PDA

View Full Version : Confused about my Rosacea


Brian82
26th July 2006, 06:03 AM
Howdy!

About 5 years ago I was diagnosed with rosacea, but I get really confused about this disorder when I research into it as it seems I have to stretch to make my symptoms fit with what I keep reading about on the internet. I have redness on my checks and chin that looks exactly like mild rosacea, but I don't understand when people talk about triggers and the flushing. My redness is always there, never gets better or worse, and I havn't found anything, be it weather, exercise, food, etc.. that makes the redness worse. Only thing I can think of that could fit a trigger, would be exercising in the heat when the sun is out in the summer (Texas summers). However my whole face turns red when this happens, and my typical "always red" areas still don't get any redder. My mom has this same problem and she doesn't have rosacea (no constant redness or anything). The biggest problem I have is the way my skin feels. It's always dry, and sometimes itchy and burning feeling almost. However this feeling affects my whole face (not just my cheeks/chin). My facial skin also produces alot of oil, and it seems this coincides with how it feels (more oil = more dryness). I've been using Metrogel and Plexion and while neither helps with the redness, the Metrogel seems to help a bit with the itching/burning and the plexion help keeps my acne under control (up until today I thought that whiteheads and papules were the same thing - all my pimples on my face are whiteheads). I use Cetaphil moisturizer which helps alot, and I find on humid days my skin feels better (which seems to be contradictory with rosacea). I bought Dr. Nase's book a while back and after reading it I wasn't even sure if I had rosacea, so I went for second opinion and I was told that I had seborrheic (sp?) dermatitis. I used some shampoo on my face but it didn't seem to help at all, so I don't think I have that. Only other thing it would seem to be is rosacea. this is why I posted this in the newbie section as even though this has been ongoing for at least 5 years (if my face was red before that I wouldn't know as I had really bad acne before then that would have made any general redness impossible to detect) I still don't really know as my symptoms don't follow the norm. Oh my dad also has this same sorta thing on his face, but minus the itching/burning. He told me his face gets a bit dry at times but other than that it doesn't affect him any. His facial skin tends to get flaky at times (mine does too if I don't moisturize after showering or something). Any help/insight would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Brian

redhotoz
29th July 2006, 08:03 PM
Hi Brian

Welcome to the Forum.

It's pretty difficult to diagnose Rosacea and many docs simply don't know enough about it. I can't say whether you have it or not but from what you have described it does sound like Rosacea or possible Seb Derm, or a combo or the two.

Everyone presents with different symptoms. Some may have one of the symptoms, some may have all.

The acne component and burning/itching may well indicate it is Rosacea or Seb Derm.

My skin is more oily but I was once told it was also dehydrated. So I was never sure whether to use oily skin products or dry skin products! Now I go for the bare minumum on my face. A la natural! :D

I don't know of any cream that will help to reduce redness but some will help with the itching, not sure about the burning...but good to hear the Metro is helping you with the burning. Creams can definitely help with papules and pustules.

Papules are like under the skin hard red lumps, pustules are like that but filled with pus (yuck, I know...too descriptive! LOL). Whiteheads can be due to your skin being oily - I used to get a lot of these, especially when waking up in the morning. I still get a few but not nearly like the 'white mountains' I used to face every morning! Aggghhh!!!

I have found that being in a humid climate helps my skin. Others have said the opposite, so go figure, huh!

There really isn't too much "the norm" about Rosacea! It's incredibly frustrating and we just have to work out what is best for ourselves.

The flaking skin (oil flakes) may well indicate Seb Derm.

Not sure if any of this helps? Do as much reading up as you can and decide for yourself. If it is early stages of Rosacea and/or Seb Derm, you are wise to be proactive about it now.

Best of luck!

Jen