Tell me the first Rosacea symptoms that sent you to a doctor

[Boston]

I'm trying to figure out if I have Rosacea. A friend of mine, who has been diagnosed, said her initial symptoms were terrible breakouts on her chin that itched. I was diagnosed with blepharitis 3 years ago....and I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop. I really have never had unusual facial flushing. However, for the past week, my face has a terrible burning sensation.....like a bad Florida sunburn. It feels tight and a bit puffy....but others don't seem to see it. It's a constant feeling....it doesn't come and go. (And no....it's not hot flashes!)

Thoughts?

[Brady Barrows]

Boston,

Now that is a good question. It was so long ago, probably over 25 years ago. As I recall, I simply had what I thought was a bad case of acne that felt hot all the time. The derm told me I had rosacea which I had never heard about. Handed me a tube of Metrogel and a prescription for tetracycline. I used those for years and it sort of worked, but wasn't happy with the long term effects of antibiotics. Who knows what the long term effects of Metrogel are if there are any? I haven't noticed any long term effects of Metrogel, so hopefully there aren't any.

[fanta]

Brady, have you ever had any laser treatments?

[lafittevillage]

Flushing, burning, p&p. I freaked out, call my derm, forced them to give me an appointment in one week, and went to see them. I turned beet red in front of them cause I was freaking out about all the "creams/orals" they said "could" work! I came out with Noritate, Doxy (100mg twice a day which seems to be doing NADA for my p&p OR flushing or anything else for that matter). Hmmmmmmmm. Grrrrr. I have no health insurance either so it's tough paying for this crap BUT I rather stab my bank account with RXs than look in the mirror and freak out. Thank God I'm a simple girl that likes simple things, otherwise I'd have to choose between treatments and fine dining. :D I'm sure my lovey dovey patooty feels the same way. BUT, again, I'm saving up for IPLs/Accutane (if I can find a doc that will prescribe it). Seems like the best way to go ..along with all the diet changes I have to make. For instance, today I had an apple for breakfast..with some carrots...BUT then..I went to a buffet with fam. and ended up eating spinach, carrots, some other veggie (forgot what it was -,-), cottage cheese and raisins (omg, LOVE the mix *drools*), and AND...applecrip mixed in with frozen yogure..twice! AAAAH. OH! I had this lemon cake thing from a bakery..and at night I had three pieces of Hershey's dark mini chocolate (66 percent dark chocolate). I ate ALOT. Ooooh, I wouldn't mind sticking to my yummy cottage cheese diet with raisins and spinach/carrots everyday..but I'm not sure if cottage cheese is good for rosaceans.

Anyway! I think I went way off topic here!

xxxx's to all
and have a wonderful beautiful weekend!

[Sylvia66]

Next year, will be my 20th yr having rosacea. My first symptom
was flushing, followed by burning. Back then dermatologists didn't
have a clue what was up and prescribed sulfer based meds (obviously,
it didn't do anything... but cost a lot). When I moved to CA, I tried
being a vegetarian... drank gallons of water... avoided dairy... even
sugar. Nothing helped. Then in '93, I was offically diagnosed having
rosacea and cystic acne. I was prescribed Doxy (I was taking either
200 or 250 mgs daily) and Metro gel (which didn't do anything). After
being on Doxy for 10 yrs, I stopped taking it. My cystic acne didn't
return and many of my rosacea symptoms lessened.

[fanta]

Flushing, burning, p&p. I freaked out, call my derm, forced them to give me an appointment in one week, and went to see them. I turned beet red in front of them cause I was freaking out about all the "creams/orals" they said "could" work! I came out with Noritate, Doxy (100mg twice a day which seems to be doing NADA for my p&p OR flushing or anything else for that matter)

I dont think that its been bad treatment youve gotten initially, In 2004 I had ocular symptoms after 1 month with rosacea and they put me on 150mg tetralysal (the mildest form of tetracyclin treatment you can put anyone on). I had complained about severe eye pains and couldnt even open my eyes when I talked to my derm (in early August). She took me off this treatment after 1 month as it didnt worked, referred me to a hospital where I had to wait 3 months without meds. Finally, 4 months later (in early January) after I had called and visited my derm and optha several times and had 2 visits to hospital I finally got a prescription for 200 mg doxy for 7 days, and then things went wrong so I got another week on 200 mg doxycyclin (all something I asked them to put me on as they were completely lost). Then I took three months on 100 mg doxycycline.

