Location: St. Augustine, FL
About Me: A high school Biology teacher's coping with rosacea while living in the interesting and sometimes insane world of public education.
July 11, 2004
My Daily Regimen
Here is my daily anti-Rosacea routine. I take a lukewarm shower with Dove soap and a mild shampoo. Since any shampoo burns my face I rinse it off as quick as possible. After drying, I use a little Eucerin cream on the face and a general alcohol-free moisturizer elsewhere. In the rare event of a sudden flushing emergency at school I keep a spray bottle of distilled water in the fridge to spritz on my face. If caught early, the water can lessen the redness. I also have discovered the joys of makeup for these emergencies. I keep a tube of green concealer stick at work. A few dabs of that blended in will cover a lot of the redness without giving a 'makeup look'.
I have been a vegetarian for a number of years, so I naturally eat a high protein, low fat diet. I try to keep the carbs down since it seems to exacerbate the problem for some.
Each day I take 2 grams of borage oil and a couple of aspirin as anti-inflammatories. I don't know if it really does much, but it doesn't hurt and the oil seems to help with the dryness. I also take a regular multivitamin, 1 gram of vitamin C, 400 IU of vitamin E, a B complex vitamin, selenium, and zinc. I do this more for general health benefits, though some people say it has helped with Rosacea. I also take my low doasage (0.1mg) of prescription Clonodine.
In the event of a crisis at home, I will alternate putting on aloe vera gel, chamomile extract made from boiling dried chamomile and straining/cooling the mixture, and moisturizer. I learned the hard way that cortisone type preparations are an absolute no-no. It will thin the skin and make the condition worse over time. These emergency treatments act to calm the skin and reduce inflammation.
That's the secret to my keeping this under control. It sounds worse than it is. I've gotten used to the routine now and do it as a normal part of the day. Oh yes, stress.
I try to relax and breathe deeply when stress pops up, as this is one of my main triggers. All of this keeps me looking pretty normal most of the time now. I probably notice any change in redness more than others do. When I went to the doctor this summer and told the nurse about the Rosacea as part of my medical history, she said that she would never have guessed I had that problem. I guess that means the treatments are working.
Posted by Ken Albin on July 11, 2004 12:42 PM