Hi; I'm 53 and have had GT since I was in my twenties. Approximately 4 years ago, I found a cure. It works GREAT for me. I posted on another GT forum at Gardenweb and can't find it, so now I'm posting here. First, GT can be caused by a number of factors. I believe mine is all the dental work I've had done. I think I may have an underlying allergic reaction to all my dental work. B vitamins, zinc, and candida cures didn't do a thing for me. Just like many people on this forum, I took it upon myself to look for a cure. I found one medical report of GT being treated sucessfully with a topical solution of Retin-A. This is a liquid version, not the gel or cream. Although in the study I read (Google geographic tongue and retin A and you should pull up the name of the researcher and the journal it was published in), the strength they used was 0.10%, the strength I used was 0.05%. I apply it twice a day with a q-tip and then spit it out. Depending on the severity of the outbreak, it always clears up within 3-5 days. The first time I tried this treatment, my tongue felt smoother then I could ever remember it feeling. It's amazing. The last time I went in for a refill (the small bottle I get lasts me about 6 months), I was told the manufacturer had stopped producing it. Imagine how I felt. The next time I had an outbreak, I tried the gel and it didn't work. Eventually, I had the thought to try a compounding pharmacy. Hooray, they said they could make it. 3 to 5 days later, my tongue was perfectly smooth. OK, here's the downside. A 30 ml. bottle cost me close to $100. As the bottle lasts me 6 months, that's about $16 per month. I don't have insurance, but this treatment works so good and my tongue feels and looks so good, for me it's worth it. I can't believe I'm talking about how good my tongue looks, but it was embarassing to have someone make a comment about how my tongue looked when I was talking. The other thing is oral Retin-A is contraindicated during pregnancy. I'm a guy, so this one doesn't apply to me. This treatment works by speeding up the rate of cell division(this same way it works on the skin). I got the prescription for this from my dentist, although I suppose an MD could do the same thing. I hope this helps some people. Waking up with those white circles on my tongue and having it so sensitive to acidic foods and cofffee and chocolate was really annoying. So was having the sores move all over my tongue.

Hey Glenn: That looks similar to the beginnings of what may be Frogeye leaf spot on my Freedom tree. Do you have any smaller spots with a yellowish area surrounding the spot? Have any of the spots turned into dead spots? Can you see any fungal fruiting bodies around the edges of the spots under magnification several times better than these photos? What aphids? :) Have you checked other plants in your landscape for aphids? You may also need to control them there; in your case, all the forest around you may be teeming with the little buggers making you task more difficult. Michael

I purge and donate to the Vietnam Veterans of America who pick up anything and everything you put out on a routine basis. They aren't picky like Goodwill. I also recycle newspapers and magazines weekly and only subscribe to my very favorite magazines. I do have a lot of book clutter because DH doesn't think bookcases are attractive. He doesn't think they are a valid furniture item for a living room. I'm a big reader. Always have been. I have several hundred books that I intend to keep. Mostly gardening books and horse books, expensive reference books not stories. I keep any paperbacks in the office/spare bedroom. Gardening and riding are my hobbies other than reading. A new wall of bookcases in the living room where I took out a big fish tank would go a long way to solve my book clutter (stacks on coffee table, not on floor, overflowing bookcases on either side of fireplace) I could spread out the books and make them look more attractive rather than crammed into the bookcases as they are now as full as they will go. I'm about ready to go to Ikea and just buy them. I have read Fly Lady but she is too perky for me. It has been years, maybe I'll look again. I confess that I don't get fully dressed every day, especially not with lace up shoes. I do clean up hairballs when I see them. Kitties do the rest of their business outside so no cat box to worry about and they don't have accidents other than hairballs and bringing in the occasional rat. There is simply no way we can afford a housekeeper, I've been working from home because I was hurt in a car accident in 2002 and make less than half what I did before as a florist which wasn't much in the first place. I simply cannot work as a florist again, physically not able. Crash triggered Fibromyalgia to be significantly worse than it was before and it has never gotten better after several courses of physical therapy, chiro, acupuncture, massage and several different doctors. It is not as severe as having cancer though. Just when you thought you had it bad someone else comes along and makes you grateful.

Yes, I was diagnosed with rosacea, during a visit with a dermatologist for something else entirely about 20 years ago. In my case, all that was visible was a "thumbprint" on each cheek that was slightly darker than the rest of my face and a few non-colored bumps on my nose. I was as stunned as you seem to be. After a round of antibiotics, I was prescribed a cream, then years later Metrogel, and told to use it whether or not I was having an episode, as a preventative. Several years ago, my dermatologist said there was no sign of the rosacea, but I continued to use the gel anyway. This past year my dermatologist said to discontinue the gel and I've had no return of symptoms. Try to avoid anything that makes you flush. For me, this includes heat (yeah, sun's bad, but the heat itself can be a problem), extreme cold, alcohol, and certain foods, especially spicy ones. Be careful what you use on your skin and avoid cosmetics with fragrance or certain other ingredients (you'll have to figure out which ones cause a reaction in you; I avoid silicone/dimethicone, etc). Baby your skin. Clean your eye make-up off religiously and follow with a warm, not hot, wet washrag, with a little baby shampoo if you want. Assuming you do have it -- did you ask the dermatologist in so many words? -- you're lucky it was caught early. Mine never progressed beyond what the doctor first saw, aside from occasional flare-ups. My nose bumps went away -- what a relief, since I had visions of ending up like W. C. Field! Are you very fair? There is one theory that fair people get it more often, another that it is simply more easily diagnosed on them, like rouge on Casper the Friendly Ghost.