VIP at the Jet (located in the Mirage). I owned that pole. But that'll be our secret, okay?
Sunday, April 24, 2011
What happens in Vegas...
gets blogged about. I went to Vegas last week for 3 days with work. We went for a dental conference, which sounds lame but it was actually quite interesting. I'd never been to Vegas so I was excited. We managed to fit a few fun things into the work trip..
Our hotel was right next to the Bellagio, so we walked over and hit up the casino. Oh yeah, and the guy we asked to take this picture, wanted a picture of us on his camera as well, weird.
Criss Angel's Illusion Show at the Luxor. It was incredible. However, I will say that as an adult, the whole time you're sitting there trying to figure out how he's managing to do the trick; whereas kids enjoy the show more because they are simply in awe of -- MAGIC.
VIP at the Jet (located in the Mirage). I owned that pole. But that'll be our secret, okay?
The morning after. We wore Dr. D out. He loves us though, our work trip was such a bonding experience. Can't wait to go back in December!
VIP at the Jet (located in the Mirage). I owned that pole. But that'll be our secret, okay?
Monday, April 11, 2011
acne/accutane
where do i even begin? i've been putting off writing about this because i don't even know where to start this one. someone wise told me to start at the beginning, so here i go! flash back 10 years when i was 13 (holy crap i'm old).. i had my first pimple. i still remember it, is that weird? it was on the left side of my face, on my cheek, right by my nose. ha funny the random things you remember. i was horrified. i remember having read in every teen magazine invented to never pop your pimples because they will leave scars. so i didn't pop it. i had this ugly pink swollen oozing mountain with a white top claiming the left side of my face, and i let it sit there. as long as it wanted. about a week later it decided to finally peace out on its own. i remember a friend in junior high asking me, "aren't you ever tempted to pop your pimple?"
"no way! that would cause it to leave a scar" i replied. i wish i could go back in time to my 13 year old naive self and tell myself to pop those nasty suckers. i've since learned to pop them and squeeze the white oozing puss out and then let it heal. i was such a moron. walking around the hallways of my school with pimples on my face with gross white heads. i didn't even discover the magic of concealer until high school. luckily though, i only got one pimple at a time and it wasn't really that often, usually once or twice a month.
then came high school, and my face started to break out more frequently. maybe it was stress, maybe it was my diet, maybe it was my raging hormones. who the hell knows. this was the first time i went to the doctor for acne. he decided my acne was very mild and i was over reacting, so he prescribed me a topical spot cream known as tazorac. it didn't really work that well as far as i can remember but i used it anyway. after about 6 months, i actually had legitimate breakouts so i decided to go back. this time, he prescribed me birth control pills, since the topical did not help. i went on orthotricyclen junior year of high school. at first, it was amazing. my acne cleared up really well and i was glad to not have to worry about it anymore. but like a cheap summer romance, that excitement fizzled fast as my body became immune to the hormone, and the acne came back. this time it came back fighting. my skin was absolutely disgusting. my doctor finally referred me to a dermatologist.
my dermatologist decided i needed a combination of topical and oral treatment. he presribed me a morning cream, benzaclin, a tetracycline antibiotic, minocycline, and tazorac for my night cream. it was a time consuming treatment, i had to remember to take antibiotics 3 times a day on top of my topical creams. it did help clear up my acne however. but i'm sure you know how this goes since this post is supposed to be about accutane.
so i'll skip my college years, since they're a blur to me anyway, and sum it up by saying i broke out really bad when i moved to college station, i guess my skin is really sensitive to environment changes. i did eventually get used to the weather down there and my skin went back to normal with occasional break outs, as it had been in the past. fast forward to now, i graduated college. i decided i wanted a year off from school to work and be a bum (worst decision ever, i miss school) so i moved back home. moving back to dallas was awful on my skin. college station is really humid and dallas is really dry. the difference in the environment really showed on my skin. i had awful acne, all over my face. it was really frustrating. i decided to go back to the dermatologist. i chose a new derm i'd never been to before. i told myself before going in, i wanted to talk about permanent treatment. i was sick of 3 to 6 months of treatment/relief and then being back at square one.
i went to my first appointment and spoke with my doctor. i told her everything i had ever used for acne, and how it helped or lack there of. she listened intently and then i saw her write something on her clipboard. she was sitting directly in front of me, so i looked down and saw-- accutane-- written next to my name and date of birth on a piece of paper. my stomach dropped a little bit because i had always had accutane in the back of my mind but i've heard so many horror stories i never considered it. my dermatologist looked up at me said "well you know, you're 23 and by now you shouldn't be having acne issues." thanks for the vote of confidence, lady. she went on about accutane and how it would be the right treatment for me, but she basically convinced me when she said, "we can always try something else, a stronger antibiotic than you've had in the past, but it'll be the same thing as before where you'll be good for a few months and it will come back. accutane is permanent, for 90 percent of its' users and the other 10 percent might have acne again but it's usually many many years later." i decided that i could put up with 5 months of intense treatment if it meant never having to deal with this problem again.
