Second Treatment Complete for Rolling Acne Scars and Post Inflammatory Hyperpigmentation - Canada

I am happy to post that it has been 2.5 months since my last treatment and the orange peel look is not a problem anymore and the track marks on my forehead and cheeks are 85% filled in. I was driving myself crazy doing too much so I decided to focus on what is proven to rebuild collagen and that is the RETIN-A 0.1%. A point of advice to anyone in this situation, if your skin is irritated from doing too much, your pores will look HUGE and you will get the orange peel look and you will freak out. Taking a Benedryl instantly cured my orange peel look two times my skin was so irritated I needed to take it and it really took the stress off realizing it was not permanent. So I used the Retin-A every night for a month, and the improvement is obvious. I didn't use it on my chin because there is more movement there with smiling and you get more flaking and I still have bad track marks in that area, so I know it was the Retin-A that helped fill the rest of them and not anything else, say my diet or supplements. Yes 0.1% was irritating every night so the less I did to my skin the better, even switched to Cetaphil cleanser. After two weeks I could use my new Clarisonic Mia along with the Cetaphil so I'm not just putting the Retin-A on layers of dead flaking skin, and it would really work on the underneath. I am pretty content with my skin now, I can go out without makeup and not be terribly self conscious. It's not perfect, but I'm sure if I had had the full 5-6 treatments it would be. I would say that despite all the stress, the final results have been worth it. I saw a dermatologist yesterday and he doesn't see many indents at all and said the Vasculight to reduce redness would be all he recommends at this point, and the best part is I have to agree! I am going to keep using the Retin-A every night until my 6 months is up, and I am SO THANKFUL that I didn't end up some horror story. Will try to post pictures at some point. I would say improvement in previous scarring is 50-60%, most areas only had two treatments.

It has been just over a month since my second treatment. I have not been able to follow the diet I laid out as the increase in raw foods was irritating my stomach, especially the nuts and seeds. The Wobenzym also seemed to irritate my stomach so I have had to reduce the amount I am taking to 4 a day, 2 two times a day. Around this time of cutting back on my preventative actions I noticed a bit of the orange peel around the one eye they went up close to, and to make it worse, the depressed areas are kind of brown. I don't know if this is a late scab or hyperpigmentation or what. Also my forehead was looking really orange peely and I am really noticing the pinprick scarring all over my cheeks in areas that used to be very smooth and untouched by my acne scarring. So I started with strong copper peptides in hopes of helping the pricks fill in but that seemed to bring back all the old depressed areas of scarring that the laser seemed to help, so then I had old scars and now pinpricks so felt pretty defeated... This time was also the end of my birth control pill pack and I remembered after the first treatment there was a bad full week that then got better so I figured this may be a combination of a normal healing cycle and my hormone cycle. I stopped with the peptides in hopes I didn't undo the laser's benefit in that area altogether and have compensated the doctor-ordered reduction in "raw" foods to adding more supplements. So yes I tried to get them in my diet but I think I need more than what I am able to eat now. So starting last week I am taking Vitamin A + Vitamin E + 2 CoQ10 + B100 + Hyaluronic Acid + MSM + 2 Vit C + 1 tsp Flax Oil + 2tsp nutritional yeast. The MSM + VitC + Flax oil work in synergy together so I mix the yeast and flax oil in almond milk and drink it with my MSM and take the Vit C at the same time. So ya it's a lot of stuff but I am a poor healer in general and I am desperate for help here to fill in these pinpricks before it's too late and it becomes permanent. I have also decided to focus more on the Retin-A 0.1% than the glycolic acid since a) Retin A is well proven b) I am not sure of the concentration of the glycolic acid in my cream c) the glycolic acid seems to cause me irritation if I leave it on longer than 20 mins and this cream was designed to be worn all night and work all night, releasing the glycolic acid in bursts every 2 hours. I have also started with a 15% Vitamin C serum and an anti-aging/repairing SPF 15 day cream. I use the VitC serum daily and the Retin-A every other night, alternating with aquaphor mixed with 1-2 drops of bio oil to baby my skin so it can tolerate the high retin-a. Want to work up to nightly retina-a use... I also have a red light that came with my blue light for acne and have started using that for 7-15 mins a night for a few nights. Perhaps it is the addition of the Flax +MSM, VitC, Bio-Oil, red light, or Using more Retin-A again, or jsut that this "bad week" in healing or hormones is over, but my forehead is looking pretty much normal now! The track marks are filling in AND the orange peely look is pretty much gone.

So I am not going to change a THING I am doing now and hope that the pinpricks and track marks on my cheeks will follow suit. The hyperpigmentation is also 80% gone. So here's hoping a) the forehead stays the same b) the scarring fills in again c) the pinpricks fill in. It has been a really rough last week and a half and didn't want to post scared but I am feeling optimistic again based on how my forehead is looking.

At this point I feel that if you are a poor healer in general, like myself, even average cuts don't heal well on your body, then be prepared if you do this laser that you may not heal well from it without A LOT of help, IMHO.

And if I could go back in time I would apply the copper peptides 2x a day for 3-5 days after the procedure starting 2 hours afterwords (I didn't have any open sores) since the procedure is technically a burn and the CPs really help scar free healing after a burn according to the research.

And to complete my statement "Perhaps it is the addition of the Flax +MSM, VitC, Bio-Oil, red light, or Using more Retin-A again, or jsut that this "bad week" in healing or hormones is over, but my forehead is looking pretty much normal now!" ... I should have also added that in the VitA + Vit E in there and specified VitC Serum since the VitC Supplements I have been taking the whole time.