When I was very young I remember being the object of ridicule in school. All kids can be cruel for no reason but if you show any reaction to the abuse you open yourself to a feeding frenzy of attacks. I would blush. That was it. It was unconscious and completely involuntary, but it would invite further problems.

"Look he's turning red"! Someone would yell and that was all it took.

I had the normal skin problems associated with puberty. Pimples and awkwardness, a combination that my mother called a 'bull in a china shop'. As I matured through my twenties and thirties my skin was mostly clear save an occasional pimple but the blush response was still there in full force.

I took up the game of golf in my late twenties. Long days in the hot Florida sun with little or no skin protection and multiple sunburns. Little changed until my forties.

I started to get small pimples on and around my nose. I tried many different products to control them. Regular soap would aggravate the problem. Shaving soap would cause ingrown hairs to infect and turn into deep pimples, I took to shaving rarely and with no soap. Gratefully new razor technology allowed that with little problem.  Acne gels, spot treatments, creams and soaps were of no help and in some cases intensified the symptoms. My nose started to take on characteristics of a prickly pear. Comments about my complexion and comparisons to 'WC Fields' became more frequent, and I would blush.

I had heard the word rosacea before but I didn't have a practical understanding of the disease. Until my Dermatologist took one look at me and pronounced it clearly and distinctly.

'Rosacea'

Okay. There. It had a name.

"Now what, Doc"?

He handed me a prescription for Metrogel and Doxycycline and said come back in a month. The word empowered me in the way we all understand, it gave me a means to Google search the topic. Rosacea.

I learned that it is an disease that effects all races and cultures but is chronic in people of Celtic heritage. It's called "the Curse of the Celts".I am half Irish. "Check"  Rosacea is incureable, a nuisance, but generally manageable.

It can be associated with a pronounced  "Blush Response". Purportedly when you blush the capillaries close to the skin over-fill with blood causing a reddening of the flesh. Over time weakening and breaking under the surface.  Blusher....."Check"

Some say that drinking, smoking and spicy food can have an effect on the severity and timing of an outbreak... Check check check!! Although I did quit smoking over 10 years ago I haven't given up Jalapenos and Absolute. But still... CHECK!

And "Sun Damage"... BIG check mark there! Ongoing heavy sun exposure had left my face and arms with the texture of a baseball glove.

I had been under the impression that Rosacea was just a pink face. That's what they show on the 'Oracea' commercial. People with rosy red cheeks, looking all sheepish and embarrassed, why would you need a drug for red cheeks?  It never showed the painful pimples that I was suffering.

So I dutifully filled the prescriptions and began my course of antibiotics then I prepared myself for a bland sunless existence. That lasted all of 5 minutes. The bland thing, that is...

The Doxy did very well, reducing the lesions and outbreaks to a manageable level. But as soon as I stopped the course, the pimples would come back with vengeance. The Metrogel turned out to be next to useless and seemed to actually intensify the problems, just like all of the other ointments I had used. When I returned to my doctor he marveled that my skin looked so much better and pronounced me cured...err well I guess controlled would be a better choice of words. I told him that I was still having problems washing my face with soap to which he said "Well, just don't wash your face. You don't need to wash your face". I am a big guy, living in a tropical climate. I need to wash my face. So this ended my relationship with Dr V.

I am a problem solver by nature and this led me to an experimentation phase. I would stumble on something that helped or hurt and would build a trial regime, most of these were dead ends.

Things that I have found that work.

1) Doxycycline: Whenever the outbreaks become unbearable or if one of my experiments goes awry this is my primary fall back. Oracea is the prescription version of Doxy intended specifically for Rosacea treatment but for me the generic works just fine and is much cheaper. I intend to speak to my doctor about a permanent prescription.

2)I avoid all soaps and shampoos that contain Sodium Lauryl and Sodium Laureth Sulphate or Cetyl and Wood alcohols. They are what is called a surfacant, which translates to a chemical used to strip oil from your skin. This supposedly gives the sense of cleanness. It is very difficult to find soap without these ingredients but I react much less dramatically to  l'Occitane Shea Butter Ultra Rich Shampoo .It does contain something called Disodium Laureth Sulfosuccinate which the people in the know seem to think is much gentler than the other chemicals. It is a little costly at $19 a bottle but a bottle lasts me a couple months and I use it for both hair and face. Considering the alternative I am willing to pay the price. I'll let you know when it stops working.

3)I use a good 30spf Sunscreen! No I haven't become a vampire! I still play golf and ride motorcycles.  I have found the spray on type performs much better than gel or cream for all of the above reasons.

I have resisted making new videos because, until very recently, my complexion has been passable a best and mortifying at worst. But I hope with consistent use of Doxycycline I will be able to get back to performing my monkey act on YouTube soon.

**Blush**