Accutane - Start of Month 2

So I have officially been on Accutane for one whole month. Today starts my second pack of pills. Yay! One month down, four to go. I hate to say it, but my skin has broken out more this passed week :( It was looking so good a week ago and I thought I would just go straight into clear skin. Not so. I had quite a few zits this week. Mostly around my mouth area. My cheeks and forehead remained clear though. But I have noticed that there may be a lot of zits, but they're small and go away quickly. So I don't have to stare at them for days on end, which is nice. No new side effects really. I've read on some message board that people get some eczema in small patches in odd areas. I think this is beginning to happen to me on my elbow. The skin feels bumpy and there looks to be some red bumps. Probably not noticeable to a random person, but I can feel it. That's the least of my concerns though. My lips seemed to get worse, but better in recent days. The sides of my lips cracked and have hurt like hell. The only relief I have gotten is using Clinique's All About Lips treatment. It has made them not throb like they have been. It's a white paste that dries clear. It has helped tremendously. I got a sample at Sephora and am going to buy some. I also have been using Eucerin Aquaphor. It's been good for constant reapplication, but it doesn't really help with the pain. I also got two samples of Clinique's Super Moisture lotion and Super Moisture Intense. They're okay so far. The Intense one smells bad for some reason. But I can't see them working any better than the Ponds dry skin cream I've been using at night. So there's not much new this week! That's good and bad lol. Hopefully I'll be clearer next week!

Old Navy Sample and Share

My friend Candice and I got the great opportunity to participate in an Old Navy Sample and Share! It was so exciting! We got to try on lots of different Old Navy clothes and put together awesome outfits, but we specifically based everything around Old Navy Sweaters. We tried all different kinds like cardigans, cable knit sweaters and v-neck sweaters. Such a fun time we had! Here are all of our looks that we came up with!

Thanks Old Navy!

Accutane - Week 4

More good news to report for Week 4! My skin is continuing to look fabulous. I've even less breakouts this week. I've gotten a few small ones just as of yesterday or so, but they're tiny and I don't worry about them. Those kind tend to dry up and disappear in a few days instead of lingering like they used to. Anyway, my face is still red. It looks like I have a slight sunburn. It's more noticeable when I put makeup on because I'll look really white in some areas and red in others :( I'm still dry, but nothing too horrendous yet. The same with my mouth. I've been feverishly searching Pinterest for homemade beauty ideas for my skin and hair. I'm excited to try them out! I'll blog about that after I see how it does. I went back to the dermatologist yesterday and heard good things and got questions answered! I had a list for her since it's all so new still. I should limit my alcohol intact severely, which is what I assumed since this drug effects your liver. So it seems as though I'm going to have to say no more often since more alcohol has shown up lately :/ My craziness skin texture is normal and it's just Accutane pushing everything to the surface. We discussed my dry skin and how much I loved it. She said I should stay fairly dry once I'm done with the medicine completely, which is exciting! She also said since my face hasn't really exploded yet, it probably won't, WHICH IS GREAT!!!! So maybe I won't have to hide from every body like I thought I would be doing. She said month 3 is a turning point for a lot of people though for some reason so we'll see then. I've noticed this past week that my blackheads have shown up a lot more and I have more of them which sucks. My pores were fairly small before and now I see more dark spots around my nose and cheek area. She said the Accutane should be pushing all of that out, so that's exciting to know they should go away. On a sad note, when I mentioned that I wasn't horribly dry, she said it would probably get worse which sucks. I'll deal with it when it comes! Anyway, I've decided to use a night cream because what I've been using is good, but my skin isn't dewy at all. It's like it absorbs my Olay moisturizer and would drink a lot more if I put it on my face. I've also put on a Neutrogena SPF 35 moisturizer on top of it for sun protection. So with 2 moisturizers and no dewy skin, I decided that's great for day time so I'm not shiny, but not for night. So I used my mom's Ponds dry skin cream and it made me dewy and stayed that way. So I lathered it on last night and it had been absorbed this morning which is good. So that's a plus! I assume my blood work was fine as well because I did all of my stuff so I could get my new pack of medicine, so hopefully the doctor won't call with any bad news. OH and on a GREAT note, she mentioned the rectal bleeding could be because your entire body goes dry, including mucus and things like that. So I was probably just dry down there, because I have had no more problems whatsoever. My nose also isn't peeling off because I'm not sick any more. She also said I could take an antibiotic while on Accutane, depending on what it is. So, I could've gone to the doctor 2 weeks ago so my green snot could've gone away. Oh well. You live and learn. Until next week!

