Inflammatory cystic hormonal acne, 75 days into treatment [PROGRESS POST]

Hi r/Accutane!

Okay, so I'm on day 75 of accutane. I'm not even going to talk about how horrendously stupid the whole shipping debacle was this month; basically getting my monthly appointment, bloodwork, iPLEDGE questions and shipping lined up around Thanksgiving was hell. I ended up having to go and get the Rx at a pharmacy locally after DirectSuccess called it in. Thankfully, I got it just in the nick of time.

If you've been following the progress, I've actually gone from 40mg once a day, to 30mg twice a day as of this month, for a total of 60mg a day.

It's 3 months into treatment. I have a feeling since I just upped my dosage the side effects will ramp up again, but before that, I've been pretty okay. Dealing with the back and joint pain, which is arguably pretty severe, but small price to pay. I've got dryness around my mouth and my elbows/ankles, but it's pretty manageable. My period came around as of today. Usually, the week before is complete hell and I never make it out without at least ONE cyst (if I'm lucky), but this month... no cysts! No blackheads! No whiteheads!!! CRAZY. My skin still got very inflamed like it usually does, and my pores got clogged, but no noticeable outbreaks, which is insane to me.

My skin doesn't feel like sandpaper any more. It's starting to kind of look pretty. I'm no longer an oil slick, either, which is great. The cysts that I'd already had are still there, and the one on my nostril is still flaring up, given that it's my period, but no new ones, and the existing cysts haven't gotten bigger, thankfully. I think I'm going to get them injected with steroids to try and shrink them so we can get the ball rolling on those going away.

I had been SUPER dreading my period this month, being that I thought I'd break out right before my boyfriend's Christmas party and have to deal with that in front of all those people... but this was completely, totally manageable. I haven't had a period without a hellacious amount of cysts and papules since... well, since I hit puberty. This is crazy. It is so foreign to me.

Seriously, you guys. I cannot even say how bewildering it is to have a relatively smooth face.

It's still red and blotchy right now, and I've still got those existing cysts, but I can also tell that my skin isn't being inflamed by my makeup, too. Usually, makeup was a sacrifice because even when I wore the least irritating, noncomedogenic kind, I could still feel my skin get irritated. Now though, I don't even have to anticipate that. This is a really neat feeling.

I'm really excited to see how it goes from here. I'm actually starting to like myself.