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jacob83
17th June 2005, 09:28 PM
Posted this on the yahoo group as well before I was recomended to this forum. Sorry to those who already checks the other board...

Hey everyone! I have been a reader of the board for several weeks but never gotten around to actually post. Here is my first post and I would like to share my situation with everyone. If anyone has any comments, help, suggestions or thoughts, then please write me. Two months ago I didn’t even know what rosacea was and now it’s the only thing on my mind….

My name is Jacob and I am a 22 year old guy from southern Sweden. I have always had easy to flush when I was younger but never thought more about that. The first time that now stands out as a possible beginning is when I was on a vacation on Gran Canaria a few years ago. Used normal tanning lotion and was out in the sun like I always used to, but my nose swelled up big time and became bright red. Since then (or at least I started noticing it then) the face and especially nose has swelled up and turned red when being out in the sun for extended times back here in Sweden, being out partying and for example eating spicy food.

Last February I decided to do a plastic surgery due to the dislike of the size and shape of the nose, which also was an attempt to break the negative mental trend I was in regards to it. It worked like a charm, the result was great and I have never felt better. But by late summer, swelling and redness started occur on it after being out in the sun for a few days and has continued since then. For the past half year, it has gotten worse and no signs of improvement. At first I thought it was the plastic surgery gone bad, but after having been to my doctor, my plastic surgeon and a second plastic surgeon, they all concluded that the nose was in great shape and absolute nothing had gone wrong with the actual operation.

After the operation, I was prescribed and used cortisone cream and a spray to reduce the swelling…

The second plastic surgeon I went to two months ago, mentioned rosacea for the swelling of the nose and that’s when I joined here. Started studying about the disease and everything seems to match up with my current situation. The swelling is the main concern, along with the redness which is not equally bad right now. It happens when I go to the gym to train, go out running, eating hot food, cooking food, drinking alcohol, switching temperature drastically (going from the house to out in the winter for example), windy conditions, getting hot and warm in general. Weird things such as washing my face with my facewash as well as shaving also seems to trigger the swelling. Another thing that makes it worse is sitting in front of my computer and the monitor. I have turned the brightness down to minimum and that made it better, but it’s still causing me problems…

He prescribed Financea 15% gel which I used for the time being. Two weeks later I met with a dermatologist who didn’t want to diagnose me with roseacea. Said that I might have a mild rosacea. My feeling was that she thought I was too young at 22, to have it. She recommended me to stop with the Financea gel and start using a Aberelea 0,05% Tretinoin gel. The gel however doesn’t seem to work too well for me.

My first doctor I went to said it could have something to do with the blood vessels in the nose that are changed after the operation, but I don’t personally believe that either and it doesn’t explain the flushing of the rest of the face that I am starting to see signs off…

Over the past two weeks, my face seems to have become more sensitive as well. When I go training, I turn red in my whole face. Barbequed and had a spicy sauce last week and my face as bright red for the rest of the evening. And yesterday I was in the sun for 10-15 minutes and I woke up today being completely red in my whole face.

I also read about tired eyes and that also seems to match with me. They look tired and my eyes look almost “saggy”. This could be me imagining and might as well have to do with poor self esteem and lack of charisma at this moment, but thought it was worth mentioning…

What do you guys think and what would you do if you were in my position? Do you believe it is rosacea despite my dermatalogists unwillingness to diagnose it? Rather tough knowing something is wrong, but not knowing for sure what and not being able to do anything about it…

I am trying to avoid hot food, train during the mornings, eat ice cubes, drink a lot of cold fluid and similar actions to avoid it and it seems to work to some extent. But with the weather getting warmer, summer vacation, and also working, it still affects me greatly. This worry is on my mind constantly and it’s really bringing me down…

Any help or comments would be greatly appreciated!!!

Sincerely,

Jacob

If there are any swedish readers here then it would be great to get in touch. Always nice to talk to someone in the same situation and possibly get a recomendation to a good rosacea derm here...

irishgenes
18th June 2005, 12:22 PM
Are you still using tretinoin gel? That could partially explain your worsening skin condition. People with rosacea just don't tolerate it very well. I used it for 3 months years ago and got horrible cystic acne which scarred in a few places. I started with moderate acne and was told to "fight through it" and it would be worth it in the end. Never got any better. I wasn't flushing back then, but probably had the beginnings of rosacea because the gel gave me a very red, irritated face. I didn't leave the house for the whole 3 months. I think it probably has alcohol in it, and that is another no-no for rosacea skin care products.

Never heard of computer light causing flushing, though I guess it is possible. More likely, you are flushing to the gel or something else that is happening at the same time. All your many triggers are common for rosacea, and that is the reason why it is impossible for us to "avoid triggers" like all the derms tell us to do. We would have to stop living to avoid our triggers!

Can't help you with a doctor. Even here in the US, the good dermatologists who know anything about rosacea are very few. With your nose symptoms, the best treatment for you would probably be low-dose Accutane unless you can find a good Intense Pulse Light doctor experienced in treating rosacea. Problem is, they will all tell you that they are experienced and getting good results. I know some people are actually planning to fly to the US from the UK just to see Dr. Darm in Portland, Oregon, as he is the only doctor they have heard about who really knows what he is doing! Just keep reading this forum, and you will learn a lot from Dr. Nase and the others.

