“33 yr old fraxel re:pair for acne scarring & fine lines - so far so good!”

Greetings All,

I haven't come across too many posts of middle aged males going through the Fraxil Re:pair treatment; so here is an account of my experience which hopefully will provide some insight for those in my demographic. Well that and I'm bored stiffed sitting at home!

- Background Info -
PT: 33 Year Old Male, Fair Skinned (Light strawberry blond hair)
Reason for Treatment: Acne scaring along temple, forehead, and chin (minor). Secondary concerns included minor wrinkles along forehead and frown lines.
Previous Treatments: 4 Treatments of the Affirm Laser on forehead only (poor results)
Location: Buffalo, NY
Cost: $3150 for full face

- Treatment Medications -
Ultravate Cream - 2 times day before and 1 time morning of treatment
Valtrex - 2 tablets per day for 10 days
Levaquin - 1 tablet per day for 5 days
Benadryl - 1 tablet evening before and for next 3 nights
Tylenol - 1000 Mg every 6 hours for 3 days
Xanax and Vicodin day of treatment
Botox given 2 weeks before treatment (additional $500)

- Photos -
I'll post the before pictures from my doctor once I receive them. I also am taking pictures on a daily basis which I'll post as well.

- Treatment Experience -
Treatment initially started with numbing gel wrapped with plastic wrap for 60 minutes. 30 minutes into treatment I was given Xanax and Vicodin (unsure of dosage). I'm not really sure if they did much of anything except put me to sleep on the ride home. Nerve blockers were applied in 4 spots inside mouth.

Treatment started with forehead, moving over to nose, cheeks, lip, then chin. On the pain scale it ranged from a 2 to borderline 8 depending on the location. The most painful areas were underneath my nose, close to ears, and temples. At no point did I ask the physician to stop but got rather close. During the treatment she mentioned women seem to tolerate pain better then pain which gave me motivation to keep going! The best I can describe the pain was like a hot prickly iron. From start to finish the treatment lasted 3 hours.

- Post Treatment Care and Results Day 1 -
Started Water/Vinegar soaks 2 hours after treatment followed by frozen pea bag compress and Aquaphor. Performing this routine every 3 hours until day 2. So far I have the standard bleeding/oozing mostly confined to my forehead, cheeks under eyes, lip, and chin. Overall it feels like a mild sunburn. No swelling that I can notice, however it looks like she nicked my eyebrows since some hair is gone. Post treatment has been very tolerable and better then I expected.

Day 2
Woke up with a significant amount of crusted over oozing but it appears the bleeding has stopped. Moderate bruising under my eyes and upper chin. No pain what so ever and my face feels extremely tight. Continuing to use water/vinegar soaks every 3 - 4 hours.

Day 3
Somehow during the night I ended up in a flat position and my face swelled right up! I had the strangest feeling of oozing when I stood up but apparently that was liquid under the skin. Just a couple very small areas that crusted over, but I believe the oozing/bleeding has completely stopped. As of mid afternoon I'm experiencing mild/moderate swelling with a severe sunburn appearance. Its way too early to tell if its permanent, but for now my scarring and wrinkle lines are 100% gone. My follow up is tomorrow and I'm hoping they'll allow me to get back to light exercise.

As my healing progresses I'll be sure to keep this log updated. Feel free to post any comments/questions in the meantime!