Visit to the Dermatologist

After two months of severe acne breakouts and sensitivity to pretty much, well anything, I finally gave in, cried uncle, and called the local dermatologist office for an appointment.

Today, at 7:15 am, was the lucky date and time. The very nice dermatologist office is actually located right next door (I mean literally a few steps away) from our old apartment. I was always curious about the building.

The dermatologist looked at me, asked me a few questions, looked more closely, and immediately proposed two treatment options:

1) use oral antibiotics in unison with topical treatment
2) use topical treatment only

I opted for the combined treatment. This afternoon I went to CVS and loaded up on over $100 worth of meds. So much for having insurance?

Now, my morning routine will include my trusty CeraVe face wash, a spot treatment, and Cetaphil SPF 50 day lotion--acne treatments cause sun sensitivity. Then in the evening, again a wash, the spot treatment, and an all-over retin-A lotion (now in a convenient pump!), followed by CeraVe night lotion.

I've always heard horrible things about Retin-A. But I'm pretty desperate, so I'll hang on to whatever life raft I can hang on to.

I spent quite a bit for this trio of goodies. I already scheduled a followup check up the first Saturday in December, to see how things are going and what the next steps, if any, should be.

I'm hoping the headache I got today was due to some anti-mold chemicals they liberally sprayed in our leaky office, and not a sign to come from the oral antibiotic. Wish me luck.