“My Fraxel Repair 05/14/10 for Skin Laxity”

64 hours post-procedure To write a review here, you are forced to choose a satisfaction level. It's far too early to say, so I chose "good" because it's right in the middle. That said, I'm absolutely expecting "excellent" results!

Well, everything I've experienced is in line with the other reviews. I'm in my thirties, and I didn't realize I was well below the recommended age for Re:pair. Nevertheless, I was unhappy with the laxity of my skin, particularly around my mouth. This was likely due to my 15 years of modest and sporadic smoking. I know! But I smoked only the natural kind, and anyway, I've given up for good now! Anyhoo, the pain was intense and acute, but since the procedure was super quick, it was endurable. I had 1.5 vicodin, half a lorazapan, and topical and injectable numbing stuff. Obviously those doses need doubling. I had the crusting and oozing the first day, but it had mostly washed away (with the vinegar solution and Cetaphil) by the second.

At 64 hours I'm swollen, resembling a beat-up footballer. Skin is slightly maroon, pretty evenly so. Without the Aquaphor, it feels exactly like sandpaper. But really, I don’t look so bad. In fact, I almost think I could go to the corner store for some chocolate … Hmm, not quite. Not with the Aquaphor. Nasty stuff. Washing it off and soaking in vinegar feels sooo good. Oh, and about sleeping: insist on extra lorazepam or xanax. Itchy face and greasy pillow don’t make for a restful night. Otherwise, I feel fine and great. I've been taking my dog for long 4 a.m. walks, and that is the highlight of my day/night! In fact, I'm super antsy. A week didn't seem so long at the time, but I'm only 38.24% of the way there.

Oh, my whole point in writing this was to see if anyone knows what's actually happening here. I mean, I can see the columns of ablated skin (which look like pin pricks from the surface). So is my body going to squeeze that dead skin out and then merge back together and tighten up? Is that the idea? Seems logical, but why am I supposed to lose the entire top layer of all my skin – why don’t the fractionalized ablated bits just fall out? Oh, btw, I could smell my skin burning during the procedure! So gross!