StyckyWycket Recommends: Products During Accutane

During both courses of my Accutane treatments, they crossed through the harsh Cleveland winters.  The main focus and drive of getting through Accutane is: how do I keep my hair/skin from being so damn dry?

My first round with Accutane, I had to spend a lot of time and money trying to figure out which products were going to provide the moisture I desperately needed. It would have been great to have information collected here; and I’ve checked the stats on my blog, and have seen that I’ve been getting a lot of traffic from people who have been looking for information about Accutane.

In this entry, I’ll cover the products that I’ve used that I think have helped me greatly.

1. Basic Skin Cleansing and Moisturizing

During my first round of treatment, I was using Clinique’s Comforting Cream Cleanser, but it’s a little pricey and doesn’t last terribly long ($18.50/5oz). This time around, I am using Cetaphil’s Gentle Cleanser ($11.49/16oz), which I think works great: it breaks up my makeup, cleans without stripping, and a single bottle will last you through a standard six-month treatment (really! I am the queen of using way too much product).

I used to moisturize with Clinique’s Moisture Surge, but again, it’s pricey ($46.50/2.5oz) and I was re-applying a lot. On the upside, Moisture Surge can be applied over makeup without having to worry about it smudging.

This course of treatment, I switched over to Cetaphil’s DailyAdvance Ultra Hydrating Lotion For Dry, Sensitive Skin ($10.79/8oz), which I think is actually body lotion, but all of Cetaphil’s products are non-comedogenic, so there is are no worries that this ultra-moisturizing cream will cause any pore-blockage. Using the moisturizer means that I only have to moisturize once a day, instead of re-applying several times a day to cover flakes of dry skin. No tightness, no flakes. It gets an A in my book.

The only awkward side effect? My nose sweats. Just my nose. I don’t know if this is standard for this moisturizer, or just me. It’s not uncontrollable, but I do have to wipe my nose before meetings.

2. Body Wash

Very simply, I use Classic Ivory soap. It’s inexpensive ($1.99/3 bars) and there are no detergents or fragrances in it. The only other thing that I would steer people towards is maybe vegetable glycerin soap, which also has no fragrance or detergents.

3. Shampoo/Conditioner

I’m fairly lucky because I have a water softener, so that really helps to keep my hair from getting fried. But, in my first course, I used Aveda’s hair products. I still recommend Aveda’s Dry Remedy Moisturizing line. They aren’t inexpensive, but I honestly believe that when your hair is falling out because of the Accutane treatment, you need products that are as natural as you can possibly get. Aveda does that.

The Ritual Kit has the shampoo, the conditioner, and the moisture mask all-included for $74.00, which is $10 off what it would cost to buy each of the products separately. Of course, though, you can buy them separately and not even get the hair mask and be just as well off.

And, as is true for all of Aveda’s products, a little goes a long way.

4. Body Lotion

I only really need lotion when I shave my legs, but my go-to product that delivers a lot of moisture and soaks in really well is Vaseline Intensive Care Total Moisture, Dry Skin Lotion. It’s very good for hands, too, and a huge bottle is relatively inexpensive ($7.00/24,5oz). I have a feeling that you’ll carry this from your Accutane treatment through to all of your body/hand moisturizing needs through the year.

5. Lip Treatment

If any of you are having the same experience that I’ve had, the first thing that dries out and the last thing to get moisture back is your lips. I would honestly say that I would take all of the other symptoms twofold if only I could have the lip dryness not happen.

During my first treatment, I used Carmex for chapped lips ($2.49/.5 oz,) but I know that it’s cheaper at Wal-Mart, Drug Mart and CVS). I really liked it’s staying power.

This time around, I’m using Blistex Lip Medex ($2.19/.38 oz). I think it has the same softening, moisturizing, and staying power, but I feel like it warms up better with your body heat and doesn’t feel quite as thick and sticky.

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You’ll notice that I took a lot of time to find products that you can get in your local drugstore. And I think even in some cases, you can use HSA dollars to pay for these items.  I’m pretty lucky in that my prescription coverage is very extensive and my prescription for the generic brand is only $10. However, my first course of treatment cost $100 month, and that didn’t count the co-pays or the blood tests. The point is that you don’t need really, really expensive products to provide the moisture you need to have a comfortable experience while on Accutane.

I really hope that this helps: please feel free to leave a comment letting me know how these recommendations worked for you.

Book List

83. Read all of the books on a book list of my choosing. [In Progress?]

Well, after an ill-fated decision to be a part of the 1% Well-Read Challenge, I’ve had to re-evaluate.  Not to say that I don’t think that it’s noble to read some of the best-written books in history, but the reality was that I have already read 1% of the books on the list, and the rest felt a lot like prescribed summer reading from high school.  The only book that I ever willingly read for summer reading was Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood (which is, coincidentally, on the book list).  That’s one book out of the nine I had to read in four years (well, actually, eight, because I had to read the same book twice when I transferred from one high school to the other).

