Epiduo Hell

So…I’ve been missing in action for a few weeks. This is not great for a beginner blogger. There are some good reasons though- one of which I will disclose today, another in tomorrow’s post. These last two weeks, I’ve been spiraling.  My vanity knows no bounds, and I am almost ashamed to commit these thoughts to the world wide web, but this is my blog, and I should be honest here of all places.  I’ve had a really hard battle with my PCOS  and endometriosis over the last 3 years since diagnosis. I have a great reproductive endocrinologist who performed an amazingly painful surgery on me, and since then I have been on a prescription of various medications to regulate insulin resistance, overstimulated hair growth and all the various other wonders that come along with it. One of the hardest things for me to accept was the fact that it may be very difficult, if not impossible, for me to ever conceive children naturally, if at all.

All this is to say that recently I had begun to turn a corner with this awful disorder (or so I thought).  Last week, I began to get awful pains in my stomach. Mum feared appendicitis so she booked me into the GP quick smart. It turns out that this is nothing so sinister. Mr GP (or should I say Doctor GP) believes that I may be having some cysts re-growing on my benighted ovaries. So this is problem number one for me on this day. Problem number two: the return of pre pubescent acne on my face.  At very nearly 25 years of age, I feel that I am too old to be taking acne lying down. I know there are worse things in the world, but I freely admit to my vanity, so I asked the GP what to do for my face. He suggested a product called Epiduo which is a topical gel containing pretty high levels of adapalene and benzoyl peroxide. It basically burns the acne off your face by causing your skin to peel in hideous fashions. Sounds good, right? I gleefully left with my prescription- and thank you Medibank for the generous 27 cent PBS reduction- and proceeded to use it exactly to the specifications on the box. Fast forward 2 days and my skin is clearing nicely. 6 days later, and anything I put on my face is stinging- cleanser, moisturizer, makeup- even the very hypoallergenic products. I also cleverly decided in the midst of this agony to wax my lip, ripping off layers of skin in the process. Fun times in my casa, for sure. This morning, after a night spent in pain, I wake up to swollen eyes, a decided lack of cheekbones and a bright red rash all over my cheeks and under my eyes. It was a misery of a day for me, the plan was to call in sick, but I had a meeting (which was CANCELLED, after all) so I soldiered on in pain. When I say pain, I mean, rip your face off with your fingernails because even air blowing on your face is painful, type of pain. I made an appointment to see the GP, who assured me that this was NORMAL- that I had probably burned off the epidermis layer of my skin and that the abraded nerve endings of my dermis were causing the pain and swelling. I don’t feel too awesome about having nerve endings on my face exposed, let me tell you. The treatment is simple; no epiduo, no skincare and no makeup for a week, as well as applying cortisone cream to my face at many times throughout the day. To this I said “Not going to happen”. There is no way I am going all week without makeup…so I was advised to wash it off ASAP, using only water. I am not sure the Doc understands the type of makeup we are dealing with, but whatever.

All this is really only to explain why I have felt too miserable to blog. My second lame excuse will come later in the week. Hope all is good in the blogiverse

xox A