I’ve suffered from Rosacea for many years and it was getting worse over time. I have a subtype that does not involve much by way of pustules, but the capillaries under my face had proliferated to the point where I looked like I had a mild sunburn most of the time, and severe sunburn the rest of the time.

I got tired of hearing that I needed to wear sunscreen, here’s some metrogel, let’s try antibiotics, etc. and trying the same things over and over, so I finally decided to head to Duke, figuring that if they couldn’t solve my problem, I would just have to adopt a more Zen-like approach and accept my skin instead of continuing to struggle.

I had a consult with Claude Burton, who does laser procedures for a number of different skin/blood vessel conditions, including rosacea. We spent a couple months tinkering with the front-line treatments – oral antibiotics, metrogel/cream, retin-a, etc. We also tried a couple things that are currently experimental – beta blockers (which I couldn’t tolerate because I have asthma) and topical application of nose spray (people have been using that experimentally because of its anti-dilation effects). When we’d exhausted all of those, I decided I wanted to try a laser procedure in December.

First he did a test spot to see how well I’d tolerate it and how to calibrate the laser. He tracks how long it takes for the swelling/coloration to go down for each of his patients and has a chart on the wall. I would say the majority of his patients say they’re better at around day six, with some taking much longer than that to recover. My spot faded to my “normal” red after five or six days.

When I went in on the day of treatment, they looked at the one test spot and decided there wasn’t enough of an effect and that they would need to turn up the intensity of the laser (I’m sure that they had a more scientific way of putting it).

He worked quickly, applying the laser in a pattern around my face. I didn’t find it super-painful, but I would say it was extremely unpleasant between the stinging sensation and the popping sound of the laser. The whole thing took about ten minutes and I left a bit stunned and holding ice packs.

I had scheduled for a Friday and told everyone at work that I’d work from home on Monday as well. I looked insanely hideous for the first two days, and discolored but not freakish by Monday. By Tuesday it was still very visible, but the swelling was down and I was able to cover the spots with a high-quality base. By a week I felt unselfconscious even though I was blotchier than usual, and by ten days there was no sign that I’d had anything done.

As soon as the swelling went down and even before the bruises disappeared, I started to notice a difference. My face, which had been chronically red, was starting to be the same color as my neck and hands. In fact, I worried that I might almost be too pale!!

Over time things normalized and I started to forget what I’d looked like before the treatment. My cheeks got a bit rosier, especially after I started running again (which no doubt encourages angiogeneis or the growth of blood vessels), but nothing like what it had been before.

I went back for a follow-up last week (around 8 weeks post-procedure) and we looked at the pictures and compared them to now – what a GIGANTIC difference!! It turns out that I had had edema – leaking from the capilaries that had given me a puffy look that I’d forgotten about until I saw the photos. I look healthier, much more normal now.

Since there were some areas around my nose that hadn’t been treated as heavily, and because he felt we could do still better, I had another treatment that day (Friday). I would say the effects were about the same – this time I was sort of uncomfortable about the way I looked until that Wed (five days post procedure) and now, 9 days post, I look normal, though I can still see a faint red spot or two where I had particularly dark bruises.

This isn’t a miracle treatment, but if you have the subtype of rosacea that I have – which does not respond to topical creams of almost any sort – it is worth having a consultation with someone *very reputable* (I cannot stress that last part enough). I would not consider this sort of treatment at any place other than a major medical center because there is too much margin for error. Sorry this is so long, but it’s the type of thing I’d have liked to have read before going in for my consult, and I hope it helps.

I guess I need to resort to the makeup. I really hate walking around with that stuff on. I could live with the redness (I am really red and it’s permanent) but the vessels are so gross to look at.

Good luck with your healing and here’s hoping for a speedy recovery!