My first visit

I had my first visit to the Doctor's on the 9th of February 2012, Thursday. I have finally made my decision in taking Oratane which is also known as Isotretinoin. I am unsure of other countries but I am from New Zealand so I was prescribed to a medication called Oratane instead of Accutane or Roaccutane which are mainly used in the states or other countries.

More Information on Oratane: http://www.oratane.co.nz/introducing-oratane/

During my appointment, I have talked to my family doctor about my acne.

A little background about my acne skin: During the stage of puberty around age 13, I had a horrible outbreak on my forehead which lasted till today. I am 19 years old now and I'm still battling acne on my forehead. It has spread towards both of my cheeks and my back. My back is quite bad, filled with acne everywhere and I think I have made it worse by scratching. I have tried everything but nothing seems to work. So I turn to Oratane. I was fine with having acne situated on my forehead in year 2011 and it didn't look too bad covering with makeup. As time goes by, I found my acne on my forehead getting worse and worse during the end of year 2011 so I stopped wearing makeup in total and it has been a good 4 months since I've stopped makeup. Since I stopped, I changed my skincare regime thinking that it could be my skincare products that I'm using. However, it wasn't my makeup or my skincare product that is causing my acne to flare and spread towards my cheeks, lower jaw and back. It was just my acne flaring up. All my brothers have had Oratane medication in the past and have healed completely or left with redness scarring which will go away in time, so one of my brother persuaded to look up on Oratane and that it could help me. Fed up I was, I was finally convinced and I told my mother to call the family doctor for an appointment as soon as possible.

I guess acne do run in the family.

So back to where I was, my family doctor allowed me to take Oratane and I was told that if I was sexually active, I must take 1) birth control pills and 2) condoms and apparently one of the guidelines was to be on birth control pills for 1 month before taking Oratane. Luckily, I was already on the 3rd month of taking birth control pills so everything was going smooth.

I was given an information packet on Oratane and a patient consent form for Isotretinoin which basically needs my signature and agreeing that I do understand the side effects of Isotretinoin. Then, I was given another paper which I was to go to a Labtest to have my blood drawn and I was NOT allowed to eat or drink 8 hours before going to get my blood test taken. It is called 8 hours fasting.

And, I was told to get my blood test taken the next day in the morning. It was hard trying not to eat anything or drink anything during the span of 8 hours but I survived. I was so thirsty though!

There goes my first blogspot on my first visit to the doctors regarding Oratane.

Signing off,
L.

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