Thank you Aurelia for bringing to light the remark Rick made. No
disrespect to you Rick but I think such comments would better be kept
to oneself.

I underwent ETS surgery in May of 2004. This surgery was perhaps the
most serious and scary decision that I have ever had to make.

My quality of life was comparable to a person who had lost all 5
senses whilst being tortured with branding irons, hour after hour
24/7. No one and I mean no one can possibly know what it is like to
have your whole existence, your whole reason for being, torn away
from
you, unless you experience it. The same goes for anybody's individual
and unique experiences.

The indescribable pain, the constant exhaustion of visiting clueless
doctors with no answers, the countless futile medications and tests,
the loss of a paying job, the pain that a family must endure watching
you suffer, the endless, painful, sleepless nights filled with
loneliness and no one to comfort you, alone and only the voices in
your head telling you to simply find a way to die because the pain
was unbearable, the endless sobs and cries for help that come from a
place deep, dark and primal which lies within us all, and lastly, the
extreme and profound sadness of losing your soul and spirit, knowing
that you had tried EVERYTHING and I mean everything and still no
relief. It is like a horror story come to life but much much worse.

I can only speak for myself, but I went into ETS only after months of
research and living a life devoid of everything but pain. Aurelia is
right, it is pointless to try to explain something that is
indescribable to those who just could not understand our torment, our
desperation, without going through it themselves.

I think it is far wiser to respect the decisions of those who for
their own reasons have decided to travel a certain route and not
judge those who choose that route, because for us who chose ETS, no
explanation could do justice to the unbelievable emotions and pain we
were enduring at the time.

I would have given anything and I trully mean anything to get even 1%
relief and so we make our choices and I made mine and I must live
with it.

I have shared my ETS story with the forum as others have and I think
we should be respected, not judged. It is a brave thing to bare your
soul and to share something like this because for those that would
never contemplate ETS (which I hope is a great majority), you will
never know the depths of pain, horror and desperation, that led to
our decisions.

As Dr Nase has emphasised, ETS surgery is EXTREMELY serious and
filled with many complications and must only be considered as a very
last resort after having tried EVERYTHING else and only on certain
select patients. There are no guarantees and no promises, just hope
and for many of us it was false hope. For those .1% of sufferers who
have lost everything to rosacea, it was our only hope, so please
don't judge us for yearning to be free of pain and suffering and
wanting to lead a peaceful life.

Mermaid





--- In rosacea-support@yahoogroups.com, "aurelia.dawn"
<aurelia.dawn@c...> wrote:
>
> Rick wrote: "If it were me, I'd simply sign up for a zillion more
IPLs,
> given that they are cheaper, much safer, and (in Geoffrey's case)
already
> eliminated the absolute heart of the beast."
>
>
> Reading the board, quite a few of us probably find ourselves
thinking, from
> time to time, "If it were me, I wouldn't do that!" It is often hard
to
> understand the choices other people make when treating triggers
that we
> don't happen to share.
>
> Sometimes, they can explain until they're blue in the face and we
still
> won't get it. Hence the wisdom of the old saying about needing to
walk a
> mile in another man's moccasins ...
>
> Kind regards,
>
> Aurelia