It has been an incredibly long time since I posted on here, and for that I am sorry. I have been dealing with some health problems for the past several months, but they seem to be getting under control now.
One of those health problems has been my acne. Now, I have suffered from acne since I was about 11 years old fairly consistently. For most of the time I have had it, it has been mild to moderate. However, the past year has brought on a whole round of severe flare ups! Over my more than a decade long acquaintance with this skin condition, I have tried everything from drugstore brands, Proactiv, topical prescriptions, and even oral antibiotics like Doxycycline.
Nothing has worked.
So my dermatologist and I decided it was finally time for me to try Isotretinoin, better known as Accutane.
As a dancer, a good part of my job revolves around how I look, and my breakouts have really started to affect my confidence levels. I would look in the mirror, and all I would see would be the red scars left behind by old breakouts and the new flare ups that just wouldn't seem to stop. My skin would itch and flake from the topical solutions, and be painful where new pimples were coming in. I would try to wear makeup to cover it up, but since I sweat for a living, this was usually a futile attempt at masking the problem.
Isotretinoin is an extremely harsh drug that is processes through the liver, and basically shuts down sebum production in the body. Excessive dryness and joint pain are common side effects. For female patients, we are required to jump through extra hoops to prevent pregnancy while on this drug, for it can cause severe birth defects.
As you can tell, this is not a decision I have taken lightly. I mean, do you think I would sign up for more joint pain when I already put enough stress on my joints as it is? Not unless I felt I had exhausted all of my options!
I'm going to try to keep an updated blog of my Accutane journey, talking about my side effects, products I'm using, etc. During the month leading up to my start of Accutane, I found these sort of videos and blog posts to be extremely helpful in educating me about this drug and how to deal with it. I just hope that I can help people in the same way that others helped me.
My skin has always been something I have been ashamed of. When your skin is as bad as mine, you start thinking that everyone is judging you for it, thinking that you don't take care of your skin properly. The truth is there are environmental, hormonal, and genetic factors that are beyond our control. Acne shouldn't be something to be ashamed about. I'm hoping that by talking about it, it will help people with a similar condition to mine realize that IT ISN'T YOUR FAULT YOUR SKIN IS THIS WAY. You are beautiful, and you haven't done anything wrong. The only reason to deal with this skin condition should be personal discomfort, not what other people think about you. The reason I am doing this has everything to do with the fact that my face is constantly in a state of pain, itchiness, or some other form of discomfort.
Sorry if this has been a bit of a ramble. Hopefully I will get back into the swing of this whole blogging thing again.
These photos I am posting are hard for me to look at, so please be kind.
Fly high, little birds!
xxx
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