(no subject)

[arethinn]

It's looking like some kind of removal treatment for the "port wine" birthmark on my chest (probably lasers these days, pew pew, I don't know) may actually be covered by Kaiser. This is a reversal of what I was told when I saw a dermatologist in June (basically, he considered it would be cosmetic, because he didn't see the signs that it was turning bad in the ways they sometimes can, and if it hadn't troubled me medically for the 30 years I've had it, well). Apparently Fremont dermatology has huge delays and has only just now gotten back to my GP. This is still not definite, but OMG you guys, this would be big. I have been very bothered by this thing ever since I was aware of what it was. I do not (cannot, in my own mind) wear scoop- or v-neck shirts or anything else that would expose it, because it looks ugly and I hate dealing with the remarks I get. The concerned ones that it is some kind of rash are annoying enough, but what I really hate are the sexually charged ones that it is a hickey. THANKS EVER SO FOR NOTICING. We paid extra to have it retouched out of my senior photograph in high school, because everyone had to wear that same damn off-the-shoulder velvet drape.

Of course paying for such a procedure was always theoretically an option if it bothered me so much (just as I keep vaguely returning to the idea of liposuction), but it's hard to bring myself to pay thousands of dollars that I need for other things, you know?

*crosses fingers*

Comments

[enotsola]

PEW PEW!

[feyandstrange]

Yay lasers!

I had a nickel-sized bright red spider vein birthmark thingie on my left cheek. It was always bright red, and redder when I was on the rag. People often thought it was either a big zit or a small bruise. Over the years I am sure I have spent a zillion dollars on makeup for it, more than enough to pay for a laser - especially when I found out how affordable it was; my vein only needed to be zapped once or twice to go away, I was told. The dermatologist took one of those pointy manicure sticks and stuck me with it - and the Great Red spot disappeared. I was sold!

But then I got on antidepressants and something changed enough so that the Great Red Spot faded to barely noticeable. Weird, but I'm not complaining - best side effect yet.

I still have huge horrible ghastly moles, but I persuaded Medicare to whack off the worst ones a few years ago by innocently asking if they might be OMG cancer. (Not likely; everyone on Mom's family has hideous gross moles even in places the sun never shines, and none of them were ever cancerous - they're just gross and get bigger and bleed if they get annoyed, and I had some that bra straps and waistbands had irritated into big messes.) I don't know what it costs to get more done, but in a few years when the next batch have gotten bigger I'll look into it.

So I totally sympathize with wanting "minor cosmetic surgery" (yeah, you try going through a junior high gym locker room with one, people who say it's minor), and I hope Kaiser covers it for you!

[arethinn]

Over the years I am sure I have spent a zillion dollars on makeup for it, more than enough to pay for a laser

I've only ever bought one expensive specialty makeup, green tone stuff as should combat red, and it didn't do it. (I've got yellow stuff that doesn't really do my permanent undereye circles, either, but that's a different problem - albeit one of similar psychological trouble, to wit, I feel they make me look even more ugly and they're the reason I almost never wear contacts, which would otherwise be my preference over glasses.) The dermatologist assured me there was makeup out there that would really do it (is there prescription-strength makeup? surely an "industry" item, anyway) but really, the area to be covered is also too large and in too inconvenient a spot to be practical for real-life wear (even just on special occasions).

The dermatologist took one of those pointy manicure sticks and stuck me with it - and the Great Red spot disappeared. I was sold!

But then I got on antidepressants and something changed enough so that the Great Red Spot faded to barely noticeable.

Wait, what? You had a treatment, and it worked, and then you started on antidepressants and they somehow worked on something which was already gone? *boggle* (I think I may have misunderstood your tenses)

yeah, you try going through a junior high gym locker room with one, people who say it's minor

INORITE? Cast out the weirdo! unclean! unclean!

Although to be fair, the other people in my junior high locker room were more likely sniggering about the fact that I, at the tender age of 11-12, had no boobs - especially in comparison to this one very mature 14-year-old with, ah, a hairstyle of the times that some of us secretly called "Elvira" (since it was black hair, plus the boobs) - nor had I started shaving my legs. (Not that I have a chest measurement worth writing home about now, but it is definitely larger than it was twenty years ago.)

[feyandstrange]

I am incoherent on account of headache, sorry!

THe dermatologist was just a consultation; he poked me with a stick, and the spot faded for like five minutes. He said "Yeah, just shoot the laser right there two or three times and you're all good. That will probably cost you around $500." I said "Yay!" and went home to not have $500 to spare for a few years. Then I got drugs, and discovered I didn't need a laser.

Oh God yeah, I have the perma-purple bruises under the eyes thing too. I can make most of it fuck off with three layers of akeup for major portraits or whatever, but it sucks. And I keep my glasses partly to hide them, partly because I have astigmatism so bad contacts kind of suck for me, and because glasses = armor for eyeballs.

And junior high gym was a nightmare. I spent a month in sixth grade standing up against a wall because the boys had started snapping girls' brastraps in some weird boy mating annoying ritual thing, and I had no bra. I had no boobs either, but I did NOT want to have it be known that I was OMG last girl in class to get a bra even though I had nothing to put in one. I still don't know what a training bra is training you to do, but it was an anti-boy defense, and later an anti-girl defense which kept me from some of the teasing in gym class.