[Battwenue]

So, I've had rosacea since my teens. It actually wasn't diagnosed as such until it took a nasty turn toward the severe end of things a few years ago in my mid-thirties. I had 4 sessions of IPL and various topicals and antibiotics and was well on my way to looking and feeling much better until the end of 2010 when I developed seborrheic dermatitis, which is apparently a fairly standard progression in rosacea sufferers and by spring 2011 had started to suffer life-crippling, exceptionally painful facial flares triggered by small changes in temperature which included swelling as well as burning, itching and temporary disfigurement. Took ages to get on top of the SD with various topicals and some heavy-duty anti-fungals while the insane flaring has been mostly under control with 3x daily off-label use of antihypertensives. So, i'm finally getting back along with my life, back to work, and went on holiday a few weeks ago only for my eyes to go insane. Luckily I was in Germany whose healthcare system is clearly better than the NHS, because I was immediately directed to a specialist eye hospital emergency room (on a Saturday, in and out within one hour!) where I got to see an opthalmologist who told me my symptoms (hugely swollen eyelids upon waking, crusty skin, weeping eyes and itching, massive black circles under eyes) were not an allergy or infection but dry eye syndrome which is again, like the SD, simply a common progression of rosacea. Apparently the oil glands in the edges of the eyelids get blocked or don't function and the protective oily covering of the eyeball is destroyed and the eye begins to dry out. So I got eye drops prescribed for this which seemed ot help. I've tried to replace them OTC until I see my dermatologist for my next scheduled appointment in May when I'm going to see what else they can do for me regarding this. I'm also doing eye scrubs as directed but find it's hard not to end up irritating the eyelid skin more. Sigh.

So, my point in relaying all this exciting information is to ask if anyone else suffers from all this dry eye nonsense, roascea-related or otherwise) and how they deal with it, drug or routine-wise. Or just to see if anyone wants to commiserate about having rosacea, which sucks fetid balls when it gets severe.