Week Twenty Four

07/11/03

I took these photos at the end of week twenty three. You can see I still have really shiny looking skin and lots of red peely places. My ears are really a mess.

I took my last pill two days ago. I was on 100 mg of Accutane a day for 163 days (23.5 weeks) Yesterday I already started noticing that my joints hurt less and today is even a little better. I hope it's not just my imagination.

My skin still looks the same. There are peely places and it has kind of a waxy look to it. I'm not sure how long it'll take to go back to "normal" (normal, but without pimples, hopefully) The red spots seem to be a little less red than they were yesterday, so maybe that's a sign that it's all starting to heal.

I'm glad to be finished with the meds. The side effects weren't so bad as to not be "worth it" but the joint pain was really starting to get tiresome. Advil helped the pain, but made me feel lethargic.

One thing that happened about a week ago, that really made me smile: My husband called to ask me to meet him and some of our friends at a restaurant. I hung up the phone, picked up my car keys and walked out the door. When I got in the car, I thought "I think this is the first time in years, that I walked out the door without first looking in a mirror!" I didn't need to mess around with trying to cover all my bumps with makeup. I didn't even THINK of it. That's what makes it worthwhile.

I'll update soon with some "After" photos.