182 replies to this topic

[arwena]

That's exactly how I felt in the beginning of my course, just kept thinking about all the things I'll be able to do when I am acne and oil-free. It's good to keep that enthusiastic attitude (I've kind of lost it a bit on my way into the second month, but now that I've read your post, it's coming back!).

As for the squeezing thing - I rarely get typical whiteheads, my acne is more like underskin little bumps and comedos that get inflamed or even turn into a cyst (I even squeeze those out, yup they're painful, but if I don't they can linger for months, making me sad and depressed more than if I only had a scab or a red/purple mark instead of a lump).

[Jezika]

DAY 18

Why must there be sunscreen in my lip balm? Please do not put sunscreen in my lip balm. I don't want sunscreen in my lip balm. Some might, fair enough, and I know there probably are lip balms without sunscreen, but don't try and make out as though you're doing me a generous favour by putting sunscreen in my lip balm. I'm not going to be delighted, I'm not going to be thankful and I'm not going to want to use your crappy sunscreen ridden lip balm again. Don't get me wrong, I'm not exactly a big fan of skin cancer, but why this craze for sunscreens? What happened to being naturally responsible in the sun? And why sell mostly sunscreen-containing lip balms in pharmacies in Canada during the autumn/winter months? I highly doubt I'm about to get sunburn on my lips, you know.

Don't get me wrong, my averseness to sunscreen halts specifically at lip balm, although I am considering broadening my scope of hatred on the subject. The main thing that annoys me is the subtle but profoundly lurid taste of sunscreen in lip balm, and maybe even the texture. Secondly, I've never really used lip balm or sunscreen on my lips before, yet still managed to avoid getting sunburn in that area for 24 entire years. Why would I start slapping weird chemicals directly onto the most direct pathway into my internal systems (hmm... sounds like I was made by Intel or something) now? I heard once on some kind of breakfast show where they have segments on random things that ingesting sunscreen can interfere with your genetic structure. In hindsight, I may have misheard this because apart from not sounding particularly likely, I can find nothing of the sort to back it up on L'internet. What I did find, however, is plenty of articles on sunscreens causing cancer, ironically, as well as a host of other awful things. Anyway, so I am even more skeptical about the whole thing as I lay every night in bed grimacing at the thought of my silky smooth, moisterised lips being laden with pure evil. Oops, I just scratched my face near my mouth and took an entire spot off. Uhhh... at least that's one down. Anyway, I'll stop banging on about sunscreen and lip balm, but I do think that we should be very aware of what we put on and into our bodies, because although many people believe that there's no way pharmaceutical companies and their regulators would allow potentially harmful substances to be freely sold to the public, I think it's only to a person's credit to be open minded about that sort of thing and give everything a little more thought, then make some informed decisions rather than trusting people in a hugely money-focused [and some argue greedy] industry with your health.

Anyway, it's been a long week and my mind is as muddled as a drunken jigsaw puzzle, but here's an update on my face: it's much noticeably dryer. I've finally stopped using benzoyl peroxide and I still wake up satisfactorily dry. This quite possibly ties in with my dosage having doubled on Tuesday. There's slight flakeage going down around my mouth. Not the fun kind of flakeage, mind. They're tiny and plentiful flakes, giving that area of my skin an overall rough texture. Sunburn-type flakes would have been more favourable as it makes the peeling part a lot more enjoyable (uh, not that I ever had sunburn... *looks shifty*). I'm honestly enjoying not having to go through the whole topicals rigmarole every morning and evening now. It makes getting ready for bed so much quicker.

Also, areas where I only had minor problems have magically become perfect now: my forehead's mostly silky smooth, as is my back. Even my long-accepted and highly attractive bum pimples have disappeared. Pedro's a lucky man.

Sweet mother of mercy, it's 2:30am and I am about to pass away (yes, 'away') from tiredness. I'm usually a right little trooper, so I may be able to blame this on accutane.

Argh. My mouth corner be very sore. Hope not herpes. Argh. Heels dry as Nevada. Mother right. Need nail file thing for it. Argh. Hello sleep. Touch me.

