“Should Be Done Under Full Anesthesia.”

Chardy, my doctor said he asked me during the procedure whether I wanted to stop and get more meds, but in fact he didn't ask. He just kept going. At one point I did interrupt him to tell him to stop pushing so hard on my eyeball (which he was doing while using the laser near my eye). One of the drugs you get in "twilight sedation" is supposed to make the patient forget the entire procedure, including the pain. I remember the whole thing, though. So I think that the drug mix was off. May the anesthetist have Fraxel! This is day seven for me, and the skin on my lower face is much smoother. My forehead is still looking like a wall from which you've partially stripped wallpaper -- patchy and vaguely striped. I've had some pigment come up in stripes on my left cheek. I think this must have been from driving to the doctor's office yesterday (sun through the driver's side window), even though I was plastered with sunscreen at the time. I'm sure this pigment will fade over time, but I'm not going to be driving mid-day for a while. There is one thing that is really bugging me. In between my eyes I have a patch of dark red dots about the size of a nickel. They are obviously the holes left by the laser, and they came up after I had peeled. I have a similar dark spot in the indent of my chin. Areas of thin skin? I am anxious for them to fade. No improvement in the feeling in my temples yet. My doctor suggested that this numbness might help my migraines (!). Skin care has been washing in the shower with Aquaphor cleanser, short vinegar water soaks three times a day, Cetaphil cream during the day and Aquaphor ointment at night. I think that the vinegar soaks are no longer part of my required regimen, but they feel good and they make sense to me. My skin still feels very vulnerable. The vinegar water feels deeply cleansing and soothing. My husband brought home a chocolate cake from a good bakery and made reservations for us to visit a resort in a month. That's an entirely different type of medicine, but a good one.

Hey, Cyn -- I'll look into the Cosmedix. It sounds like a good idea. I'm a little scared to hear that you still have the dark areas after three weeks. Yikes! I am trying to be patient. Great news about the numbness subsiding, though! Thanks for that. I think that if you had Keflex-resistant bacteria in your body or in your environment when you had the Fraxel, you would probably have gotten an infection anyway. Keflex works systemically by destroying the outer "walls" of bacteria in your body, and any susceptible critters will die when exposed, but it's used for a narrow range of infections. Cipro is a broad-spectrum antibiotic that is used against many things, including the very scary MRSA. You probably did everything right, but the drug didn't work for you. Did the doctor do a culture? Was it a staph infection? I saw a photo of someone's horrible, disfiguring infection from Fraxel (I think it was on this site), and my gut, germaphobe reaction was... that's just where someone would hold a phone against a cheek. I avoided the phone as much as possible my first three days. When I had to use it, I held it about three inches away from my head. But then I'm the kind of person who washes my hands after using my keyboard -- all the time. The sunblock powder I mentioned disappears on the skin, btw. It's not a makeup. But here is another thing to try. It's a tinted, full-spectrum sunblock (physical, not chemical block) that is full of dimethicone so it goes on like silk: Tizo 3 Protection, SPF 40.

Cyn, that is awful that you got an infection! That was one of my biggest fears. I hope that your skin evens out over time. Perhaps gylcolic peels would help, once you are able to get them (my doctor said I should wait until my skin is no longer red to start my peels again). They helped with my skin texture and color pre-Fraxel. Here is a good translucent sunscreen powder to try, which takes down the redness a lot (and also counters the sheen of titanium dioxide sunscreen): Colorscience Sunforgettable Dispensing Brush. It's UVA/UVB, SPF 30. I think I bought it from Bliss. It's expensive... sorry. I had my follow-up appointment with my doctor (day 6 of recovery), and was told that everything was on-track and that I looked very good for this stage. Much of my dead and hardened skin has come off in the shower (with very gentle, downward massaging in the steam). My skin is patchy and red overall, and I have areas where either broken capillaries (or just thin skin or bruising) make purple and red marks. I have very minor inflammation, mostly in my cheeks. When I apply Cetaphil cream, followed by a titanium dioxide sunscreen for babies, and then by a generous layer of a sunscreen powder, my skin color is closer to that of a fair Caucasian person, but nowhere near the normal color of my neck and chest. My forehead, viewed up close, makes me think of an elderly person who has undergone treatment for precancers of the skin. It has that same scaling and blotching. Since I lost some hair to the laser, my hairline is stubbly and unattractive, which doesn't help. At the doctor's office, I was introduced to another woman who had the same treatment on the same day I did, and she was way behind me in healing. She still had darkened, dead skin covering her her entire forehead. She seemed to be upset about it. So the healing time for Fraxel Re:Pair does seem to vary considerably. In my opinion, a week is needed before one can rejoin society, at least. If you are taking off time from work for this, it would be ideal to use five days of vacation bracketed by two weekends and the Friday before, and have the procedure done on that Friday -- if you can work it out with your doc, and good luck on that. One big area of concern for me is still the partial numbness of my temples. The feeling is like Novocaine when it is wearing off, and my doctor told me that this is indeed the cause. Novocaine was injected deeply into those areas, and it takes time for the feeling to come back. In most cases it does. Cross your fingers. My skin has started to itch, especially at night. I've continued the vinegar soaks a few times a day, and I still use Aquaphor at night because it calms the itch. I got up once last night for a vinegar soak. When I told my doctor that Fraxel should be done under sedation, he said that it was an option, but it was more cost and risk. I asked the cost difference, and was told $500. For someone who has been getting line fillers and Botox for some time, that's a drop in the bucket. I would have chosen full sedation, had I known it was an option. I am healthy, and face minimal risk from sedation.