Accutane - Week 3

So I am very happy to say that week 3 seems to be better so far! I wouldn't have said that this past weekend, but today, I'd say so! My week was good. The crazy bumps and orange textured skin is still around, but I didn't think it would really go away until I'm off of the medicine completely. I usually break out mostly around my chin, nose and mouth. Well, I got a little scared that I was going to have a terrible IB (initial breakout) period because all of these semi-huge white bumps started coming up around my mouth area. I just knew my face was going to explode sooner or later. Well, I got some more zits, one big one, but none of them came from those large bumps which is funny. I have had a lot of people tell me that your skin is different and your zits are different. That's truly the best way to describe them even though that's not very detailed or specific when I know I wanted every detail possible when I was searching for answers. But, I haven't gotten any zits in the areas that were always clear (forehead). I have gotten a few zits around my chin and mouth like always, but they are small with white heads, but the white heads never fully develop like before. Then the zits don't hurt and they dry up very quickly. I had a few that were noticeable this past weekend like I said and I wanted to hide from people, but my friends kept telling me I was insane and insane for being on Accutane anyway. I've noticed everything looks much better today though for some reason. My friend told me the upper part of my face looks like baby's skin which was great to hear! I do admit, not being oily is fabulous. I'm loving it. I was so used to being a grease pit. If my hands were ever dry, I'd just dab my face and use the oil from it. My hands were dry no more. Gross, I know, but reality. Now, I'm dry all of the time and have no excess oil to wipe away. Therefore, my skin looks great since it's not so freakin shiny all day! I'm not used to being matte all of the time! It's also nice to have clean hair after a day of not washing! I could get used to this! That kind of happened all at once too. I noticed it one day. I woke up and wondered why my hair was so clean looking. Some more side effects this week have included: dry scalp and face (duh), nose bleeds and dry nose, possible yeast infection (AGAIN!), headaches. Now, I have a sinus infection and I'm not sure how much that has effected my Accutane symptoms. But I do know that I've blown my nose about 100 times and it's super dry on the inside and out, so I know that symptom is enhanced. I also had bloody boogers and dry nose before I was sick. But today I had a little bit of a nose bleed. I'm on my period too so that has been an issue with knowing about an oncoming yeast infection. And I have a very low tolerance for caffeine, and I had some today, and on top of being sick, I'm not sure how that's effecting my headaches. I haven't been moody yet though and most importantly, I haven't seen any blood when going to the bathroom number 2. That's a huge praise. I pray that it wasn't anything to begin with and that I am fine. That's about all of the craziness I can think about right now. Hopefully the craziness will stay away from me. I've been praying for it too! Let's hope I'll have more good news next week! I also head to the dermatologist for my first month of blood work. I pray that goes well for sure!

Accutane - Week 2

Well, I don't have much good news to report for week 2, because I wasn't taking Accutane this passed week. I had some small, but somewhat serious side effects. I think I bled a little from my colon. Just a little pink, but I'm not sure and got a little scared. The doctor said to stop taking it for a week. The side effects had stopped the day she told me that but I followed orders any way. So, today, they told me I could restart it. If any side effects happened, I had to stop taking it all together which would really suck. But I'm optimistic! Oh, I also got a yeast infection from taking it :( I'm not sure if it was just from Accutane, because it could have been a number of factors, but I'm assuming that's it. That's surely gonna suck if I get them a lot while being on this medicine. Anyway, referring to my post last week about the skin texture issue, I did do some research. From what I know, and what my doctor told me, I believe the Accutane is pushing every thing to the surface, which is what it's supposed to do apparently. So that's normal. But after being off of it for a week, my skin's texture has returned to normal, so that's good to know for when I'm finally off of Accutane for good (and hopefully acne free!). So, now I know not to freak out so much when stuff happens. Plus, I go to the doctor in 2 weeks anyway, so I'm glad I'll have 2 weeks under my belt to see how it does and I can get a doctor's report and hopefully my blood work will come back good. But, I will say, my pimples are different even after being on it for one week. I've gotten a few large ones on my chin like I normally do, and they have white heads, but they're very small white heads and never developed like they did before. They actually never fully came up and the zits just stayed big and red which is odd. They've never done that and I didn't put any thing on them either. So who knows. I hope my face doesn't explode soon like I keep thinking it's going to :/

