Out, damn spot!

Now that my half-hearted Palanca entry has been shipped off to McKinley Road and crossed off my to-do list, I can refocus my attentions to the pitiful state of my fugly face. Have you ever heard of rosacea? Pretty name for an incurable skin condition that gives you a permanent flush on cheeks, nose and forehead. As it progresses, the flushed areas will begin to bloom with lumps and bumps that look like acne but will react to any standard acne medication by calling on all its friends and relatives to start a bloody revolution. When I went to visit my brother six months ago in November, the weird Melbourne weather triggered one of the worst flare-ups I've ever had, and since coming back home to QC my face has been one scary sight to behold. Some days it looks so bad that I imagine people wonder whether I'm contagious. I wish I could just stay home during the day because I am hideous in broad daylight, but if I don't go to work I'll starve, so I comb my hair over my face, Sadako-style, and avoid looking anybody in the eye at all costs. Never mind if it makes me look like a lunatic.

There is no medication or dermatological procedure that can rid me of it. The best a derma can do is to prescribe an antibiotic to control the inflammation or zap your face with a laser to temporarily shrink the blood vessels. Antibiotics stopped working for me a long time ago, and as for the laser treatments, I'm not too sure about frying my face, and neither am I in a position to drop a few thousand for each session. It takes a long time for a simple scratch to fade on skin like mine. The scar I got under my knee when I fell off a bike in fifth grade is still as nasty as it ever was.

Nobody in the dermatological profession has any idea what causes rosacea. Yet. So people like me can only look to the world wide web for answers, and for the sympathy of fellow-sufferers. Forums abound with remedies for rosacea, the latest of which comes from an e-book being hawked over the net for twenty-nine dollars. Some people bought it out of desperation, and then sprung the info out on the forums to save the others from having to fork out any more money. Here is what we must start taking to rid ourselves of the plague: lysine supplements, yogurt, cider vinegar, omega-3, HCl supplements and Zinc. What we have is an amino acid deficiency and a digestion problem, the book says.

Well, no harm in conducting a two-week experiment. I tracked down pure lysine tablets at the GNC in Trinoma (but not before getting lost in the rabbit warren that is this godawfully large mall), bought a supply of fish for the omega-3, stocked my refrigerator with probiotic/yogurt drinks, and have temporarily stopped drinking coffee in favor of green tea, though it isn't on the list. I hear it's good for the skin. So far I haven't had an adverse reaction to popping lysine tablets before every meal, and though the yogurt drink tastes like soured milk mixed with the juice of an unripe fruit, I drink it anyway. Green tea, without sugar, tastes really green. Like grass.