Odd new thing to add on day ten: When I spread lotion or sunscreen on my face, on the lower part where it is healed, I feel an uncomfortable prickling sensation. It's as if I had tiny needles from a cactus in my skin, and it's the rubbing, not the lotion that causes the feeling. Perhaps the doctor who moderates these threads could explain that one. Anyone else experience this? I've had to move backward in my treatment of one small section of my forehead. The skin there is broken and looks slightly inflamed. I am treating it as I did on day one, with five-minute vinegar soaks and Aquaphor, but with Neosporin applied under that. My forehead is still blotchy, red, and striped. it itches terribly. The rest of my face is a mild pink. It is slightly itchy.

Cyn -- I read up on your pathogen. sounds like you dodged a bullet there, so good observation on your part. Can you describe better what the peeling difference was? As I told you, I am germ obsessive. I wonder whether I would ever notice something like that. From my reading, I learned that the risk factors for Enterobacter species include having taken antibiotics within the last 30 days, and having had an invasive procedure done within the past 72 hours. You had both. Also, most skin and soft tissue infections with this pathogen are hospital-acquired. You might have been exposed at your medical center. I'm glad to hear that you feel confident enough to go out socializing! Just smile a lot. It makes people smile back. I'd love to see any photos you took. You just have to click on my log-in, and follow the instructions to send a message. Thanks. So, my condition on day eight: from my eyes down I look like someone who has spent time in the sun and is somewhere between sunburned and bronzed. The skin texture is (close to) normal, and soft. I have a couple of pimples near my mouth (bummer), and some roughness and broken capillaries on the bottom of my chin and along my jawline (I did not have my neck done). But otherwise, the bottom portion of my face is looking close to normal. My cheeks are still slightly swollen, but it actually looks good (think Scuptra). The slight swelling around my mouth that did what line fillers used to do for me is deflating a bit (again, bummer), but not completely. Some of my acne scars have reemerged, though somewhat diminished. But... my forehead still looks like it has been peeled in strips. Dots of blood show through the skin -- sort of a flat road rash effect -- on the upper temples. I know the forehead skin has little or no fat under it, so perhaps that's the difference. It is slow to heal, and still feels tender. The dark discoloration I've been worried about (a disc of red laser dots) between my eyes hasn't budged, although the similar mark on my chin has faded. I still have some small, dark dots on my eyelids. The numbness in my temples might be a little better, more on one side than the other. Still numb, though, and occasionally I have a deep itch in the numb areas, which is really awful. Today is the first day I would feel comfortable enough to return to a job if I had to (I work from home). No one would be fooled if I tried to pass off my "tan" as the result of skiing, or a trip to Hawaii, but my skin is healed enough to accept a little makeup, and I wouldn't feel too freakish. So for me, initial recovery from Fraxel Re:Pair was a full week, but my crusty forehead is still far from being "whole". I'd estimate another week or ten days for cell turnover there, and I have no idea when the stripes will even out. Another product suggestion for post-Fraxel patients: Blue Lizard Sunscreen. It's chemical and fragrance-free, and SPF 30, good for UVA/UVB. It doesn't bother even the most tender skin. Goes on thick and white (titanium and zinc oxides), but calms down a bit when it dries.

