Hallo everyone and 2 questions

February 23, 2002

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). 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?

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

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