Update:The Land of the Maple Leaf!

Hi,

A little/huge update! I have moved to Toronto, Canada!




I know it sounds a little crazy but I felt like I had serious 'itchy feet' at home, and as a quote I read recently said 'Life is for living not existing'. I felt really like I was just existing at home, I would go to work, come home, go to sleep, get up and do it all over again. It was not inspiring me, I was not achieving any goals that I had ever imagined for myself and I wasn't pushing myself out of my comfort zone.

So after a long few months of saving and not leaving the house for fear of spending money, my sister and I moved to Canada. Obviously we had applied for our visa's etc. back in January and had gotten them at this stage so we were off, heavily over-packed with one week booked in a hostel thinking we were starting a new life. And although it's great (we're only here two weeks) and I wouldn't change it and certainly would not go home, it's alot harder than I had imagined. I think I had my rose-tinted glasses on before we left and thought it would all be easy as pie, we'd get a house, jobs and have a great life in the warm summers and learn to ski/snow board in the Winter's. Now obviously this is all still possible its just slower than we had imagined.

Getting a house in Toronto without having a credit rating or a job currently is nearly impossible, unless you have family in Canada who can be your guarantor on the lease then you really have no hope. We really wanted to get set up with a house before we looked for jobs so we knew where we would be based and how far away jobs would be etc. but that's not going to happen. We saw loads of houses and applied for them and even showed statements of our savings to support ourselves for 6 months if needs be but no luck. This would all be fine if the Toronto Film Festival wasn't on and Labor Day is on Monday so all the hostels are basically booked out. Without wanting to impose too much on our friends over here, some of which we have basically only met, we are seriously out of pocket and out of patience with moving from one place to the next (bear in mind I did say we over-packed!). So now we have given up on house-hunting and are moving on to job-hunting which i hope for the life of me is better than the houses. Going on the reports of the people we have met already here from Ireland and the British Isles, both are as difficult as each other, most were at the very least 6 weeks without work or houses......you can see how you can get defeated easily!

Things are done very differently here so it takes some getting used to I guess, I'm hoping this will come with time when you understand the system.

But on the positive, the hostels we have stayed in are lovely, I highly recommend the Canadian and the HI Hostel Toronto. Both are very clean, accommodating and have lovely atmospheres. Also, all the people we have met so far have been so nice and friendly and I am happy to have been able to meet them. Toronto itself, I do like, we have experiened a few 'more dodgy' areas but thats to be expected in a big city, nothing different than Dublin. The only thing we have so far that we have been missing is Canadians! For the life of us and any of our friends who have been here much longer we cannot find any canadians, maybe they don't really go out at night, or maybe they are somewhere totally different than us, At the moment we seem to be mainly heading out in Downtown and maybe that's just not the place to be in Toronto!? Any suggestions about this would be much obliged, because as much as we love our fellow Irish, we could have seen them at home! We came to meet new people from different places!

Anyway, we are in the HI Hostel now for a night, then a friends couch for the weekend and back here on Monday, frantically job-hunting! We have done fun things too which I'll do posts on later, just thought a little introduction post was needed before I started rambling on about Toronto without explaining how I got here!

Much Love,


Rach

xx

Roaccutane Diary Day 20

Dry lips.

Those two words describe my life at the moment….I’m flat out putting on lip balm, googling lip products for dry lips and other treatments people have found to work on dry lips when you’re on Roaccutane. Switched from Carmex to Burts Bees and they seem to have gotten worse.

I’ve read about Aquaphor so I’m going to try that next hopefully.

Other than that, little dry patch under my nose but nothing too bad.

On the actual spot side of things, they are clearing up pretty fast, a few bumps left on my forehead where there were spots before which are very visible under makeup but not without so hopefully they’ll start to disappear soon too.

The rest of my face is looking progressively better so if it continues like this, I can put up with the dry lips!

Also trying to take the tablets at the same time every day now as I wasn’t before and I read it might make a little difference and is the best way to take them.

MUST DRINK MORE WATER!

That's all to report for today on that!

Love,

Rach

xx

Roaccutane Diary Day 11

Experiencing more of the dry lips (I say lips but really it’s only my bottom lip that’s dry)

A good few more spots have popped up in the areas I would usually have had them anyway, a couple have been painful enough ones though. Seems like they disappear pretty quickly, but then I’ve only have them a few days, seems like they go from sore to dry pretty quick, I’ll see how fast they disappear.

Around my mouth there are small dry patches with little spots, not real spots but little lumps I suppose that look like spots, not sure what’s causing them and they don’t seem to be doing much so we’ll see.

 Scarring I had from before starting has disappeared quite a bit so that’s good news.

I'm thinking this must be the initial breakout I've heard about and hopefully it should die down in a few weeks or so.

Also, severely lacking motivation especially in the evenings but to be honest I was a bit on the lazy side for a few weeks before I started so I probably just need a kick start and I’ll be fine.

Oh and on Monday of this week I woke up feeling very faint and it stayed throughout the day, not sure if this is related to the medicine but good to note and see if it happens again.

I wouldn’t be going out at the minute because my skin hasn’t cleared up at all so hoping it works ASAP!

The dry skin that everyone mentions I haven’t really seen (maybe a bit on my hands) but then again I was very prepared for it so am moisturising a lot everywhere and now carrying a lip balm and hand moisturiser with me everywhere

I am really TRYING to drink more water too but I don’t really like water so I forget a lot!

I actually missed a tablet on Saturday as I stayed at my sister’s house unexpectedly and didn’t bring them with me, I read up on it and it said to just take the next one as you normally would so that's what I did.

I had read missing a tablet can cause the initial breakout to come on so maybe that’s what happened to me I can’t be sure.

