62 replies to this topic

[Lapis lazuli]

Update: I just read some of my previous posts which I wrote when I was more positive about this whole thing. It's strange how fast my feelings change regarding this. As now, I'm disheartened, really.

The only changes I've seen in the color of my scar, is that there is also a shade of brown in there now. And one small area has turned pinkish. But that's it. According to my derm I'm not able to see the actual results until three weeks from now, but it would be rediculous to think that at that point, there will be a huge change from how it is now. I think that either the laser settings weren't high enough or it just won't change anything.

Anyway, I will go back to the same derm and talk to him about the settings. If nothing works I'll look into other lasers. I might go to other people, who are of the opinion that the V-star probably won't help at all and say they've achieved good results with the ruby laser. And there's the Kojic acid coming in soon, too.

Sigh. Time will tell. But this uncertainty is very taxing.

Idnha

[Lapis lazuli]

Update: Hi, everyone. I've gone back to my derm for a third treatment. This time, I've been treated with the ruby laser, to get rid of the brownness that the second treatment caused.

Now, it looks very much like just after my previous treatment (slightly swollen, purple and dark reddish). It'll be some time for it to calm down again, so to speak. I'm curious to see how it'll look then.

In any case, there will be another treatment with the V-star, seeing that there is still red left. But I'm really noticing big improvements, so that's very good.

I'll keep you posted!

Idnha

[Healing]

I hope the best for you Idnha..!
keep us posted..

nb. I haven't gone to any clinic (yet) for the v-beam.

[Lapis lazuli]

Thanks, Healing. I'm pretty sure things will work out for you, as well. Good luck!

Idnha

[Lapis lazuli]

Update: Hi, everyone. I thought I'd drop in to say how things were.

Well, it's been a while now since the last treatment and some redness has returned since. But not all. I'd say at this point there's been about a 20% removal of the redness. Which is really cool. There is a chance more redness will return but I don't think that's likely. I think that now I'm really seeing the permanent results of all treatments I've had so far.

It's still prominent, though. But I've really only had one intense treatment. And my dermatologist said I'd need 3 to 4 in total, so...

But it's really taking a long time. Longer than I expected. But I'm not complaining. As long as it'll do the trick, you know?

Btw, the texture looks completely different now. Before, it just looked very unflattering in certain lighting conditions. But now it's a lot smoother. And sometimes I don't see much difference in texture at all. So that's very cool, too. I didn't expect that, beforehand. The derms I spoke to said the lasers wouldn't affect the texture so it's kind of a surprise.

One thing, though; when my current derm treated me with the V-star he damaged a small portion of the scar. It caused a scab to form which I thought might have been a permanent purple discoloration at one point, as I didn't expect any scab to form. So I touched it and accidentaly removed a portion of the scab. The entire portion of the scar where the scab has been looks a bit different now. Lighter in color and smoother in texture. My derm said it would just take time to heal.

Anyway, I guess that's all the news I have at the moment. I'll let you know what results the further treatments will establish.

Kind regards,
Idnha

[Healing]

Hi idnha,

How are you? How is the progress of your treatment?
I need your opinion...
Four days ago I was treated with V-Beam laser for the first time.
Right after the treatment, the scar is a little bit swollen, and turned purple. After I got home, when I was washing my face, the swollen part peel off, and caused a fresh wound. Therefore, at this moment I put a tape on it.

Is this normal?
I called the doctor two days ago, but he is on vacation, and so does his assistance..

groetjes,
healing.

[Lapis lazuli]

Hi,

I haven't been posting here lately, because there really weren't much new developments. And I haven't had any new treatments.

But it does look different now than how I described it in my previous post. Meaning not as good. lol Some redness has returned. And even though I was treated to eliminate the brown hue, there's still some left. But if you'd put a photo of it, prior to any treatment next to a recent one, you'd see an improvement, for sure.

Ayway, congratulations on your treatment! I'm sure you'll see improvement after a treatment like the one described (with purple discoloration). You have to give it time. And remember to treat it gently when you wash your face, otherwise you might damage it a bit. Which I think is what happened. I don't think you have to worry. I've had my doctor damage the area with the laser a while ago. And now it seems to have healed up considerably. It took a long time, though. :s Also, use sunscreen when you go out. Especially now in this heat! If you go out in the sun without sunscreen, the effects of the treatment may be reduced.

