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Hello all,
This is a really painful topic to me and I'm quite nervous about the treatment plan I am about to start. Any input would be welcome, and I'll post pictures and maybe videos soon as well.
I would say my face doesn't really have any unscarred skin, it's all just different types of scar on top of each other and most professionals who see me throw in the towel and tell me they don't know how much they can help me. I'm sure many of you here are familiar with the helplessness, self-loathing and revulsion of seeing one's reflection that come with this sad condition.
Anyway. I would say my worst scars are boxcar scars and rolling scars. I had pyoderma faciale some 8 years ago and in but a few months it ruined my face. The scars are deep and tethered. They are visible even if I stretch the skin as much as possible. I don't have active acne but get an occasional cyst and they still annoyingly leave deep scars even if I leave them alone. A little bump stays around for a few months and slowly turns into a boxcar scar.
I have been doing dermarolling, with breaks, using 1.5mm needles, for 8 years now. I can't say I've seen much improvement but I guess it just makes me feel like I'm doing something. I've done a few 15-20% TCA peels and I'm not sure whether those did anything either. Had some sort of laser done ages ago which only made things worse. My skin has been semi clear for the first time in my adult life this year, ever since I had been on Doxycycline for malaria prevention for a couple of months at the end of last year. So I've decided I'm finally going for an intensive treatment.
I don't know how much sensePRP makes (paid 2000 dollars for 4 treatments) and I don't know if there's much evidence that it's beneficial in any way. I guess I'll let you guys know.
I'm planning to follow the suction regimen that a few people here have had success with.
So far, the plan is:
Subcision followed immediately by needling and PRP.
Start suctioning on third day for two weeks, thrice a day.
4 weeks later go back for another session of needling + PRP
Depending on my progress, I might do TCA peels two weeks after these sessions.
Will be applying 0.1% retin a which my face is so used to by now that it barely does anything (then again, by this point it seems I could rinse my face with H2SO4 in the morning and it'd hardly redden) and vitamin c (which I find oh so overrated).
Quite nervous and worried. Find it hard to trust doctors (the laser really just made my face sallow and hollowed my once full cheeks and cost me many thousands). Hoping any infection risks are minimal and breakout will be avoided as I seem to be left with a scar after every pimple I get.
So there's my unnecessarily long sob story.
I'll post pictures as promised (oh I so hope there will be a good reason to post updates) and try to keep frequent updates, provided that my mental condition allows for it (I'm just about ready to just become a boxer if none if this works)
All the best,
K
Hi there, thanks for posting. You are not the worst case I have helped but I know it bother's you greatly and that's the point to get some treatment to help improve the scarring. Dr Lim is in AUS - Bris one of the 1% Acne scar Drs in the world worth a flight.
Your main scarring is rolling scars with some box cars and your right there is fat loss.
PRP without subcision is pointless. That is a major thing that will help you subcision. The derm sounds terrible, I would see Dr Lim as he is more experienced. I beleive how he does PRP is a mask with his Infini - rf microneedling treatments but it can also be done with laser. I think you need filler weather Juve products or a vial(s) of sculptra is another option.
Microneedling alone and tca peels for your case which would be on the more severe scale will not fix things. They are great treatments for texture. What you really need is subcision and some filler for the fat loss. I also see rf microneedling helping you (3 treatments of infini) but I know your medicare supplement does not cover that so you might end up doing CO2. You may need ultrapulse- CO2 with the extent of your scarring.
PRP or they now call it PRP mask does help with some healing and possibly some collagen formation but I see your biggest improvement coming from filler and 3-4 subcisions.
I don't see Icepicks so no tca is needed.
Please let the Dr know you have supper sensitive skin as treatments can cause breakouts.
Once you raise your scars a bit more through other procedures get a fully ablative erbium resurfacing for the texture.
Treat as you have time and money, you don't want to rush too much too soon, your lucky that in AUS you have medicare supplement and Dr Lim can help pay a big chunk of your treatment through using that supplement.
