Finally! I can report that there is noticeable improvement today. We had a dermatology appointment Thursday and I have to say we came back from that appointment feeling very concerned about our outlook. We knew when we went in that he was looking much worse. The derm. looked for several minutes without saying much. What came out of her mouth was not at all what I was expecting or wanting to hear. "I am not ready to call this Accutane failure".... My heart skipped a beat.I knew he was looking bad, but I also read that Accutane makes you worse before getting better. I was expecting to hear a variation of those exact words. We also discussed his cysts which seem to be getting bigger and spreading. I asked what is done about cysts and I was told they never go away. Again, not something I wanted to hear. After all, its the cysts that look the worst. We were told the therapy would consist of just injecting them to keep them down.... and surgery?... not recommended on the face because of scaring.
I am not sure I am convinced of all that, so I will continue to research the latest derm procedures and ask if its an option for my son. I will take him out of country if I have to. There could be something out there that the U.S. is not using yet.
We ended our visit with six injections in three major cysts on his right cheek. Its quite an ordeal and everyone leaves with tears in their eyes. Poor kid!! He was also given oral steroids to hopefully help in the swelling and was told to start warm compresses to start loosening dead skin.
He started his steroids Saturday. It would have been Friday, but the pharmacy was having computer problems and we didn't receive them until 5pm. My son is better with medications in the morning as part of his ritual of getting ready so we started the next morning. We did start the warm compresses as directed and in fact just finished our third day of that.
I've included two pictures for this posting because you just have to see the difference. The first is the day we got back from the dermatologist and the second is from just a few minutes ago. Getting the dead skin off has exposed new skin! His face was looking kind of gray and now pink new skin is showing and it looks soooo much better. I have to say that I am not ready to give up on this Accutane! And I am pretty sure the steroids have not kicked in yet so even more swelling should be going away soon. Now, its just dealing with the cysts. Two of the three that were injected are not so swollen, but that one under his eye is STUBBORN!
We finished up our X-mas shopping today. I invited my son to come along and tried to tell him he was looking so much better, he told me "I think by next weekend I will be ready to come along". I so hope that will be the case. I think he is cautiously optimistic for the first time.
