Things just got much, much worse

[vesna]

Hello everyone,
I've posted here my newbie intro just several months ago. And here I am again.

My rosacea went from mild-to-moderate stage to the progressive swelling of the right side of my face with very intense redness (not diffused) and horrible burning just in the matter of days (since last Thu.) It started as a tiny red round spot on my right cheek bone and it's huge now, very red and swollen. The rigth side of my face looks like someone had freshly hit me very hard with a brick and feels that way too, plus itching. I am sure it'll get filled with pus later.

I've been using 1% Clyndagel w/some Aknemycin topically over my breakouts till now. But since I've developed this progressively spreading red spot on my sheek, they don't help. I've been applying an ice pack to the area as it feels the best at the moment. Still waiting to hear from my derm.

I had never had any laser/light treatment done because it used to be pretty manageable and on good days I could cover most of it up w/make-up.

I would kill for just diffused permanent redness with some pupules and pustules at this point.

My problem is that I live in New England and was not able to find a good rosacea derm around here. I also would LOVE to hear any recommendations for lader/IPL places on the East Coast. Heck, I'd fly to the Midwest for that! If anyone has ANY info re. derms in the Boston area, and good laser docs from Midwest to the East Coast, I'd be so happy to hear from you.

Also, any suggestions on how to remove this horrible swelling redness or will it stay with me for a while now?

Thanks!
Tanya

[redhotoz]

Hi Tanya

You might want to try spraying Nasalcrom (Rynacrom), which is a nasal spray with the working ingredient of Cromolyn Sodium, into a slightly damp cotton wool ball or pad and dabbing on to the inflammed area. It really does help! You can get it over the counter from a pharmacy.

Jen

[vesna]

Thanks Jen! And here is an update.

I was so down these past few days b/c from a fairly active person (in a rosacean sense of "active"), who still managed to hide her rosacea condition from most people, I turned into a complete shut-in. What hurts the most is how it affects my parenting ability - my daughter and I had to skip both her swimming and junior gym classes and I was in no mood to even go grocery shopping for the whole week. :(

I've decided that I needed to do something drastic since I had such a sudden drastic change for the worse. So knowing that this disease often times runs hand in hand with digestive problems, I've decided to fast for a day and then eat only raw and lightly cooked fruits and veggies, sprouted breads, some fish, etc. Nothing processed any longer! I've used to really watch what I was eating until very recent, so may be that was the trigger.

Well, I've just finished my fast, 3 days later! My mom (a retired MD) who'd done fasting herself in the past, when she was 41 and was given one year to live by doctors (she's 72 now and is on no meds), told me that if I could tolerate it for 3 days, it wouldn't hurt and clean things up much better than within one day of fasting.

Overall, it was much easier than I thought it'd be and again my goal was 1 day and I just went with the flow. I noticed some improvement in my deep red burning areas on the 2nd day of fasting. (But I still flushed like crazy when laying down to sleep.) I am slowly coming out of fasting and am on the way to an improved diet.

I went to my derm yesterday, my two-year old in tow. They've made us wait for over an hour and the waiting room was so crowded and warm, which made my red patches (I have two large ones by now) really red of course. Apparently, they tripple-book there. I can't stand this managed care approach! But any way, I cooled off in the Tx room while waiting there. The doc looked at my faced and said that we needed to change the gears. I am officially a moderate-to-sever stage now (just what I've suspected), erythematous sub-type. I asked her how often she sees cases like this and she said occasionally.

The doc gave me Bactrim p.o. and noritate topically for my generalized redness. She said those were supposed to reduce flusing. (I don't buy that though.) She also gave me some steroidal creme to apply to the red patches. While I haven't used the first two, I've relustantly used the steroid once. I don't think I'll try it again. I have a large baby shower to go to in a week but I hope I'll improve by then just with natural topicals - I've been also applying compressed soaked in room temp. infusion of potatoes (really calms my skin down) or camomile.

And this a.m. came the best relief of all - I've gotten my period! :D That alone had reduced my flushing and burning and redness greatly, though I am still pretty scary looking, all in all a good improvement. Hope I'll finally get some sleep tonight. What a scairy PMS I had! I am not looking forward to the next one.

So I think with patience and some sacrifices in the food department I might be able not to have such a crazy flare-up again. BUT I still want to get that IPL (don't know where though)! Because without it, it'll be an uphill battle. I know that only IPL reduces flushing greatly and that seems to be the key to my particular problem.

As previously said, I welcome all suggestions and comments from ya'll. Sorry I've made it so long.

Tanya

[phlika29]

Hi

Sorry to hear about your problems. I recently suffered a seb derm flair on top of my usual redness and I can say that it got me worried for a few days. It was very red patches that was rough looking and slightly itchy. I wasn't sure what it was as I had never had it before. I was wondering if yours were the same thing. I used 1% steroid cream on it for a couple of days to get it under control and then have been slathing on the face cream. My diet is pretty good but I just avoided yeast based products. Face has now recovered and it seems to have done no lasting damage.

Also take antihistames as this helped with the redness. Have you tried Pau D'Arco supplement they has been recommended by others for seb derm.

Anyway may be completly wrong, and I'm not recommending that you try the steroid if you don't want to. If it could be seb derm I wouldn't put anything harsh/drying on it as it could make it worse.

sarah

[redhotoz]

Hi Tanya

Thanks for th up-date. It's always interesting to learn how other people approach the "I've had enough of Roacea" stage.

I hope the Bactrim and Noritate help. Personally, I would be a bit scared to use a steroid cream incase it makes things worse in the long run. That's the danger.

Good on you for cutting out processed foods. I hope you too will notice the difference in your skin by doing this.

Hey, I know what you mean about the time of the month! My face ued to tell me when it was coming and then when it did, everything settled back down a bit. Ahhh, the wonders of being a woman! LOL

Jen

[vesna]

Thanks Sarah and Jen. I don't know if I had seb dem. I was seen by a derm during my flare up and she did not say I did. I did apply steroidal cream once to the areas but haven't repeated it again. The inflamed areas have gotten better but the redness is not gone. It is still more prounced in those spots. I've resigned to the thought that my rosacea has gotten worse for the meantime, but don't lose hope that it'll improve w/diet and IPL.

I haven't used Bactrim and noritate b/c I've read that usually those don't help with redness and flushing. As we all know, every man-made medication has a side effect and I don't want to use something like that w/little hope it'll work.

I just really have to make sure I don't get hot and stressed out, which is a difficult task for all of us :) Thanks for your support!

Tanya