Last night I had sweet potato wedges and mushrooms, yes I did have crisps, the tomato and herb ones – which I discovered after I had devoured over half the large bag that they contained yeast…which is a no no since my last food allergy testing.

Went to the gym this morning but didn’t do that great – my period is always heavy and I felt uncomfortable and paranoid so my concentration wasn’t on exercising.

I know that I shouldn’t touch my skin, but sometimes I just can’t help it – it can be to cool it down with my cold hands, feel if I have lumps or bumps or to feel its texture.  I had read on a forum that its best to keep away from touching or washing it too often – I tend to wash my face around 3 times a day but I quickly put jojoba oil on it afterwards to retain the moisture in my skin.

My hands are constantly dry and I do apply hand cream on a regular basis – do any other Rosaceans suffer from dry hands?  Or any other part of their body?

Haven’t consumed a huge amount of water, but have had several cups of chamomile tea, a green tea and jasmine and a black coffee – I will endeavour to drink more water this afternoon.  I’m travelling down to Worcester for a meeting this evening – its about a 100 mile round trip and will not get back till late – so perhaps this will be a good time to say that I won’t have any crisps today – in the safety that there will not be any around.

Did a pilates class last night and wasn’t so flushed, not like I would be if I did any cardio (which I shall do later).

Over the weekend I baked some flapjack which consisted of olive oil, seeds, dates, oats, honey and a little golden syrup – not sure if it was the dates or oats but my husband has been complaining about the flatulence!!! very unlike me I must add – unless I’m having a bad IBS attack.

Work is getting on top of me so this could be adding to the skin – I am still only using the jojoba oil and the carrot and vitamin E cream.  I have some sprouting seeds on the go and this is what I will be eating this week, ensuring that I have at least one salad containing these a day. 

Every morning and night I am drinking a Prime Directive green drink which includes probitotics and 18 Amino acids along with all the usual goodness.  See I am trying, even though crisps are a real weakness for me

My period started yesterday and I could see the flushing and paps coming but not raised like they used to.  My mood is getting terrible prior to the actual period – I can be quite withdrawn, sad, depressed, tearful and angry – someone said that this is a sign of vit B deficiency so perhaps that will help now I have started to take them.

The exercise is going good – I feel it necessary to keep fit and healthy and I know that this doesn’t help the skin but I do still feel that healthy insides are better than my unhappiness concerning my skin.

I am eating a lot of fish, no chocolate for weeks but still can’t give up the crisps.  I have purchased some palm oil to cook with as I have heard loads of reports about that and it was reasonably priced – bit more expensive than olive oil so will continue to use that,but will try and not have vegetable or sunflower oil as the processes they go through are quite extreme.

My husband and family are still very supportive and I’ll continue to monitor my face – quite obsessively throughout the day when eating and consuming anything.

Satuday I was suffering with a hangover and was craving all the food that’s not good for me (not necessarily with regards to the Rosacea).  So much so, I can’t even recall exactly what I consumed throughout the day.  I did have for tea a salad and my homemade vegetable pakora’s.

Sunday I went for a run, returned and ate some fried mushrooms, youghart and blueberries then did a chicken dinner with roast potato’s and vegetables.  I continued to eat a large amount throughout the afternoon, yes crisps were on the menu and then leftover pakora’s and my husband did me a youghart and mint dip.

This morning I have more papules on my face, one on my nose which is very rare – not happy with the way have treated my body over the weekend.  To tell you the truth I feel as sick as a pig with what I have eaten today too.  I’ve had celery and carrot sticks, some mixed seeds, blueberries, half a roast chicken and a packet of pork scratchings.  I am full to the brim when you look at the list it isn’t a huge amount but perhaps all of this is guilt.

I have decided that I shall not have any more yoghart for a few days and then only have one bowl and then leave it when the face has cleared up again.

Went and picked my prescription up and spoke to pharmacy who stated that I can take my zinc tablets and multivitamins but to try and wait for 4 hours after the antibiotics – I’m pleased with this answer so have started the vitamins again today.  Off to gym for a good workout tonight – burn some of these calories that I have consumed off.

I am continuing with the green drink (had some with jasmine in today) and still not loving it.  My face is looking less red these days but you can still see the marks from the papsules and I do flush still but haven’t much today.

This week hasn’t been the best for my eating habits.  Today I couldn’t eat for a couple of hours following the dental work and I had been to the gym prior to that so was starving by the time I did eat.  Ben had made me a protein shake  and that did fill me up temporarily but I was still hungry.  So for lunch I had a bit of pastry and a taste of the pie that my son had made for his GCSE (chicken, bacon, mushroom and stilton).  I felt kind of funny eating eat as i’ve not had wheat or dairy for so long and the gravy did have yeast in it so could have been pyschological. I then had salmon (tinned) and a small amount of salad, followed by a large bag of kettle chips (tomato and basil) and marshmallows.  Think my body had gone too far and was at a low by the time I was getting solids into me.

