Epuris: one month down, x months to go

Hello! I bring some mediocre updates on my face's condition after having been on Epuris for 30 days:

- My skin is dry! I mean, maybe in a couple of months this will be a nuisance but at the moment, I don't have too many dry/peeling patches of skin so it's a welcomed change from my usually frying-pan greasy skin. 

- With my skin being dry, my makeup actually stays on for the entire (work) day now! And I don't get oily throughout the day. 

This was taken at around 9pm before my shower. My makeup was applied at 7am!

- My lips are chapped af and the corners of my mouth are also really being affected. Sometimes I look like I have a milk moustache with all the peeling skin that appears throughout the day (i.e. When it's been a while since I applied Chapstick). My dermatologist says I've been managing my chapped lips pretty well though.

- My hands are also really dry, though this could be attributed to how I get rubbing alcohol on my fingers and hands all the time at work (and how I over-wash and over-sanitize my hands). 

- I am still getting pimples!!! This is disheartening, but my dermatologist said most people see improvement after the second month of treatment. And on the bright side, my pimples aren't making appearances too frequently. 

- I had mentioned last time that I noticed a lot of blackheads popping up on my nose. My dermatologist said they aren't "truly" blackheads, but are just my oil glands. I'm guessing their appearance is indicative of my body working to clear out whatever is in these glands. 

- My face still gets pretty red after cleansing. But I think this is because a) I scrub too hard sometimes and b) I shower with really hot water. Check out that shine on my nose though. I don't even know. I hadn't even moisturized when I took this and my face was definitely not oily... I promise I don't have a plastic nose. 

Anyhow, thanks for keeping up with my shenanigans. I cracked open my second box yesterday and I am staying optimistic! If you have any tips on how to deal with being on Epuris, please share!

Stay mellow,

The Avengers: Age of Ultron

Look guys! I went out!!!

So maybe I'm not a real fan of the Marvel Universe - I don't collect comic books, I don't know every story arc for every character, and I don't even know every character. I guess I could be called a casual fan; nonetheless, I am an enthusiastic fan of the Marvel Universe!

It started after I watched the first X-Men movie a while ago - I was immediately drawn to the whole superhero thing, and after that, I spent a lot of time (it's an embarrassing amount, and goes to show that I, in fact, do not get out often) on Wikipedia reading biographies of a lot of the characters, which led to watching the cartoons, reading a few graphic novels I could find at the library, and day-dreaming of the day I discovered my own powers and/or became a superhero (this still happens, admittedly).

Anyhow... exactly a week ago, a local radio station tweeted out a contest for advance screening tickets for the latest Avengers movie. To enter, all you had to do was tweet them what superpower you'd have with their hashtag. And so I did...

I'm pretty good at winning twitter contests... Thanks @VirginRadioTO! pic.twitter.com/L5FypAvyr5

— yvonne (@whyv0nne) April 23, 2015

(If you haven't been keeping up, I won Toronto Marlies tickets earlier this month).

I invited my fellow future OD friend to come along, who, coincidentally, had been out with one of our other friends that night, and he had been bragging about having VIP tickets for opening night. Sorry, bud!

At this exact moment, I was probably internally fangirl-squealing.

I won't spoil the movie... but it was amazing (this, of course, is a totally unbiased opinion). It was action-packed (as expected) and extremely thrilling with many funny moments and epic scenes. There were some things that were completely unexpected; but the movie on a whole was definitely not a letdown.

The Avengers: Age of Ultron is in theaters on Friday!

Epuris: two weeks

As of yesterday, I've been on Epuris for two weeks. So far, the experience hasn't been terrible, but it hasn't been amazing either. Admittedly my selfies don't show much of anything besides how red my face gets (and I don't know why!) but here's the breakdown of my experience so far:

YAYS:

- my lips have been drying out, which is a pretty good indication that the meds are indeed working.

- I've been noticing that my skin is not as oily first thing in the morning than it used to. My face used to be greasy all over, but now the oiliness has been reduced to the T-zone only. 

- it also doesn't get so oily thoughout the day. I still do need to blot once in the afternoon but whereas I've had to use the entire blotting sheet in the past, I haven't been using all of the sheet recently. 

- I haven't been experiencing any of the really bad side effects that they list in the patient education booklet. 

NAYS:

- the pills taste weird. They have sort of a garlicky taste (but I think that's just a thing with all tablets). 

- despite there being less oil on my face, there has literally been no improvement on the acne-population side of all this. In fact, I have been breaking out around my nose, forehead and chin since starting (I've also had a zit pop up on my eyelid...); all the while, the little bumps I have had on my forehead for years and whatever little bumps and blackheads I had before starting the medication continue to thrive. 

- in addition, I've noticed a new clan of blackheads on my nose. 

- and despite not experiencing the bad side effects, having dry lips 24/7 has not been fun. Same goes for having random nosebleeds. 

All hope has not been lost, though. I read that in many cases, the acne gets worse for a little while before it starts to clears up; so hopefully I am near the end of the worsening phase. I am not expecting a miracle but I would very much like to see this medication actually work soon!