I live in FL and traveled to see Dr. Darm for his condensed
treatments. Below are the tx's I previously had so seeing him was not
a flip decision. I felt that he was the only option I had left as I
was wasting too much time and money being treated here and seeing no
improvements. The first set of IPL/Levulan wrecked my skin. Stay
away from Levulan – it's evil!! (at least for rosacea skin) And stay
away from incompetent doctors. If you know the right questions to ask
you can eliminate the bad apples within the first few minutes of a
conversation.

I've been to 4 laser doctors and consulted with many more of them on
the phone and I can honestly say that Dr. Darm and Deb-ee are the best
laser specialists I've come in contact with. Traveling all the way
from FL was stressful enough so it was great not having to go in
carrying countless research papers on which filters, how many passes
etc that I should be treated with. It's not my job to dictate my own
treatment and it has been truly upsetting trying to educate the laser
doctors I have seen in the past.

I've had rosacea for about 8 years. Metrolotion worked great until 2
years ago when it turned on me (this is when I started laser
treatments). I've tried all of the topicals and antibiotics and none
of them helped. I currently take 20mg Periostat 2x/day. I have no
ocular involvement.

I have hypersensitivity, p&p, permanent redness, blotchy skin and
burning/itching. The burning is not as unbearable as some of you have
it, annoying at most.

I'm now 11 days post treatment. I had 6 tx's in 11 days with the
Genesis and IPL (one n-lite tx) on my face, neck and chest – each
treatment lasted 3-4 hours. I was always red after the tx's and used
ice to prevent swelling. 2 of them were back to back with no day in
between. Having IPL 2 days in a row was a bit harsh and I swelled a
little but I survived.

During the first week after the treatments ended I had improvement of
about 50%. On the 8th day I woke up with a bright red flush and a bit
swollen (Darm told me his would happen so it was expected). I'd
compare it to the flush you would get from Lasercaine or topical
niacin. I used topical Desowen (steroid) on the 8th and 9th days.
The flush is gone but I was red the 10th day and less red today so I
hope things are on the mend again. Dr. Darm said I will be red for a
few weeks and when things start to calm down I should see improvements
but not the final result for 2-3 months.

I've only had a few pustules since the treatments ended and the
papules seem to have faded a little. My skin is smooth and the pores
are smaller. Since I'm still healing it's difficult to report on
improvements. BUT, I will say this: I'm not as freaked out about how
my skin looks like I was before the treatments.

Making the decision to travel to Oregon was not an easy one but I had
exhausted all of my options here. I was confident in my choice of Dr.
Darm and knew I would be seeing one of the best. I will probably need
more treatments so I hope to go back in December. I want to stay for
5 days and hopefully be treated every day with the Genesis and every
other day with IPL, adding the n-lite this time.

If any of you have been on the fence about seeing Dr. Darm I can't
recommend him and his staff highly enough. He's a kind, caring doctor
and always took the time to explain everything he was doing. None of
my treatments were rushed and he truly cares about wanting to see
clearance of symptoms.

If anyone has any questions about the condensed protocol please feel
free to email me. Or, check out his website – lots of good info there
(http://www.drdarm.com/index.asp?pgid=1) Better yet, give Dr. Darm a
call and he will chat away with you. He's a very approachable guy and
easy to talk to.

Karen

Previous treatments:

Levulan, IPL
IPL, Blu-U
Levulan, Blu-U
IPL with Lumenis One
Levulan, Blu-U
IPL with Lumenis One

3 Vbeam tx's

IPL 640 and 560 filters
IPL 640 and 560 filters