Follow up Friday (Week 4)

Well, my follow up Friday is a day late, sorry!  I had a migraine yesterday and just couldn't bare to walk up the stairs to get my laptop and stare at a screen for 15 minutes.

I went to Las Vegas last weekend.  I can't believe it's already been a week since we were there.  I slept very little, drank very much, and ate whatever the hell I wanted!  I've kept up the eating thing this week : /  I came back sick, and when I'm sick, all I want is comfort, and bad food does that for me!  I have no shame in it, haha.  I start my good eating and working out again on Monday.

My makeup in Vegas was AMAZING.  The dry air kept it in place for a long time!  I stayed up all night and all day from Friday to Saturday night.  I used the same makeup I put on at 5pm Friday, went to a concert, a club, gambled, then went t a pool party the next day and didn't take it off until 5pm the next day and it looked perfect!  Granted, I know I should have washed my face just for cleanliness purposes, but I didn't have the time or patience (or soberness) to do so!  I did this a few times where I normally would have put on fresh make up after doing something into going to do something else, and I didn't have to!

I had my 1 month appointment on Tuesday.  She said I won't start to see any improvements probably until months 3 and 4.  I'm OK with that.  I read that that was what to expect from the get go, and the weeks seem to be flying by anyway.  She noted my 1 cyst and a few pimples and hyper pigmentation from old cysts and said that's normal to still have this as of right now.  I told her my only side effects were the dry skin and chapped lips.  I didn't mention the back aches, mainly b/c I think I'm thinking to much about it.  My back always ached prior to this, I don't really know if it's changed, I'm being a hypochondriac.

I did my blood work Wednesday morning.  I went to a different diagnostic place b/c I couldn't get into the regular place early enough.  I DID NOT like this place.  They were way less organized and the girl who took my blood was not pleasant and a little rough.

They called me yesterday to tell me my pregnancy test was negative, my triglycerides are a little high still but they've called in my prescription.  I'm still staying on the 30 mg, I guess b/c of the triglycerides.  I will be starting a low fat, low carb diet on Monday.  Grocery shopping is on the to do list for today!

So as for any updates, my face is not oily WHAT.SO.EVER!  I used to wake up and be an oil slick.  I'd wash my face and it was oily and my makeup shiny in 20 minutes.  Now I don't even need to wash my face in the morning.  I still do though.  I have had 1 new white head pop up, the same cyst is still annoying me, but nothing new.  Nothing has really gone down any more than from last week.  No changes in my week 4 pictures, but none the less, here they are!

 This is what I consider my "bad side".  It seems to have taken on the worst of my break outs.  That bottom guy is still so painful!  It sprung a small leak a few days ago, but nothing has changed with it unfortunately.

 All of the chin and near the mouth stuff is old, and mostly just coloring.  Up on my cheek is that new white head.  It has popped and is already going down.

 My crooked nose!  Most of the chin is small bumps that have never come to a head, but aren't cysts either.

Straight on is where I think it looks the best, even though this angle makes my head look like a potato!  haha

And just to show you that I'm not a crooked nose potato headed troll, here are some of my pretty pictures from Vegas!  ha! I'm in the yellow skirt.

Follow up Friday-Week 3!

Hey ya'll!  As of today, I am 3 weeks in to my Accutane journey.  I have been very dry this past week.  Lips are quite chapped and I'm flaky on my chin and in between my brows.  The pimples that have popped up on my chin since starting do seem to be going away quicker than what they used to, except that damn blister of a zit that I've had forever!  I wish that thing would get a weak spot, a little piece of skin, SOMETHING that I could work with to make it leak a little!

My nose has also started doing something weird over the past week.  It's like whatever is in my pores is being pushed out.  My pores were looking bigger, and then this morning it almost looks like teeny tiny little hairs are sprouting.  I tried to take a picture but you couldn't tell.  I scrubbed it in the shower and now its gone anyway.

I mentioned in my last post that I was going to get waxed, and I randomly thought to google waxing and accutane and dummy me you can't wax while on it!  Glad I didn't just go and do it!

Anyway, here are my week 3 pictures.  No real changes.

 This one by my mouth was the one that kept me from going earlier to get waxed.  It's pretty much flat now, just a little flaky.  More red than anything

 There's that sucker on my chin that hurts like a mother f'er.  It looks and has the smooth feeling of a blister.  The cheek looks worse than it is in my opinion.  It's pretty flat unless you press on it and you can feel it underneath.

 The chin as a whole.  Also up under my nose I got a couple of white heads that came up and have since popped and gone down.  Those ones on the nose really hurt before you can actually see them!

And straight on.  

I'm headed to Vegas in the morning!  Lot's of sun, booze, bad food, tons of makeup and little sleep.  That should do well for my skin!  The dry weather itself is probably going to make me shrivel up and maybe have nosebleeds (happened my first time there, now with this medication, I bet it will happen again!)  

My next doctors appointment is this Tuesday the 19th to put me on the 60 mg.  I'll prob do my blood work that day too.  I bet its going to say the same thing with my cholesterol b/c I will have been eating bad and boozing it up!  BUT, after this weekend, its lean meats and boring food and no booze for quite a while.  No more ketogenic diet for me.

Follow-up Friday!

One week down of the 30 mg dosage.  I'll have 3 more weeks of this before it doubles.  So here is how the last week has been!

As I said in the previous post, my skin started drying out almost immediately.  It hasn't gotten to bad, but the first couple of days putting make up looked kinda gross.  It all rubbed off and now it doesn't look so dry.  I've been moisturizing my face every time I take my make up.

On Tuesday I had really bad nausea.  I have no idea if this had anything to do with the medication, something I ate or didn't eat, or a combination of the two, but I woke up earlier than normal because of it.  While getting ready for work I had to keep sitting down by I felt so ick.  I ate my regular breakfast and went to work.  I stayed at work for a couple hours and came home.  After I ate some lunch and took a nap, I felt perfectly fine!

My lips finally started getting that dry, crackiness everyone talks about on Wednesday.  I've just been using my regular Chapstick that I have, not medicated stuff, and it seems to be helping.  If it gets worse, I'll look into getting some of the more recommended stuff that I've read about like Aquaphor and Cerave (spelling?)

My body doesn't seem to be drying out anywhere except my face which is nice.  I do feel kind of itchy on my legs and arms like it is drying out, but it doesn't look like it.  I've been lotioning up the bod too tho so it should help!

I wish I didn't know what some of the side effects are because now I'm like "is this from my meds or am I imagining it or has it always been like this?!"  For instance my doctor said I could have muscle aches and soreness as well as joint stiffness.  Well, I've been working out really hard and I'm sore, but am I EXTRA sore b/c of the meds or have I just pushed myself harder?  I also have always popped my hips and most of my joints.  They seem to not be popping as easily, is it the meds or just my head!  I also feel a little extra PMSy.  It's not my time to be PMSing, so is the Accutane affecting my moods?!  I'm sure its in my head!

THE PURGE.  I'm sure everyone who has stumbled across this has read a million other acne and accutane websites.  And everyone has read that pretty much everyone in their first few months breaks out worse before it gets better.  In this first week, my chin has exploded and it is painful!  I'm glad they haven't popped up other places that I normally don't break out and it has stayed on my chin, but it doesn't look good!  Also, some of the ones that I had that were seeming to go down, have gotten more painful to the touch.  Anyone else experience that?

Here are my Week 1 pictures:

My next topic of discussion will be diet and acne, coming up early next week!  I've read so much stuff and it has me so confused!