Accutane has cured my flushing

[owldog]

Just a quick update.

I've been taking accutane for a few months now. I'm still taking 5mg twice a week. It's working great for my skin texture, the swelling on my cheekbones and the general oiliness of my face. It's also helped with the itching on my scalp, I had a mild rash with some hair loss which the docs thought could be lupus related (it wasn't biopsied in time due to covid). The rash and itching have all cleared up since I started isotretinoin.

The sensitivity on my face has also improved. Even though the top layer of my skin is probably thinner, it feels stronger and less reactive. I am now even able to wear fragranced makeup occasionally without my skin freaking out. I'm also able to apply azelaic acid on the reactive parts of my face without it getting aggravated. Before it would hurt so bad I couldn't even dab it on a small patch.

The nerve sensations on my face have calmed down a bit too and my face doesn't have that constant itchy feeling.

However I think it's made my redness possibly a bit worse, it looks more obvious, whereas before it blended in more to the general redness on my face. That could be because the rest of my face is now a lot paler with less inflammation so the redness I have on my cheeks looks more noticeable.

I've also developed some new telangiectasia since being on it. I've had a problem with my blood vessels for 2 years now where they keep breaking off and spreading out and the red areas get bigger and bigger on my cheeks, legs and arms. As well as extensive livedo reticularis which is linked to the connective tissue disease. So it's hard to say whether the drug has made it worse or whether I would have got worse anyway. No drug so far has seemed to halt this progression for me. I'm guessing lasers may be the only thing that would remove these damaged vessels.

And it does nothing for the actual flushing for me. No improvement or worsening one way or the the other.

[Jamoverton]

Thanks so much for updating us on your results. Even though the flushing isn't improved for you, I'm really intrigued that your swelling went down since that is a big problem for me. I know what you mean about red areas possibly only looking more red because there is less swelling than usual- I've noticed that myself on days when my swelling happens to go down.

[owldog]

Thanks so much for updating us on your results. Even though the flushing isn't improved for you, I'm really intrigued that your swelling went down since that is a big problem for me. I know what you mean about red areas possibly only looking more red because there is less swelling than usual- I've noticed that myself on days when my swelling happens to go down.

Thanks! Yeah the swelling has gone done. It was getting really puffy on my cheekbones and around my eyes. My eyes actually look bigger now and my face feels a lot slimmer.

When I do flush it doesn't swell up and actually the flushing fades a lot quicker than before. Maybe before I was getting fluid trapped in those areas which was provoking more flushing and inflammation. Before the accutane my face would stay really red all the way into the morning from my nightly flares. Now when I wake up I'm super pale. Really no redness at all and all the residual redness from the night before has cleared.

It's a shame though it's not stopping the actual flushing from happening at all for me or the permanent broken blood vessels. But this and Cymbalta have been good for the pain which has been one of my most debilitating symptoms.

I would consider really low dose if swelling is your main issue.