June 2012 I was sick and tired of having this crappy acne that is cystic in some places on my face. I had been dealing with it for months and so I went to the dermatologist and was prescribed spironolactone for hormonal acne. I had previously(January) been prescribed that same medicine by my ob-gyn for acne and some unwanted dark hair growth that I have suffered with since I was a kid (although I stopped taking it after a few weeks because I was prepping for the show, didn't see immediate improvement, and was too tired to remember to take it all the time). I close to this time (June) also had seen my regular practitioner to have blood work and an annual physical performed and he, the third dr, also recommended this medicine.
So I started taking it, a low dosage and wasn't seeing improvement. After two months I went back to the dermatologist to see what else we could try. He thought my two options were increasing that medication or going back on accutane, which I took when my oldest (5 year old) was an infant for the acne that went nutso while pregnant and breastfeeding. I chose to increase the dosage because accutane is a big pain in the butt, having to see the dr each month, have blood drawn and tested each month, and of course using two forms of birth control everytime I have sex. Have you seen my husband? That's a lot of condoms. (Sorry TMI!!! I know you are so glad I am back!!!)
I increased the dosage for two weeks when I had stepped on the scale (I have gone back to weighing daily because with each month that was passing the scale was continuously going up about 3 lbs). I was getting on the scale and almost died, yes over 3 lbs again. I know 3 pounds is such a small deal, but I assure you that it is actually closer to 10, because I was ok with the first two months going up (could be more muscle, could be more water retention... a million factors weigh in). The week before I went into the dermatologist to increase the dosage I had Shawna check my body fat and it was 19%. Not the leanest, but I still was still defined up through the shoulders, running fast, and feeling good about myself. In a matter of two weeks I was freaking out feeling rounder and softer and heavier., especially in the belly area. Of course that is my trouble area but it was as if all of a sudden my stomach was much softer. You know how you just :"feel" heavier when you hit that certain mark?
I busted out the ol sure thing... talked to Jon. Told him the medicines I am on, what I am eating, how I am training.
I wish I had talked to him prior to starting the medication because guess what the purpose of the spironolactane is? It is to decrease the testosterone in your face, (Therefore increasing estrogen in the body) in order to regulate the hormones and therefore decrease acne. Welp, it didn't work super well on my face and it definitly had increased my estrogen and was making me pack on a few pounds.
What did I do?
Stopped the medicine.
At about the same time I had something show up in my newsfeed on facebook about a girl who had cut artificial sweetners and her cystic acne had improved in two weeks.
SHIZ MOTHER TRUCKER!!!
Mama loves her diet dr pepper. I am gonna be real with you right now, go ahead judge me. I deserve it. I was drinking atleast 44 oz of fountain diet dr pepper a day and had been for quite a long time. (Good thing I don't drink alcohol right?!) (Recovering from judgement a bit here, I also drink atleast 128 oz of water every day!)
I told the dr (actually 2 of them) that I was considering quitting the soda and wondered their opinion. They thought the "one a day" I told them I was drinking was fine and probably not having any effect on me until I of course, the girl who sucks at lying revealed just how big my one a day is.
Let's just put it nicely and say they were unimpressed and ordered me to one a day.
Remember me? Go big or go home? If I can only have a friggin can a day I don't want it. If I can't have a big gulp I might as well forget it. (Why is that anyway? I wish I were a more moderate person).
So it has been two weeks between the first and second set of pictures and I have had 3 total sodas (I will never forget Dr Bradford's eyes when I told her I have a 44 oz cup, I will never fill a 44 oz cup again) and they have been the medium size. Interestingly enough though, I really think my face looks a bit better.
I am hopeful that it will continue to improve in the next three weeks and I may not actually need the accutane. That would be fantastic, as I am pretty much sick and tired of putting medication into my body to supposedly heal one thing, yet having the side effects of so many other things on top of it.
Circling back to the weight loss blog thing here though (I told you it would take me a bit, and this is the condensed version! Sorry!) is that at times it can seem ridiculous to people that I weigh every day. It seems ridiculous to some that I stick to a similar training regimen each week, and it seems odd to some that I eat a similar menu of foods each week-- but you know what? I am extremely thankful and happy that those things are a part of me and who I am and the lifestyle I lead. If not, if I didn't have my weight on the calander atleast at the beginning of each month, or if I had taken two weeks off the gym or a few days here and there, or if I had just guessed around with the food that I fuel my body with-- there would have been no way or no grounds for me to honestly look the dermatologist in the eye and say "I can't take this anymore, it is making me gain weight." And if it weren't for those things, when he told me I was the only person he had EVER heard this from, I would have thought I was crazy and continued the medicine. (By the way, spent some time searching the internet and I am definitley NOT the only person who experienced this).
But I am proactive about my health and I am proactive about my weight (maybe too proactive at times haha) and that makes me feel good about myself and strong. I know that medicine was not working for my body, and now I am searching for other ways (yay if the no soda thing really works out) to treat this problem with out causing a plethora of other problems for my body.
Remember, listen to your body-- and listen to the inner voice that sometimes prompts you that something isn't right. Dr's treat patients everyday and most all of them are ready to write a prescription to help you with the symptom that you have. At the end of the day though, YOU know YOUR body best!
Do you have any advice? Any experience with acne or medications that made you gain or lose weight?
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