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[dollyapples]

Day 25

[color=#000000] I sort of had a bad day today. We've been having some pretty gloomy weather these past few days. Gloomy meaning gray skies, rain, cold and damp weather. Well, today was a beautiful day. The sun is shining finally. The skis are a real pretty blue, it's warmer and the trees are beginning to show that Spring is here! All these beautiful red and yellow buds blooming from the tree branches. Well, I figured it's Sunday morning, maybe I'll go to this peaceful little church at a nearby college and just enjoy my time spent there and take a walk through the beautiful campus. Well, that's what I was going to do.... until I got to the campus' parking lot. I guess I cut my turn too sharp, and I ran over the curb puncturing my tire and damaging my hub cap/ rim. So, I had to call my dad, hear him b**** and yell. I called AAA in tears just because of a dumb flat tire. I'm already super emotional now. Anything negative really gets me down. I've been such a cry baby this past month. I think some of it is this medicine, but the majority of it is just me in general. I would be an emotional girl without it as well. Acne is just mood depressing.

Ok, le me get to my acne dilemma. So far, my actual skin is fine. All I have really is one or two active zits. I just have a lot of red marks. I hate red marks. Arg.
I haven't washed my hair since Friday. My hair looks fine, like I just washed it today. But my scalp is really dry. I have so much dandruff. I never have dandruff. This embarrasses me. I used Head and Shoulders but I guess I need to use it more than just once to see good results. I'm almost afraid to wash my hair every other day in fear of shedding more hair. I think people tend to shed hair more frequently while on this drug because the hair strands become really dry, causing breakage more likely to occur. My hair always used to be so silky. I used to get comments on how silky and soft my hair felt. Now it feels like straw. I hope it goes back to the same silkiness my hair once felt post 'tane.

But other than that, my skin is fine. I can't wait until I've graduated from Accutane and I can do a chemical peel or microdermabrasions again! That procedure is really great!

Oh, tomorrow is my derm appointment. My first Accutane check-up. These are the things I'm wondering:

1) How did my bloodwork turn out?
2) Is she going to know I haven't been taking my birth control pills and that I haven't refilled my bc prescription? In that case, I certainly hope she doesn't!
3) Is she going to up my doseage? and by how much? I hope she does and then again, I hope she doesn't. I'm scared if she does because of the increase of possible side effects and I'm worried if she doesn't because I'm afraid my acne won't go away. Weirdness.
4) Is she going to prescribe me Amnesteem again or will she prescribe me Accutane? wonder why she prescribes me the generic version. I hear it's the same thing then I hear the actual brand name is stronger and more potent. Hey, I want to get rid of this skin plague for good.

Well, I'll write in and report how tomorrow went. Toodles!

[TennesseeGrl]

-I have red marks too... and I hate them, especially today!
-My hair feels like straw as well, when it used to be so silky and shiny... and it is especially bad to have dry hair when it is curly!
-I am a crybaby too... but only since on Accutane.

-I don't have any actives either.

Hooray for accutane, take the bad with the good and look forward to clear skin! Keep your chin up, girl!

[trenem]

I hear you on redmarks, mine for some reason have really been more noticeable. THey are very very shallow scars, so I hope there is something that I can do about that. We'll see, I will still be happy with clear skin, Even if I have a few redmarks I have to cover up when I am not tan. Good luck with your progress.

[dollyapples]

Miss Tennessee Well hello girly!
Thanks for stopping by! Your progress is amazing! and that tan... super pretty! I want to try and get a mystic tan as well. I'm afraid it's going to break me out. I guess I'm going to do a trial and error thingy. My hair actually feels and looks nicer today! I think it's because I've used Head and Shoulders twice. It has extra moisture for dry hair and scalp plus it's Ph balanced... so we can use it everyday if we want to. Yay!
Thanks for your words of advice and I think you'd make the greatest moderator! Keep your chin up as well.... everyone wants to see that pretty face of yours! I wish you loads of success and happiness and the clearest of skin!

Trenem... Hello! Nice to hear from ya! Thanks for stopping by as well! Red marks are terrible! arg! But as long as our skin keeps clearing, our red marks will fade and we won't have to worry about newbies anymore! Horray for that. *claps* There are several things you can do for red marks which I'm sure you already know about.
1) Microdermabrasion- I'd wait at least 6 months to do this. My derm tells me to wait 3 months but I'm waiting longer. I actually had this done to my face about 5 times and I loved it! I really loved it. It made my face look polished and smooth. It also made my face feel like I had a baby's bottom. It made my overall complexion look great to the point I had several people ask me what I did to my skin because it looked so nice. The only problems were: I kept getting new breakouts so I found it pointless. It's like making a sandcastle in the sand and having the waves come on shore just to keep wiping it out. Plus, it's a bit pricey. Everytime I went to the derm for this procedure it put me back $125. So, post tane, you're skin will look amazing and more amazing after microdermabrasion!
2) Chemical peel- I've never done it but I know people that have and loved it! I'm going to do this as well!
3) Fenetia- I'm not sure on the spelling but it's a prescription cream that my derm will prescribe to me once I'm off the tane. Plus, my cousin took it for his scars and it works great!
I wish you loads of success and happiness along with beautiful skin! Keep in touch!