Sah52, you must be a strong person to have just a topical for a laser treatment! And then drive home... yikes! I suspect that how long the facial redness lasts depends on how you heal, and how prone you are to facial flushing normally. I blush easily, and get red-faced in a hot room. I get dark red marks from scars. After Fraxel, my face was bright as a beet on day four -- redder than it was the day before -- and I was a bit depressed about it because I seemed to be going backward instead of getting better. For me, the redness started to lessen soon after I peeled. The vinegar water soaks helped a lot. whenever my face started to feel hot or itchy, I would do a vinegar water soak, then wash with Aquaphor if I could (not too good to wash with cleanser more than 3 times a day... too harsh) or just pat dry and reapply Cetaphil cream and sunblock if I couldn't. The vinegar seems to take the heat out of the skin -- maybe constricts the blood vessels a little. I'm washing my face in the steamy shower, but I turn the water to tepid for the water I actually use on my face, and I don't put my face under the full spray. I'm not exercising or taking hot baths. I'm generally acting as if I have severe rosacea. I see improvement daily on the lower part of my face, which is a pretty normal color today. My forehead is still ugly, alas. I am not recommending any of this, and all things should be okayed my your doctor and all that, but homemade sunburn remedies might take down the redness a bit. Cucumber, spent tea bags, egg white, yogurt, milk, apple cider vinegar... all kinds of things can be used as masks to help constrict the blood vessels. Always do a skin patch test. Google "sunburn remedies". I have read elsewhere that some doctors prescribe cortisone cream for post-procedure redness, but I'd avoid it. My sister used a cortisone cream on her face for years (her doc said she had rosacea, but I don't think she did... I was once told by a doctor that I had rosacea, and multiple doctors subsequently said I didn't), and her face is PURPLE now. The cortisone abuse permanently thinned her skin and damaged her blood vessels. Nasty stuff. And by the way, I was prescribed the topical steroid Clobetasol Cream for use before Fraxel, as is common practice for this procedure. But I am one of those people who always reads the package insert. And the insert for this product said --- not to be used on the face! Other observations about my skin on this, day nine: My skin is hypersensitive, especially my forehead. I cannot stand to have hair touch any part of my face, so I must keep my layered hair pulled back tightly in a band. The feeling, when a strand of hair strays, is like when you have an advanced case of poison oak, and the touch of clothing on the affected area triggers a deep itch that makes you want to claw the skin off. Vinegar soaks and Aquaphor ointment take the itch down at night. I do my best to avoid touching my face for any reason outside of washing, soaking and applying lotions. With my hair plastered back, and my stubbly hairline, I am a walking bad-hair-day. I have noticed that my healed skin, on the bottom part of my face, is surprisingly fragile. Just pressing too hard will break blood vessels and leave purple marks. I would not schedule dental appointments within a couple of months after a Fraxel treatment! I haven't worn my contacts since treatment because I haven't felt comfortable pulling down my lower eyelid to put the contacts in. I'm afraid I will bruise. On the first couple of days after Fraxel, I noticed that my eyeglasses left bruise marks on the bridge of my nose, so I went without glasses for three days. My forehead feels tight and dry, even under moisturizer, and some very small areas have opened up again so that raw skin is revealed. I don't know whether this is a second stage of peeling or whether I've been too vigorous in washing. Aside from the itching, there is no sign of inflammation or discoloring, so I am not suspecting infection. I've been treating this area with even more care, and applying Neosporin to any broken skin. The larger acne scars around my chin and mouth are getting back to where they were before Fraxel. I try to remind myself that the real skin repair takes months with Fraxel, but the truth is that this feels like failure to me. Oh, well. Thank heaven for line fillers. The texture of my healed skin is not as smooth as I had hoped for. It has a slight pebbled texture, which the doctor says is probably just the normal texture that lay beneath all the skin that peeled away. I do think that it is more taut overall, especially under the eyes. (I did not have any deep folds or huge sags before Fraxel, but I had some sun damage, and my skin was starting to show signs of laxity under my eyes, around my mouth, and on my cheeks.) I seem to have slightly more feeling in my temples. Good news there. Trying to remain calm and unemotional during recovery has been important for me. Keeping my face still helps to keep it comfortable. If I frown, my forehead itches. If I smile, my cheeks itch. I am concentrating on being inscrutable.

