(no subject)

[dolari]

Last night I hit a real low, one I'm still in. Basically, the laser hair removal thing hit me very hard. It was really the one and only I could do right now to pass better.

If you remember when I wrote about (if I wrote about it, I can't remember), I mentioned the first few blasts from the laser made me stifle a scream. They eventually turned the power down and told me it might not be as effective. When I asked if I would see the same results with more treatments at this level, they said yes.

What they did was tolerable...still painful but tolerable.

After three weeks, I've had no improvement, and by no improvement I don't mean very little...I mean NO improvement. The pictures I've taken from the last three weeks are the same, and any patches and streaks I thought I had I've found on the "before the treatment" pictures.

And before you say "give it time" let me say two people who have had their laser removals were really worried that there was no change at all.

That was pretty much the last straw for me. I can't go to a higher setting without walking out from the pain, I can't afford to be spending $400 on a process that won't work on me on a barely tolerable level, and frankly, I give up.

I've already given up on my surgery, now I'm giving up on making any progress at all. My efforts are now focused on just holding my ground in this losing battle. If I can keep the spiro and the estrogen coming, I can at least maintain what I've got.

That will come to play soon, too. If insurance won't cover my actual doctor's visits then I'll go back to dodging customs again. At least I'll have the insurance for emergencies for now.

When Christians give me the line "God does not make mistakes" I usually say "No, he puts us on a path and it is up to us to interpret what he wants from that path."

Its hard for me not to imply something sinister from the path he's put me on.

Comments

[lovelyangel.livejournal.com]

Effectiveness of laser treatments vary widely from person to person, machine to machine, and there seems to be no rhyme nor reason, unfortunately. It does seem to work best on people with dark hair and relatively light skin. There apparently are some people for whom treatment doesn't work at all.

My laser treatments were seven years ago, so I hope technology has advanced since then. I appear to be one of the (few?) people for whom laser treatment was effective -- but it wasn't easy. The first three (maybe four) treatments didn't seem to do anything at all, and I did complain to the manager of the service. After that, my treatment was changed to a newer machine (Cynosure). I think it took about four treatments from that machine with a couple of followup treatments a year apart to make the hair loss (semi?)permanent. I had been told that it would probably take five treatments (roughly two months apart) to do the job, and the place where I had mine done charged me for all five treatments in advance -- that is, it was one procedure consisting of five sessions. If your service told you it would take just one session I suspect they are either a) lying or b) incompetent, and I'd have my work done elsewhere.

I was mostly concerned about the issue of scarring. If the laser intensity is too high for your skin, your skin will burn and possibly scar. It's better to use too low of intensity and do more treatments than have the laser too hot and scar your face. The pain is like someone snapping a wide rubber band on your face. I think I took one or two Advil before my sessions to help take the edge off.

I'm sorry you're having such a difficult time all around, Jenn. I'll keep you in my (not necessarily listened to) petitions to The Universe.

[jenndolari.livejournal.com]

I understand how laser works. I was told 6 treatments, once a month. The problem is, there was ZERO change after the first treatment, when I should be seeing something. The changes I THOUGHT I saw were tiny - I expected that - until I noticed those changes weren't there - the patches were the same as pictures taken three weeks ago.