Strive
18th June 2005, 12:51 PM
irishgenes,

Is Dr. Darm in Portland? Or is he affiliated with the University of Oregon in Eugene? I travel back to Oregon on occasion and was trying to figure out how to get in touch with him.

Thanks for any info.

18th June 2005, 12:55 PM
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lakan
18th June 2005, 01:00 PM
Hi Jacob :) Im 20 and from southern Sweden also...

To me it sounds like it could be rosacea, but i don't have the exactly same symptoms as you. My nose is pretty fine, my main problem is my cheeks and my chest =/ I have also been to alot of dermatologists and only one of them said that i might have some rosacea problems, the other ones were so damn incompetent that they said it was only teen acne or nothing, only a psychological problem..haha that's the worst bullshit i've ever heard.

Just like you i feel kinda depressed because of this. My life is pretty much perfect besides from this, but this crap brings me down...

You got msn? hehe.

18th June 2005, 01:08 PM
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lakan
18th June 2005, 01:22 PM
Doxycycline may be good for rosacea but the funny thing is that i probably got my rosacea from this medication combined with sun exposure (I was on a 3 month course for acne) ofcourse it's my fault also for being out in the sun without sunscreen on. But i just wanted to say this so people know that your skin may become very sun sensitive while eating medications like this.

18th June 2005, 01:29 PM
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irishgenes
18th June 2005, 03:44 PM
I believe Dr. Darm is in Lake Oswego, which is like a suburb of Portland from what I remember. Used to live in southern Oregon.
I have been taking 20 mg. doxycycline twice a day for a year, and it has been very good at preventing papules/pustules. However, it has done nothing for my nose tip, which I guess has developed "lymphatic rosacea" damage and the dreaded fibrosis, rather suddenly, in my case. I suggested low dose Accutane because he seems to be most concerned with his nose symptoms. Dr. Nase has a thread on the .5 mg. dose, not yet available. The lowest dose they have is, I think, 10 mg., and that would be too strong to avoid the bad side effects like extreme dryness. I was opening up a capsule and trying to suck out 5 mg. for a while! I quit with the Accutane because I heard you can't take it within 6 months of IPL, and I am planning on getting that as soon as I scrape the money together.

18th June 2005, 03:51 PM
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irishgenes
18th June 2005, 04:13 PM
Well, I tried to guess at what would be 1/2 the cap and then took the rest the next day. I figured the exact amount per day wouldn't be critical.

I tried clarithromycin for a few months. Nothing happened with my nose, and it was not as effective for my P&P as the doxy. I started flushing Feb. 2004, and the tip on one side just seemed to drop overnight in Aug. 2004 and has stayed that way. The swelling doesn't come and go; it seems permanent. There is a slight discomfort all the time. Even now my nose does not look red, just slightly pink on the one side. You have to look closely to see the pink. So I may have had swelling for a long time and just not realized it because my skin was not noticeably pink on the surface.

Another thing which may have somehow affected my nose tip is that I lost 100 lb., but I can't figure that one out.

18th June 2005, 04:15 PM
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irishgenes
18th June 2005, 05:33 PM
Yikes! You've got me scared now. Why would it be illegal for more than 14 days? Dr. Nase says in his book: "The standard rosacea treatment protocol [for clarithromycin] is 250 mg. twice daily for the first month, followed by 250 mg. once daily." That's the dose I used. He said it has very few side effects. I usually get diarrhea from antibiotics, but not with this one. I'm wondering if Denmark has that law because of socialized medicine--perhaps they want to keep the cost down? I pay for my own doctors and prescriptions; I don't even have private health insurance.

18th June 2005, 06:00 PM
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irishgenes
18th June 2005, 06:19 PM
Well, I agree that it is not good to take antibiotics for a long time, and I was uneasy doing so. I took pro-biotics along with it, and then decided to switch to the 20 mg. doxy twice a day after I read that at that level, it does not even act as an antibiotic (germ killer), but reduces inflammation.
I much prefer to pay my own health care costs to having the government tell me what I can and cannot take. However, I know that the US government is going to get much more restrictive of our freedoms in the near future. I was reading a sign at the health food store the other day which said that due to CODEX, some kind of global authority is threatening to take away our right to buy over the counter nutritional supplements like vitamins and pycnogenol.
"All power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely."

18th June 2005, 08:53 PM
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irishgenes
18th June 2005, 09:09 PM
I know drugs are ridiculously expensive here. Fortunately, the older drugs like generic doxycycline are more reasonable.

Jacob, where did you go? This is your thread! I just noticed another thread on here called "Fluorescent Lighting". It appears you might really be flushing to your computer screen. Live and learn.

keisha06
19th June 2005, 04:34 AM
Dr. Darm is in Tigard, Oregon, very close to Portland. His email is drdarm@msn.com and the phone number is 503-697-9777.