Considering I am now 13 treatments into the laser tattoo removal process, I feel pretty confident about what is to be expected, so I do not think anything new happened this last treatment, per se. Perhaps it was the summer weather, but I decided to leave my bandages off for a bit during those few to four days immediately post the last treatment. Well to my surprise, the blisters, that were moderate in size as compared to those of past treatments, just oozed yellow juice to such a volume that it was hard not to bandage it right back up, but the bandages were bothering me. Now, I am not new to the oozing, but I guess with the bandages on I usually do not realize just how much of it there is during the healing process.
Upon seeing my burn, someone remarked that yellow ooze typically means something is infected, I immediately knew that was not true, because yellow ooze has been a staple of this process since I first began. Yet, it got me thinking about how certain people, whom are just getting their first treatment, might wonder similarly, is it a bad sign? No, definitely not. But then, what is it?
Well I looked it up and the blister ooze is actually called 'serum', and it is released from broken cells when they get damaged, such as when the dermis layer of skin is damaged in a second degree burn, which is the consequence of laser tattoo removal. It is yellow due to the albumin protein, same as eggs (GROSS!!). Hopefully this information will satisfy those that think it might be infected. (http://www.worsleyschool.net/science/files/blister/page.html)
I learned two things from this. The first was that these burns we receive are second degree burns. This was news as I had thought them to be first degree, therefore lesser degree burns. Ouch! Second, I learned that if the dermis layer is not damaged then blisters will not form (I think...), which might mean, going back to an old post, that when I did not blister the laser didn't go deep enough to hit the dermis layer or just didn't damage it. It makes me think that not blistering is a sign the laser didn't work, as I had suspected.
Either way, I wanted to post a gross pic, so that you can compare your ooze to mine in case you were wondering if it is normal. I'm not a doctor, but this is normal for me.
Upon seeing my burn, someone remarked that yellow ooze typically means something is infected, I immediately knew that was not true, because yellow ooze has been a staple of this process since I first began. Yet, it got me thinking about how certain people, whom are just getting their first treatment, might wonder similarly, is it a bad sign? No, definitely not. But then, what is it?
Well I looked it up and the blister ooze is actually called 'serum', and it is released from broken cells when they get damaged, such as when the dermis layer of skin is damaged in a second degree burn, which is the consequence of laser tattoo removal. It is yellow due to the albumin protein, same as eggs (GROSS!!). Hopefully this information will satisfy those that think it might be infected. (http://www.worsleyschool.net/science/files/blister/page.html)
I learned two things from this. The first was that these burns we receive are second degree burns. This was news as I had thought them to be first degree, therefore lesser degree burns. Ouch! Second, I learned that if the dermis layer is not damaged then blisters will not form (I think...), which might mean, going back to an old post, that when I did not blister the laser didn't go deep enough to hit the dermis layer or just didn't damage it. It makes me think that not blistering is a sign the laser didn't work, as I had suspected.
Either way, I wanted to post a gross pic, so that you can compare your ooze to mine in case you were wondering if it is normal. I'm not a doctor, but this is normal for me.
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| [It does look like egg yolk....yuck!] |
