Day 4

     Okay so my face has been really dry and flaky so I have decided to not do the ACV anymore, also it was stinging when I applied it so, no more of that. I also made a few other changes last night, I put on the wash  that I made but I didn't rinse it off I just let it soak in. Also I have been using argan oil for a few months and it has really helped with my dry, scaly skin and my skin sucks up like crazy so I added some TTO oil to it and hopefully the argan oil will pull the TTO into my skin with it when it absorbs.

    So back to the regime, slathered my face with the wash but I didn't rinse and watched tv for a little to see how it would absorb and it absorbed better than I thought it would. Right before I went to bed I covered my face in the argan and tto because I know that absorbs pretty quick. Not long after I got to bed I knew it was working because I could FEEL them and it really freaked me out. Okay now on to the pictures.

Day 4

Okay so redness is getting better, p&ps are getting better and drying up, I did wake up with one really big throbbing zit under my lip that you can see in the last picture. Nice right. Anyways one big difference I had this morning is my eyes were super itchy and crusty and watery and my scalp has been itching like crazy all day. So with that being said I am pretty positive it is the mites. From what I have read from other people doing the treatments they will run to these areas that don't have the TTO and look for safety. You could actually see the little white dots on my eye lashes like in this picture (it's pretty gross) I tried to get a picture but it's really tiny (still really gross). So with that discovery I have decided it's game on, all out war time! Me vs demodex rosacea. So today I went to the store and bought an arsenal of products to combat this and try to get my skin back! I would like to also include that along with these products I plan on trying to maintain a beef, pork and poultry free diet. I already know I am not perfect and I will occasionally eat one of those products so don't bash me for it later but for the most part I will be cutting that out of my diet. I did this before and not only did I feel better and lose weight really easily but my skin looked better.  So this is what I bought today

Tea Tree Oil Shampoo
Tea Tree Oil Conditioner
Tea Tree Oil
Tea Tree Oil soap for face and body
Probiotics
Shea Butter

So tonight I will start my full body eradication and I will keep this updated. Wish me luck!

The first few days of war.

So since I am starting this journal on day 4 of my battle I will just kind of condense those 4 days here. First how I found out about the demodex mites was by looking for any type of help here, on a rosacea forum. From there I read a bunch of medical articles talking about the link to mites and rosacea and it made sense and the pictures looked a lot like my face and well, what do I have to lose. So in doing more research on tea tree oil I found this recipe on a blog and it seemed to have good results for other people and I had all of the ingredients so...why not.

So this is my before pictures. Really the pictures don't show how BAD it is in real life. The pictures don't show how red it really is or how bad the texture is. It's bad. I have the orange peel texture, LOTS of p&ps and lots of crusty dry scabs. Yummy. Oh and it HURTS! It burns and feels hot, all I want to do is dunk my face in a bowl of ice water.
                                   

So that night I mixed up the recipe from here but I added 1/4 cup coconut oil and a splash more olive oil and upped the TTO to 1 1/2 tsps.  I had a hard time mixing the honey, it just does not want to blend at all, I even used a blender and nothing. Since the coconut oil is solid at room temperature I soaked the bottle in warm water before use to melt it and it seemed to help the honey melt a little and mix better so problem solved! Maybe.

Okay first thoughts, it stinks.. I can deal with the smell, so I put it on, rub for a few seconds and wash it off by splashing some warm water on my face (I have dry skin so leaving some oil seemed like a good idea). And went to bed. The next morning I used the wash again and took pictures

Day 1

    Okay, so I know day one looks worse in pictures but in person it actually looked better. My face was WAY    Less red but there was still p&p. Also doing more research I had red the Apple Cider Vinegar is suppose to be good for rosacea also so I decided to try that. So I used the ACV, let it dry then did the wash morning and then at night.

Day 2

Okay, so day 2 looked even better, the p&p are drying up and the redness is diminished. I know it still looks like crap and its hard to see any difference in the pictures but I promise there is a change. Same thing this day ACV followed by wash morning and night.

Day 3

Okay still nothing dramatic but you can see that it is a little less red, and the p&p are starting to heal. So I will keep up with this and see where it takes me.

And so it begins

So I have decided to start a journal/blog. At first the idea was just to write about my battle with rosacea but I think it might be therapeutic for me to just write about life in general. I am not writing this with the intention of anyone ever reading it, more just for me to track my progress with my face and see what is working and what is not and to get things off my chest when I need it. 

So the events that have led to now go something like this; I am a midwifery student who recently lost my job along with losing my job I lost my health insurance and with losing my health insurance I lost the ability to afford my rosacea medication and with out my rosacea medication my face has revolted against me. 

I am now in a all out war with my face and trying to find alternative treatments for it. I have spent days reading an researching and I have come to the conclusion that I have demodex mites. If you want some more info you can read up on it here and here. So now that I think I know what it is, it's time to start treating problem instead of just dealing with the symptoms. 

From the what I have read there are several creams you can buy which people have had some success with, and maybe I will try that next, but being that I don't have a job right now I need to work with what I have, and what I have is oils. Being a midwifery student I tend to use a lot of natural techniques to help clients with various things in pregnancy and a lot of the ways I do that is with oils, herbs and other homeopathic remedies. As I was doing research on DeM (demodex mites) I saw that a lot of people have had good results using tea tree oil (TTO), well what do ya know, I have some! So I have been experimenting with adding TTO to different things and using it different ways and this is basically what this journal/blog will be about...me and my battle. Let the battle begin.