There are two people I could live without: SI and his ex-mistress and whatever else she turned out to be. But, the 'nice' person I am, I am not going to name names. I was thinking about posting a picture of her...but can I do that? I mean, sure technically I can....but can I? I don't know.
So, until I am ready to find out, I will have to pick something else I could live without and I am choosing acne.
I was around 13 or so when I started getting small pimples on my chest and back. I didn't know if they were sweat pimples or what. My parents would bring me to the dermatologist and they would give me some sort of cream. Eventually the acne spread to my face and I would have lots of small bumps and then some regular pimples. Sometimes the creams needed to be refrigerated - which never worked because I was lazy and hated going back downstairs after I washed my face, and some others that worked for a while. When those didn't work anymore, my Mom bought proactive, but three steps? Seemed a bit much and after a while I gave up.
So most of high school I still had breakouts. Right before my period, I would get a huge one. I would look at other people and wish that I had clearer skin. Somewhere along the lines, my face cleared up. Could have been when I started taking birth control pills, I don't really remember. For a while I was just a pimple here or there.
My face looked fantastic, but I hated all the hair, so I started having laser hair treatments which I loved. Looking and feeling great, I then decided one day to go to a makeup counter and tried a new foundation. I remember it was a holiday party and I was itching my face. I didn't think much of it that night, but over the next few weeks my face went from really itchy to really broken out. OK, so I deduced that the new foundation was a trigger, but apparently it was not just an allergic reaction. My face got so horrible, if I thought that the puberty pimples were bad, I had no idea...and the worst part? I was like 22 and had a job...so it was horrible and embarrassing.
My new dermatologist (not the one that did the laser treatments) put me on Accutane. So for 5 1/2 months I underwent blood tests, restricted diets and so much medicine. It was a really hard 5 months. I went from a size 6 to a size 8, my triglyceride levels skyrocketed (a normal but bad side effect) but I started seeing a difference. Once that cleared up, I started to only wash my face with Cetaphil soap once or twice a day. I went back to my original foundation that I trusted and things steadied out for a long time.
However, even in my twenties and still in my thirties I still get pimples on my face and my chest. No where near as bad as it once was, but still such a horrible thing to go through as a single adult. I try not to wear foundation anymore and I use the Cetaphil still when I am in the shower, and other times when I remember I use 2 of the 3 steps of ProActive, but not on a regular basis since I don't want it to dry out my face.
I have always wanted to fix two things about me...my body shape/weight and my complexion/acne.
I haven't looked up long term side effects of Accutane, but I swear it is what has caused my body to be the way it is now. My triglyceride levels did go back down...but never to normal, but always slightly above. I was never able to loose that little bit of weight that I gained on the medicine - and in fact even went up to a size 10.
So for those of you with fantastic skin...appreciate it because there are so many of us that don't. Acne go away!
oh geez! That sucks. :(
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