Lippy Stuff

Why is this blog called "Lippy Stuff"? To answer that question, we have to go back a bit.

In my last semester of college my hormones decided to conduct a final assault on my body, and by doing so 1) turned my hair from board straight and easy to manage into just wavy enough to be a funkified mess if I don't do something about it every day; and 2) turned my face into a pock-marked wasteland. It was awful. At the age of 21 and about to enter the professional world I was dealing with what most people dealt with at 15. I had to do something about it. After trying every dermatological antibiotic available, I was left with the dreaded Accutane.

If you're not familiar with Accutane, it is a horrible, horrible drug with some of the most horrendous side-effects I've ever seen in a medication approved by the FDA. With that said, I also consider it a miracle drug as it completely cleared up my acne, so much so that people who meet me now cannot believe I ever had to be on it. That's how great my skin looks now.

The worst side-effect I experienced from taking Accutane was dry, chapped lips. I'm not just talking a little chapped, or even dry cracked lips. I'm talking stranded in the desert for a week straight with no water parched. My lips would peel off in layers. It was gross. Horrible. Disgusting. To help with the dry gross grossness of it all my doctor recommended using Aquaphor Healing Ointment. And oh, the bliss of putting specially formulated petroleum jelly on my lips. It made a HUGE difference.

The only problem is, ever since the Accutane experience, I must have some kind of lip ointment on AT ALL TIMES. If my lips start to get dry and I have nothing readily available to put on them, I will stop whatever I am doing until I find something, some kind of lip ointment, anything, ANY LIPPY STUFF WILL DO! You could say I'm a little bit OCD about it, but it's not my fault. The drugs made me this way.