Accutane - Week 1

So yes, I have started Accutane for my skin. I know it's not that terrible like most people who go on the medicine, but nothing has seemed to help my skin after 2 years. So I bit the bullet and decided to take it. So hopefully after 5 months, I won't have to worry about acne any more for the rest of my life or super slippery, oily skin! I have decided to document my journey here week by week. Week 1 has been very uneventful. I have been waiting for side effects to start happening. No mood swings, no depression, not even dry skin, yet. So today, I have seen a change. My face is oily yet dry. My lips are slowly becoming drier. My face has hurt today, it's been sore. It feels like a bad zit is forming under the skin essentially, but there were no zits earlier today. I actually seem to have clearer skin. Not just my face, but my back and chest as well. But a very scary thing I noticed earlier this evening was the texture of my skin on my face. It has become bumpy and not smooth whatsoever, when it was before. I assume it's my oil glands? I can feel it when I run my fingers over the surface. I hope that goes away and doesn't mean I'm going to have an unreal acne explosion since my face is essentially clear right now. I'm going to research the skin texture issue. My nose is also starting to dry out. It's cracking in the bottom nostril area and I'm getting more bloody boogers like when I go visit out west since it's so dry. It's going to get painful. I'm going to invest in saline solution! I'm also combating any sort of bodily dry skin with baby oil. I don't have any dry skin yet, but I'm sure it's coming, so I figured I'd get a jump on it, especially since we're having a cold snap this week and lots of wind from Hurricane Sandy! Anyway, the baby oil is fabulous and cheap. I love it. I may continue to use it after my Accutane journey is over. I'll be back in a week with a new report!

Oh yeah, I have a blog.

So I always seem to forget that I have a blog. Oh yeah, here it is, unwritten in/on? since 2010. A year and a half. I didn't even finish writing about my Backstreet Boys cruise, which was like the highlight of my entire life. I'm a slacker. A blob. A ridiculous blogger. Do I even get that title? Anyway, I thought I would bring it back for a while, or until I forget again haha. So I have decided since watching Joe Cross' "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead", that I am going to attempt a 10 day juice fast. If Joe can do 60 days, surely I can do 10. My goodness. If you haven't seen this documentary, I HIGHLY recommend it. It was incredible. He healed himself of his sickness just by eating vegetables and fruits. It makes a lot of sense when you think about it - God made it, it comes from the earth, it's good for you. Once man gets ahold of food, it turns into doo, full of pesticides, hormones, etc. Keep it healthy. Anyway, I'm going to attempt it and hope I can do it. The main reason (other than weight loss) that I want to try this is for my skin! One of the women in the documentary that Joe convinces to try the juice fast, her skin looked unreal at day 10! Her skin wasn't bad before whatsoever, but it just glowed, it looked magnificent. I'm hoping this can help just clear up my skin. I'd love to not take my antibiotic or put any crap on my face but moisturizer and sunscreen. That would be amazing. So we'll see. Anyway, I have decided to blog about my experience, day by day. Hopefully it'll help me stay distracted from not being able to eat whole food. It'll keep me occupied as well! I'm so excited! Most people have lost an obscene amount of weight. Joe Cross lost 80-90 pounds in 2 months! That's unreal! I don't want to lose that much obviously or that quickly, but 15-20 would be great. I'm going to see how the 10 days go and adjust accordingly. You obviously can't eat immediately after the 10 days or you'll gain all of your weight back. Slowly add back some whole veggies and fruits. Then other things too. Hopefully my stomach will be so small, I can barely hold anything haha. I'm excited. When I did my fruit flush a few years ago, it was only 3 days, but I lost 6.5 lbs and kept it off. I just cut out processed food most of the time. That seems to be what most of America needs to do. Any way, I'm gonna document my journey on here just to remember it all!