[ruskin]

There was an old thread that dealt with this problem but it is now closed. Some members in that thread suggested treatment at the Berman Skin Institute and I followed that suggestion. Here is my story.

I had one blue vein snaking down from under my left eye that became a source of extreme insecurity to me as a 33 year old man. It made me feel old and ugly. Even though no one ever really said anything to me about it, it became the only thing I could see when I looked in the mirror and sometimes I would try to cover it up with makeup before going out. But I always wore glasses. Eventually I got so frustrated I got to the point where I would do anything to get rid of it, even if it meant traveling from China (where I am currently living) to California just to have it treated. So that's what I did.

I stayed in a hotel in San Francisco and took the train down to Palo Alto to see Dr. Berman, whose office is on the outskirts of the Stanford University campus. He looked at the vein, turned on the laser machine, put some kind of gel under my eye and zapped the vein with quick pulses of hot light. It was like a 30-second procedure. He immediately holds up a mirror, no more vein!

I go home and notice a little bump under my eye where the laser had gone and stretching my skin I discovered that I could still see the vein, but it was faint and seemed shrunken. The next day the little bump had become full-blown swelling under my eye. Swelling is not listed as a possible result of this procedure on the Institute website but two days later when I went back, the doctor was not surprised or concerned about it. I say "doctor" because when I returned to the office there was some confusion about my appointment time and I was late and Dr. Berman was gone and I had no choice but to see one of the other doctors. At this point I was concerned that the vein had not been properly zapped because it was still there. Though smaller, it was still very visible. I told the doctor to zap it again and he refused, saying the risk of scarring is too great and it was very inadvisable considering I was already so swollen from the laser. Needless to say, I was not happy. The procedure costs around $950 and flying roundtrip from China is not cheap. If the procedure fails, I will have wasted a ton of money and time.

Back home I return to the thread that I had found on this website and find the story told by one of the members of how her vein reappeared after the procedure and it was only after a month that her vein eventually went away. I also remembered the doctor telling me it could take quite a while for it to go away. He did say, however, that if it is not gone in six weeks, then it is not going to go away and I will have to come back and receive another treatment (which would be free.)

Six weeks passed and the vein, though far less noticeable than before, was still there, ruining my looks. I was very disappointed. I began thinking about the logistics of returning to San Francisco and was so frustrated just thinking about spending even more money on this.

But now almost 8 weeks have passed and I can happily report that the vein is getting really small and faint and I cannot see it when I look in the mirror. Only when I stretch the skin out and lean close to the mirror can I see the faint blue line. I am so happy and so relieved. The laser did work. It killed the vein. But my vein was a valiant fighter and died very slowly.

Lessons: Dr. Berman has a great laser for this and he knows how to use it, but he could be more upfront about the actual aftermath of the procedure, I.e. Possible swelling, and how the vein seems to come back to life in the weeks following the treatment.

[AllDayKK]

I would like to add to this! Great post by the way!

I also was a sufferer of this syndrome for the LONGEST TIME! It literally ate away all myself confidence. It consumed my day to day life, and thoughts. Every time I looked in the mirror, all I saw were big blue veins under my eyes, bad on both sides but extremely pronounced on the right. Bad to the point I stopped looking at myself in the mirror. I already have dark circles so with the veins at some points I literally got asked if I had been punched in the eye, sometimes in groups of people.

"No, my skin is just naturally like this."

Uggh, how embarrassing! Im a guy so no make up no hiding it. I truly believe it also ruined my one chance with the only girl I ever met I thought I could marry. I bet if she saw me now.. things would be an entirely different story, but I digress..

Anyway, I used to search ALL these threads online and search Google looking for help. I finally found mine!

Thuy Nguyen (her name is pronounced Twee) at Wake Up Beautiful at
30100 Town Center Drive #S
Laguna Niguel CA, 92677
949-305-9912

I have gone in for several appointments for laser vein removal ( I had big thick visible veins, if this is the case, it can take several sessions to get them COMPLETELY GONE, although each session they will fade quite a noticeable bit)

She literally helped change my life! I just finished my last session recently and it feels SOOOOOO GOOD to be vein free. The confidence to know people are looking at my normal face when talking and not staring at my veins like I know they probably did before.

I highly recommend her services to ANYONE, I know if you have the same problem I did it sucks to go on with it.

I am just one ULTRA satisfied patient, wishing everyone with my same ailment could get the treatment I did. I didn't even know about laser eye vein removal until recently! Call her today to set up a consultation, if you did, tell her you heard about her from Christian (thats my name)

I really hope this post can benefit people, living vein free literally restored my confidence I had lost!

[ilseldb]

I live in Houston, Tx, anybody here who could do this? I'm new here so there are so many doctors and I don't know who's best at this. I have a very blue vein under my left eye, I've had it all my life and it goes up towards my left temple, I always have to cover it with makeup. Also have dark circles as I'm a very allergic person. But that's a different story I know its not easy to get rid of dark circles completely and I don't have a million dollars to spend on treatments like mentioned above, but would like to know where to start or at least get some info as to who would be best to contact re this matter I would really be happy to get rid of this stupid blue vein!