So Excited!

Anyone who knows me knows that I have struggled for years with my skin. I tend to be incredibly acne-prone, even more when I am pregnant or nursing (which I have been a LOT in the last 8 1/2 years!). Now that I have 18 months of non-nursing, I was hoping for much clearer skin, but that wasn't exactly happening for me.

I have been trying for about a year to get an appointment with a dermatologist, but was unsuccessful. It seems that every doctor in the Jackson metro area is booked up, or is not accepting new patients.

A few months ago a friend of mine went to a place called Faces. I didn't realize that Faces existed, or that they had dermatologists on staff who would help me get on a plan for clearing up my face. But they DO! I went there yesterday for my 1 hour facial consultation which ended up taking 2 hours because of the extractions she wanted to do on my face.

Apparently acne has 4 grades, 1 being minor and 4 being horrible acne. I am between a 3 and a 4. They recommend oral antibiotics and Retin-A. I started today.

I am SO excited, and praying for clear skin. It has been almost 9 years since I have seen a day where my skin was clear. Can you believe that? 9 years. And when we were discussing my skin care problems I CRIED. It's such an emotional thing for me, and so hard on my self-esteem. I hate that the face I present to the world looks like this. I hate that I have to wear so much makeup to try to cover up the fact that my face looks like a pepperoni pizza, and even then my skin looks lumpy and bumpy. I hate that I tend to pick at my skin and then it will start bleeding profusely, typically at a very inconvenient or embarrassing time.

I am ready to have good skin. And I think I will have to hide myself away for the next 1-2 weeks while I wait for the bad effects of the Retin-A to go away . . . . ;)