Ok, onto my facial epidermis progress!!

Day 28

The past couple of days have been ok. One thing I have noticed, that I just love love loveee is the fact that my skin doesn't look like the oil fields in Saudi Arabia anymore! Yay yay yay yay!!! Yesterday, I applied make-up at 10 am... I applied my MAC studio fix foundation (I've been trying actual liquid make-up again to switch off), some concealer on my spots and loose powder. I know, a lot of make-up... I hope I can one day venture out without make-up and feel pretty. Well, usually by an hour afterwards, I'd look greasy, like I needed to blot or put blotting powder on. Guess what?! Nopers! Nopers nopers! Super great! My face stayed in a matte condition the entire day. I felt super content with this. I felt as if I could go out at 10:00 at night, with my 10:00 am make-up and feel fine. I was just super delighted. I'm afraid to get excited about this just because I really look on myself as a jinx, so *knock on wood* Pretty please dear God, please never have my body go back to the ways that made me feel so insecure.

Besides my persistent acne problems, the excessive oiliness put a major damper in my self esteem. Acne and super greasiness= not a good combo and self esteem booster. So, about that, I'm happy.

Pimple patrol-

I have several, about 3 or 4 active pimples. *sigh* They're little things, under the skin. Maybe they're cysts, maybe they're not, but they hurt a bit. One of them is a white head. I have one right under my chin area. I hope they go away. I've also been notcing these timy flesh colored bumps. I mean, they're really tiny, like the size of a small dot. I read about this on the acne boards but I never paid too much attention to it because I didn't experience them. Hmmm... I wonder what this is? I hope they go away!! eek!

Hair-
My hair looks super today! yay yay yay! I've had great hair days yesterday and today. It doesn't feel so much like straw today. I hope it stays that way too! My hair always felt so silky and shiny, looked that way as well and for a while now it's been feeling like straw. But, I've been using Head and Shoulders shampoo for my dry scalp. For the past week, I've been having terrible dandruff problems and I think this shampoo has really helped me out with that.

So... if anyone is reading this and has a dry, itchy and dandruffy scalp, use Head and Shoulders. It's Ph balanced for everyday use. I think it also adds moisture to my hair strands so it doesn't feel so straw like.

Lips
My lips are fine. As long as I keep applying vaseline to them, several times a day, they're fine. But if I go sometime without applying moisture to them, they tend to shrivel up, as if I've been in salt water all day long! or like how feet and fingers look when they're immersed into water for a long period of time. The redness around my mouth area has decreased too, so no more Kool-Aid punch looking mouth. Yay!

In conclusion, everything is going ok. The only thing that is bothering me is that I just want to start seeing some major improvement soon! As in my skin not getting anymore breakouts and my red marks fading! That would be *sweet!*


[size=3]Oh!!!!


My derm appointment on Monday! I forgot to mention that!

Well, my derm is going to keep me on 40 mg's for the remainder of my course. I asked her if she was going to increase me but she said "no," thinking my body wouldn't be able to handle the side effects. I'm only around 100 lbs. so I hope 40 mg's will kill my acne problem. She also said she may put me on a 7th month course, she's not sure yet. She told me she's afraid that if she gave me a stronger doseage, I would experience straong side effects, not be able to deal with them and want to stop. So, low and steady is the way I'm going. I wanted to ask her why she puts me on the generic version of Accutane and not the actual brand name itself. I want to go on Accutane instead of Amnesteem but I forgot. Snaps. Oh well, next time! Buh byes peoples. God bless and best of luck to you all!!!

[TennesseeGrl]

Sad, I just wrote you a big reply and it went away

Here goes #2!

Miss Tennessee Well hello girly!
Thanks for stopping by! Your progress is amazing! and that tan... super pretty! I want to try and get a mystic tan as well. I'm afraid it's going to break me out. I guess I'm going to do a trial and error thingy. My hair actually feels and looks nicer today! I think it's because I've used Head and Shoulders twice. It has extra moisture for dry hair and scalp plus it's Ph balanced... so we can use it everyday if we want to. Yay!
Thanks for your words of advice and I think you'd make the greatest moderator! Keep your chin up as well.... everyone wants to see that pretty face of yours! I wish you loads of success and happiness and the clearest of skin!

Aww, you are so sweet! I am going to try the H&S cause I really want my shiny hair back! And about the mystic, go for it! It has made me feel loads better about myself in general.. .I am just so happy! And I don't show any signs of breaking out. The stuff is pretty nice! Yay Mystic tan + accutane!

if I go sometime without applying moisture to them, they tend to shrivel up, as if I've been in salt water all day long

ME TOO! I hate it ! Gross peely lips! But we are smart and take our chapstick everywhere, right??

Take care! I am glad your actives are on the out.. so clear is on the way in! Hooray for clear skin! Happy Hump Day!

[dollyapples]

Miss Tennessee Thanks for your post. You're such a sweetheart! Your skin is looking wonderful, beautiful, splendid darling! I'm happy this drug is your wonder drug! Muahs.

[TennesseeGrl]

Where have you been? I've MISSED you! How are things going with your skin?!

[Alexe]

where is the happy end? are u taking roaccutane? dolly u are so funny and sweet