A little encouragement please!!

[blbase]

Hi all,

I am a rosacea suffere and I've been using the ZZ cream for 12 weeks with amazing sucess.I believe somone told me my skin looked incredible!! Now all of a sudden I'm starting to get bumps again and I'm looking a little red. Is this just a setback?? Will my skin clear up again?
Replies would be appreciated, Thanks!!

[SteveInAustin]

Hi all,

I am a rosacea suffere and I've been using the ZZ cream for 12 weeks with amazing sucess.I believe somone told me my skin looked incredible!! Now all of a sudden I'm starting to get bumps again and I'm looking a little red. Is this just a setback?? Will my skin clear up again?
Replies would be appreciated, Thanks!!

What have you done lately that's different from your usual routine?

Also, it sounds like you've had a recontamination episode. In other words, did something touch your face recently? Did you sweat a lot onto your face and then not wash your face immediately afterwards? Did you dry your face with a dirty towel? Did an animal touch your face? Did you start wearing a coat everyday which touches your face (and not washing the coat everyday)? Did you meet someone new who touched your face? Or maybe you touched something and then you touched your face later. That can happen. Or did you maybe forget to treat your face with the creams one or two days?

Whenever this happened to me, it generally was a recontamination episode. And it went away within a week or two. It's a lot easier getting rid of it if you've been clear for months before that.

Also, flare-ups like yours can happen if you're doing the full dosage for a year or longer. I don't know why it happens. You solve that problem by decreasing your dosage to the maintenance dose (ZZ once every 2 nights, and stop using XFML). That worked for me. Now I tell people to go on the maintenance dosage after you've been clear for about 2 months in a row instead of staying on the full dosage for over a year.

Steve
Austin, Texas USA

[blbase]

Thanks Steve!!

You are absolutely correct and I had forgotten but I was not feeling well (one of those end of the season colds) and I fell asleep one night and never treated my face. Also because I was so tired I got lazy with changing the pillow cases and towels every day!!! When I got home from work last night I stripped the bed and washed everything and sprayed with Lysol. I'm actually much better today no new bumps and the ones I had are almost gone. I think I was turning red again because I used to much of the ZZ as Walter says only a little is needed.

Thanks so much for your reply!!

[SteveInAustin]

Thanks Steve!!

You are absolutely correct and I had forgotten but I was not feeling well (one of those end of the season colds) and I fell asleep one night and never treated my face. Also because I was so tired I got lazy with changing the pillow cases and towels every day!!! When I got home from work last night I stripped the bed and washed everything and sprayed with Lysol. I'm actually much better today no new bumps and the ones I had are almost gone. I think I was turning red again because I used to much of the ZZ as Walter says only a little is needed.

Thanks so much for your reply!!

Yep, that would do it. I did similar things once, and I learned not to do them again. Haha. Yeah, at first you're trying to figure out just what you can get away with and how lazy you can be and still do alright. I can tell you from my experience that you can't get away with anything really. Forget to change the pillow case, don't wash your face after a work-out, skip a treatment or two, etc. and you will punished.

I don't think there's any need to spray with lysol. Just wash your stuff and dry them in a hot dryer until they're no longer damp. That should work.

Another thing you can do is just buy 3 of everything. The mites die off after 3 days outside of the body. Actually, what I do is to use 7 bath towels for drying myself off, and I don't typically wash them until about a month has gone by. But I only use those on my body. For my face, I use a fresh, clean dry wash cloth. I have at least 21 of those and use two to three wash-cloths per day (one in the morning, one at night, and one during a work-out). And they're small, so they're easy and more economical to wash than big bath towels. For pillow cases, I have 7 of those and wash them all once a week. Again, they're small so it's not so bad having to wash them once a week. Also, for my work-outs, I use a fresh wash-cloth.

For your bed sheets, I don't see the need to wash them or change them everyday unless you're making facial contact with them. So I just leave them on and don't wash/change them for a while. It would be a pain to wash them or change them every night.

As for the cold you have, that can also affect your appearance. A cold will tax your immune system, and that could cause you to break-out more. Poor diet and not enough exercise can also have that effect. So treat yourself well.