So, I’ve chosen another book list.  The Milan Jacovich mysteries by mystery writer Les Roberts, who has adopted Cleveland as his second home.  I’ve already read a few of the books, and being an native Clevelander, love that the settings in the books are very familiar to me.

The Milan Jacovich Mysteries
Pepper Pike ( 1988 )
Full Cleveland ( 1989 )
Deep Shaker ( 1991 )
The Cleveland Connection ( 1993 )
The Lake Effect ( 1994 )
The Duke Of Cleveland ( 1995 )
Collision Bend ( 1996 )
The Cleveland Local ( 1997 )
A Shoot In Cleveland ( 1998 )
The Best Kept Secret ( 1999 )
The Indian Sign ( 2000 )
The Dutch ( 2001 )
The Irish Sports Pages ( 2002 )
King of the Holly Hop ( 2008 )
(by the way, all of these books can be found on Amazon.)

I saw that Roberts had written his memoir, We’ll Always Have Cleveland, which I’m also interested in reading.  One of the things that Robert’s really nailed in his books was Clevelanders and their fierce sense of city pride, so even though he’s not a native Clevelander, I’m curious to see what his opinions about this city are.

As a side note, I’m a little surprised that I never ran into Roberts in the fifteen years I lived on the border of Cleveland Heights.  I’ve been to his favorite restaurant on the Heights several times, and a lot of the other focal points he’s known to have be-bopped around, including working for an entire summer in a very famous Cleveland bakery he’s written about.  I wonder if I could adapt Goal #71 and meet him in person.  That’s doesn’t make me a stalker, does it?

1% Well-Read Challenge

The goal of this challenge is to read 10 books in 10 months from the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die list. For you non-math people, 10 out of 1001 is approximately 1%, hence the title. The challenge will run from May 1, 2008 through February 28, 2009.

You may change your list at any time and cross-posting to other challenges is permitted. The only requirement is that your ten book choices must be on the ‘1001 List‘. Another helpful tool is an Excel spreadsheet by Arukiyomi that is found here.

1% Well-Read Challenge

Top Ten
Intimacy – Hanif Kureishi
Written on the Body – Jeanette Winterson
Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro
Choke – Chuck Palahniuk
Alias Grace – Margaret Atwood
How the Dead Live – Will Self
Silk – Alessandro Baricco
Perfume – Patrick Süskind
The Piano Teacher – Elfriede Jelinek
The German Lesson – Siegfried Lenz

Backups
The Unconsoled – Kazuo Ishiguro
Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
The Blind Assassin – Margaret Atwood
An Artist of the Floating World – Kazuo Ishiguro
Atonement – Ian McEwan
A Pale View of Hills – Kazuo Ishiguro
Surfacing – Margaret Atwood

Week in Review

The week in review, because I have no real focus for a blog entry of meaning:

Monday:

It’s really sad, but I have no recollection of what I did on Monday. I know that I went to work, but I don’t remember what I did after work. I think it was something, because I know that on Wednesday, I was happy to be at home and doing nothing. I think I did something.

I take it back: I know what I did. I went out with my ex-boyfriend (high school “sweetheart”) to the bar because I was bored. We went to a local-ish bar that was mid-way between us.

He and I had nothing less than a completely fucked-up relationship while we were dating: there was a lot of angst, I was very unhappy, but didn’t know what to do, and I spent a lot of time either cheating on him or thinking about cheating on him. I’m not saying that I’m proud of either of these things; I’m just giving you a framework for our past. When we broke up at the beginning of my college career, he and I became estranged (which was really the best thing for both of us, given how we broke up) for about five years. He and I both did some growing up, and now have a casual friendship that is deeply embedded with history, but does not revolve around it.

I also went back to his house to sit with his parents: the people at one time in my life I thought were going to by my in-laws. In some ways, it was like things had never changed, but there was the comfort (if that’s the right sentiment) that things had changed – for the good. I got to drink a beer while I was there, and I can say that I got to be the me that I am now: funny, charming, more confident, happier. It was nice, but I kept my pending nuptials quiet: I didn’t really see the point of going through all of that.

Tuesday:

Tuesday is my night to go visit The Boy, who has his master’s classes. I’ve been keeping semi-track of what’s going on on American Idol, but that’s only because my mother-in-law has to watch so she has something to talk about in the teacher’s lounge. This saddens me: I realize that the work day can be super-heavy, and you need an outlet. But really? American Idol results? What happened to the days of talking about the latest book you read? People don’t read anymore.

[The Pretty Twin] rented No Country for Old Men, so we watched that, and I loved it. Up against movies like Juno and There Will Be Blood, I’m not sure if it should have won the Oscar for best movie, but I can tell you that it will end up in The Boy’s and my movie collection. I liked that it was high-intensity, and we all had a cinematic critique of it afterwards.