Just out of curiosity, where did you end up getting the treatment?

Kind regards,
Idnha

[Healing]

Hi..!

Thanks for your reply..!

It's great that you see an improvement..! at least that mean it works..!
I believe with periodic treatment, your scar will less appear!
Just be patient..

I had my treatment at Lievensberg kliniek, the same one as you had before.
Yes,actually I am worrying about the end result... because it looks worse comparing with how it looks prior to the treatment. And not the whole scar is lasered, which is a bit strange, because my scar is pretty small (1.5 cm straight line).
But anyway, i'll just wait and see..
well, I will put sunscreen as soon as the wound has completely closed.. but, thanks for the advice...!

I wish the best for you..


Kind Regards,
Healing.

[joedude]

I had a chicken pox scar on my cheek vbeamed and the scar collapsed and flattened when it was lasered. When it healed it was flatter, but not as flat as when it was first lasered. Beware that vbeam at this intensity will cause a bad purple bruise.

Thanks, gigi29.

Well, the scar is red and of course if you look hard enough, you can see that the texture of it is different than that of the surrounding skin. The latter property, my derm said, cannot be changed by the V-beam. Nor the fact that it's slightly indented, which is another property.

The only thing that the V-beam is going to do, is eliminate the redness.

But she assured me that when the redness is gone, the scar, as a whole, will become very inconspicuous. Like I said earlier; you see the texture if you look hard enough. But, the texture is very visible under certain lighting conditions. That does bother me, somewhat. So I've been looking into TCA peeling to slightly even out the texture, but many people say it's a treatment which envolves many risks. So I'm still doing research on that. The fact that it's slightly indented doesn't bother me.

So I think I'll be able to get over my scar after these V-beam treatments, and possibly a TCA peel. Which is something I've never been able to do, no matter how hard I tried. So that's why I'm getting it treated now.

Idnha

Thanks for the info. My scar is slightly indented,too. I am like you ... in some lights it looks awful... I was wondering if v-beam would make a difference in the indentation. I may consider, because parts on the scar are red and brown discolored. I think it makes the scar look worse. Right now I am trying apeel correct to plump it up... It's too soon to tell on the scar, but everything else is great since I started the treatment. My best to you, I hope you're happy with the results... Gigi

[Lapis lazuli]

I thought I'd drop in to say that at this point it's very clear that there is a substantial reduction of the redness. I'd say about 40-50%. It really is great.

I think my scar just needed more time than I thought it would to fully recover from the treatments. Since the last time I posted here the redness has continued to reduce and now you can really see a huge improvement. The whole area just looks a lot better in terms of color and texture.

Anyway, it has made me a lot more confident. Which really is a relief from a lot of stress.

I'm still going back for at least one more treatment, though. In order to get the best results possible. So I'll keep you posted on how that works out.

I hope you have a nice day,
Idnha

[Lapis lazuli]

I thought I'd add this to this thread as it's kind of the current status of this whole thing.

I've had V-beam treatments as well. Two of them, to date. There has been a pretty big improvement in terms of the redness and it looks a bit better, texture wise as well. I have scarring, you see. So it's not 'red marks'.

After the second treatment (which was more intense than the first one) there was brown hyperpigmentation that had to be taken out with a ruby laser. It worked fine, but I get the idea there's still some brownness left, seeing that it's as dark as it is.

One thing I've noticed is that when I blush (and I blush quite often ) the scarred area still gets red, even though it's been Vbeamed. But a dermatologist ensured me, that when all excess pigmentation is taken out by the Vbeam treatments, the scarred area will be as red as my cheeks are when I blush. Not redder. So I'm hoping things will indeed turn out that way, as I look rediculous when I blush, imo.

In any case, Vbeam appears to work. I'd say that at this point there's a 30-40 % decrease in the redness. Which is certainly a good thing.

In any case, I'm going back to get more treatments soon, so stay tuned for further updates.

