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Dirty Duodenoscopes Fiasco Highlights Abuse of Medical device Loopholes Applicable to IPL/RF/BBL devices
IPL: 5 months out, still bad, still fastest, most expensive way and least fun way to ruin your skin
*Broken blood vessels: Darker, redder, more of them.
*Texture: The pitting and depressions I got from the IPL have not improved. They are still there, and look like hell. They are not going away, and I'm beginning to doubt they ever will. Very depressing. I did not have these pits and holes before IPL.
*Rosacea: The massive rosacea flare, complete w/ pustules and spider veins, that I got right after the IPL has mostly simmered down, but the spider veins from the pustules are still there, as are the spider veins in some of the depressions where the skin appears to be most injured.
*PIH: numerous new PIH spots from the major breakout I experienced after IPL.
*Bleeding from the pores after IPL: This truly bizarre symptom has JUST (5 months after IPL) started to die down. For the first time since the IPL in March 2014, in late August 2014 I actually had one full week w/ no random bleeding from the pores. Yay! I hope this continues!
Overall, an experience I would not wish on my worst enemy. My skin looks like I had much worse acne than I had as a teenager, and it looks like I laid on the beach and drank for years. It would've been one thing if to get this skin I'd laid on a beach in the South of France and drank wine for a few years. It would've been fun. Instead I paid $400 to lay in a chair for a few minutes and get the sensation of being whacked in the face repeatedly by a tiny cattle prod. Actually seeing the pattern of tiny dark red marks on my face after - more like a thousand tiny red-hot adzes. I felt like years of sunscreen, retinA, and taking care my face went down the drain. I've filed an adverse event report w/ the FDA, which I encourage everyone who's had a bad experience w/ either a medical device or a drug do, because one thing I've found out: when you have a great experience w/ cosmetic procedure, it's all roses. With a bad experience, you're on your own. And there is apparently a dearth of knowledge out there on how to manage or treat complications. We should all do our best to add to the fund of knowledge. We are, after all, guinea pigs, since there is no REAL PREMARKET TESTING going on for most devices (in this case, Sciton BBL Profile), and the FDA's after-market adverse event report is the ONLY MEANS of identifying and tracking problems. So please, file an FDA report if you have a bad outcome! The FDA DOES NOT READ REALSELF.
The doctor who performed the IPL, who was otherwise very nice and did a GREAT job w/ a dysport injection, did not seem to know why the IPL went so bad with me, and did not offer any treatments to fix the problems (probably because, ack! there aren't any!). I had to spend $$ to go see another derm for a consultation, and was told, more or less, we don't know what to do, don't do anything for at least a few months, let your skin heal, let's re-evaluate in the fall. all we can do for you is help you get back on your retinA and give you some 4% HQ. So I also may need more procedures down the road. I asked the dr. who did the IPL for a refund, and was told I'd need to sign a release to get my $$ back. So, the end result is, if you get a bad result, you probably won't even get a refund unless you sign some ridiculous release, and you will spend $$ out of pocket trying to fix, or maybe just treating, the bad result, and you may not even be able to fix it. I suspect my skin was fried down under, like meat in a microwave, and there's no way to fix it. If you buy a new roof, usually you get some kind of guarantee w/ it. Not so w/ cosmetic procedures, and there's the rub. I'm thinking I'd rather not do any more procedures unless I find a doc who offers some kind of minimal guarantee or refund if the result is bad. If doctors can't do that, then I'm probably better off keeping my money in my pocket. Or spending it on something that has some guarantee or refundability, like a new car, a new pair of eyeglasses, a new pair of shoes! If I buy a pair of shoes and they give me blisters, a reputable store will refund my $ without asking me to sign a release. Not so it seems with cosmetic procedures. Buyer beware. And please, notify the FDA of any problems you have!
Settings used in my tx
Fitzpatrick Type II
58 shots
515 filter, no adapter, 14 j, pw20, cool 20
560 flter w/ snap on adapter, 18j, cool 25
No pulse width was noted for the 560 filter. I am wondering also if I am really a Fitzpatrick II. I went online and took the American Skin Cancer society's test and came out as just over the line into Fitzpatrick Type III. I don't know if that makes a difference. Also, while I look pretty light (light eyes), I have some family members who have brown eyes, dark brown hair, and look like they could pass for American Indian. Don't know if that makes a difference.
Provider Review
The Dr. was very personable and approachable and responded VERY promptly to emails and calls after the procedure. She also removed a skin tag on my neck at the time of the IPL procedure at no charge. The Dr. did not avoid addressing my concerns, and seems to be scheduling appropriate follow-up visits (14 days post and another one after another month, and more after that). She also did not brush off my concerns and communications, and spent time discussing the situation w/ me. I also like some of her ideas, and she seems to actually take the time to think about different txs and how they may work on different skin types. In short, she actually seemed very interested in her field, unlike some doctors who seem to be more interested in their next golf game. However she could not explain the holes, depressions and pinpoint bleeding long after the tx, and indicated that she could not provide a refund of the $400 without me signing a release. Nor did the Dr. offer any treatments or Rx's w/o charge to address any of the problems. The Dr. did provide a full size product of Oxygenetix foundation for post-procedure skin. Although I still am not sure what went wrong w/ the IPL, the Dr. did do an excellent job with the Dysport injection and the skin tag removal. The bad outcome w/ the IPL could be due to a defective or malfunctioning device or some unpublicized or unknown contraindication, but I never got full information on the settings (no pulse width or delay noted in my records w/ the 560 filter). I would've felt better about the whole thing if either a refund was given w/o presenting a release, or if some other tx was comp'd. Or if I knew the doc had contacted the manufacturer and requested a review of the case, and there was a full investigation that was fully disclosed to me. The feeling of having to pay for a very distressing experience and not really knowing what went wrong is not a good one. Luckily I did not end up w/ the extensive burns that I've now seen on some people on the net, and except for the worsened texture, I can cover up my problems w/ more makeup. However, in my mind, paying $400 for pits, holes, depressions, more broken blood vessels, a need for more makeup, and pigment that seems even more sensitive to the sun, is not, in my mind, a good outcome by any stretch of the imagination.