It seems that lately, The Boy and I have been doing a lot of movies lately. On Sunday-Night-Dinner (which is also a theme in our long-distance relationship), we watched Trainspotting, which is another one of my favorite movies of all time, but like No Country for Old Men and Brokeback Mountain, is mentally draining for me, and I can only see it maybe twice a year. As far as in-theater movies are concerned, I think we’re going to wait for Stop-Loss to hit the dollar theater; I’m not sure what we are doing for rentals, though. I don’t have anything that I’m burning to see again.

Wednesday:

Wednesday was a slow day, as far as after-work is concerned. I wanted to go out, but I had no one to go with. I did try to do some reading; I went back to Paint it Black, but reading it hits too close to home in the sense that reading the words is like a relationship I have with someone. It visits and revisits the most painful situation to where you feel like you’re sitting in the belly of a snake as you’re being digested slowly in acid. I just couldn’t take the navel-gazing, so the book is going to sit on my shelf for a while.

Thursday:

I got a bikini wax on Thursday. All I have to say about that is: fucking ow! My waxer was so professional, though, and I couldn’t have asked for a better experience from that perspective.

A co-worker wanted a new briefcase, and since he seems to appreciate finely-made things, I suggested that we hit the Coach outlet and look for briefcases. It was something of a bust: I think he got sticker-shock, and I wasn’t in any particular mood to spent $29 on a change purse, so we meandered in and out of a few outlets before we left and got some dinner and drinks.

Friday:

Friday is Date Night for me and The Boy. This week’s date was shopping at TJ Maxx (I bought a paperweight for my desk, three pairs of pants, and two shirts), eating at Baker’s Square, and home watching TV. Boring, but true.

Saturday:

I got up this morning, went tanning, bought some face wash, came home, and I’ve been parked in front of the computer ever since. I was supposed to do some forensic accounting to reverse-engineer a new budget for clearing my debt, but I got bored with that pretty quick. I really need to sit down and do this.

I also need to clean my room, my bathroom, and do my taxes. I don’t know if I’ll get to these things either.

I’m going downtown tonight with the same ex as mentioned on Monday, and don’t have anything in particular planned for that. You might hear about it tomorrow.

One of Those List Updates I Do

One of those updates I do when I haven’t updated in a while:

• [Retail Job] is apparently frothing at the mouth to give me a promotion. It would be a pay raise, and a few days of 5:30 in the morning shifts. I’m flattered that they want to give me the job, but ethically, I really can’t take the job: I have resumes out at other places, and would accept a better job offer, and I don’t want to be stuck there forever. My manager said to me, in his office, “Well, some people say they are going to leave, but somehow, they’re here for years.”And that’s why I need to get the hell out.

• I sent my resume out to the Career Development Center [CDC] at [Alma Matter]. I have two resumes, actually: a skills-based and a work-experience resume. I have two because I have no real work experience in my field of study (other than being a peon), so when I have a network contact, I send out both. So I need to consolidate my resumes.And I’m trying to figure out if this was a mistake or not. I have people telling me that I’m great, and I’ll find a job, and I need to stop selling myself short, and blah, blah, blah…. But, then I send my resume(s) to get worked on, and I get a response basically saying that my resume lacks focus; meaning, that I’ll never get an interview, and I’ll be easily glossed over as far as the job search is concerned.Let me just say that my resume is pretty lackluster. I’m not proud of my utter lack of experience. But, I think I hated my resume more when I was doing it for [Alma Matter] projects. To me, it looked like a mess, it was bare (because of my lack of experience), and just not reflective of what my skills are. I got it to a place that made a little more sense to me, even though I had two split it into two resumes. All that being said, I have no idea how to fit my resumes together, so I’m going to have to bite the bullet and play along.

  And, the director of the CDC wanted to know what sort of job I was gunning for…. Lady: I will do just about anything that gets me out of retail, into an office, a little more money, and some self-respect. I guess there is nothing super specific that I want to do right now, and I have nothing right now.

• My cat split my lip yesterday. I thought I was going to need stitches, it was deep. I’m surprised how quickly facial lacerations heal. At class last night I’m sure I looked like I’d gotten into a bar fight; it looked pretty bad ass. Of course, at the same time, I’m completely freaking out and worried that I’m going to look hideous forever. Thank God that it happened on a day when I had two days off of work.
  
  
• Joining Phi Theta Kappa is a little out of the question, simply because I can’t spare $75 to register.
  
  
• Someone at Tri-C nominated me for the student government. I’m flattered, but since I’m not a full time student, nor do I intend to pursue any type of degree from Tri-C, and I therefore, won’t exactly be able to fill a position.
  
  
• Life is pretty slow other than that. My Schedule:
  Work
  Home
  Madre and Padre’s on Monday
  Class on Tuesday
  Sleep