Chapter 5
Treatment
Long after the first recognizable picture in the puzzle is put together, many of the other pictures are falling into place. Some of the hardest work is yet to come. It is the most monotonous part. One particularly hard puzzle had a clear blue sky. It was just about impossible for me to distinguish each individual piece. You couldn’t look at the cover and see where the piece would fit in, they were all seemingly the same. So I started one piece at a time, trying to fit …

There have been many comments asking about UVB treatment for vitiligo, so I will tell you about my experience with it.
One summer, years ago, I did a personal experiment to see if the sun could repigment my vitiligo. Each day I sat in the sun for 15-30 min and every day brought new dark freckling. It was very exciting to realize that my skin wasn’t unable to ever repigment, there was just something stopping the natural process. By the end of the summer, the patches on my hands and face …

Tonight while shopping I saw a woman with vitiligo standing about 3 feet away from me. There was a man on her other side and I noticed that she caught a glance from him and immediately looked downwards while sliding her vitiligo covered hand into her coat pocket. (Does this sound familiar to you?)
I so wanted to lean over and tell her that he had smiled at her; that he wasn’t gawking at her vitiligo. But I knew all to well why she had done what she did. Immediately I …

As of last friday, my dermatologist, Dr. Ring, has added protopic as part of my xtrac laser treatments. I am to apply it twice a day except on the day preceeding a treatment. I will keep you updated as to any changes which occur in pigmentation.

I’m sure by now the amount of money you have spent trying potential cures for vitiligo may be close to $1000. Isn’t it time to see if you are eligible to get some help? Vitiligo treatments using the Photomedex XTRAC Excimer Laser are covered by some health insurance companies. Does yours? Here are a few suggestions to get you started:

My visit to the dermatologist, Dr. Ring, went well on Monday. Because it had been over a month since my last XTRAC laser treatment, we decided to go down to 220 mJ (don’t quote me on the scientific term, but I know it was 220 something).  Tuesday and Wednesday I showed a bit of burning, so we decided to skip the Wed. treatment so as to avoid further burning. My next appointment is tomorrow.
Jamie, the assistant who does my treatments, is very careful to steer clear of over-treating. Even though …