Seborrheic Dermatitis

My name is Ray, I am 38 years old and have been dealing with Steroid
induced SD/Rosacea since May’04.

I consider myself a relatively healthy person. I do yoga and Pilates
at least 4 times a week in addition to playing tennis, swimming and
occasional weight lifting. I eat very strict from Sunday to Thursday
and cut loose on the weekends….margaritas/Mexican food.

During May of ‘04 I began to swim on a regular basis. I noticed that
the goggles were giving me a red bump on my upper cheek below my
eye. I called my derm and she told me to put some steroid cream on
it. I told her I had some Aclovate left over from a rash I had on my
elbow several months earlier which she approved. After a month of
applying the steroid, the bump turned into two bumps. This time I
went to the derm but my derm was unavailable so I saw her partner.

This derm told me that Aclovate was too strong for my face so she
prescribed Desonide.

I felt uneasy about the derms contradicting each other…this was a
big clue I should have looked into …but I didn’t….because doctors
know what they are doing and should be trusted… right?

I kept swimming and applying the Desonide and after several weeks of
this cycle the day finally arrived…I woke up with a nasty dermatitis
rash on the corner of both eyes.

I immediately went to see the derm who gave me a Kenalog shot in the
buttocks and told me to stop swimming and to continue to use the
Desonide. I did question her about the Desonide and she responded
by telling me that she has been treating her rosacea patients with
Desonide for years without incident.

I used this stuff for two months without any clearing. I went back
to the Derm who then prescribed prednisone. I was to "knock it out"
with four days of oral steroids and guess what….nothing happened…the
rash had me and nothing seem to stop it.

By now my eyes looked horrible and for some strange reason my
stomach was acting up. It could have been the prednisone or it could
jus be psychosomatic, I still don’t know. But I did get an upper and
lower GI and the doc chalked it up to IBS….which is really the catch
all when they are not sure.

I went to another derm who got me off the Desonide and onto Elidel.
I used Elidel for a month and it did nothing. I got off the elidel
and started to apply Aquaphor which did help a little but in
retrospect is was because I was not applying chemicals to my face.

So now we are in October of ‘04, six freaking months with this
nightmare. My face is red, it burns it itches and shaving is a
challenge.

I decide to go to Baylor Collage of Medicine to get patch tested.
The test indicated that I am sensitive to latex, lanolin, fragrance
and balsam of peru. I proceed to switch all toiletries to
hypoallergenic products and wash all clothes with fragrance free
detergent. This took quite a bit of effort and guess what….nothing
happened.

At this point I’m going a bit crazy. I changed my diet to chicken,
grains, salad with olive oil, 1 cup of coffee and water. And yes,
nothing happened…I did loose about 10 lbs.

I go back to Baylor for a check up and the doc tells me that she
thinks we can knock out the rash with some extra strong steroids. I
was to apply the cream for 1 week and then go cold turkey. She also
gave me an article on Steroid Addiction.

Like an idiot I applied the strong steroid for a week and it did go
down a little but it came right back. However, the article she gave
me turned on a light bulb….I knew immediately after I read it that
my skin was addicted to the steroids. I fit the patient profile to a
T.

The article was written by a Dr. Marvin Rapaport out of Beverly
Hills. I contacted him via email and we continue to correspond. He
got me to stop all topical ointments and prepared me for
the "Rebound" and boy was it a doozy. I just had to laugh and how
freaking bad it was…it was out of a horror movie.

As predicted, the rash around my eyes went away within a month.
However my face was still red and very dry which I soon found out to
be facial SEBORRHEA.

To date my entire face and hairline is scaly. Not scaly like you
normally see SD. The scales are very fine without crusting. My upper
cheeks still have a rough patch on them

The itching is concentrated in tiny red bumps which appear all over
my face. I get two or three red bumps a week which last a few days.

My stomach continues to act funny.

Currently the SD has moved behind my ears and neck. I have not been
able to tolerate any medications for SD. Everything makes me
breakout worse. I tried T-Gel the other night which made the SD
behind my ear grow 5x.

It’s exciting to read about the success stories in this group. I
look forward to writing mine one day.

Thanks for reading.

Ray

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