Re: Hallo everyone and 2 questions

[Guest guest]

> Hi there.

> I have learned a lot over the past month or so from reading

> everyones elses posts on this group so I thought it was about time

I

> introduced myself and my rosacea! (Hope this isn't too long, I

won't

> be so extensive with future posts...)

> I am 26 years old and have only just been diagnosed with rosacea

and

> seb. derm although I myself would trace the onset of rosacea back

to

> 1995 when I had the second of two rhinoplasties (both times for

> broken noses).

What have you been doing to break your nose so many times???

Ever since then I have had dry red irritable skin on

> my nose, and tingling sensations especially at the tip.(In fact a

> plastic surgeon recently told me that sometimes there is damage to

> the sympathetic nervous system during rhinoplasty that causes

> flushing) After a few years I started to get quite a lot of pain in

> the bridge of nose and over the past year or so my nose has been

> constantly runny. I also have noticed the skin on my nose has

> thickened and taken on an orange peel like texture, and one of the

> pores is very large and is associated with a yellowish nodule. The

> look of the bridge of my nose has also changed slightly, a bit

> more 'bumpy' though I am not sure if this is cartilage regrowth or

a

> rhinophyma symptom. I also have some red lines on the side of my

> nose. I get pustules and papules only occasionally although

recently

> I got a very large red bump on my nose and my nose went extremely

> oily with a lot of pain- this subsided after taking a course of

> doxycycline. My dermatologist has so far only given a topical

> Daktacort cream to apply- which is an antifungal and hydrocortisone

> cream to relieve the seb derm, but I stopped using it after a

couple

> of weeks (He wanted me to use it for eight) because I've read so

> many bad things about hydrocortisone here!

> I'm thinking of changing my dermatologist because of this, so can

> anyone recommend one in London, UK?

Definately stay away from corticosteroids. If you want an

antifungal, compound it in Noritate or whatever Metronidazale product

you have in London.

I believe Europe has a topical isotretinoin + erythromycin

combination. The benefit of the erythromycin in there is that it

acts as an anti-inflammatory which will help those who otherwise

couldn't tolerate isotretinoin alone. Hint: if you want to use

topical retinoids on your nose, use a cream vehicle. Try Differin

(adapalene) cream. I would, however, just opt for low dose

Accutane. We in the USA don't have topical isotretinoin. However,

Differin is less irritating that topical isotretinoin. My research

has ranked the topical retinoids in decreasing irritation as follows:

Tazorac, tretinoin, isotretinoin, adapalene, btw...

> Also, I am interested in the possibility of taking isotretinoin as

I

> believe that my symptoms are early stage rhinophyma though I

believe

> I would have a tough time convincing a dermatologist of this as the

> symptoms are not that severe (but they are definetly getting

worse).

> Are there are any good TOPICAL isotretinoin medications analogous

to

> retin-A (which contains tretinoin) out there? I have only found

> information about ISOTREX which contains ethanol and is therefore,

I

> presume, a no-no for rosaceans because of the alcohol.

>

> Any comments much appreciated!

>

> Neil