My love for you is like a red, red nose...

Phalene — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 11:41:40 -0800

Rosacea management: care and hiding of a sometimes red face? Several questions all on one topic inside. I have moderate rosacea that afflicts only my nose. The antibiotics removed the surface damage, curing the bumps so I'm merely pink instead of red, inflamed and spotty, but discovering that I have an incurable tendency to flush in a disfiguring fashion means that I want to know the best ways to manage my condition on the other hand I don't want to live my life trying to avoid everything that could cause a rush of blood to prevent a flare up. So:

1) My dermatologist gave me a huge long list of things to avoid based on 'typical' rosacea suffers. Most of these (hot baths/showers/exertion/sun) certainly turn my feet red, but seem to improve my facial redness by fading it. Cold, allergens and surface bacteria seem to be my triggers. How to cope? I’m Canadian, so avoiding the whole winter thing is a non-option.

2) As a contact lense wearer, I find that eye irritation causes me to flush a little bit. How can I minimize this until I can get laser eye surgery (in another 2 or 3 years)? I would swap back to glasses, but the difference in vision between contacts and glasses is for me, considerable. How can I keep my eyes less inflamed, and thus my nose healthy?

3) As a female I want to wear makeup. What lines and brands of foundation/concealer/powder/etc should I look for, that I can use to cover the pink, when I don’t want to look cute and windblown, which have a good track record for sensitive skin? It’s no use hiding the pink only to turn it red with a flare up.

4) The ‘if left untreated’ pictures are ghastly and some things I’ve read say that getting worse is normal. Do I have a future of looking like boil covered raw meat, or do people generally do okay and this is those extreme pictures you typically find in medical texts? Similarly some sources say going into remission is possible (ie Wikipedia). How complete is that remission?

5) On the internet, rosacea seems to be a topic prone to voodoo cures and conflicting information. While interesting reading, what are the best rosacea resources? Non-flakey (ie actually has studies for their ‘emu-oil’ cure ideas) are best.

6) Socially speaking, how do I deal with nice people asking about my skin affliction (ie ‘You have a cold?’) or idiots humming ‘Rudolph’ in what they think is taking the mickey out of me, but is making my self esteem wither? I mean asides from screeching ‘Christ, what an asshole?’

7) I'm 22, and it seems to have started at 20. What gives? I thought this was a middle aged lady disease? Is this something to follow up on? Or is is just genetic luck of the draw, given that my mother has a pink nose too?

8) Anything else I should know about rosacea?

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My love for you is like a red, red nose...