[hina79]

Hi jezika, enjoy reading your blog, you are very funny
I guess we have to find the humor in our situation because at the end of it all, people have more serious problems than oily face and acne...
Your acne is very similar to mine and I also have very oily skin on the face though I don't break out anywhere else. I never visited the doc for my acne until I was about 25 because my parents always told me that acne is a normal thing when you are young and you would grow out of it. My dad also had acne and grew out of it by 21-22. However I just turned 30 and I am really puzzled as to why I am still stuck with it. My brother also had acne but he also grew out of it by around 22. I am taking antibiotics currently and it is keeping it under control. If the antibiotics stop working, I guess I will have no choice but to go on accutane...
Anyway I wish you all the best in the accutane journey, hope you don't get any of the possible nasty side effects. BTW do you think your acne is genetic or hormonal? Have you tried any of the hormonal methods like BCP etc.? My acne is similar to yours but it is not hormonal. That is the acne is in no way related to my period, my periods are always regular etc. How about you?

[Jezika]

BTW do you think your acne is genetic or hormonal? Have you tried any of the hormonal methods like BCP etc.? My acne is similar to yours but it is not hormonal. That is the acne is in no way related to my period, my periods are always regular etc. How about you?

Ah, thanks for reading my log. You know, I don't know for sure what my acne is a result of. I'd never heard of hormone tests till I started reading other people's posts on here. I do suspect mine is hormonal, however, because I recall it kind of improving when I was on the BCP Dianette back in the UK. I developed terrible migraines, though, that were not unlike mini strokes, so the doctors say I can no longer take the combined pill (risk of getting actual stroke). Unfortunately I don't think the mini pill is much good for acne. And antibiotics, well, if they did kind of work, my skin just exploded as soon as I stopped taking them, but in any case, I didn't want to be on antibiotics indefinitely and I didn't want my acne just to be kept at bay. As for periods etc, they were mostly regular when I spent several years without taking BCPs. And geneticswise, nobody I know of in my family has been afflicted with this. Meh. Good for them. So do you think you may seriously consider accutane? Do you think the improvements you've seen in your skin with antibiotics will last once you come off them? I've always wondered whether that works for some people. I suppose it must.

[Jezika]

DAY 20

You know when bizarrely forthcoming and confident people invade our 'proximity bubble' and talk to us from about five inches away, prompting us to do that soul-tearingly awkward thing of looking down and tilting our heads away? Well, I just realised how stupid we are. Not only do we-- Okay, I'll stop dragging you lot into this. Ahem. Not only do I then present the proximity bubble invader with a nice, fresh canvas of blemishes to closely inspect (the entire side of my face), but the person, to my alarm, then also has the perfect opportunity to actually go ahead and study each of my [many] imperfections while my gaze is blatantly falling elsewhere. Silly, silly me. What a novice. Well, it's going to be tougher than bouncing an egg off the highway, but from now on I must learn to maintain proper eye contact. Usually I'm good at that, you see, with normal people who speak to me from normal distances, but this sadly does not apply to those people who must have had the most peculiar upbringing to think that it's polite and acceptable to talk to another person at saliva-exchanging distance, especially when they've just met that person. No, from now on I will maintain alarmingly intense eye contact and not give those cheeky ferrets a chance to let their glance roam around my face.

Anyway, I'm intent on going to bed at a fairly reasonable time tonight, and it's already not reasonable, so I will just give you a quick update in the unlikely event that somebody out there is dyyying to hear it.

I think the dryness on my lips has caused a cut in one corner of my mouth. Hello, pain. Apparently cutting that part of someone's mouth with a sharp paper edge is a fairly popular form of torture. It certainly felt like torture. For days. The problem is that I kind of need my mouth to talk and nourish, so it keeps being reopened. My mum gave me a peculiarly tiny pot of Sudafed and promised that, just like my childhood grazes and wounds from having fought with my brother, the little beaut will be healed overnight with just a smidgen of the magic stuff. After only a few hours, it already feels better. I actually read about Sudafed helping acne lesions a number of times, so I think I might give it a try on some of the larger, more grotesque beasts that I find nestling on my cheek.

That is all. I'm doing well. My mum thinks my face looks better. You know what? When my face is smooth, I may very well start flicking my hair, wearing heels all the time and being generally annoying.

Edited by Jezika, 23 February 2010 - 11:32 AM.

