If you beat rosacea let the board know!

[yossarian]

I think from the start the board owners should promote a system where if anybody does manage to put their rosacea into remission, that person should post so that their success is put on the record here.
I've found that when the question of cures/remission arises on a long-running help forum there are sometimes faint references to people who might have had success, but nothing firm. Most people who beat the condition just disappear, and I don't blame them for wanting to put all of this behind them for good, but we need to document these success stories so that they can continue to serve as hope for others for a long time to come.

Perhaps in the future these stories can be contained in a sticky thread at the top. Obviously it's premature to do it now but it's something to consider for the future.

[frank]

I guess you could say I did beat Rosacea. I was diagnosed with it back in early 1995. I was prescribed tetracycline, but it was too strong for my stomach and went on doxycicline. Stayed on it for about 2-3 years and also I was on metrogel, on an "as needed" basis. My rosacea wasn't nearly as bad as some pictures I've seen on Rosacea web sites and magazines. After about 6-7 years with metrogel I noticed that it wasn't really doing anything for my skin. It wasn't helping nor hurting it. So I decided to stop using it and since then have been trying to take a lot of care (pampering ) of my face. I use Linda Sy Zinc Oxide (tinted) and use Oil of Olay Complete at night for moisturising. Also I avoid direct exposure to sunlight, which is very harmful to my face and skin. And I try to drink lots of water to moisturise the skin in general. But most definitely the zinc oxide has given me my confidence back and I no longer fear being out in public, or going to department stores with those huge bright lights. Currently my face is pretty much normal looking, although I do have a small patch of spider vein on my left cheek, not big, but certainly it's there. Is that from the rosacea? I don't know, maybe it's my age.
That's all for now.
Frank

[Peter]

I agree with you that it is a shame we do not have records of success rates with rosacea as it would give many individuals hope that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Not sure how you would collect the data as you say "they just disapear".

I know Geoffrey will disagree with me but I still think there is evidence that for some the condition is self-limiting i.e. it does eventually go away by itself and the trick is to find the correct treatment to keep your skin looking normal in the interim. Unfortunately as we know however the condition for some people quickly becomes so severe and debilitating that it is very difficult for them to get a treatment that halts the progression.

Personally I believe my rosacea is now in remission despite the odd very minor trigger but currently I would not like to tempt fate by stating in public that I have beaten it.

Interesting to see what others think.

Peter

[RedHotCanuck]

Peter,

Good to hear that you have control over your Rosacea. Maybe not cured, but control, which is a start.

I think the rest of the users, including myself, would be interested in how you stuffed your Rosacea into remission.

Regards,
Mike

[yossarian]

Not sure how you would collect the data as you say "they just disapear".

That's what I mean when I say promote a system. There could be a sticky thread (I assume people know what I mean by that) or perhaps a sub-forum called "success stories". At the beginning it would look a bit sad and empty, but it's existence would provoke people to give their tales of success and over time they would build up. With this forum having just started I figured it was a good idea to be active in establishing the things we might wish we had a year or maybe five years into the future.
Perhaps minor successes, such as a new treatment having a positive effect, could be included. People talk about what treatments they want to try, but it would be good to know how things worked out for them after the treatment. I know these things often make it into threads but it would be nice to have them all together in one place.
Just a thought.

[Kelli]

I actually like this idea.

I have a hard time trying to decifer (sp?) what works and what doesn't.

[drnase]

Hi Peter,

Great to hear. I truly think that rosacea will never go away by itself (or back to per-rosacea as there is no cure). What usually happens is you actively do something without realizing it which has a postive influence on rosacea BUT more importantly, many go into remission by just unknowingly removing one constant trigger like skin care products, etc.

My mother and my grandma both said to me that yr body runs in 7 year cycles of renewal (or something) and they fully expected my problem to burn itself out as apparantlt my nan had something similar and then it disappeared.

Well 10 years later its still here! Why can't parents be right when you actually want them to be!?

[drnase]

Sally Ann,

Hopefully she was not talking dog years

[Peter]

Hello Mike

My full story would be a little long for this forum. If you can get into the RSG archives you will find a report I wrote in January 2001 and really that covers it. It is under ACNE LAMP - PETER in the headings.

In brief after taking oral and topical AB's I decided to try the acne lamp and afer a few weeks it was obvious it was helping. That was 7 nearly years ago now and I still use the all red version nearly every day for 15 minutes and also use a small amount of Dalacin T lotion (Clindamycin) morning and night. I took Dixarit (Clonidine) for a couple of years to help keep the flushing attacks I was getting under control.

I changed my soap to Clinique mild and shaving gel to Clinique M shave when wet shaving followed by Aloe vera gel (Aloe99) as an after shave balm. Aloe doesn't work for everybody so do a patch test first. That's all I use on my skin and I stopped using any sun screen as they all irritate.

Hope this helps.


Regarding the success stories (yossarian) yes I think it would be a great idea to set up a sub-heading in the forum where these could be archived for inspiration to others.

Hello Geoffrey

Hope you recovery is going well.

I don't really care whether rosacea goes away or goes into remission providing it never returns. I still think it does fade away in some people provided they get it under control in the first place but we could argue this one for a long time. Certainly until we can discover the cause of the condition we cannot be sure what makes it go into remission. My dermatologist tells me that when he first started practising many years ago he was trained to tell patients that they had rosacea for life and that treatment would have to follow suit. Over the years he has realised this is not the case and he has seen numerous people where their rosacea has disapeared. He is not the type of guy to make things up so lets hope he is right.

Best wishes

Pete