I have been looking at my vitamin deficiencies again today and vitamin B does seem to have a connection with skin issues including seb derm and other gut illnesses.  In addition to the Vitamin B’s I am still low on calcium, magnesium and chromium which had not changed since my testing in October 2008.  In fact, looking at it again, in Oct 2008 I was not low in vitamin B12 or B6 which is odd as I have read that Rosaceans take a B12 first thing in the morning and some take a vitaming B complex later in the day too.

This is some crazy skin condition – very puzzling indeed!!

I have been to get tested for food tollerances and feel utterly depressed – I can introduce yoghurt into my diet as this will provide the calcium that my body is needing.  Wheat can be introduced but I have to be careful.  The thing that is really upsetting me is that I now have a bad reaction with yeast – which means I can no longer drink my real ale/beer and not only that I now have an intollerance to chocolate – whereby I was allowing myself to eat dark chocolate which contained no milk I can no longer have that now.
The other items were still the same, citrus fruits, peppers, paprika pepper, cayenne pepper but as yeast is contained in fruits this means that I really should keep my fruits to a bare minimum and just eat vegetables – berries are fine though which is strange.  Also, it came out that I can’t drink tea (black tea) which I haven’t done for a while anyhow but how strange.  She thinks the antibiotics could be having an effect and that is why if I decide to introduce wheat then it shouldn’t be a lot and to introduce the little I have very slowly.

The deficiencies vitamin wise are calcium, magnesium, folic acid and all my B Vitamins (B1 (thiamine), B2 (riboflavin), B3 (niacin), B5 (patothenic acid), B6 (pyridoxine) and B12 (cobalamin).  So she has suggested a vitamin B complex and one that does not flush.  Time will tell.

One thing I am intrigued about is this theory Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO) which could potentially be linked between my Rosacea and IBS.  I’ve pasted the link below which discusses further

http://rosaceagroup.org/The_Rosacea_Forum/showthread.php?t=13631&page=3

To me, this theory actually makes sense and will continue to investigate.

We kind of nipped into the pub and had 2 pints of real ale and some pork scratchings – not the best but there you go.  After I was flushed and face was stinging slightly with a burning sensation.

I had contacted the doctors and queried whether I should not be taking zinc – on the information leaflet that was in the Oxytetracycline box it did have instructions not to take with certain things – milk was one of them too.  So I have been taking my vitamins at lunchtime – but I was concerned that I was not improving skin wise and wondered if it was because of this.  She asked why I was taking vitamins, I advised it is to support the skin and health and she said that’s what the antibiotics are for – well they don’t supply any goodness as such!!!  She suggested that I stop taking all vitamins for a month and see how I get on – what I shall do is stop the zinc and the multivitamin and continue with the Burdock root, omega 3, evening primrose and see how we go on from there.

For tea i simply had some potato and sweet potato wedges and some hoola hoops.  By the time I went to bed my skin had calmed down a bit.

I had attempted a work out which was in the end consisted of 2miles on the cross trainer.  I’ve felt very demotivated, stressed and slightly depressed over the last few days – it won’t last long and I’ll be back on form again.

One good thing is that I have commenced drinking green tea -with mint – can’t stand the normal green tea.  I feel depressed and stressed due to the car issue though and going to end the post here.

The papsule marks on my face were slightly redder than usual but if I recall correctly I had been hot throughout the night and been stressed literally as I got into bed so nights sleep wasn’t brilliant.  I allowed the mood and arguments to continue throughout the morning and this didn’t help the face – didn’t get worse but didn’t get better.

I had an onion and mushroom omlete for lunch with salad and cucumber and slightly red after this – it’s similar to when I had boiled eggs and salad so not sure if eggs are perhaps a factor as I didn’t have tomato this time with the salad.  I know that some Rosaceans have an intollerance to tomato based foods but when I had my allergy and food testing 18 months ago, tomato’s came up just fine.

In fact, I have rebooked by retest  for allergies and foods – she has increased the testing for animal hair, human hair and other environmental things that we have in our home.  It will also show my level of candida again, which last time I was 12%.  The retest is only costing £25 which isn’t bad at all and it will take about 30 mins.  I shall subsequently report on the findings and put the differences (if any) as I know that your body and tollerance levels can change – 18months ago – a lot can happen within that timescale as we all know.

Off out tonight for a friends birthday so will be predominantly be drinking Crabbies (alcoholic ginger beer) and gin and tonic (no lemon/lime as this gives me a reaction).  Not sure what to eat before hand as need to line the stomach so to speak but don’t particularly want anything heavy (a sandwich or beans on toast would be perfect – but gone are those days).

As i’ve been to the gym every day this week, i’ve given it a miss today – promised the dog (Trevor) to take him for a run, but due to it throwing it down with rain, I decided to give that a miss.  My intention is not to go overboard tonight in order to go for a run with him in the morning.  Going out for lunch tomorrow and no doubt I will have the steak – everything else tends to be seasoned or covered in cheese or cayenne/paprika style finishes.