By my junior year of high school, the acne that had plagued me since junior high had become severe enough to warrant a monthly trip to the dermatologist — or, as I like to call her, the zit doctor.
Seventh through 11th grade were not a pretty time for yours truly. Braces, a veritable Valdez of oil in my hair, and a case o' zits that went from bad to worse. By 11th grade, I was on tetracycline, Retin-A, prescription-strength oxy-something-or-other, and a handful of other unquents and tinctures that may or may not have had some effect on my ever-worsening skin.
There was, however, one bright spot — one of those face creams had an interesting bleaching effect on my hair. A little bit of it would sneak onto my temples each night, leaving me with delightful golden flecks that would've been a hit with the ladies, had any of the ladies been interested. Which they weren't. At least not until senior year, when business picked up a bit.
In my sophomore year in college, things went from bad to worse. The zittage, which previously had been confined primarily to my face, began to spread down my back. Worse, I developed some pretty heavy cysts around the temples. The doctor felt that without drastic measures, I was in for some serious scarring. (And actually, there IS a bit of scarring on my temples, if you look closely enough.)
So the doc decided to put me on a recently-unveiled medication, one that she refers to as "the cure" for acne.
Its name? Accutane.
I bring this up because of this article, from the Tuesday P-G. Turns out, accutane is some pretty heavy stuff, and 20 years down the line, they're STILL not sure what all it does.
I can say this, though — it cleared them zits right up. Boy howdy, did it ever.
About one week after beginning the medication, I noticed a tightness in my lips, along with some serious chapping. Within a few weeks, that "tightness" had progressed to a permanent pucker. It was weird, but I kid you not — for the three months of the treatment, I walked around with a permanent "O" on my kisser. Weird, wild stuff. A buddy of mine who went through accutane a year or so later reported the same phenomenon.
Accutane also causes dryness in the mucous membranes. The inside of my nose cracked and bled for three months. Also, since they didn't (and still don't, apparently) know all of the effects of the drug, I went for weekly blood tests.
At least, I think it was weekly. I remember going to PSU's Ritenour Health Center a lot during this time. I ended up being something of a legend at Ritenour — between my freshman year macing (a story for another day, to be sure), the sliced-off tip of my thumb earned while working in the cafeteria dishroom, these blood draws, and the junior year guillain-barre episode, I gave the Ritenour folks a lot of breaks from the usual flu, mono, and herpes routine.
Anyway, to make a long and pointless story short, the accutane worked. The acne pretty much cleared up after that, although I still get the occasional zit — like everyone else, I suppose. As for the side effects still to come, well, your guess is as good as mine.