Doxycycline is a miracle drug.

Hi my lovely people! I’ve been a lurking around this subreddit for abt a year now and I just want to say truly thank you to everyone who has given advice in this community. As much as I hate listening to advice in person I love to hear it from my fellow community lol. Anyways quick story so I have been dealing with rosacea for a year and half from damaging my skin barrier by using retinols and tea tree oil in the summer heat with no sunscreen because I was plain dumb. Anyways I started to burn like crazy every night and all my products burned and this continued for around 6 months and at that moment I only had type 1 flushing so I didn’t think much abt it and spend so much money on various skincare products which made it only worse and then I started to get papules & pustules and then deep down I knew i had rosacea so I went to the doctor and got a referral for a derm which took forever. Anyways she prescribed me metro gel, ivermectin 1% and some a bunch of sunscreens which I reacted to and the creams which I didn’t try because it was expensive like $300 (am not insurance) and finally was told to take doxycycline 100mg for two months during the summer and I hesitated to take it because I know it causes photosensitivity and I haven’t found a sunscreen yet so I waited till winter. Within 10 days of trying it I saw a major difference my bumps & baseline redness reduced significantly (picture 5). I started to go outside my house again. Before that I was severely depressed and quit my job, hid in my room & literally started skipping so many classes I was behind in uni. My cheeks still flush red in warm rooms & food triggers but it’s not like before & doesn’t last as long anymore so I accepted it. Anyways I just wanted to say heres your sign to take the doxycycline 100mg/day. I wish I started sooner. I have 2 days left from my 2 month course and yesterday my derm told me it’s safe to take it 2 more months. So I’m gonna be taking it for 4 months and praying it doesn’t come back. Has anyone ever taken 4 months of doxy? My derm says it’s safe. Another big difference i saw from my skin when everything burned was I started to ditch skincare for 4 months and started zero therapy(cleansing with only water to repaired my barrier) I promise you it works. It’s gonna flake like crazy in the begging weeks and be dry but give it time. Then slowly reintroduce one product at a time. This is my current routine now if anyone wants to know. Hard thing I learned is what works for me may not work for you so listen to your skin & also less is MORE. AM: splash with water + Cerave Ultra Light moisturizing spf 30(only when going outside, it’s the only chemical spf that doesn’t burn for me. Minerals make me rub my skin which as a result causes flareups) PM: water. If I used spf - cleanse with vanicream cleanser. (One pump and baby your skin don’t cleanse too hard) if my skin is very dry I use tiny cerave moisturizing lotion. That’s it! I hope this helps someone. Im so scared to stop this medication. My derm said she can give me a lower dose after my 4 months ends but it’s expensive. i have to start saving asap.