i started my first month on 40 mg a day. i took one 40 mg pill every evening with dinner for 30 days. the very first few days i took it, felt extremely tired. the first week i was on accutane, i broke out in hives and my skin got oily. i was afraid i had an allergic reaction to the medicine and would have to be taken off of it, but i only had hives on 2 nights and they were completely gone by the morning so i decided to continue the treatment and i didn't call my doctor about it either. i've been told that accutane purges everything out of your pores first, so it is normal to be get really oily at first even if your skin is normally not very oily. i had read up a lot on accutane before i started the treatment. any female that decided to take accutane has to wait 30 days before starting the treatment so i had a month to do as much research on the medicine as i possibly could. i had read numerous testimonies and could tell you about every side effect related to the medicine. knowing what to expect really helped me out my first month. after the first week and a half, my skin started to get dry as is typical with accutane. it started with my lips, they were dry and flakey all the time. regular chapstick does nothing for you on accutane. i purchased aquaphor, which i'd read is the one to use on accutane because it not only moisturizes but also heals chapped lips. i own more chapstick than a check out aisle at target and aquaphor is the only thing that helps my lips. my skin also got really dry and flakey. it also felt like it was sunburnt all the time. i'd read about this also, many people call it the 'tane burn. about two weeks into my treatment i got the dreaded two week breakout that every accutane user deals with. i'd read about it over and over on many message board and blogs. i had cystic acne, which i've had before but this was much bigger than the ones i'd dealt with in the past, all over my cheeks and chin. i had a pimple beard for cryin' out loud. i even broke out on my chest which i never do. but after about a week and a half it started to clear up, and when it did, it cleared up really fast, which i was happy about. when i finished my first month, i had a few active pimples but they were small and mostly red bumps from my previous breakout. my most uncomfortable side effect the first month was dry lips. i did experience a little bit of joint pain as well in my knees along with back pain. another side effect i'd read about. overall, my first month wasn't overwhelming and went by faster than i'd thought it would. i'm currently 4 days into my second month. my dermatologist increased my dosage from 40 mgs to 80 mgs/day. Now, I take a 40 mg pill with breakfast and then another one with dinner. Even though I've only been on 80 mgs for 4 days, I've already started to see flakes and dry patches of skin all over my body. My lip has also sliced right down the center from being extremely dry and started to bleed. I'm nervous about this month because I'll be on double the amount as last month. I'll do a follow up at the end of the month, wish me luck fools.
"no way! that would cause it to leave a scar" i replied. i wish i could go back in time to my 13 year old naive self and tell myself to pop those nasty suckers. i've since learned to pop them and squeeze the white oozing puss out and then let it heal. i was such a moron. walking around the hallways of my school with pimples on my face with gross white heads. i didn't even discover the magic of concealer until high school. luckily though, i only got one pimple at a time and it wasn't really that often, usually once or twice a month.
then came high school, and my face started to break out more frequently. maybe it was stress, maybe it was my diet, maybe it was my raging hormones. who the hell knows. this was the first time i went to the doctor for acne. he decided my acne was very mild and i was over reacting, so he prescribed me a topical spot cream known as tazorac. it didn't really work that well as far as i can remember but i used it anyway. after about 6 months, i actually had legitimate breakouts so i decided to go back. this time, he prescribed me birth control pills, since the topical did not help. i went on orthotricyclen junior year of high school. at first, it was amazing. my acne cleared up really well and i was glad to not have to worry about it anymore. but like a cheap summer romance, that excitement fizzled fast as my body became immune to the hormone, and the acne came back. this time it came back fighting. my skin was absolutely disgusting. my doctor finally referred me to a dermatologist.
my dermatologist decided i needed a combination of topical and oral treatment. he presribed me a morning cream, benzaclin, a tetracycline antibiotic, minocycline, and tazorac for my night cream. it was a time consuming treatment, i had to remember to take antibiotics 3 times a day on top of my topical creams. it did help clear up my acne however. but i'm sure you know how this goes since this post is supposed to be about accutane.
so i'll skip my college years, since they're a blur to me anyway, and sum it up by saying i broke out really bad when i moved to college station, i guess my skin is really sensitive to environment changes. i did eventually get used to the weather down there and my skin went back to normal with occasional break outs, as it had been in the past. fast forward to now, i graduated college. i decided i wanted a year off from school to work and be a bum (worst decision ever, i miss school) so i moved back home. moving back to dallas was awful on my skin. college station is really humid and dallas is really dry. the difference in the environment really showed on my skin. i had awful acne, all over my face. it was really frustrating. i decided to go back to the dermatologist. i chose a new derm i'd never been to before. i told myself before going in, i wanted to talk about permanent treatment. i was sick of 3 to 6 months of treatment/relief and then being back at square one.
