Laser Resurfacing: Stories

I am in mid 50's and the lines around my eyes, mouth and other places were getting deeper and deeper...Just had the double procedure yesterday--full face fractional ablative laser preceded by a full face non-ablative laser. Less painful than I expected. I did not have any pain meds and while uncomfortable, it was tolerable....but glad when it was over. Last night I just put a bunch of pillows in my bed and slept semi upright for a good 8-9 hours. I could see it started to heal overnight. Today my face is starting to swell up (which the told me it would). The feeling right after the procedure was like a bad sunburn but I didn't feel sick or anything more than that. By this morning the stinging was gone and I just have Crisco all over my face (they actually use real Crisco!) and am watching movies on Netflix. So, nothing to report yet on results but wanted to let folks know that it was not that bad pain wise both during and after (I was expecting it to be much worse and to feel much worse afterwards so this is happy.) I will post over the next few days and then again in a few weeks and in a few months.

One week update...okay so to review...both ablative and non-ablative somewhat uncomfortable but not bad enough that I wouldn't do it again...and frankly not even that bad...I was expecting it to be really awful and it was more just uncomfortable and glad to have it over..but definitely not writing in pain so don't be afraid of that...I was and was surprised it was bearable. Okay so I'm looking normal, still have a little flaking on my face...a lot of the sun damage came to surface and flaked off but it's not 100% so don't know if that will happen later or if my procedure (which was more about getting rid of fine lines and tightening) won't really get at the heavy sun damage. one of the people at my dermatologists office said that if you are all about discoloration and sun damage and spot that it's a different laser procedure that they do...so for those reading this who are having that...my procedure might have been somewhat different. So I went for my one week checkup yesterday...looked at before pictures and there is definitely a lot of tightening in my face...which is good...the crows feet are much softened and in general my skin looks a ton better. The one area that I'm still concerned about is the lines above my upper lip. I had those little lip lines forming and was hoping to get rid of them...I know my doctor really hit that area hard so it could be that it's still healing because right now it looks to me like it's a little worse than when I went in. My skin in general is pretty dry from the procedure so I'll see how it is in a week. They also told me yesterday that the full effects from the collagen production will not be really visible for 6 weeks. So that's the net net of the whole thing so far....I look better, wasn't too painful and the recovery was no biggie and I got to watch a lot of movies. I would also recommend that while they said I'd be up and out after 4 days...I certainly could have because I looked ok...if you can give yourself a week...you'll look much better. I work from home so it was no problem for me.....will try and update once a week for next 6 weeks...hoping my collagen kicks into high gear :)