Sah, my sister in Fraxel, isn't the hypersensitivity just the worst? Makes you want to scream. And here's something that's not in the literature... for those Fraxel patients who have furry pets in the home. You will find pet hairs in your face ointment! I can't tell you how many times I've run to the bathroom to do a vinegar soak because my face was tickling so much, and I look in the mirror to see dog hairs plastered to my cheeks. The vinegar water mix; Get a 16 oz. container of bottled water and pour out 2 tbspns. of it. replace that with 2 tbspns. of white vinegar, cap and shake. Soak gauze pads in a bowl, place on face for at least 5 minutes. Rub face *gently* with gauze when you remove it, to wipe away ointment and dead skin cells. At the beginning, you need sterile, bottled water, but I use my tap water now (it's very pure well water, though, with no chlorine ... don't know if it matters for pH, but I suppose it depends on your water whether you need bottled or filtered). My instructions pre and post procedure said to avoid all nsaids (like ibuprophen) for two weeks before and two weeks after the Fraxel. They thin the blood, and can promote bleeding, delay healing. (Only Tylenol is allowed.) I was also told to avoid vitamin supplements and fish oils for the same reason as the nsaids. I was put on an intense Retin-A peel treatment before the Fraxel, stopping something like 10 days before. I peeled like crazy with the Retin-A. It's an interesting idea that some inflammation might be needed to encourage new collagen. I didn't use the suggested frozen- peas-ice-pack on my face because it seemed too harsh for my tender skin. I took Tylenol maybe twice in the first couple of days after Fraxel. I guess that was the right thing to do? But then, I wasn't very swollen, so I had the option of just putting up with it. On the vitamin E, I've been looking at oils to use, too. I was considering jojoba oil, but I'm going to try olive oil (per Rebex, and her review). It's hard to find a balance between mild, moisturizing, healing, and non-clogging, when looking for something to put on this new skin. I have plenty of olive oil handy, so it's an easy next move. Rebex, our dogs are secretly out to get us, I'm certain of it. As soon as they figure out how to open cans, drive the car, and order online, we're toast. You reminded me of something that might explain why one section of my forehead is having trouble healing. I walked into the wall one night when I was getting up to do a vinegar soak -- don't ask -- and bonked my forehead really hard. That is where the more fragile skin is! so I must have damaged a deep layer of skin. Mystery solved. Early on, I could relieve the itch by pressing lightly on the spot, but now one touch makes the itch expand and compound. So I count, make a cup of tea, take the dogs outside, eat something (bad girl), or do anything to distract myself. Or I wash or soak my face. Your mime comment is funny! I had Blue Lizard thickly plastered on my face one morning, and my hair scraped back, and I was perched, Buddha-like against a pile of pillows on the bed, with a duvet pulled up to my chin. My husband came in and looked at me and said I looked like one of those Japanese dolls that sits on a platform, draped in robes. I thought it was kind of sweet. The guy tries, I'll give him that. No huge change today, day eleven. I think that my cheeks are somewhat softer, and the flesh there feels a bit less thick when I wash my face. The inflammation is down on the broken skin on my forehead, but the stripes and redness persist there, as well as the itching. I notice a new feeling of tightness across my lower face. I don't know whether this precedes another peel. It feels like dryness, but can't be, as I am nothing if not thoroughly moisturized.

