Acne Relief

Posts Tagged ‘life’

It’s 5:15 am and I find myself pounding on this keyboard because I can’t get the thought of fighting acne out of my head. I don’t know why but it is there. That notion that my life has been spent, no not spent. My life has been dedicated to a condition that at times seems to consume my very being. It is sometimes a gig that requires 24 hours a day 7 days a week 365 day a year, that for the most part I have under control. But still it’s a fight that can be exhausting at times. I know what a beast this thing has been and usually don’t let it get me to the mental point that it has gotten to tonight. But as I work through my thoughts, I am realizing what is really bothering me. It’s a realization that for some time now I haven’t had an exit strategy for my war. I’ve been fighting acne for so long that it has become a skin condition that I no longer see as defeating but as one that I keep under control and maintained. I’ve gotten complacent with winning battles. Comfortable with the troops maintaining an advantage and haven’t gone for the kill. And that’s what’s got me up. That realization!

My fight with acne is a war and I need to regroup and have the general’s marshal up a troop surge so I can win this thing once and for all. I don’t want to be complacent and learn to live with acne, no matter how successful I have been. I need to rededicate myself to being rid of this cancer. Have it out of my body completely and accept nothing less than a total victory, which can only be accomplished by getting rid of my acne forever with its total annihilation. No more fighting acne. The solution is curing acne, finding that lotion, potion or pill that will wipe my acne seed from the face of the earth. Why aim for anything less? That will just assure the continuation of the condition. And I am no longer just fighting to fight, I’m fighting to win.

Hello, and welcome to my blog.  If you are here then obviously you have heard about Fraxel laser treatment for acne scarring and you’re contemplating having it done on yourself.  I am too.

I have suffered from acne for almost half my life and I’m still suffering from it now.  I’m a woman in my early thirties and I just want it to stop.  It was embarrassing to go through it in my teens and it’s embarrassing now.  At least when you were a kid, everyone knows it is because of hormonal changes.  As an adult suffering from acne, you’d think the acne flare ups would have stopped by now.  Unfortunately, it doesn’t and women are more susceptible to adult acne than men.  It’s due to our periods, pregnancy, and all sorts of stresses that can put our hormones out of whack.

I’ve always had mild to moderate acne and my family doctor never thought much of it and always gave me topical acne treatment.  I always told her that I wanted a referral to a dermatologist but she just said they would just prescribe me the same thing.  Now years later, and acne scarring to go with it, I wish I’d been more forceful as this could have saved my face from scarring.

I have a new family doctor now and a cosmetic dermatologist and we’re going to see what we can do.  Like I said, I still suffer from acne so Fraxel laser treatment won’t be right for me right now.  I need to keep it under control first.  For the first time in my life, there is some sort of hope.  I’m on a new cleansing treatment and the relief alone of my face from not having to endure harsh washings helped it immensely.  I have oily skin and I’d wash it three times a day.  I don’t think it is excessive – once in the morning, once when I come home from work and once before I go to bed.  Before, my acne skin care regiment would be that I’d use Cetaphil which is pretty much recommended by everybody and natural acne remedies such as a natural gel with astringent and cooling herbs containing green tea extract.  Well, this just aggravated my face and my dermatologist told me to stop.  I’m on Spectrogel and the first time I used it on my face I felt instant relief.  It wasn’t harsh on my face at all.  My topical acne treatments now include Metrogel gel at night and Clindasol cream in the morning with SPF.    If you’re familiar with rosacea treatments you might be familiar with Metrogel as it is used to treat it.  Now, why would my dermatologist recommend it for my acne?  It seems that I have something called red acne that comes with flushing/stressed/easily embarrassed which is also common with rosacea.   Unfortunately, this hasn’t cleared up my acne totally to begin Fraxel laser treatment but it has helped.  I still have these tiny bumps on my right jaw line and it’s driving me insane.  It’s the only place I always flair up.  I might get some on my chin as well but I think this has to do maybe with clothes,  pillows, or blankets coming in contact with these areas so I always watch where I put my hands or how I sleep.  I’ve also changed from Pantene shampoo to Head and Shoulders because the zinc might help with the acne as well.  Although I don’t want to take any oral medication, I am at a point where I am going to try anything so my dermatologist has me on a six week course of minocycline as well.  I’m pretty small in size so for the first week, I took 100 mg of minocycline and now I’m on 50 mg a day which I take with supper.   I go back to see my dermatologist in six weeks to see if there is any progress in order to even contemplate having Fraxel done to improve my acne scarring.  If I don’t get my acne under control, there would really be no point in getting it done.  By the way, after what I read on the internet and also speaking to the dermatologist, she said that the Fraxel might even aggravate acne at first so you really want to get your acne under control with medication before any acne scar removal procedure can take place.

In any case, we’ll see if the minocycline helps me.  I don’t want to be on it forever because one of the side effects are teeth staining.  I mean, what next?  I don’t want to have acne and bad teeth.  It would just compound the problem.  Minocycline also makes you sensitive to the sun so make sure you wear sunscreen.  Again, you don’t want to compound your acne problem with sun damage either.

There are so many issues when trying to deal with acne that I just want it to go away.  Hopefully, one of these days it will be all over and I will wake up with a face clear of acne scars.  I’m hopeful that my journey in getting ready for my Fraxel laser treatment will be worth it.

Teenagers across the world as well as many adults want to know how to get rid of zits. Regardless of your age, race, or sex, everyone at some point in their life has a few battles with blemished skin. Sometimes the best solution for this problem are the home remedies that people have been using for years, but other times you may need a little medication to completely rid your face of those dreaded zit outbreaks.

Before you start picking at your face or buying expensive medications, it is very important to know what zits are. Zits, as you may already know, are a slang term given to pimples. Each pore on your face is constantly producing an oily substance called sebum that protects and lubricates the skin. The problem is that these pores get clogged with skin cells that have been shed and remain on the face. Now that the pore is clogged, it becomes a breeding ground for bacteria that is trapped in the pore. This is why zits form and the surrounding area becomes red and puffy. Now that you know where they come from, let’s talk about how to get rid of zits.

There are home remedies for getting rid of bruises and getting rid of dark circles under your eyes, so it’s only natural that they have a home remedy for zits. One treatment is the use of toothpaste on the affected area. Basically you would apply a small dab before you go to bed at night and then wash it off in the morning. The toothpaste works like a sponge and completely dries out the affected area and dislodges any oil that may be stuck in the pore. This is great for those that have the occasional pimple pop and would like to get rid of it as soon as possible.

Another home remedy for zits is to dab fresh lemon juice on the area where you have pimples. Again you would do this before you go to bed and then wash off in the morning with warm water. You may need to repeat this process for a few days, but it will most certainly clear up your face. So now if someone asks you how to get rid of zits, you can share one of these helpful home remedies with them and quite possibly make their little pimple problem a little bit easier to manage.

Now that you know how to get rid of zits you don’t have to stress out over them which could make your face more oily and create more problems for you. Simply try one of the techniques above…if this doesn’t work, you may need a pimple medication or natural treatment, both of which can read more about on this site.