You plan could work I would just space it out more. We take 3 months to heal between major treatments, ... too much too soon leads to collagen being destroyed. The TCA is too close to the needling, ... you really need a deeper erbium resurfacing at the end of your treatment for texture.
Yes laser alone can make you hallow, you need filler!
Checkout the FAQ, top post of the acne scar sub to learn more about these treatments.
BA
Hi,
Thank you for your reply and advice. I have looked into seeing Dr Lim but right now I'm just lucky enough to have enough time to start off with something, and flying to Brisbane, staying at hotels and looking like a burn victim for weeks is not an option right now. I do definitely plan to see him at some point.
I try to have faith in the Dr I chose, based on largely positive reviews, and he seemed to know what he was talking about. He thought subcision was the number one thing for me right now but said it's usually done in combination with something so we did not discuss doing it alone. He wanted to do fraxel and I've read some pubmed articles about subcision and fraxel being fairly effective but I'm just terrified of lasers right now given my previous experience. He's putting me on some antibiotics to prevent infection after the procedure.
I've considered seeing the Dr in Florida who does subcision and fat transfer, as I spend 1/3 of the year traveling anyway, is he one of the Drs worth flying to?
I guess I wanted to do peels and needling every two weeks as that's what was described in the subcision needling TCA combination study with some great results, the pictures looked promising too. But I'll just see how things go. Would you say that suctioning is safe to do three days post subcision if dermapen is done on the same day as subcision?
At this point I don't even care about texture, just want the deep depressions to be more level so I look less monstrous in public transport/elevators/my horror bathroom light
So you've seen the closeups and this is what it looks like at "social distances", still harsh light. As one fellow Aussie here already pointed out, things do look better in the morning and by evening I look 10 years older. The lack of sleep due to nerves probably doesn't help now either
.
also,one more question, as I don't think I've ever seen any answers to this problem but have seen a few,mostly female, people talk about it. I have these raised tiny little bumps all over my chin.They actually look worse in motion, if I talk they seem to connect and form these small hypertrophic scars. Any treatment that could help? Silicone sheets? I know I have a few random raised scars that formed immediately after dermarolling and never went away as well.
On 7/26/2018 at 7:45 AM, beautifulambition said:Hi there, thanks for posting. You are not the worst case I have helped but I know it bother's you greatly and that's the point to get some treatment to help improve the scarring. Dr Lim is in AUS - Bris one of the 1% Acne scar Drs in the world worth a flight.
Your main scarring is rolling scars with some box cars and your right there is fat loss.
PRP without subcision is pointless. That is a major thing that will help you subcision. The derm sounds terrible, I would see Dr Lim as he is more experienced. I beleive how he does PRP is a mask with his Infini - rf microneedling treatments but it can also be done with laser. I think you need filler weather Juve products or a vial(s) of sculptra is another option.
Microneedling alone and tca peels for your case which would be on the more severe scale will not fix things. They are great treatments for texture. What you really need is subcision and some filler for the fat loss. I also see rf microneedling helping you (3 treatments of infini) but I know your medicare supplement does not cover that so you might end up doing CO2. You may need ultrapulse- CO2 with the extent of your scarring.
PRP or they now call it PRP mask does help with some healing and possibly some collagen formation but I see your biggest improvement coming from filler and 3-4 subcisions.
I don't see Icepicks so no tca is needed.
Please let the Dr know you have supper sensitive skin as treatments can cause breakouts.
Once you raise your scars a bit more through other procedures get a fully ablative erbium resurfacing for the texture.
Treat as you have time and money, you don't want to rush too much too soon, your lucky that in AUS you have medicare supplement and Dr Lim can help pay a big chunk of your treatment through using that supplement.
You plan could work I would just space it out more. We take 3 months to heal between major treatments, ... too much too soon leads to collagen being destroyed. The TCA is too close to the needling, ... you really need a deeper erbium resurfacing at the end of your treatment for texture.
Yes laser alone can make you hallow, you need filler!
Checkout the FAQ, top post of the acne scar sub to learn more about these treatments.
BA
Who are the 1% Drs that do this kind of treatment well. Any in the USA? Specially CA?