Also, just reading through my other posts, my skin isn’t sore to touch anymore which is nice.

Other than that it’s basically the same thing still.

Love,

Rach

xxx

Roaccutane Diary Day 8

Day 8

The next day….may have jinxed it….few new little spots have appeared….nothing drastic, just little ones in the areas I would have been prone to get them anyway.

Also my bottom lip is very dry….don’t know if this is roaccutane or the weather but definitely very dry.

Also, not sure if I mentioned it before but my whole face is sore to touch, its only sore if I rub it(moisturising or cleansing) it’s also a little itchy,…nothing severe but a little itchy and then sore when I have to scratch it slightly.

:(

Rach

xx

Roaccutane Diary Day 7

 Day 7

 Weirdly I’ve noticed that my skin if anything is oilier than before, I would have had combination skin with definitely some dry patches sometimes and an oilier t-zone but now I find that my makeup although it does stay on ok throughout the day if I touch my face at all it wipes off as if its sitting on top of a layer of oil on my skin….it’s very strange seeing as all the logs and internet googling I read said that your skin should get beyond dry and even eczema develops in some cases

 Maybe it’s because I’m moisturising a lot more than usual from day one to try and prevent the extreme dryness.

In saying that the areas where the spots were before are definitely dry but to me that’s expected as they need to dry out to disappear form my face

 My hands are a little dryer than usual and my lips are a little drier but I’m applying balm and hand moisturiser like a mad woman so it really isn’t turning into an issue…..YET! Perhaps I’m speaking too soon and it’s all to come but fingers crossed my spots only heal more and my skin texture stays the same for the whole six months

 Another point to add is that my skin texture is lovely to touch….way smoother than it’s ever been before

 The spots that were there have died down and remain only as scars in those places, and the blackheads on my nose have definitely improved….if it keeps up like this I’m absolutely amazed at roaccutane and only angry I didn’t take it before.

Hopefully now I haven’t jinxed myself!!

Roaccutane Diary (Acne/Spot prone skin treatment)

I am now 26 years of age and am still suffering with moderate acne, it’s not awful but I have clusters of spots on my forehead and around my nose/mouth. At 26 I feel like my skin should be clear, I don’t know anyone else my age still suffering from spots like mine.

 I have tried every cleanser under the sun, spot treatments, moisturisers and nothing has cleared it up fully.

I have been on variations of the pill and this has improved my skin but once I came off them for 2 months it would all come back and 100 times worse than before.

 Eventually I decided I’ve had enough and paid the large fee to go and see a dermatologist who out me on Roaccutane. I was very dubious of this drug as I had heard so many horror stories about it and how it causes depression etc. and that the side effects were very severe. I know a few people who have been on it and suffered from the dry skin side effect but nothing more serious and their skin looked immaculate once they finished the treatment so I sucked it up and am now on day 4.

 I have been googling the side effects (bad idea I know) and have scared myself a little but I figure most drugs have side effects so fingers crossed I don’t experience them too badly.

The dermatologist explained a few of the side effects to me:

More susceptible to sunburn

100% cannot get pregnant whilst on this drug, she kept me on the pill I was on and was very stern about this effect.

Said my skin and lips will get super dry and to moisturise with the aveno moisturiser and carmex on the lips which I think I can handle!

I have to get blood tests to make sure there are no other side effects but she says this is very rare; I got them on the day and have to return in a month for another set.

Said my muscle and whole skin will become more sensitive so not to take part in any strenuous exercise activity…..this won’t be too hard for me!

She advised me to stop using my toner as it will dry out my skin too much and also to stop using the topical treatments I was using again as they will dry out my skin too much.

I was prescribed a 40mg for 6months which is quite a high dosage but she said since I have already tried topical treatments and the pill with the acne returning each time this is basically the only option I have left to try. Scarily she said if I didn’t try this the acne will probably last forever…..consider me convinced!

I have also made adjustments to my diet and exercise regime to see if I can improve my whole self-including my skin. 

 Diet post to follow!

 I feel like I’m pretty depressed about my skin as it is and this has been going on long enough so hopefully as long as I don’t suffer from too many serious side effects I’m hoping I’ll make it through the 6 months and have beautiful clear skin on the other side.

 I am nervous of the side effects but I’ll keep you updated monthly and maybe include pictures on my progress

Day 4:

Progress so far isn’t much obviously, but I can say that the sides of my nose have become sore, not sure if this is because they are a tad dry anyway due to the topical treatments I was using before or if its bigger spots under the skin getting ready to appear as I was told it can get a lot worse before it gets better.

Wish me luck!

xx

Hair growth challenge/pre natal vitimans and no heat

So I’ve decided after a lot of research to try the no heat challenge for a month (I’m on week 3 atm and I don’t hate it!) and try to grow my hair out those two little inches I’ve been longing for since I can remember! I’ve heard pre-natal vitamins work and then silica complex and cod liver oil.

I went a little mad and have dedicated this next month to hair….I bought argan oil, leave-in conditioner, conditioning treatments and the prenatal vitamins. I’m also trying to eat more healthily and drink more water because I’ve heard that helps too.

So we’ll see, it’s a little experiment because I couldn’t find any real experiments where people tried it and could say for sure that it didn’t work. And at the end of the day its just vitamins and eating healthy so its good for me either way.

Ill let you know how I get on. I took before pics but I was already a week in when I took them so it might not be exactly as I started but near enough.

Fingers crossed it works!!

If anyone has tried this and had good or bad results I’d love to hear because I’m pretty desperate to get these two inches and not go back to wearing clip in extensions everyday!

ps. Poppy got a haircut!