Vent/whine (long)

[Guest guest]

I've seen a couple of posts in recent weeks from people who've

been/are near-suicidal as a result of their skin problems. Hoo-boy,

can I relate to that, though in my case it's more a " straw that broke

the camel's back " kind of situation. I guess I should mention that

what I suffer from isn't really rosacea but I haven't come across

anything else with much similarity to my symptoms, so here I am. My

problems started as a result of a freak reaction to a skin care

regimen that included glycolic acid products and hydrocortisone,

almost a year ago. Ever since then my skin's become progressively

painful and sensitive. I'd change my skin care products to gentler

ones, which seemed to help for awhile, but as the sensitivity

continued to worsen so would the pain and skin damage. Last August I

tried the cea-LTD disks for a few days - big mistake. They

really irritated my skin and I suspect they exacerbated this

condition. Ever since then the skin damage and pain has been

accelerating. I'm not 100% positive the disks are to blame - the

irritation didn't seem THAT bad - but in retrospect it was a bad idea

to subject my extremely fragile skin to any more " therapeutic "

products.

I really wish I'd heeded some of the wisdom offered me and

discontinued my makeup/sunblock etc months ago before things got so

bad. In the past I'd tried going without them for several days and

hadn't noticed any difference, but now my sensitivity's reached the

point where I definitely notice a difference....so for the last month

I've been going out into the world with my zits uncovered. Last week

I gave up Spectro-Jel (nonallergenic cleanser) and Vita-Oil in favour

of plain H20 and mineral oil, which is supposed to be one of least

irritating moisturizers out there. It does a crappy job though and I

don't notice any difference. Maybe the mineral oil's irritating me

too, but my face is pretty painful even where I don't moisturize.

I'm 24 and my skin is aging at an alarming rate, with tons of fine

lines and thinning unevenly. The undereye area is particularly bad.

At first I thought I might be imagining it, but the damage has

accelerated to the point where in the last 2 ½ months alone I've

noticed a dramatic change. The veins underneath my eyes have become

extremely visible, with frequent pin-prick spots of bleeding

(petechiae) underneath the skin. I know petechiae are normal for

some people, but I never had ANY a year ago. GSE and Ester-C don't

make any difference. I get pitted scars from relatively small zits,

plus tons of spontaneous, irregular pitted scarring where there

hasn't been any trauma to the skin. Most of it's pretty superficial

but it looks just awful in certain lighting. I was quite

unattractive to begin with so this is really distressing me. I've

heard from a couple of people who have something similar going on

with their skin, but not accelerated damage like I'm experiencing.

Equally horrible is the PAIN - burning, aching, tight, pressurized,

crawling, occasionally slightly throbbing. My skin's really reactive

to wet heat, and often just leaning over slightly hot (though

comfortable) running water is enough to set off really uncomfortable

crawling sensations in my cheeks. I add cold water to my hot tea and

am careful to hold it so it doesn't aggravate my left cheek, which is

worse for some reason. The pain is always worse when I'm lying in

bed (doesn't matter what my bedtime snack is), and my sleeping pill

addiction's getting really out of hand.

I found the articles on neuropathic pain interesting. Several months

ago I didn't realize the damage was still continuing and suspected

this might be my problem. I asked my derm about doxepin cream and

she basically laughed and said it was just for itching. A few weeks

ago I went to a pain clinic partly because of this problem, and the

only help I received was a recommendation to increase the oral

Neurontin I'm on for painful scalp. My pain had temporarily improved

since quitting the makeup/sunblock and at the time I was falsely

optimistic that I might be on the way to healing, so I didn't

complain as enthusiastically as I should have. The doctor didn't

even bother looking at my skin - since I'm not beet-red she just

ASSUMED it was due either to nerve damage or neurosis, probably the

latter. I can't say I blame her - I'm well aware of how bizarre it

sounds. But the extra Neurontin does absolutely nothing for this.

Or if it does, I'd hate to see where I'd be without it. I'm already

practically ODing on Tylenol.

Vent over....thanks for listening.

Beliala