Zits Happen

When I was in my teens and going through the pimple phase, my mom said, “Don’t worry. You won’t have pimples once you leave your teen years behind.”

Wrong, Mom.

I’m one of those people who have had zits in every decade (not the first ten, then it was warts), off and on, here and there, not like adolescence but still annoying.

Today I woke up with a whitehead on my chin. I am seventy years old – too much Christmas candy, I guess (I blame the brownies). I have a tube of zit cream that was a free sample at the dermatologist’s where I go for skin cancer checks every three months or so. Yes, I have also had three skin cancer surgeries – above my eye, cleavage area, and lower leg).

Do I have bad skin? Yes and no. I love my skin. It keeps me dry and is versatile in many ways, unless I’m working in the garden. It’s so thin now that I come in bleeding every time, unless I wear long gloves that almost come up to my elbows.

But I digress.

Back to the pimple issue. My breathing strips cause them on my nose (mild sleep apnea). Any nightly face cream that I try causes them. Facials cause them. The only time my skin was clear and beautiful was the first thirteen years and during my three pregnancies, 27 months out of 684 months (fifty-seven years).

What’s a gal to do? Give up chocolate? No way. Get pregnant? Impossible. Carry on as usual and hope for the best, keeping my tree tube of zit cream at the ready?

Yes, yes, and yes. In my world I just have to accept the fact that . . .

Zits happen.