Oh, and I see you say the bumps you had are almost all gone. Yeah, it's amazing, isn't it? Like I said, they clear up fast so long as you've been clear for a while before the break-out.

Steve
Austin, Texas USA

[blbase]

Thanks for all your help and advice Steve!! I do pretty much the same thing. I have seven towels, seven pillow cases, and a ton of washcloths. I wash the pillow cases towels and my blankets at least twice a week so I never run out. (The blankets I do because the dog tends to sleep on my bed, not a good idea but he's bigger than me!!) The Lysol is because I get a little crazy with disinfectants in my house, my husband has had a kidney/pancreas transplant, so when I'm sick everything gets sprayed!!

Thanks again for your support, I am doing much better now!!

[1downunder]

Sigh

Its gonna be a tough battle to constantly keep these mites away. Can I ask blbase, after how many weeks did you see the biggest improvement?

Also steve, when you are clear of rosacea symtoms for 2 months and go into maintainence mode, do you have to worry about these things like no kissing, changing sheets and towels after use etc?

Also, does demodex eliminate flushing as it cures the inflammation associated with rosacea?

Thanks,
Zach

[Marla]

Well, yes and no to kissing and changing sheets. No need to go to extremes when you are in maintenance mode.

I suggest the following simple precautions:

1) Occasionally vacuum your bed. Leave the sheets and blankets on, or take them off. No matter.

2) Keep a sticky roller nearby. Use it for pillows, bed linens, lampshades, and upholstry. Once in awhile, take a pass at those things with the sticky roller.

3) Shake linens outdoors whenever it seems like the thing to do. This is helpful if you do not want to wash your blankets and scatter rugs. (Stand upwind.)

I've been told that kissing spreads germs. What do you think?

--Marla

[blbase]

Hi Zach!!

It seems that I was pretty much clear after 6 weeks. I only use the ZZ at night because my skin was extremely dry. I use very little, a one month supply lasted 2 months. If I use too much my skin turns a little red.and burns. But everyone reacts differently. Also I apply while my face is damp, makes it easier to apply. I can't believe the improvement!! I just want to run through the streets telling everyone with a red face or acne to buy this product!!!

I can share my experiences with the flushing from rosacea also. I used to flush from hot, not spicy, foods and beverages, warm climates, stress/anger, and I would get severe hot flashes and turn bright red in the morning after a shower and blow dryer. The only time I flush now is from anger and I have to be really mad. No more hot flashes in the morning, I can put make up on and blow dry without breaking out into a sweat!! I also would get this strange prickly/pins & needles feeling on my face when I was surprised or caught off guard by something I still get that but no where near the severity it used to be. So the ZZ has definately helped me with my flushing I would think it will help with yours too.

Goold Luck and keep us posted on your progress.

[SteveInAustin]

Also steve, when you are clear of rosacea symtoms for 2 months and go into maintainence mode, do you have to worry about these things like no kissing, changing sheets and towels after use etc?

Also, does demodex eliminate flushing as it cures the inflammation associated with rosacea?

Thanks,
Zach

Zach,

Yep, you have to worry about recontamination for as long as you continue having rosacea / acne. Which means pretty much forever, since the creams probably won't actually cure you. Recontamination is a real problem. But if you keep washing your face twice a day and applying ZZ once every 2 nights, you'll keep it in check. The worst that will happen is you get a few pimples somewhere on your face, and they go away within a week. That's because there's not going to be a lot of them. They also form immediately after you've been recontaminated, rather than the 2 month period it usually takes. So it's easy to control.

As for your rosacea questions, I don't know much about rosacea. I'm coming from a mostly acne-related problem. I had what I think was the start of a little rosacea, and it has happily gone away.

Steve
Austin, Texas USA

[1downunder]

Thanks for your responses. I very much appreciate it.

I had a good reaction to the treatment when I first started using it, but apart from that it hasn't made major strides since then (Have just finished my 4th week)

Basically the inflammation has settled but I am hoping the zz ointment will also take care of standing redness and reduce the size of my pores.

Anyway, I shall keep with it!

Cheers,
Zach