Acne.org Products
DAY ONE
So acne, we meet again. It was a lovely two years without you. Unfortunately you, like some psychotic stalker who has recently been granted parol, are back lurking in my house without my consent. And by house, I mean face. Mainly forehead.
Here's the lowdown: I took a round of accutane for five months back in 2010. Kept me clear until about six months ago. Mind you, my acne is no where near as terrible as it was the last time around, but it's still there. I mean, I'm twenty-two. I should have outgrown this shit years ago. It's time for it to go. For good.
For the past month or so, I've been using AHA cream (the one on this website here) on my forehead bumps and beside-my-mouth bumps. I honestly can't tell if it's doing a thing. At first I thought that maaaaaybe my forehead was purging out all the little bumpity bumps, but now I'm not sure. Hypothetically, if these bumps turn into full-blown zits and then go away, surely there should be LESS bumps on my forehead now, right? Well, it looks like the same amount are still there.
Anyways, last night after a nice picking-session where my skin looked decidedly worse than before I started, I made the decision to go back to the doctor. I called the clinic this morning and got in with the same-day doctor. He said that it's probable my acne is being caused by an internal issue and booked an appointment for me to see my family doctor next week. Apparently my family doctor has skin training (there is no such thing even close to a dermatologist in my town) although I find it ironic that she is supposedly the best doctor to see for your skin, because I clearly remember being throughly disappointed to the point of wanting to cry when I was done with our little appointments for my acne when I was younger. I even recall one time when I was asking her for a good sunscreen for my face and she literally went on google to see. I wanted to yell at her THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT I'VE BEEN DOING FOR THE PAST WEEK!!! Maybe this time, with me being older, I will be... bolder. Heh! I doubt it.
For the time being, the day doctor... no wait, I think I should first mention that this doc has not one, but TWO crossed eyes. It makes it very awkward for me, who is already an awkward person, to make eye contact with him. At first, I just told myself to look in the eye that is CLEARLY not crossed, but then when I looked at him dead on, to my dismay, neither of his eyes looked at me. One goes in, and the other kind of lazes out. He must know of this dilemma, because the whole time he talked to me, he just looked straight ahead at nothing. Perhaps this is his way of getting past people frantically darting between his two lazy eyes, panicking when they couldn't decide which one was actually looking at them.
Where was I? Oh right. So the day doctor with the cross-eyes put me on minocycline for the time being. I honestly have no hopes for this little antibiotic, since I've been on both tetracycline and minocycline and neither worked for long periods of time, but who knows? Maybe it will help promptly vacate the spots on my forehead. But I doubt it.
He also says there is a possibility that I will have to go on a second round of accutane. For now, I'm just trying to figure out a schedule to take this antibiotic with, as you are supposed to take it on an empty stomach, but I have a problem with food, as in I'm always consuming it, so therefore my stomach is never empty.
(I also find it hilarious that there is an option where I could share this with facebook. I'm just picturing what people that I know well enough to befriend, but not well enough to want to talk to in real life, would think if they suddenly saw this link appear in their newsfeed. My dirty little acne.org secret will be out for everyone to know.)
DAY TWO
Mmm... I woke up with a terrible headache. Or rather, I woke up at five thirty with a terrible headache and didn't fall back asleep (not because of the headache, just because my body generally seems to hate me.) I took one minocycline pill at eleven at night, and then took one at four thirty this morning. Now, I know I probably shouldn't be taking them this close together, but I still need to figure out a schedule for this. I just don't have a lifestyle cut out for antibiotics. What was I talking about? Oh right, my headache. I don't know if this is caused by the antibiotic or not, sometimes I just wake up with headaches if there's a low-pressure system. Depending on whether or not this headache lingers around, I may skip taking minocycline tonight and Saturday because I don't want to feel terrible all weekend dammit! That's alcohol's job already!
This morning, my skin is actually looking alright. My dreadful forehead bumps are lying flat and some scabs are flaking off, so there are no longer so many bright red spots. However, I'm not getting my hopes up, as it seems as my skin is going through it's two-week cycle of, Hey, it's finally the weekend! Cheers here's some decent skin for Friday! Don't worry, we'll be back to looking like shit by Monday!