[Napa_Valley_Kallie]

DAY 20

My mum gave me a peculiarly tiny pot of Sudafed and promised that, just like my childhood grazes and wounds from having fought with my brother, the little beaut will be healed overnight with just a smidgen of the magic stuff. After only a few hours, it already feels better. I actually read about Sudafed helping acne lesions a number of times, so I think I might give it a try on some of the larger, more grotesque beasts that I find nestling on my cheek.

Hey Jezika,

Thanks for stopping by my log. My dose was increased last Tuesday as well. I've been less oily/slightly dry since then. And I love, love, love not having to follow a rigorous skincare regimen. Last night I noticed that the corners of my mouth were hurting. I've been applying Aquaphor religiously but didn't have any with me for a few hours on Saturday. I fear that cracked corners are in my future. I'm curious about this Sudafed treatment you speak of. Which kind of Sudafed do you use? Oh, and thanks for keeping such an entertaining log.

Edited by Napa_Valley_Kallie, 26 October 2009 - 01:25 PM.

[janem]

Foundation Dependency:

I'm almost done accutane (month 5) and I can totally relate to your foundation dilemma. The more you wear, the worse it gets, so the more you wear...you get it. Well, luckily accutane has cleared my face enough that I don't need it anymore. I did notice that even on accutane, when I broke down and patted a little on my forehead for a wedding last month (Claiborne hypo-allergenic) I still got 2 teeny-tiny bumps from of my transgression. I did find ONE foundation that seems to actually not peeve off my skin. Dr. Hauschka makes a really amazing concealer and powder - it's lighter coverage so it won't really cover the bad stuff, but it's perfect for after TANE has started doing it's thing and you just need a little somehting to even out the skin tones.

Hope this helps!

[AhMyFace]

Oh, close talkers... Truly they are the nemesis of acne sufferers everywhere. But I like your style. Tell us how it goes.

And Sudafed, eh? Well well. Wouldn't have thought of that.

[Jezika]

DAY 22

Last night, I went a little mad.

I came home from work after having had a mediocre day and thought I'd sort some bills out. If I do say so myself, I'm actually very good with finances, but utterly terrible with organisation. Organisation of all sorts, really, but especially the variety that involves paperwork and the requirement not to lose it. It's so difficult. It's like giving a dog an ant and asking it to look after it and keep track of it at all times. Anyway, so naturally when the time comes to sort my finances, my inclination to do it promptly and diligently collides with my tendency to misplace/be confused by the very bits of paper that enable me to sort it promptly and diligently. At best, it's a stressful half hour of potential rare headaches, and at worst a multi-vehicle car crash of horrific proportions. But it's never been like it was last night.

I'll spare you further boring details, but in essence the main catalyst for my outburst (crying, shouting, screaming, contemplating living in one of those currency-free communities where you have to wear a head scarf and refuse medicine) was noticing a VERY cheeky charge on my credit cards (of which I inexplicably have two due to a certain bank representative's incompetence) that I identified as being some sort of payment protector premium. Thankfully, I'm not yet at the stage where this alone would be responsible for an outburst: it was in fact Pedro coming home and chastising me for letting it happen in the first place, and banging on about how our finances are set up in the most complex of ways, that riled me up even more. But the thing that sent me over the edge completely, I mean really over the edge, was adding up two sets of numbers in Excel using my calculator, and getting vastly different totals each time. Yes, I am aware that Excel can easily be used to add these kinds of things up for you, but I thought it would be quicker to just use the calculator that was at hand. And then when I still hadn't gotten a repeat of a single previous total after the first five attempts, of course I had to keep trying until I got it right (you know, through principal). Well, in hindsight, that was definitely one of my errors of the evening, as it ended with me bawling like an affronted toddler and still not getting the calculation right.

Anyway, could this dramatic turn of events be linked to accutane? Well, I'd like to say it's probable, but I can't deny that I have been known to... uh... occasionally be reduced to tears and anger for very superficial reasons. I reasoned that I'd sort this payment protection malarkey out the very next day (today), by canceling it. Well, let me tell you, these insurance people's tenacity can only be admired, but unfortunately for them, none of their elaborate sob stories about dead husbands and thousands of dollars worth of unpaid credit card bills could make me change my mind about canceling.

I'm pretty much the same on the side effects front, although I have been feeling a bit delicate around the ol' knees and back in the morning. I have to brace myself when bending over to pick up things that seem to have been victims of gravity far too frequently for it to be a coincidence.

