Acne. Blemish. Zits. Bumps. Boo-Boos. Pimples. Done!
- I am done. I am OVER having Acne. But before I can tell you about how I am getting rid of my acne forever (hopefully), I have to tell you about how I got to my decision to do something drastic to change this particular trait of mine. This is MY Journey.
I am just now 22, so I don't have a horridly long story, but Acne is something that I have been dealing with for quite some time. When I began middle school I started noticing little bumps that would come up, and having bangs, most of them resided around the forehead area due to the excess oil there.
This acne, was normal. It was what everyone would expect from a 12-13 year old little girl whose body was trying to blossom into being a woman.
I talked to my Momma, and she being an Avon Representative at the time ordered me Avon's Acne system. It WORKED AWESOME! (If you have a teen going through Acne right now, I would highly suggest it as a beginning step).
My skin cleared up, and was the perfect complexion for a long time. I even remember my pediatrician asking me what I was doing for my skin to be so glowing.
But then came High School, and the acne would get worse, and then it would go away. I tried countless products that helped alleviate the periodic breakouts. Acne became something that I got used to. I became aware that acne breakouts were going to be a part of life, typically seeing a reoccurring pattern around my "rag week" each month.
I tried Mary-Kay's line Velocity which now has been replaced with Clear Proof. I tried that line too, and they both broke me out. I tried Pro-Active which broke me out, and dried me out. I settled for over the counter medications, cleansers and lotions with acne medicines in it to treat the pimples that would pop up from time to time.
"When I went to college...my real problems started."
When I went to college however, is when my real problems started. I became truly STRESSED for the first time in my life, where I was at one point trying to balance Nursing School, planning a wedding for July, all the while taking care of my Momma who had suffered a stroke during my freshman year of college (April 2015).
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| April 10th, 2015- Morning of Surgery- before stroke. |
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| About a month later while Momma was in Pineville. |
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| Mom with Josh at Pineville. |
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| Praise the Lord! She was able to walk again, and come home to marry me off! |
My FACE DID NOT LIKE STRESS. It didn't take kindly to it at all. I felt like a monster with huge, bulging, bumps on my face that HURT, and were really red. I had friends in my classes ask me what I had done to my face. I had children at church ask me why I had "Boo-Boos" on my face. It all took a toll on my self-esteem, and caused me more harm than I can possibly put into words. All emotional daggers thrown at my heart.
I immediately went to the dermatologist when this big flare up happened. I had a wedding in 3 months, and I didn't have time for Acne. Not this crap. This was unlike anything I had ever had before. These were craters, quarter sized rocks under my skin. I could pinch them but nothing would ever come out.. He explained to me that I had Nodular Acne, commonly seen in adults who like me, had bodies that did not tolerate stress well.
"I had a wedding in 3 months, and I didn't have time for Acne."
We decided on a regimen, which at the time seemed the most appropriate. I wanted a quick fix so I could enjoy my engagement, and plan my wedding the way I wanted. I also was in the process of getting my mother out of physical rehabilitation, where she had been after her stroke earlier in the year.
We opted for an antibiotic, being that I was an abstinent virgin up until my wedding. Because of this, there was no need for me to worry about the effect that antibiotics have on birth control pills. I still continued taking birth control to get into the habit of taking them every day. I took both pills, and watched as almost immediately my face cleared up. It was magical.
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| Early July 2015, my Bridal makeup trial. Makeup by Summer Whitfield. |
Only, like in Cinderella, the clock struck midnight and I had to stop taking the antibiotics a week before my wedding. My face remained clear for the wedding, and honeymoon, but when we came home, within 2 months my face had regressed into forming the nodules again.
I'VE TRIED EVERYTHING. Avon, Mary-Kay, Pro-Active, Neutrogena, Noxzema, Clean & Clear, all the washes that they advertise on television, Dove Soap, Dial Soap, Ivory Soap, Pond's, Purity, I tried a Clarisonic brush, the list could go on and on. If people told me about it within the last almost three years, I've tried it. And as much as I appreciate the concern, no remedy that you have will fix my acne. That's what my dermatologist has told me. It's not anything I have done, no cleanser, food or product will fix this that I can buy at Walmart. This is going to require big guns.
So, that is where my skin has been up until this point for the last two, almost three years. I have dealt with painful, raised, nodules under my chin and cheeks. I have also dealt with the red, inflamed, and pustule filled "regular" acne that comes and goes just as in teenagers. All thanks to hormones, genetics, and the stresses of life that have been hurled my way lately.
I don't like it, and I'm finished with Acne, and that is why I've decided to take Accutane, or aka Isotretinoin.
Follow my journey, and see with me how this medication, (Which I firmly believe the Lord allowed some pretty smart doctors/scientists to develop) completely changes my life for the better in the next Five months!
Until next time,
Jenna Lou the "Little House Lady"
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| Photography: Mandy Marburger |
