Roxanne has been a member of birthmarks.com off and on for several years. She always has positive things to say and a lot of great information and experience to share with everyone. Recently she was able to undergo treatment with the latest Candela PDL, the Perfecta. We asked her to write up some of her experiences along with her opinion of the new laser.

My Name is Roxanne Rochon, I am 24 years old with PWS on 90% of the right side of my face. I was 17 when I was diagnosed with SWS. I have my good days and bad days with my PWS. I usually don’t wear makeup over my PWS, so going out I am faced with constant stares which I try my best to ignore, but I do notice it. Now that I am older I tend to forget why people are staring so it takes me some time to realize that I do look different and they are only staring because it may be something they have never seen before.

I started laser treatments when I was 6 years old. I remember my Mom and Dad sitting me down and telling me that they have a laser that could possibly remove my PWS. I thought about it for a very short time before I said yes. I thought at the age of 6, when I was going through the roughest time in my life, that this would be great if I could remove my PWS. Little did I realize that it came with no guarantees.

I remember it was a PDL and that it would cause so much swelling and bruising that I would stay home from school for a whole week. I found the teasing stopped a little after my first few lasers. Now my classmates were interested in what it was and why I had it. I had two treatments a year up until I was about to start high school with little to no fading. I was very disappointed.

I then took a four-year break from treatment. I had so much fun in high school that I forgot about it until one day I wanted to do my science report on lasers. I looked up some information on it and on my birthmark as well. That is when I found this wonderful group. I was 17 then and signed up for the e-mails. Boy, those were a lot of e-mails for me and a lot of information to take in. I then decided to go back for some more lasers. I had four over the next two years, with little fading. I then took a five-year break and had a family. When I was pregnant with my daughter my PWS and SWS caused some difficulty, however I was able to have all three of my babies without too much trouble.
I then found myself wanting to come back to birthmarks.com; from there I wanted to resume my treatments with a new doctor. I was able to find a doctor who accepted my insurance. The first laser was a V-Beam, and I received the best results ever! I was so excited that I booked another treatment right away.

At my last laser session my doctor informed me that she had the newest Candela laser, “the Perfecta”. She told me that the pulse setting was at 595 mm and that it was a much better laser for me than the last one. I found with this one it was less painful than the first one (it may have been because the last one as the first one I was awake for). I didn’t feel the cooling spray so I didn’t jump as much and the swelling hasn’t been as bad as it was when I first started going for laser. Right after that treatment I felt good. I noticed that I had more purple and gray than before.

After one week of healing I saw some fading, but was still waiting for the purple to go down. After three weeks of healing, I have noticed that my PWS has gone from a purple to a pink. It is definitely lighter on the whole and everyone is noticing! I liked this new laser, the Perfecta, it seemed to me to be less painful and much more powerful. I am so excited to go back to this laser!