I wish I had had a doctor that would start out more aggressively than all those idiots refusing to listen to me for 4 freaking months. 200 mg doxycycline as initial treatment is rather aggressive, so I dont think you should complain. If you dont respond to this lasers and low dose isotretinoin are natural treatment modalities and your doctor will probably not be against that.
You should have quite severe rosacea if you dont respond at all to so much antibiotics (200mg doxycyclin is more than twice as powerful as 1000 mg tetracyclin). On the other hand, if you tolerate Differin then you might not have so severe rosacea. If I put Differin on my skin just once, I would get a red tattoo in the skin and flushings for months. Differin is something you need some months to get over, its harsh to even healthy skin. Perhaps you should try something like zitromax, aziethromycin 250 mg 3 times a week. Derms give this against severe rosacea and severe acne (isotretinoin resistant acne). Dr. Nase recommends also 500 mg Clarithromycin, which might be just as good, I just sense that aziethromycin is used a little bit more than clarithromycin by dermatologists. Also, I sense that aziethromycin reaches higher concentrations in the skin than clarithromycin and that its better to use long term (250mgX3/week ) than clarithromycin. However, some dont tolerate aziethromycin (like Dr. Nase), while others are allergic to clarithromycin.

[lafittevillage]

Yeah. That's why my dermatologists said. Try these, if they don't work, we'll try something else. I was on Doxy for acne (three or so months) and it cleared me up COMPLETELY for five or so years before the Rosacea hit this Fall. I remained on Differen as a maintenance drug and I had absolutely no problems except for a pimple every two months or so which didn't bother me at all. My skin healed on its on, my complexion evened out, my scars diminished.

She's a GREAT doctor, really amazing, understanding, knows her stuff. However, I got nervous about all the feed back everyone posted regarding Differen. I asked her to switch me to Azelex but she was reluctant to do so. When she did call it in to the Pharm, it was way too much money so I decided to follow her advice and stay on Differen. My rosacea isn't severe by any means. The flushing is what brings on P&Ps but unfortunately, I have no idea how to control that aspect of Rosacea since I start to heat up for no apparent reason. Also, the flushing causes 'old acne' marks to raise their ugly heads and that's what bothers me too. Not to mention the open pores and strange bumpy complexion it brought on. The Noritate, on the other hand, seems to be making me break out. The Doxy so far hasn't proved its fight against the P&Ps but I've only been on it for a week, going on two this Tuesday. They HURT, sting, and when I finally think they are gone, they come back in the same exact place! Azelex is supposed to be great about killing P&Ps so it'd be cool to have it as a spot treatment. I know someone else on this board said that's what they used it for.

If it wasn't for the blotchy aspect of my skin, for the fact that when I flush I look like I have spotty allergies and/or acne, I wouldn't mind having pink cheeks. But, unfortunately, I had acne and my pink cheeks come with red dots!..and now, with new and strange rosacea P&Ps.

Anyway, I'm giving this treatment a chance though I'd love to start out as aggressive as I can --accutane/IPL. -,- ..or IPL/accutane!

I'm weary about the Doxy. Maybe it's not working b/c I used it before and the bacteria became resistant to it? And! I didn't know it was that strong. Certainly doesn't feel like it though I've never had side effects with any medication I've taken. Maybe it's b/c most of the time I allow my body to fight through sickness on its on w/o relying on medication THOUGH..skin problems are my weakness and I'd take anything to be rid of them! :D

I'll definitely mention the other antibiotics you suggested if Doxy doesn't prove its fight for me again. :D Especially since I don't want to end up with lots of bumps all over my skin again!

[fanta]

you said 1 week on doxy, ooh thats too early to say anything. Doxycycline is stronger than tetracycline, but slow-acting. You need at least three months or 10 gram accumulated before doxycyclin will work really well. Doxycycline has a halftime of 22 hours, while tetracycline has a halftime of 10 hours. It takes you about 1 week to get tetracycline eliminated from your body, while it takes 3 weeks to get doxycycline eliminated. I think doxycycline is one of the best antibiotics to take long term.
If I were you I would stop Differin completely, find a good protective cream (Linda Sy Zinco or others), not look in the mirror for 2 months and the evaluate whether you are satisfied or not. If not, you could start out with isotretinoin in March or so when the dry weather is over and you are more ready for something like isotretinoin. With recent onset of rosacea you would probably only need something like 10 mg every other day for 10-16 months (my guestimate for someone like you with less than a year of damage). I started this year in May after 10 months of rosacea (like you never had any symptoms before onset) and I did go into remission after 3 weeks. My skin just dried out too much and I eventually reacted too much to isotretinoin that I had to stop. However, better stary like I did carefully and then either dose up or cut over the 10 mg pills in half in one way of another.

[Brady Barrows]

Brady, have you ever had any laser treatments?

fanta,

No. Never had laser, IPL or any other light emitting device. Here is my editorial on IPL >

http://www.rosaceans.com/html/ipl.html

[claudia]

I've had rosacea for probably 40 years...long time...since I was 15. I had very bad deep "acne" on my chin and forehead. Any topical acne products caused severe flushing, peeling, and rawness. Antibiotics, especially doxy helped and 2 rounds of full dose Accutane in my 20's did too. Also benzoil peroxide products cleared the blemishes but took a toll on my skin. I've never tried lasers...was going to but now after reading many sad tales of what went wrong have decided that my rosacea is not that bad. I don't flush badly unless careless about topical products and I'm responding well to my tx regime below.

[arcticrose]

Redness that wasn't going away, flusing with mild burning and the flushing would stay anywhere from 1-3 hours.