Hello--
I personally have gone through the fire with Belle at the helm of my experience of mass clearings. I have very mixed reviews of the experience. Let me just say that it was BRUTAL. I'll tell you why:
I had my first treatment in March of 2015. I was about to turn fifty and my husband said that it was my birthday gift to finally be rid of my facial hair. Mind you that I married a wonderful man that for eleven years has always loved me regardless of me looking like a chimp if not having saved for several days. =)
I had avoided this process for a very long time because quite frankly I HATE pain. Now, I know what you might be saying. "But they have sedation and good drugs etc...".
Well, it's not for the meek or the weak. I was told not to take my medications before going to the office prior to the procedure by Belle. ( BTW: Really bad advice from a woman that seems to feel that she is a nurse of some kind ) I was so nervous and so terrified when Dr. Zukowski cam in I had no idea what to expect. An IV was started and I was given light sedation that failed on me because of the high anxiety and adrenaline running through my body.
To make matters worse the good doc then came at me with a large bore needle filled with three different types and variations of lidocaine....I was ill prepared and wide awake when he poked my face repeatedly with that needle painfully filling my face with medication. My cheek bone was struck on both sides and my chin was hit hard too. I could tell that he was more accustomed to performing his magic on patients that were deeply anesthetized and not awake and terrified.
I was really upset, but for the moment my face was numb. They electrolysis began with two people working on me at the same time. One very good and Belle being very slow and not as good with her technique. At the time? I really liked Belle and believed I was in the best hands possible. That would prove to be very wrong for me and my experience with her.
Because of the recommendation to not take my medication for the morning which included several drugs I take for severe anxiety I burned through the medication used to numb my face within a half hour or so. I seemed to be blamed for everything that was going wrong with the clearings and it really upset and shook me to my core. I was intending to NEVER return. I had been berated by Belle Brine for not being able to tolerate the pain and I was not liking her much at the time. I was paying this woman to torture me and she was bitching?
So, on March 11th, my birthday ( age 50 ) I was headed home with a face that looked like I had been struck repeatedly by a large truck!! I was in agony and wanted to die. SRS was a cakewalk compared to this!!!
I did return again because my husband talked me into it believing it would be better if I took my meds and he was right. I was in Willmette with Belle a total of three times and I found her to be the most sarcastic and vial person I had ever met. She was condescending and said to a Facebook friend that was also seeing her that I "tried to take over the treatment session because I was asking for pain meds" She also called me a "drug addict" because the next time I went I was prepared with xanax and vicodin from my primary doc so I didn't have to suffer again.
So, the question is...would I recommend Belle Brine to other people? Yes. Only because she is pretty much the only game in town and the monster is associated with a gifted, although not gentle surgeon, Mark Zukowski.
Considering that Belle Brine was getting stoned on the way back to the hotel to drop me off after each visit and that she practiced medicine by injecting my face with the lidocaine cocktail because Zukowski was performing surgery and couldn't come back to inject me himself....I would say that I truly should have filed charges. But she gave me the service I asked for, but is just terrible at her job.
I would never and could never relive that experience with her being so inept, uncaring and judgmental. But now a year plus later I am almost finished with electrolysis because I found a really great electrologist close to my home in Minnesota.
I'm glad to never to need to see Belle and despite the horrible things she said to me and the terrible way I was treated? She serves a very necessary evil. Mass clearing is what I got for the most part. Now, being almost hair free and loving my face I now know why I put it off for so long. It's nice to be almost finished, however.
