Re: flare-up today

[Guest guest]

I'm not sure what type of laser it is - it seems to vapourise the broken

veins rather than bursting them and causing bruising - the immediate

after-effect is like a burn.

Also like a burn it's pretty painful when it's being done - it's been

described as like snapping a rubber band on your skin, but some parts of

the face (sensitive bits like nostrils) and some of the longer veins are

almost unbearably painful. The good news is the pain's mostly gone

within about 3 hours - I have to go home and put an ice pack on my face

for 10 minutes every hour for the rest of the day, and by morning it's

red and swollen but doesn't have that " fresh burn " feeling any longer.

After about 4 days any little scabs usually rinse off and a week later

everything's back to normal.

There is a pencil-like laser that traces individual veins, which my derm

used at the end of July, and there's a scanning device which does an

area about 2cm across, which he's going to use on a more widespread area

on the 28th of this month. That's a Tuesday, so I'll take the rest of

the week off and hopefully by Monday everything looks relatively normal

again.

My main concern right now is that I've been flushed so much lately that

the laser treatment isn't going to be effective, or the veins are going

to come back even quicker. I'm going to ask the Derm if he can

prescribe something to reduce the flushing - I was on clonidine for a

couple of years and I think it helped. I can't take roaccutane again

because I'm on another drug which is only safe if you don't have a

compromised liver, and I think roaccutane is pretty hard on your liver.

cheers

> -----Original Message-----

>

> , what kind of laser treatment did you have? Why was it

> painful?

> -----Original Message-----

>

> >

> >Today I'm having a dreadful flare-up - my cheeks are burning,

> swollen,

> >tender and so red they're nearly purple, my eyes are hot and dry and

> I'm

> >getting a real throbbing headache going as well.

> >

> >it since I found out, because laser treatment on that area was

> >excruciatingly painful, and not something I want to repeat every 5

> >years!

>