Vanessa’s Rosacea Story

Written by David Pascoe on May 25, 2016 in My Rosacea Story with 0 Comments

Rosacea News is starting a new series of articles that I’m calling “My Rosacea Story”. There is real power in hearing other people’s stories. We’d love to hear from you too. Feel free to send me an email, and to use the following questions as a starting point.

Thanks to Vanessa for sharing your Rosacea Story.

How long ago, and how did you discover you had rosacea?

As a child, I always had red colouring to my skin, in particular my nose, cheeks and chin. I would blush easily and stay red for quite a while. School sports would send me dark red with very little exertion.
I first heard about rosacea when I was about 19 years old, but didn’t think that I had rosacea because I didn’t get acne. I wondered whether I had a lupus ‘butterfly rash’ (which I don’t).
When I was in my forties, a dermatologist confirmed that I had rosacea. After a couple of Google searches, I learned about erythematotelangiectatic rosacea.

What feelings can you remember from when you first found out?

At first I was embarrassed that I had been ignorant of the fact that I had rosacea, but was also relieved to put a name to the condition and to understand it better.

What did you start doing to find relief?

Mainly tried to avoid triggers, which is virtually IMPOSSIBLE given how many triggers exist. So I also rely heavily on foundation to hide the redness. This can be a bit tricky too, because heavy makeup looks ghastly on me, so I need to use fairly sheer foundation, which isn’t as effective at hiding the redness ??
I stick to using cleansers and moisturisers that are comfortable on my skin.

What things did you try that didn’t help?

Laser Genesis to try to minimize the diffuse redness (and it was expensive!)

What things did you try that did help?

Diet, makeup, avoiding alcohol, stay out of sun and wind as much as possible.
NdYAG Laser to reduce the superficial facial capillaries.

Where did you find the best advice?

Variety of sources, such as the Internet and health professionals. The best, most reliable advice would be repeated consistently throughout all of these varied sources of information.