Skip to main content

Taming Rosacea Symptoms

For the past few years, I've had rosacea. This draws a lot of unwanted attention to my face. Lately, this annoying rash has started burning more too. There are 4 types of rosacea, and mine is the papulopustular - or acne - rosacea that resembles acne across my cheeks and nose. So, that's the one I'll be discussing today. Although, the rash is constant, heat triggers larger outbreaks and the uncomfortable burning sensation. So, warm showers, blow drying my hair, exercising, cooking, overexertion from cleaning, mowing, other types of work can all make this face rash worse. And I do at least 3 of these things daily. 

I don't want to take medication, and I can't afford many of the creams that are recommended. So, I've started using inexpensive acne medication to ease the burning and significantly fade the redness from bright red to light pink. You will need to discuss other treatments with your doctor if this doesn't work for you or if you have one of the other 3 types of rosacea. 

I do like to use exfoliating cleansers (acne or anti-aging cleanser) on my face, which can aggravate rosacea as well. Also, my main reaction to the rash has been to scrub as hard as possible, but I'm finally realizing that causes more irritation instead of relief. So, gently cleanse the rosacea patches. And if you can get by with a milder face cleanser, use that instead of an exfoliating cleanser. Rinse with lukewarm water, and gently pat your face dry. After cleansing and drying, I also dab benzoyl peroxide gel on the rash. 

Taming symptoms of rosacea

After only 3 days of treating my rosacea as described above, I already have the positive results I've been fighting these last 4 or 5 years. Less noticeable rosacea! The bumps are much smaller, hardly detectable and the bright red "blush" has faded. The day I took this picture, I had mowed, taken a warm shower, and blow dried my hair. Either one of these activities alone would have been a neon red trigger. So, apparently, the benzoyl peroxided continued to work as my face heated up.

Fading rosacea

I'm also just discovering that ocular rosacea is common too if one has facial rosea. I never connected the dry, burning sensation that I sometimes get in my eyes to the facial rosacea. So, now, I believe that this new eye symptom that has developed over the last couple of years may be rosacea as well. My eye will suddenly get very bloodshot and itchy. The first couple of times this happened, I rubbed my eye like all of us do. But that made the irritation worse, and my eye would be very sore, swollen, and red (also very embarrassing) for a few days, causing distorted vision and headaches as well. 

Now, I know how much that hurts and how terrible it looks after rubbing, so I like to use sterile eye drops to ease the itching, burning, redness, dryness, and gritty feeling. And when this happens, it takes all my might, but I do not rub my eyes when they start itching and burning. Thankfully, this happens only 3 or 4 times a year since it started about 2 years ago. My hope is that treating the acne rosacea on my face will help eliminate the number of times the ocular issues occur. A visit to an eye doctor may help you get a better diagnosis if these symptoms happen to you also. Your eye doctor may have better advice for you too. 

With that, I have more confidence when I do have to go out to do my grocery shopping or if one of the neighbors wants to have a chat when we see each other outside. I hope these simple treatments will help you too if you have these types of rosacea. 

Have a blessed day,

Patricia



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you for taking time to leave a comment. Your comment will be published after it has been moderated. All SPAM is deleted by Blogger.

Other Posts You Might Like

Charcoal Grilling Recipe for Beef Kebabs

Grilled Beef Kebabs AKA Kababs or Kabobs As I've already mentioned, grilling is my newest hobby . I call it a hobby; otherwise, I wouldn't do it because a lot of time is required to prep. Grilling is meant to get me outdoors more, so yes, it is a hobby. Someone recently told me that they enjoy grilling because it's so much easier and there is less cleanup. I'm not sure how that can be unless they simply add something onto the grill without prepping it with flavor. Gas grilling may be slightly easier since no prepping is needed to heat it up as with a charcoal grill. However, I'm not 100% sure about that. And honestly, I use more dishes for grilling than I normally would for cooking on my kitchen stove. But the flavors and connecting with nature are so worth it. Directions for these beef kebabs are for the charcoal grill.   But they can also be made in the oven or on a gas grill as well, using your own judgment for cooking times. This cook involves open-fire cooking,
Post a Comment
Read more

Backyard Wildlife Adventures

Watching our backyard wildlife is a favorite pastime at our house. We have a birdhouse that the bluebirds occupy most of the spring. A few years back, we had 4 different bird couples nest in the birdhouse. Besides the bluebirds that year, we also had Carolina wrens, barn swallows, and black capped chickadees. We used to set out birdseed and had a birdbath to attract more backyard avian such as the titmouse, cardinal, blue jay, cedar waxwing, house finch, goldfinch, wren, barn swallow, black capped chickadee, and others. We eventually had to take down the bird feeder and remove the birdbath, because the squirrels, crows, pigeons, and grackles discovered our little bird paradise and would leave nothing for the birds we wanted to attract. Since removing those items, we still have the occasional cardinal, blue jay, goldfinch and house finch drop by - just not in abundance like we used to. And the woodpeckers that came around frequently stopped coming by when we took down the feeder and bi
Post a Comment
Read more

Cast Iron Skillet Care

OMG! I bought a cast iron skillet. I thought this would be great to share with you this morning . I got my Lodge brand skillet at my local grocery store for about $10 less than I could buy it from Amazon. I didn't find out until I researched that Lodge is the best brand on the market according to other bloggers.  First thing you need to know is that you can't let these skillets get wet beyond washing them. Because they will rust. The second thing you need to know is these need to be seasoned with vegetable oil. So, even though my skillet was seasoned at the factory, I did have to wash it as soon as I got it home, because there was no covering on it. Everybody who was curious about a cast iron skillet had touched it before I bought it. Okay, probably not many people, but in my imagination, only 1 other person touching it was enough to warrant a thorough washing.  Once washed, I dried it with a completely dry dish towel - not one I had just dried my hands or other dishes with. 
Post a Comment
Read more