Seeing red - Living with rosacea - Pt One

Rosacea - a term I had never heard of before I was diagnosed with it.... even after the doctor told me what it was I had trouble pronouncing it, Roe-za-sha...

I first went to the doctors around 3 years ago when a rash, that looked like prickly heat, appeared on my face. I thought I had had some sort of allergic reaction, so decided to visit the GP to get it checked.
It turned out, I was completely wrong and it wasn't an allergic reaction, it was rosacea.
After the doctor told me I had this skin complaint that I have never heard of, my first thoughts, ok this will be alright, so my face is a bit red and a bit pimply, he'll just give me some cream and it will be cleared up in a week or two, yes? No.

I was sent home with a box of Oxytetracycline, which I had to take twice a day. I did as I was told but I didn't get on with this product at all and I found these tablets dried my skin out terribly. So, eventually after a few weeks, I gave up.

After much researching, searching countless websites and multiple forums it turns out, there is no cure for rosacea, and the reasons for it appearing are unknown.
What the internet does give us though is endless information, sometimes too much. I found myself becoming obsessed with trying out the endless array of organic products claiming to 'heal rosacea fast.' This obsession to cure the incurable was draining my bank account by sucking me into buying products costing £50 for a tiny pot of cream, of which none worked.

That leads me on to what I have discovered since then and what my routine is now, subscribe and stay tuned for Pt 2 of Seeing red - Living with rosacea.