Inflammation/seb derm cycle
I’ve been battling seb derm and maybe Rosacea for about a year now.
The skin on my cheeks is often inflamed and rough, and I only
recently was able to spot the pattern.
Once in a while, I’ll get my skin under control and it will look
close to normal. Then something will make my cheeks turn a bright
smooth red for a day. Over the next few days, the redness will go
away and be replaced by a rough texture and a blotchy redness that
will linger.
It took me a while to realize the second phase is the seb derm, and
the initial redness is something else. As long as I avoid the
triggers that give me the initial redness, my seb derm goes away and
stays away. But if I’m frequently hit by whatever causes the initial
redness, it’s tough or impossible to make the seb derm go away. When
I thought I only had seb derm and focused on treating only that, I
made little or no progress.
Have other people noticed this pattern?
November 2nd, 2004 at 9:35 pm
I have the same pattern. I got a terrible flare-up from using a
Neutrogena moisturizer "for sensitive skin" about two months ago, and
now I have a rough, reddish, and scaly stain all around my nose that
just won’t go away. I went to a dermatologist, who tried to persuade
me to use steroids (Desowen). Of course I won’t, but I am not sure
what to do…
November 3rd, 2004 at 5:27 am
I think I used that same moisturizer =(. Actually, I had been using
that from time to time before I knew I had seb derm. I never really
had a problem from it that I could remember until Feb. At that time
I had been on various topicals for seb derm so I don’t know that the
moisturizer was the culprit. However, my skin had been getting so
dry and inflamed I thought I just needed serious moisturizing. It
flared my whole face something fierce.
Frankly, I don’t know what the best choice is. Every time I think
I’ve come across something that seems to work for a week and then
stops or the symptoms come back. Right now I’ve been going the
minimal route again and seeing if that gets me back to something. I
swear I feel like my skin was better before the derm this last go
around.
eric