Hello, Sheila.
20 years ago, after the army-green skin dyes and pill/sunlamp treatments dermatologists at the Cleveland International Clinic (Ohio) used a combination of topical tri-psoralens (I may have butchered the spelling) and tanning out in the sun. I was supposed to lay out for only 5 minutes and graduate to 15 over time; however, I fell asleep outside for 25 minutes. My fingers and my face responded quite favorably to this accident. After the swelling went down a week later, and the scabs shed (another week), I had scattered brown spots among a field of pink skin that eventually grew and filled in the matching white spots on my index fingers and around my eyes as well as a spot near my mouth. The white spots came in VERY DARK, but lightened almost to the shade of brown as the rest of my skin over a five-year time span. Now, I don’t recommend ignoring your doctor’s treatment plan. I don’t even know if soralens are still used to treat vitiligo. I haven’t had any treatment for it since then. Perhaps I am just lucky. Most of the other areas that repigmented themselves have done so without a trace of vitiligo. On the other hand, a few areas that haven’t repigmented 100% are 3 different shades of brown and fading. Also, about 3-4 months ago, I started turning white in new areas, but not my hands. [email protected].