I did experience chunks of lethargy over the weekend, too, which resulted in me going shopping with my mum, only to end up remaining in the car for a sly nap while she did the actual shopping.

I bought a new lip balm in place of that SPF-ridden monstrosity. It's by J.R. Watkins, a new brand, I believe. It claims to be 100% natural and smells of delicious raspberries. It seems to have done the trick rather well, I must say, as I've needed less applications than with the Blistex.

I also bought some eye drops after having spent what felt like 47 weeks scrutinizing all the different brands on the shelf. I settled on one by Alcon that is apparently recommended by eye people. Turns out it soothes my eye for nearly three whole minutes before I start feeling uncomfortable again. Also, I've discovered that dropping stuff in my eye is the least natural, most irritating sensation I've experienced to date. I'm almost frightened of it.

Somewhat relatedly, a friend told me to check out this website, which apparently has a whole group of clever scientific people behind it that test out lots and lots of different cosmetics and skincare products in order to be able to tell you how natural each one is and whether it can be hazardous to health. They have a hazard rating system and you can easily search for most well known products. I was delighted to note that at least three products that I use have been flagged for potential cancer-causing ingredients. Happy days.

Anyway, I hope you kids are staying safe and smiling in mirrors and all that crazy shite.

Edited by Jezika, 27 October 2009 - 09:09 PM.

[Jezika]

DAY 25

Day 25, eh? Wow, time does fly by.

Nothing particularly new on the side effects front. I woke up this morning for the first time without a very tender mouth-corner. It was nice. A few days ago I woke up with a sore throat and thought "What?! Again?!", but then I kind of hacked up a whole tonne of near-solid mucous that was tinted red, and after that my sore throat magically disappeared. That was nice. I think it was just an alternative exit for an unconscious nosebleed, so I'm not worried. It came not from my lungs, ye knoweth, thus thee hath no worrieth. Or something like that.

Actually, I do occasionally have brief headaches of about a few seconds where it's just a pang of concentrated pain in a random area. I very rarely get headaches, so it's quite a peculiar sensation to feel something inside my brain. Which reminds me of an article I recently read (Brain Magazine). Apparently in 1903 archaeologists found a series of human skulls in South Africa that were something like 33% larger than normal human skulls, which had all sorts of implications that challenged what we believe about our own evolution. Because of this, it was kind of forgotten about. With modern science, they've recently (or maybe not so recently: I don't know) calculated that these skulls' owners must have been a lot, lot cleverer than humans today, and possibly saw things around them with much more depth and had greater emotional intelligence. Anyway, then the article discussed why they would've died out bla bla bla and left the reader with a chilling mention that one skull was found amongst ordinary human remains on a settlement, but separate from the rest in an almost regal shrine-type-thingy. Ooh la la. Oh, and apparently they all looked like aliens. Boskops, they're called. True story, true story.

Anyhow, so some fantastic news is that I've discovered there are two types of parabens in my accutane pills. Interestingly, there's none in the 10mg version. I also discovered no less than three punctuation errors in the helpful accutane guide that my derm gave me, which appears to have been written with 10 year olds in mind.

Even more fantastic news is that after spending 1.5 hours in the most expensive Halloween shop in Canada, I settled on being a mime artist for tomorrow's apparently necessary festivities. Here's the fantastic part: a hat, some white gloves and a flimsy white plastic mask still cost me $59. Outrageous. To add insult to injury, the mask is pretty much redundant anyway because it seems to have been designed for ladies with beautiful, narrow, ovular faces, not Eastern European jawlines seemingly fashioned from great hunks of beef, like mine. Much like the infamous 'side boob' or 'muffin top', the edges of my cheeks stick out like meaty jowls. To be honest, it felt like I was suffocating in that mask even without it actually suffocating my wide, jowly face, so it probably would've been a no-go anyway. Which leaves me with face paint. Yes, face paint. With acne. The bastard mask was meant to help avoid such a ghastly scenario, but I see no other choice. So now I'm left wondering where I can get "healthy" face paint from and whether to put foundation on below it. And what about blusher? I wear blusher every day, but I can't really wear blusher underneath face paint. Then again nor do I want to wear the blusher beforehand and then redo my whole makeup in the evening because of it. See what I mean? Acne causes such logistical nightmares.

