Day 8 Summary

What an exiting day! I went to see a naturopath today, $100 well spent. I really liked this doctor. Today was an initial assessment, which run for about an hour. She listened to my story, then examined me and asked some relevant questions. I felt like she is very knowledgeable and really can help me. She was very skeptical of Accutane and wouldn't recommend taking it. She thinks that my acne is my bodies reactions to some problems inside. She is confident that diet will be sufficient to cure it. She advised me to make some adjustments to my current diet as well as stop taking any supplements I was taking before.

Basically the new diet is Elimination/Hypoallergenic diet and is very similar to what I was doing but excluding some vegetables and fruits that can cause allergies. For example tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms, citrus can cause allergies, so I should avoid them. It was very interesting to see this list and it does make sense to me. I will scan the document and will post it here. I came up with my diet mostly by trials and errors, so it wasn't perfect. I still had many doubts about what aggravates my acne and what comes it down. It makes sense that some common allergens could easily aggravate it. I'm planning to start this diet on Monday. I should do some grocery shopping on Sunday. I'm really looking forward to it.

I also used many different supplements and she asked me to stop taking all of them. I think that's a great advice since I came up with the list of supplement just searching on the web for what can help with acne. I probably was taking too much of everything, especially when I was consuming so many fruits and vegetables that are packed with vitamins. Instead of supplements and vitamins she prescribed me to take L-Glutamine (2g 3x's/day before meals), turmeric (2 pills 3x's days before meals) and mil thistle (2 pills 3x's day).

So she asked me to do the diet for a month and I should see some improvement. After a month I will have a follow up appointment and we'll see if I need to stay on the diet for another month. She hope that I would be able to stop this diet after 2-3 months and eat normal without many restrictions. All her suggestions were in a good agreement with my believes. I've decided to follow her suggestions. From Monday I start the new diet. So excited :)

I also promised her not to be obsessed with my acne anymore, try to avoid looking in the mirror in a search for new pimples, etc. I will really try to do it, and I know that'd be hard. I will post my weekly update photo on Sunday but the next one will be only in a month. She said that with the diet it's always taking 5 steps forward but 1 back. So looking for improvements every day or even every week is a bad idea, because if I don't see any or I see new pimple I get upset and that causes stress and hence more pimples. Therefore, no more photos or mirrors for a month.

Another great day

Today was a very busy day for me. Doctor's and dentist appointments went smoothly. I've received a clean bill of health. Great!!! My hormonal level is normal, which was a surprise for me, but no complains here. My doctor also admitted that my acne is slightly better, which is again a good news. She didn't insist on prescribing Accutane this time and was very nice to me.

It's like everybody notice that I feel great inside. It seems that people just really like talking to me, even complete strangers :) I definitely feel more confident, energized and happy and people seem to notice that. Indeed, people judge/except us by how we present ourself in terms of our behavior and appearance. Today was a great proof of that.

Today was the first day that I didn't regret the time when I went on birth control pill. I'm actually grateful for everything that happened to me. This journey to find cure for my acne helped me to realize that what I put in my body really matters. This concerns not only medications we take but also and most importantly food we eat. Unfortunately I came to this conclusion the hard way.

First appointment with a dermatologist

Today I went to see a dermatologist. Actually I desperately needed his help a month ago, when my acne was very bad. However I was able to book an appointment only a month in advance, for today. Appointment was kind of long. When he found out about my PhD research he was extremely interested and started talking a lot about his research, which was completely unrelated to my acne. I was very polite and listened to all that, but because of that he ran late for his other appointment and really had to rush at the end. I didn't have a chance to ask him all the questions I had. His diagnosis was that my acne is not hormonal but instead behavioral, and is mostly contributed by stress and my PhD. So he diagnosed me with acne excoriee, or in simple terms "picking acne". And he is convinced that I have a habit of scratching and picking on my face mostly when I'm studying and also when I'm asleep, and  that I do it unctuously. From my point of view that is completely absurd. This is my last year of PhD. Of course it's stressful, but it is exactly the same level of stress as the last 3-4 years. When I was on the pill there was no problem. So why now? Anyway, I will really try controlling my hands and make really sure that I don't touch my face. Also, I don't pick pimples. The possibility of scarring really scares me.

The dermatologist actually completely agreed with my family doctor (they are working in the same clinic) that my only solution is a low dose of isotrtetinoin also known as Accutane. He assured me that there is extremely small chance of me getting any side effects of being on Accutane, and he promised to monitor me closely, i.e. appointments and blood work every month. He really thinks that there is more benefits for me than risks and I can just be very beautiful.

He also mentioned, of course, that everything I read on the web is completely unreliable and that there are no studies confirming that diet works for acne. Nothing new for me there either :) Anyway he gave me two weeks to think about it. I didn't really argue with him, it's absolutely pointless. In the beginning of our meeting I really tried explaining to him that my acne started when I stopped birth control pills and that bcp was the only thing that ever helped me with acne. So it seems that it's hormonal. I also pointed out that I'm really looking for alternatives other than Accutane. Anyway, it was disappointing :(

Oh, he said I have grade III acne. A month ago my doctor diagnosed me with level IV acne. So 1 grade down in a month is not bad! (Unless they both used different grading scales :)

I'm actually very glad that I met this guy only today and not a month ago when I was very desperate to try almost anything just to get rid of pimples. I'm loving my diet and I won't go on Accutane, ever. Even if there is 1% chance of getting the horrible side effects, it is still a chance and I can be the one falling in this unlucky 1%. So that's going to be a no to Accutane for me. I am still going to see him in two weeks. I don't really know why I'm going there, but I am.