Hi Everyone,

There is a dermatologist that is a family friend and she has asked
me why I never came to her seeking advice for my skin problems so I
had to pay a visit, unfortunately it was the most confusing doctors
visit ever.

First I have to say she probably does not know much about Rosacea
(but claims she does), but she is a friend of my mother in laws and
a nice person so I didn't really want to say anything.

I was diagnosed by a derm 2 years ago, she left the hospital she
worked in. I wasn't very pleased with her methods so when she left,
I just went and saw the new derm this hospital has hired. What I am
comming to is, this second derm inherited the patient files and all
the diagnosis made by the first one. So without examining throughly
she prescribed me things for rosacea. You may say I was diagnosed
with Rosacea by two derms but not quite.

So anyways the family friend derm says I DONT HAVE IT.
She examined my face and the scaly round red patchy thing I have on
my scalp (it has been a year and I tried the things the doctors gave
me, but nothing helped it is still there)

She says I have seb derm only. Made me go HMMM. Ok then she tells me
that rosaceans have a. spider veins (I have almost none visible) b.
Very red faces (my face is more pinkish in areas esp. in lower
cheeks, a bit over the eyebrows and chin), I attempted to tell her
that rosacea is advancing and there are milder forms and she takes
her big book and shows me pictures of severe rynophyma and occular
rosacea.

I have all sorts of acne, dry crusting uncomfortable eyes and some
flaking on the eyelids that are very persistant,eyes do get better
with cleansing and oral antibiotics. I have the burning almost
everyday, my face is too hot most of the time, sometimes flushing
comes along and sometimes there is only burning and no increased
redness.

OK she tells me all of these do happen with seb derm. So how do we
differenciate the two??? I can't help but thinking many of us do get
misdiagnosed if this is all true.

Here are my questions:

1. It really sounds as if I have seb derm, problem is how do I know
if I only have seb derm, or if I have both.

2. The real question is, should I give a try at the topical
bepanthol-stereoid mix she prescribed. I told her about 3 times that
I don't want the risk of using the kortikostereoid, she is aware
that rosaceans should not use it but she was so sure her diagnosis
was correct she insisted on the prescription. If I do give it a try,
how long can I use it safely before I worsen the rosacea that I
still think I have???

I have been living a limited life because of my symptoms, and have
been telling all my family etc about rosacea. It will be kinda silly
if it turns out I don't actually have it, but have Only seb derm
instead, but I think you will all understand that I don't care about
it, and hope she was right since seb derm seems to be so much easier
to manage and even curable for some.

Thanks in advance for helping me out if you can! it really means a
lot to me!

Best Wishes
RR