Comedy genius, not sure if it's the pills or not, the greatest rappers and poets always did put out their best work when they were bidging on meds and alcohol.
Back to the point, when I discovered that my acne was from internal causes, one thing I started consuming daily besides half of my province's daily supply of water, was a tomato and an apple in the morning.
The Internet told me tomatoes counter sebum production, and my grandma told me apple a day keeps the doctor away - both solid scientific sources. A week-2 later, my acne was a lot more controlled, almost no more little whiteheads, and a lot less cystic crap too.
I never tried meds, they're last resorts for chronic conditions, otherwise I think we ingest enough Cool Aid that they put in our foods today.
@CrazyInternetMan: I do eat apples pretty much every day. As for tomatoes... hmm, well, I eat them on a regular basis? But I guess I'll look into that tomato-sebum thing
Well, apart from having a terrible headache the day I began taking mino, I had the strangest urge to burst into tears later on that night. It was for no apparent reason. I was sitting there, watching TV, about to go and make dinner, when I had the inexplicable urge to just sob. And it wasn't like a I'm-so-overwhemingly-happy-that-I'm-about-to-go-and-make-BLT's-and-eat-BACON! tears of sheer happiness, it was that, I'm-so-depressed-what-am-I-doing-with-my-life-OH-GOD-WHO-AM-I?! sort of cry. Luckily I was able to keep my emotions in check and not start crying like a newborn baby fresh out of the womb and scar the other occupants of the room. I don't know if this was from the mino or the fact that I barely got any sleep the night before, although lack of sleep has never led me to uncontrollable fits of wallowing depression-induced tears before. So I have aborted the minocycline for the time being. I'm seeing the doctor in two days, so I'll hopefully know then more about what's up. I just wish I waited a bit and didn't fill the prescription for the minocycline because that's just money down the drain (sad face, ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!) But what are you gonna do?
I went camping all weekend and only washed my face Friday night, then on Sunday night when I got back. My skin was definetly improving over the weekend. I think it's because when I'm away, I don't have time to sit in a well-lit bathroom and scrutinize my face, then decide to pop one itty bitty blackhead, and then another, and then another, and then, hey that whitish lump looks like it might have something in it, and then, oh it didn't but maybe THIS lump does! and so forth. I do have a picking problem (it's just so hard to admit!!!!!) so from now on I'm going to try and stop. I'm still going to pop a zit when it comes to a big, fat pustulating whitehead, but that's it.
Yo acne can make you feel depressed sometimes like you just want to punch the mirror thinking why me, but then you remember that if you break the mirror you get 7 years bad luck so that's no good. Me I dont' really go through those phases anymore, but hwen I used to I'd just think how other people in the world have it worse than me and I sucked it up. Not saying you're a crybaby since you can't help feeling that because it just sucks having cysts and shit while your clean faced friends gorge themselves in mayonaise and McDonalds and never exercise, but for me thinking how I could be worse off made me feel better.
For the overzealous popping of stuff I still have that, but I realize that after doing it my face looks even worse than it would have if I left everything alone, especially for really deep, painful cysts. Like instead of walking around with maybe 2-3 red marks on my face I'll walk around with 7-8 from breaking stuff that was gonna go by itself maybe. So I made a rule, I always leave everything alone unless it's about to burst or something, and it generally works out. For really deep stuff especially, better to let it get pushed out by the skin then break it after a warm shower, than to forcefully come out and then maybe get an infection and have to break it again like once or twice and also get a huge red spot on your face for like a week as if you got punched by the smallest fist in the world on several places on your face.
Sorry this all sounds really gross but it's my experience.
@CrazyInternetMan: Hah, no worries. It's not gross at all. We're all in the same boat here. I've managed not to pick at any of my zits except for the ones that are about to burst forth with pus
So, I have abandoned my minocycline log, seeing as I am no longer taking it. My new log is in my signature. Sorry mino, but antibiotics and I were just never meant to be.