In Pursuit of Perfect Skin, part I

Funny Story (if you're not me): We were at a friend's house the other day. A little girl there, who's the daughter of our close friends, likes to play "point and ask." Well, she pointed at a protruding pimple on my chin and as innocently and seriously as can be in front of everyone, asked, "what's that?" If she could see my blemish under makeup, then I guess I wasn't fooling anyone!! Agg!!

Okay, maybe I can't have perfect skin, but at least good skin. Recently I'm plagued by a bad case of breakout, red painful nodular acne around my chin mainly. It started right before I left for Tyler, TX (for my month-long pulmonology rotation) and got worse there in east Texas. This is most definitely hormonal and stress-related. (I don't like being away from home very much.) My doctor prescribed me Clindamyacin (antibiotic) wipes and Retin-A Microgel. Alone with Proactive facial cleanser, the trio have worked really well in just a week! There's still some blotchy redness below my chin, but the hard nodularity is almost all gone. I do have a bit of dry skin now, which is helped with cream. I had much worse acne in high school and college but Accutane finally worked for me. I hope to never have to take that medicine again! "Flawless skin" has always been like a fleeting visitor at best for me. I don't want to complain as I know my skin can be worse and it has been.