,C, and biotin after dinner
wash with Triaz at night
Klaron all over face nightly.Previous Next HOME