Hello everyone,

I've been taking 10mg of Tretiva (isotretinoin) every other day since
June 1 to treat mild to moderate vascular rosacea with just the
beginning of pustules, and I must say that I'm happy with the results
so far:

1) Facial burning and facial heat have diminished
2) Ear flushing has diminished
3) Flushing episodes have been less frequent and when they do happen
are less severe and shorter in duration
4) Facial tingling is greatly diminished
5) A long time comedone (blackhead) on my nose, which is the result of
my early stage rhinophyma was gone in a little over 1 week. I'm
hopeful that the thickened (like in leathery not swollen) skin on my
nose will improve eventually.
6) Redness on cheeks toned down a bit.

Side effects:

1) Mild dryness of the eye (no problem--if I sing a sad song, I get
teary eyed, so that takes care of that).
2) Very mild lip dryness (I've always had this problem, though, so it
may not be attributed to the medication)
3) Mild facial skin dryness, which I've been managing with jojoba oil
and pure aloe.

I never wanted to take isotretinoin because it is a powerful drug with
bad side effects (I take Gleevec, which too has bad side effects, like
heart failure, but what drugs don't have side effects?), but my facial
flushing was really affecting my quality of life and I tried a lot of
stuff, with little or no lasting relief. I think that we have to be
honest with ourselves, especially those who want to go the natural
way, like I did: sometimes synthetic medications work, and sometimes
they're the only thing that works.

I've found that my best days have been the days in between doses, so
when my 10mg doses are gone, I'm going to go with 5mg doses every day
and see what happens. I am 29, 6 feet tall, between 150 and 155lbs and
extremely handsome. Anyone wanna date? Haha.

Good luck all. I'll keep you posted. As we know, I may just be
experiencing a waning period with my rosacea. Hopefully not!

Sincerely,
Mark