So you're taking a scary
medication with many 'possible'
side effects that comes in a scary
package with line drawings of possible
birth defects and pictures of
pregnant women with a big NO
symbol over them.
Read the information, learn the clinical facts about what you're putting into your body! But there's a few things that the packaging won't tell you, so here's just a smattering of information gathered from first and second-hand
experience that might make your six months on
Accutane go a little more smoothly.
Necessities for surviving a course on Accutane:
- A prescription card
The stuff doesn't come cheap folks. One of the writeups about the drug mentioned a cost of about $350/month. Yeah, you wish. For the doseage I'm currently on, it runs $600/month. That's $10 per pill. (Incidentally, when the doctor broke it down like that, I almost blurted out, "Oh, that's not so bad, I've paid $30 for a pill at a party before...") And if you're a female, the required two forms of birth control won't run cheap, either.
- Lip Moisturizer
And lots of it. Chapstick ain't gonna cut it, either, and forget about any of that sissy lip balm. You need hardcore stuff here. Aquaphor is my favorite, I've heard good things from fellow Accutane users about Carmex and Vaseline Intense Lip Therapy. I'm talking crates of the stuff...you'll be applying it every hour on the hour.
- Speaking of Moisturizer...
You'll want moisturizer for a place you would have never thought of before. And get all your minds out of the gutter, I'm talking about your nose. Nosebleeds are one of the most irritating side effects of taking this medication, and moisturizing nose sprays (nothing medicated here, just OTC saline spray) won't completely eliminate this, but they help quite a bit.
- Sunscreen
Sun sensitivity is a common side effect of most acne medications, so chances are if you're taking Accutane, you know the drill by now. Put on some sunscreen, you can get a tan when your course is up and your skin is perfect.
My final piece of advice involves those pictures of pregnant women printed on the back of every single Accutane pill in the package. They are there for a reason, I suppose, so that every time you take a pill, you are reminded not to get pregnant. Good advice, true, but this system also leaves tiny pictures of pregnant women scattered all over your floor from after you punch the pills out. If this annoys the hell out of you, just tear the packaging to pieces. Once you do this, your ten pills will be in foil and bubble packaging, like a normal drug. Which this isn't. But hey, it's (hopefully) only for six months.