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*Treatment results may vary
Day 3- Day 5 Recovery - Gross
The area below my nose has now completely scabbed over and is prone to minor bleeding (blood and plasma). I've been placing Vaseline over both areas 3-4 times a day and a generous helping a night to keep my skin moisturized. The spots treated are slowly shrinking, but I'm concerned about the scab formation as this could lead to infection. I was not warned of scab formation from the personnel performing the procedure. Due to the scab, I am unable to cover it with makeup and have thus spent an entire week off of work hoping it would heal. If I had to guess how long the healing will take, I'd say at least another week (luckily next week is a holiday and I put in vacation for that time off already). I believe the setting was far too high and perhaps didn't truly have a port wine stain. As I mentioned in my original post, no one actually confirmed this at my first consultation (and no test patches were done, either). As requested, the place I visited was Advanced Dermatology in Lincolnshire, IL. I chose this office due to positive online reviews and the fact that the lead dermatologist is nationally recognized. However, the staff at this particular office seem to be generally aloof and haphazard about things. I will comment more on this later, but I have received no follow-up calls from the office, unless I have called with concerns. I have also included pictures from day 3-5 after the procedure and be warned, the scabbing is not pleasant to view.
Hello all. As I'm writing this, it has been 2 full...
Hello all. As I'm writing this, it has been 2 full days since my first round with Vbeam. I live in IL and could share the office I visited if interested in a separate post. Right now, I'm not sure if this procedure was worth it. I'm very fair skinned (NC15-20 for those familiar with MAC cosmetics; the lightest shade in drugstore foundation, usually Ivory). I've attached pictures of my face before, immediately after the laser, and one full day and now two full days out from the procedure.
The redness/purple is going down slowly, but now I fear that I have some blistering underneath my nose. The texture of my skin where it was lasered definitely feels like an orange peel, which someone else described in a prior post. Because of the possible blistering, I have a constant burning sensation around my nose that brings tears to my eyes (a very sensitive area, in general).
I'm going to call the location today, as they advised me to call back if I had any sort of increasing pain, blistering, or scabbing. I don't have scabs at this point, but the burning feeling is making me think that I have a split in my skin around my nose. There is also a tiny amount of blood that has crusted over near the burning, but I don't visibly see any open sores or slashes (?) per say.
I'm trying not to freak out about this, but if anyone can let me know if this is normal that would surely help me out!!
About my actual procedure:
I arrived on time for my appointment. I was greeted first by the assistant (a female) &then later on by the person actually running the laser (named Steve).
The assistant explained briefly about bruising and advised to stay out of the sun. When it came time for the actual lasering, the Candela machine gave a fault. They ultimately had to replace a black canister (not sure what it was), but the man was upset about it - because it would delay my procedure another 10-15 minutes for the machine to warm back up. Once that was done, the machine beeped loudly and the assistant and lab tech came back in. I put on the eye shields and then Steven put the laser to my face. It fired a shot but I felt nothing, only the coldness. He kind of mumbled and then went back to the machine. I don't think it actually fired the laser at this point. After about 30 seconds, he came back to my face with the 'gun' and that's when I knew it was turned on and lasering. It was very very painful. They did one pass under my nose, moved to my cheek and then cam back to my nose for another round. At this point, my eyes were tearing up so bad, even with the shields on. The pain took my breath away, even though it only lasts a second for each pulse. The assistant did have a cooling air on my face, but ironically she began coughing right when the procedure started so she didn't really keep it near to my face as she was moving around trying to cover her coughs.
One thing to mention - the setting was for Port Wine Stains, which are very dark birthmarks. I never got a firm diagnosis from my consultation at this dermatology office. I went in for a skin cancer check, which I do once a year because I am so fair. At that time I mentioned that I would like to do something about the redness of these marks and read online that they could be port wine stains. Looking back, no one actually stated that this was true. I am very afraid now that the laser was set far too high for my redness issues. No one told me either if I had rosacea either.
The redness/purple is going down slowly, but now I fear that I have some blistering underneath my nose. The texture of my skin where it was lasered definitely feels like an orange peel, which someone else described in a prior post. Because of the possible blistering, I have a constant burning sensation around my nose that brings tears to my eyes (a very sensitive area, in general).
I'm going to call the location today, as they advised me to call back if I had any sort of increasing pain, blistering, or scabbing. I don't have scabs at this point, but the burning feeling is making me think that I have a split in my skin around my nose. There is also a tiny amount of blood that has crusted over near the burning, but I don't visibly see any open sores or slashes (?) per say.
I'm trying not to freak out about this, but if anyone can let me know if this is normal that would surely help me out!!
About my actual procedure:
I arrived on time for my appointment. I was greeted first by the assistant (a female) &then later on by the person actually running the laser (named Steve).
The assistant explained briefly about bruising and advised to stay out of the sun. When it came time for the actual lasering, the Candela machine gave a fault. They ultimately had to replace a black canister (not sure what it was), but the man was upset about it - because it would delay my procedure another 10-15 minutes for the machine to warm back up. Once that was done, the machine beeped loudly and the assistant and lab tech came back in. I put on the eye shields and then Steven put the laser to my face. It fired a shot but I felt nothing, only the coldness. He kind of mumbled and then went back to the machine. I don't think it actually fired the laser at this point. After about 30 seconds, he came back to my face with the 'gun' and that's when I knew it was turned on and lasering. It was very very painful. They did one pass under my nose, moved to my cheek and then cam back to my nose for another round. At this point, my eyes were tearing up so bad, even with the shields on. The pain took my breath away, even though it only lasts a second for each pulse. The assistant did have a cooling air on my face, but ironically she began coughing right when the procedure started so she didn't really keep it near to my face as she was moving around trying to cover her coughs.
One thing to mention - the setting was for Port Wine Stains, which are very dark birthmarks. I never got a firm diagnosis from my consultation at this dermatology office. I went in for a skin cancer check, which I do once a year because I am so fair. At that time I mentioned that I would like to do something about the redness of these marks and read online that they could be port wine stains. Looking back, no one actually stated that this was true. I am very afraid now that the laser was set far too high for my redness issues. No one told me either if I had rosacea either.
Provider Review
Dr. Steven ?