Idnha

[Lapis lazuli]

Yeah, so I now have an actual appointment for another treatment. It's scheduled for early November. lol It's a bit later than planned, to say the least but things have just been too hectic in my life in the past year for me to get another treatment.

Anyway, I'm super excited! The improvement so far has been great so I'm super curious to see what the next treatments will do.

Btw, I'm not getting a purpuric treatment this time as the last time I had that done, it took my skin months to fully recover from that. And that's a real drag you know? On top of that, there's a risk of getting injured by a treatment of that intensity, as I've found. It healed up OK but I'm not going to risk getting injured again. So this time, I'm getting treated at the highest intensity possible, without being at risk.

I'll let you all know how much good this next treatment does.

Edited by I do not have acne, 15 October 2009 - 02:09 PM.

[Lapis lazuli]

I've gotten another treatment!

It's really cool. Anyway, this time I did get a purpuric treatment because the dermatologist said it needed to be, in order to get any improvement. But it was a less intense treatment than the previous one so I won't have the super long downtime I had the last time.

Also, she said that she and her collegues would get a Fraxel laser soon and she said that I could perhaps get the indentation of my scar significantly lessened by that. Which would be cool. So I should read some of the Fraxel topics in this forum section.

Anyway, I'm very excited. And I'll keep you updated.

[Lapis lazuli]

Yeah, so at the moment it's still incredibly swollen. And apart from the areas where she zapped me, there's no color whatsoever to be seen which is really cool. haha But of course when the swelling goes away and the bruises are "healed" so to speak, it will be different... We'll see. She assured me that the amount of color could still be decreased a great deal, so I'm sure the end result will be quite cool as there's already been a siginificant improvement.

But she did say, however, that she expected there to still be a difference in redness after all the treatments I'll eventually end up having gotten, when I blush with the surrounding skin. Because the scar tissue is thinner and therefore it will be redder. But how great that difference will end up being she couldn't say yet.

Anyway, in about five weeks I should see the final result of this most recent treatment. So I'll update you then.

Edited by I do not have acne, 05 November 2009 - 02:39 PM.

[jack3100]

do you have a before pic to get an idea of what the scar looked like

[Lapis lazuli]

Yeah, I do. I also have "after" pics... I don't feel much for posting them. I mean this is the internet; the whole world can see whatever photos one posts, you know? And that just feels a bit too weird to me. Also the "before" pics aren't what you'd call flattering. lol So there's another reason I'm not fond of the idea of posting any of them.

But it's a pretty dramatic difference so far and I'll keep seeing improvements with subsequent treatments. Maybe I'll post an "after" pic in the future but I'm not making any promises.

Anyway, like I said earlier in this topic, I can really recommend Vbeam/Vstar. It's really worth the money and the downtime and everything.

[jack3100]

when you say the scar is thin and you can see redness easier, does that mean it is below the normal level of rest of skin or still level?

[Lapis lazuli]

Yeah, it's lower than the rest of the skin. If I understood correctly when reading up on things and listening to dermatologists and plastic surgeons in the past it's a depressed, hypotrophic scar. So you see kind of an indentation... But I've never really been bothered by that. It's more the discoloration that's been kind of annoying and that's what the Vstar treatments are fixing.

I would like to get the Fraxel treatment which my dermatologist suggested if it really does any good. Because things do improve even more when it levels out with the rest of the skin. And any improvement is really welcome. lol You can see that now, as well, now that it's swollen because of the laser treatment... It's interesting.

[Canadian87]

If you're considering Fraxel, consider it's predecessor, ProFractional; a newer and superior version of the same technology.

I raised my indented scars by poking them with a sterile syringe which is the same technique used by Fraxel, ProFractional, dermarolling etc to raise skin by disturbing the current collagen to promote new collagen growth. Do this at your own risk, I consider the risk to be less than that of Dermarolling with a sterile insulin syringe which can be purchased OTC along with alcohol and sterile pads for disinfecting. It will not change the texture of the skin but neither will the alternatives.

[Nope.avi]

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Edited by Nope.avi, 08 August 2012 - 08:35 PM.