Grarrr. That is all. I think I'm going to drop in on some other logs and then contemplate those Boskops again.

Happy Halloween for tomorrow, peopleings.

[Jezika]

DAY 27

Arrrrrrrrrgh. I feel like I drank a litre of vodka last night. Except I didn't. I did have a shot or two with some cranberry juice, soda and a dash of lime, however, but that was only because my friend made it for me, forgetting about my meds. I easily cave under peer pressure. I had my costume ready and everything, our friends were round and we were eating lots of nibbles whilst watching Paranormal Activity in my candlelit living room (didn't rate the film, by the way), and then out of the blue came a ferocious headache. Well, not ferocious, as such, but definitely persistent. Then I started feeling really hot. Everyone else would've been cold with the balcony door open, so I ended up standing outside to cool down. It didn't feel like feverish hotness, just... hotness, like the kind I imagine I'll get at the magical time of menopause. And my eyes felt really tired even though I'd slept plenty. Anyway, I ended up not going out with everyone else because I felt so rough. I wasn't really disappointed (apart from about having missed someone dressed as Larry David). I was much more relieved to be in bed. I did get freaked out by the clocks going back though. Pedro called me unnecessarily at 2am (or 1am?) to say they were heading back and watching a movie at our friend's place, do I want to go round there ("Pedro, I was asleep. I only answered the phone because I thought you might be in trouble. I am not about to crawl out of bed, put clothes and makeup on just to go out and watch another movie. Plus you brought my headache back. Thanks. If you dare wake me up when you come home, you'll find yourself homeless."), and a little while later he came home having watched the movie, which totally perplexed me because according to the time on my iphone, he'd watched an entire movie in three minutes. Mind you, even with the clocks changing, what movie is so short? Apparently it had zombies. I'm not sure if that makes a difference.

Anyway, I had about 11 hours' sleep and I am still knackered, so excuse my lacklustre effort. I think accutane may well be responsible for the headache and the tiredness. Vodka certainly never does that to me.

Also, I have no less than three pus-filled cysts in the very same spot on my cheek. It's like an almost-to-scale replica of Vesuvius. And the annoying thing is that I am scared to play with it too much ("Fetch!") in case in scars badly on my cheeks. I don't know the proper names for the different types of acne spots, but I also have one lower down on the same cheek that's painful and bulbous. It doesn't look like it has a poppable head, but I would not be surprised if it threw that in there for good measure in the next day or two. Other than these, I'm quite happy with my face. My forehead is getting smoother every day, in fact to the point where it's quite relaxing to stroke it absent mindedly. Another smooth patch has emerged on my well behaved cheek. The area of smoothness seems to be getting larger every day, and although it has lots of red marks on it, to the touch it feels like skin I've never actually previously owned.

Just looked in the mirror, and to my joy, the skin near my lips is peeling. It's fun to peel it, but with just one layer of moisteriser in the mornings, the texture's really not helping my foundation look very natural, plus my other mouth corner cracked yesterday. Oh well, I keep trooping on. It's 6:13pm and I think I'm going to have a nap (in addition to my 11 hours' sleep earlier).

Hope everyone's okay. Zzzzzzzz.

[kimminz]

You are funny, lol. You remind me of my one time friend, same writing style and everything. I think you two would like each other.

Sorry to hear about the cracked lips and stuff but as usual, my answer to that is "it will get better". Doesn't it hurt to kiss Pedro though? Just wondering *shrug shoulders*.

I didn't check the site you posted because I'm here doing last minute school work. Will take a look later. Re: Non pharmaceutical rigmaroll you mentioned, I love that as well. Wash face, dry, slap on moisturizer. Takes about what, three minutes? If so much. Wonderful. We should start getting used to this

About putting in the eye drops and being frightened, so am I. It just feels weird. I know there is no pain involved but it's still unnerving. I also have the small headaches which I'm now trying to figure out the starting date of, i.e before or after accutane. Can't remember. I never even thought about it until reading this. Up to today in church I had one in the back of my head which I never ever get. It lasted only a couple seconds but I remember wondering what the heck it was all about.

Oh, congratulate yourself for introducing me to two new words: malarky and bulbous. Bulb I knew, would have never thought to use the word bulbous, lol. Never even seen/heard malarky.

