New Member Greetings

Hi
I have lurked on these boards for some time. The humanity that I see expressed moves me almost to tears sometimes.

I'm a lot older than most of you (59) and I have dealt with acne since I was 13 and Rosacea since about the age of 34. Although my acne was not severe it was persistent, and now I do have some fairly serious scarring. I've had my share of cysts over the years but not to the point that I would be diagnosed with conglobate just "acne vulgaris" moderately severe, as one physician once diagnosed it. Needless to say I have some fairly prominent scarring on my face, but I have not let this stop me from living my life. I've been married twice (am currently married) and have had a decent social life over the years. There is no doubt that my skin conditions have held me back at times, but a lot of living life is not putting one's all of one's eggs in one basket, so if one thing doesn't work out for you, or you are rejected, cut your losses and move on !

There is no cure for acne or rosacea...period. Most derms fail to "get" the impact that acne or rosacea has on one's life, partially because most have never walked in our shoes, and partially because they know that there really isn't too much that they can do.

I don't think too, that we really know what causes either disease and I would venture that in fact we may be dealing with several different diseases that have similar or the same symptoms for each classification of disease. The problem with both acne and rosacea is that all we are really doing is treating the symptoms.

My biggest gripe with derms is that they are so conservative in their treatment. If you had a large cyst somewhere inside your body, what would a physician probably do ? Why operate, of course. Acne surgery especially with regard to cysts can bring about great relief.

So after years of different anti-biotics for acne, and tetracycline for rosacea, I was finally given the option of a light dosage of accutane....you know what...that dreaded accutane really cleared me up ! I won't lie and say my skin is perfect, but it has improved significantly. Now I had to find a derm who had rosacea and he proscribed for me what he takes which is 3 40mg capsules daily for a week, followed by 1 40mg capsule per week for about 12 weeks. The net result was that not only did my rosacea get better, but so did my acne. Has my roscea flared ? Of course, and when it does, I go back on the accutane and it clears.

To me, any side effects of accutane are worth it. I think individual tolerances vary significantly and some people do incur liver damage and become depressed, but not everyone, so if you are afraid, at least try it and if it doesn't work out, discontinue treatment.

So...there you have it. You have to make peace with your skin and live life the best you can, because you are probably going to live a fairly long time and many who peruse these boards with be taking acne or rosacea or both with them as passengers on their life journey. Nobody said life was fair...it's not, but we have to muddle through the best we can.

I sure wish I had clear skin, but then I wish I had a million dollars too

Best wishes to all of you, I do care very much about us because we are so misunderstood sometimes, and not really well treated by many physicians. We have one weapon in our arsenal that works more often than not which is accutane, and I say don't be afraid of it. It can't help all of us, but it can help many of us.

Regards,

Joe Zit