i went to my first appointment and spoke with my doctor. i told her everything i had ever used for acne, and how it helped or lack there of. she listened intently and then i saw her write something on her clipboard. she was sitting directly in front of me, so i looked down and saw-- accutane-- written next to my name and date of birth on a piece of paper. my stomach dropped a little bit because i had always had accutane in the back of my mind but i've heard so many horror stories i never considered it. my dermatologist looked up at me said "well you know, you're 23 and by now you shouldn't be having acne issues." thanks for the vote of confidence, lady. she went on about accutane and how it would be the right treatment for me, but she basically convinced me when she said, "we can always try something else, a stronger antibiotic than you've had in the past, but it'll be the same thing as before where you'll be good for a few months and it will come back. accutane is permanent, for 90 percent of its' users and the other 10 percent might have acne again but it's usually many many years later." i decided that i could put up with 5 months of intense treatment if it meant never having to deal with this problem again.
i started my first month on 40 mg a day. i took one 40 mg pill every evening with dinner for 30 days. the very first few days i took it, felt extremely tired. the first week i was on accutane, i broke out in hives and my skin got oily. i was afraid i had an allergic reaction to the medicine and would have to be taken off of it, but i only had hives on 2 nights and they were completely gone by the morning so i decided to continue the treatment and i didn't call my doctor about it either. i've been told that accutane purges everything out of your pores first, so it is normal to be get really oily at first even if your skin is normally not very oily. i had read up a lot on accutane before i started the treatment. any female that decided to take accutane has to wait 30 days before starting the treatment so i had a month to do as much research on the medicine as i possibly could. i had read numerous testimonies and could tell you about every side effect related to the medicine. knowing what to expect really helped me out my first month. after the first week and a half, my skin started to get dry as is typical with accutane. it started with my lips, they were dry and flakey all the time. regular chapstick does nothing for you on accutane. i purchased aquaphor, which i'd read is the one to use on accutane because it not only moisturizes but also heals chapped lips. i own more chapstick than a check out aisle at target and aquaphor is the only thing that helps my lips. my skin also got really dry and flakey. it also felt like it was sunburnt all the time. i'd read about this also, many people call it the 'tane burn. about two weeks into my treatment i got the dreaded two week breakout that every accutane user deals with. i'd read about it over and over on many message board and blogs. i had cystic acne, which i've had before but this was much bigger than the ones i'd dealt with in the past, all over my cheeks and chin. i had a pimple beard for cryin' out loud. i even broke out on my chest which i never do. but after about a week and a half it started to clear up, and when it did, it cleared up really fast, which i was happy about. when i finished my first month, i had a few active pimples but they were small and mostly red bumps from my previous breakout. my most uncomfortable side effect the first month was dry lips. i did experience a little bit of joint pain as well in my knees along with back pain. another side effect i'd read about. overall, my first month wasn't overwhelming and went by faster than i'd thought it would. i'm currently 4 days into my second month. my dermatologist increased my dosage from 40 mgs to 80 mgs/day. Now, I take a 40 mg pill with breakfast and then another one with dinner. Even though I've only been on 80 mgs for 4 days, I've already started to see flakes and dry patches of skin all over my body. My lip has also sliced right down the center from being extremely dry and started to bleed. I'm nervous about this month because I'll be on double the amount as last month. I'll do a follow up at the end of the month, wish me luck fools.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
four eyes are better than two
Sunday, April 3, 2011
random thoughts..
- my sleep schedule is so whack, i stayed up all night last night to be able to watch India vs. Sri Lanka in the cricket world cup (WORLD CHAMPIONS BABY), so worth it but now my circadian rhythm is screwed up. i slept from 5 to10 pm today, it's almost 3 am right now and i feel dead to world, but i'm so tired that i can't even fall asleep. that probably makes no sense but that's how i feel.
- i need to do laundry really bad. i probably have about 3 full loads worth, how gross. i hate laundry. as much as i love buying clothes, cleaning them is punishment.
- the next two weeks at work are short weeks.
- in two weeks, i'm going to vegas with work. i've never been, so i'm excited. it'd be nice to not have to do work things during the day, but i guess i can't complain since i don't have to pay for flight/hotel/food. who wants a souvenir?
- i just watched All Good Things, with Ryan Gosling and Kirsten Dunst. it was pretty good, except i can't stand Kirsten Dunst. did someone kick her teeth in? her teeth belong to a pre-braces 12 year old kid. someone tell her to never smile again, please. i think seeing her in Bring It On just ruined her as an actress for me. i can't take her seriously in legitimate roles. she ruined Spiderman too. ugh, everything about her just annoys me.
- i'm doing the Tim Ferris slow carb diet, today was the infamous cheat day. boy, did i take advantage of it.
- i just started reading Hunger Games, which i picked up just because i've been hearing so much about it. it's not really the type of books i'm into, but i really like it. although, i'm only 2 chapters in. maybe i'll do a book review blog post? maybe.
- i think i'm going to try to get some sleep now so i don't sleep my whole day away tomorrow.
goodnight!
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