I'm 19 years old, my skin has always been very oily and around 14-15 I was on accutane to get rid of my acne. This helped for a couple years and then around 17-18 my acne began to flare up and my skin became more oily. My acne is not so bad now that I could go back on accutane, but just difficult to control completely so I decided on PDT to try and reduce my oily skin and large pores. So far I'm 5 days out from the procedure. The nurse had me wash my face with a gentle cleanser and then applied the levulan kerastick. Incubation time was 1 hr and 30 mins and then she had me wash my face again. I was placed in front of the blu-u light for 16 mins, it burned very badly and felt like snapping rubber bands in some areas. Immediately after my face continued burning and was super red. They applied a sunscreen to my face before I left and I wore a mask to block the sun on my way home. The burning continued for a good 12 hrs or so after the treatment. Cold compresses and a fan helped the burning and I took ibuprofen. Updated on 1 May 2017: My skin is not painful, very dry but not tight feeling with the coconut oil on it. The top part of my cheeks is taking longer to heal for some reason. The texture of the new skin is still a little flakey/ rough in some spots but gradually fading from red to pink. Updated on 2 May 2017: Some of the redness is toned down a bit from yesterday, at this point it looks like a sunburn. My skin is very dry and I'm still using coconut oil and cere ve to keep my skin soft and more comfortable. There isn't any pain, just some more peeling but in small pieces. I'm still staying out of the sun as much as possible. Updated on 14 May 2017: My skin felt basically normal, just sensitive and still had some redness Updated on 14 May 2017: Updated on 14 May 2017: There is still a slight pink color on the top of my cheeks, other than that my skin feels normal. I have been able to use topical acne medications for the past week. I had some breakouts from using coconut oil but it's pretty much calmed down now. My face seems like there was some swelling before that is gone now and I'm looking more like my usual self. As far as the results, my skin is still oily, but maybe 30% less. I know it was originally recommended to do 2 treatments but I don't want to do the second one just because it's very difficult to recover while trying to do things that require you to go in public. I would say the treatment works well for getting rid of dark spots from old acne, almost all of my dark spots are completely gone. Updated on 4 Sep 2017: Its been about 4 months now, my skin seems to breakout less but still has problems with being oily. The benefit I got out of this procedure is that any existing dark spots are gone. My main complaint is that my cheeks are always slightly red and flush easily since doing PDT. I talked to my dermatologist and unfortunately he said I have to do vbeam laser to get rid of this flushing, its basically like rosacea that he says was caused by the PDT since it was so severe to my skin. If you want to have this procedure done, proceed with caution and opt for a conservative treatment since this has become a lasting issue for me now. Right now I'm using Rhofade cream (prescription) which takes out the redness for a day but this is not a permanent solution. Can't say I really recommend this procedure, for me the benefits are kind of cancelled out by having to deal with a rosacea like condition now.
Menopause changes a woman's body, her "valentine", in very private ways, ways that most women probably shrug off as inevitable, at least something not to be discussed even with girlfriends. Dryness was the worst for me as it made lovemaking actually painful. After my procedures my "valentine" re-plumped and became moist again - almost back to how it was in my twenties. Also I was suffering from OAB amd that problem is just about completely gone now. Phew. (I didn't think there was a cure for that. ) Recipe: Three thermivas one month apart. I also removed caffeine, sugar and alcohol completely from my diet, added multivitamins and E-String (estrogen). The dietary changes were making slow progress for the OAB for the three months before I started the Thermiva treatments, but after the Thermiva treatments it seemed my progress with the OAB seemed to greatly accelerate., to the point now that I can pretty much say I don't have OAB anymore. Healthier now than I have been inside and out than I have been for decades.
I love this office. The doctor was wonderful. I was a little shy to speak to a male Dr about my issues but let me tell you that he and his staff made this process so easy and comfortable for me. Overall GREAT experience .