Okaaaaaaaaay I think that's the end of my reply. I had to write down my points on paper as I read your different posts so that I wouldn't forget anything in the end. Is that weird? Lol. Keep entertaining us and letting us know what's going on.

[Surf4JC]

Hey,
I just wanted to let you know that you crack me up. I really like the way you write about the horrors of living with acne in a humorous way. I can really relate with a lot of the stuff you're saying...like being in a conversation and not meeting that person's eyes, when you know they're looking at your acne either way, whether you look at them or not. I've been known to scan out the lighting so that my zits won't create a nasty monstrous looking shadow. haha. The whole makeup thing is so true too. I don't know how I got so dependent on it, but I'm pretty sure it's just made it worse. Oh, and the whole thing about planning out your whole day because of your acne is so true too. Sucks huh.
Anyways, I wish you the best! I think our program and stuff is pretty similar. I'm 5'8" and 140 lbs. I'm on 80 mg every other day, and 40 mg every other day. I'll be checking in again soon!

[Jezika]

DAY 28

Just a quickie for the purpose of putting up some photos, although I will say that my left cheek appears to have improved to an almost unbelievable extent seemingly overnight.

The pictures on the right and second right are from less than a week ago, and other three are from tonight. Tell me if I'm just imagining things, but when I looked in the mirror tonight, seeing my left cheek clearer than it's been in a long time was almost tear-worthy.

At some point I will do some magic thing where I put week 1 photos next to the current week's. I need to catch up with Paul Daniels before I can do that though.

Enjoy.

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Edited by Jezika, 02 November 2009 - 11:31 PM.

[Jezika]

DAY 29

Sweet mother of mercy, I've just got back from the gym and feel like I've been dragged for miles by a speeding truck. My stomach hurts. My heart thinks it's at Ministry of Sound. I have sweat all over me, which, by the way, seems to feel strangely pure, like it's just innocent dribbles of water and nothing more (not greasy and foul). Wow, I must have done a lot of exercise, you must be thinking, but that's unfortunately far from true. The machine alleges that I burnt 150 calories. I have no idea whether that's good or bad.

What I do know, however, is that if I'd gone on the running machine with Pedro, I'd have literally died. Died not just because my blood pressure increases even in anticipation of a mere gentle jog, but also because situated between myself and Pedro would have been this marathonwear-clad girl who was giving it utter beans, and would have caused early rigor mortis to set into my poor, feeble muscles just by putting on display the horrifically monstrous gap between our levels of fitness. Oh, but I watched her. How I watched her. From the safe and distant perch of my spinning machine, of course. I noted that she glanced over at Pedro's run stats roughly every ten seconds. They weren't even sly, careful glances. They were blatant, prolonged glances, as if to say, "Think you can outrun me, boy? Outrun THIS." I found it peculiar, but then I remembered what my friend had told me about gym competition. She regularly has "battles" with other runners on the machines. Feck. That. Anyway, luckily Pedro's a very good runner and regularly finishes in top positions in all sorts of organized runs.

Ooh, Pedro just got back from the gym (I gave up early). He ran 10km in 39 minutes. He's a hero beyond my capabilities.

I do apologise, as this isn't a diary about my fitness regime after all, but I guess what I am trying to explore is whether accutane might be affecting my exertion threshold. I'll be honest: I've never had anything near an abundance of stamina when it came to exercise, and luckily I've also never felt the need to, but I usually don't feel quite so at the mercy of death afterwards.

Now, before I order a Swiss Chalet, I'll leave you with the declaration that I wish for the three to four beasts on my right cheek to promptly vacate. They've developed hard shells now and are sitting on me like miniature tortoises, so I guess it's not too much to expect them to drop off in the next day or two. The thing is, I'm covering reception at the company I work at for three weeks starting this Thursday, and the last thing I need is for colleagues to start addressing me in the plural. Other than this, el face-o is shaping up quite nicely.

*Sigh*

Love to you all, pretties.

P.S. My actual job couldn't be further from a receptionist. I'm doing this as a favour for my uncle, who is one of the heads of the company and got me my actual job in the first place. I know what you're thinking, and to that I say: meh, a little nepotism never hurt anyone.

