Today I thought I'd share a little bit about my dermatologist visit I had right before I left Baltimore. I have always had ridiculously oily skin. It's always been fairly sensitive and acne-prone too. Unless I had a TON going on, I never got really ridiculous breakouts, but they were always a constant for me.
Around November, I got off the birth control I had been taking since I was 15. Not for any particular reason, just because it happened, and at the time it wasn't important. I originally got on the birth control for period issues, and as I'm not having those issues anymore, I decided it wasn't a necessity to get back on the birth control right away.
My skin completely freaked out. I was having massive breakouts even with the least stress I've had in a while. At the beginning of the year I was put on my Mom's insurance, so I decided to take advantage of it and go see a dermatologist.
I talked to the doctor about what I was experiencing. We talked about what kinds of acne I suffered from (cystic, whiteheads, blackheads, pustules, etc.) and what sort of things I'd tried in the past. I know I'm fairly young, but I'm not 16 anymore, and now that I'm in a more professional setting work-wise, I'd really like to be able to put my best face forward. When the doctor asked if I wanted to hit it hard, I agreed.
So now I'm on two oral medications and two topical ones.
The two topical ones are Aczone:
And Tazorac:
The Aczone is a twice daily medication, and the Tazorac is a nightly medication. Unfortunately, these dry my skin out so much that I can't use them as often as I'm supposed to. I'm trying to work up to using the Aczone twice a day, but for now I'm only using it as night. The Tazorac ends up being once every 2-3 days or when I remember.
As for oral medication, I'm on an antibiotic (which causes issues of itself long term) and aldactone.
I'm coming up on a month of treatment, but I haven't seen any major improvements. The doctor in Baltimore said it could take up to two months, so I'll wait until the end of April and reassess then.
In the mean time, I need to invest in an excellent moisturizer so that my face doesn't fall off!
Understandable! I used Shea Moisture lotion for my face to keep it hydrated. I like Shea Moisture because it comes in 3 or 4 types of lotions and smells great but also isn't greasy feeling. :)
ReplyDeleteI hope that they skin care continues to work for you!