[AhMyFace]

Haha! Nice entry. I have been gym bitch before... (she said as she ate cookies). Doing yoga steadily has finally (after a couple years) started to get me in the habit of only focusing in my own body. But for a while, in both yoga and kickboxing (my two primary forms of exercse), I'd be way too concerned with other people in the room. In kickboxing, I'd place bets with myself on who I could probably take and who would easily launch me across the room.

I am jealous of your progress! Mine seems to be getting worse while I wait almost in anticipation of the IB. Urg.

[Jezika]

DAY 33

I just put lip balm up my nose.

Also, I did a stupid thing today.

I had my bloodwork this morning so I had to get up quite early. I was a little annoyed because there was barely any food in the house to take my accutane pill with. In the end I was forced to settle on a small baked sweet potato with butter and cheese (yes, for breakfast), you know, to aid with the absorption and everything. Not a conventional choice, but I was quietly pleased with my innovation. So off I went to the lab. If you've already discovered what's wrong with this story, give yourself a gold star.

Just as I was about to enter the building where the lab is, I remembered that I was supposed to fast. Now, this was only ever mentioned to me at my very first derm appointment back in April, and it was sheer luck that I actually remembered for my first blood test. Of course, this requirement was scrawled on the form given to me by my derm, but he never reminded me about it, nor have I ever been asked at the lab beforehand. Not that I'm trying to shirk the blame in any way, which is why I unleashed a series of audible expletives on the street as soon as I remembered. It's tough, though, when it's early in the morning, you're tired as sin and it's ingrained in your mind that you MUST take your pill at such-and-such time twice every day with fatty food.

I nevertheless went in, waited two hours (busy lab) and had my blood drawn.

*Sigh*

Well, I had it done because I really and truly have very little opportunity to have my blood drawn again, nor do I think it's feasible to ask my extremely busy derm to write me a new form even if I did have time. Every lab's opening hours in the city I live in are joining forces with my unavoidably ghastly schedule over the next month to make sure there is no chance I can get a second blood test any time soon. I guess I'm kind of hoping that my derm will be "down with game" when I see him in a month and overlook my likely raised cholesterol levels etc once he knows I did not fast. When I saw him in April, he told me I could take the blood test there and then if I wanted to, despite having munched a Pop Tart only three hours prior. He told me that Pop Tarts aren't real food anyway so it didn't matter. I suppose the worst that can happen is he cuts off my accutane supply... then sets me on fire and throws me out the window, although I think the latter is fairly unlikely. He's quite a reasonable, charismatic guy, actually.

Does anyone know what I should do? I feel really bad, like I've bought a child a wooden rocking horse that turns out to be a metaphor.

I'm scared.

And also tired, so I will leave talking inexhaustibly about my eventful week till tomorrow or so.

Edited by Jezika, 08 November 2009 - 01:32 AM.

[arwena]

Hey, don't worry too much. Yоur results might turn out to be a little higher than usual (especially the triglycerides), but it still might not be dangerously high, especially if your previous results were ok and your diet is healthy enough, which I am sure is the case. You can always tell your derm that you didn't fast and if he is a reasonable guy (btw, mine is also a reasonable, charismatic guy ), as you say, he'll know better than to put you off Accutane. I've done my lab work 2 times so far (with fasting) and everything was way below the upper limits (my dose was 0.7mg/kg for 2 months), so I think even without fasting it should be alright.

[arwena]

And also, I can see a lot of improvement in your pics! Everything seems to be flattening out, only the red marks left, and an odd tiny whitehead here and there. My right cheek has always been worse than the left, as well.

[giety87]

Ya I agree with arwena. As long as your derm isn't a dummie (which I assume he's not as he is a doctor) he will be able to figure out that your elevated lipid panel results are from eating before your blood was drawn. And if he can't figure this out, you could easily tell him.

Within two months, it is not likely that your lipids would elevate so much that it's dangerous. Meaning, if your lab work is essentially useless this month, it really isn't that harmful to your health and he can make sure that you're still going to survive Accutane with your results next month. Or you could always go back next week or the week after to get labs done and fax them to your derm or whatever.

Don't fret, it will work out. And since you say he's a reasonable, charismatic guy, I'm sure he will do what he can to make your treatment successful. Including deal with this little glitch in the system known as a sweet potato.