I hope it goes well for you, Melanie. First, if you don't have a spouse or partner, do arrange for someone to stay with you during the first three days of recovery. You absolutely cannot go out, and you might need something to be purchased for you, and you might feel rotten enough that you need help. The day of the procedure, you will be completely wiped out. You need another human there just to feel cared for. As Cyn, said, infection is the biggest threat. Keep your hands off your face, wash them before you touch your face for any reason, change your bedding and clothing often, keep your hair well off your face (I recommend getting one of those wide, terry headbands that are used in spas), and keep the wound clean and constantly hydrated with ointment. Follow your doctor's instructions to the letter. I was given a surgery packet of arnica tablets (an herbal anti-inflammatory) for before and after the procedure. I think the helped keep the swelling down. Have lots of towels on hand (early on, they will likely get blood and yellow seepage stains on them, so don't use your best ones). A gel pack that can be refrigerated or frozen might be welcome if you swell. Eye drops feel good when the Aquaphor migrates into your eyes. Straws for drinking are nice to have for the first couple of days, to keep your skin clean and keep the ointment out of your mouth. Before you have your procedure, go around your house and make sure you can darken a few rooms enough to be comfortable moving around until the fourth or fifth day when you can wear sunscreen -- I was confined to just a couple of rooms in my very bright house, which has few window coverings. Drink lots of water! And I would suggest (confirm with your doctor) having Neosporin on hand for that later part of the healing, when you might have some small areas of broken skin. If you are doing the vinegar soaks, buy several packs of gauze pads. I went through, I think, five packages (but I did the soaks for more days than required). I'd also suggest preparing the person who is taking you home from the surgery center (especially if it's a husband!) by showing him or her some "Fraxel Day One" photos. My husband admitted yesterday, now that I am looking fairly normal, that I really scared him when I was wheeled out of the recovery room, my face seeping blood. I hadn't thought that part through beforehand. That's all I can think of right now. No reason to be scared, though. The procedure itself is quick, and if you are to be fully sedated, you should feel nothing. I had no post-procedure pain, and minimal swelling. The itching and prickles I 've written about here seem to be normal, and do subside. TWO WEEK UPDATE: I still itch, but it's getting better. Not so crazy-making. I am no longer looking flushed, but am still very slightly pink, as if I've been in the sun. My forehead is redder than the rest of my face, especially in the area of the upper temples, where the skin is very thin. The skin there is darker and slightly redder even than the rest of my forehead, and it feels a little rougher and harder. I assume that I will peel again on my forehead. Overall, my forehead looks ruddy, and I can see broken capillaries and red dots on it. The one spot (about the size of a quarter) where I had a problem with broken skin is healed, but it looks as if I might get a scar there -- it is healing rougher and darker than the surrounding skin, and is slightly raised. I suppose I can deal with that later on with some other treatment. I am getting more feeling in my temples day by day. Unfortunately, as the nerves wake up, they seem to cause a deep itch that can't be scratched. It doesn't last long, but it's dreadful. Under my jawline, where my Fraxel treatment ended, I have a rough line of demarcation (in skin color) and strange, prickly nerve sensations when I rub the skin. I don't have complete feeling in the skin at the joint of the jaw. I think this is related to the Novocaine injections that numbed my temples. The skin discoloration is similar to what you get after a poison oak rash heals. It is not alarming, and it looks like it will even out over time. I have been using olive oil on my skin, and it seems to have improved the formerly angry, bumpy, raw look of my forehead. The skin there has calmed down and smoothed, compared to what it was a few days ago. But it is still on a different healing schedule than the rest of my face, as mentioned above. This is a difficult time, psychologically, because the minor (and flattering) inflammation that Fraxel caused has deflated. Many of my wrinkles have returned -- and my scars -- and now I just have to wait for a couple of months to see whether my collagen takes over the repair work. I do see some improvement around my eyes, though. Where I once had crinkly crowsfeet, I now have a few creases, and I think that I have less laxity underneath the eyes. But the bottom part of my face looks about the same as it did (as far as wrinkles and scars go) before Fraxel. Maybe even worse, since I haven't had any line fillers there for so many months now. Also, a detail about me that I didn't include in my review, but should have, is that I am nearing age 50, am post-menopausal and am on hormone replacement therapy (a low dose).

I've decided to pull my socks up and get on with my normal life, albeit one that involves liberal use of sunscreen and moisturizer. At two weeks plus one day post-Fraxel, I am seriously feeling my lack of exercise, so I am headed off to the gym. I will hold off on swimming for now, out of concern for the pressure of my goggles on tender skin, but for everything else...Thunderbirds are go. I was able to wear my hair down around my face yesterday for the first time, as my skin hypersensitivity has abated. It's silly, but it made a big difference in how I felt about skin. My hair covers some of the problem areas around the edge of my face. I received an e-mail from a man castigating me for "obviously" choosing the "wrong doctor" for my procedure. He went on to detail how much better and easier his procedures were -- *multiple*, sequential procedures, which were "obviously" the much less invasive Fraxel Restore, not Re:pair! So you need to be careful when reading reviews on this site. Make certain that you are reading about the correct treatment. I would question anyone who claims they felt nothing during Fraxel Re:pair, unless they were knocked out. And beware: there are promotions posing as reviews out there. I have a final check with my doctor in about a week. I'll update if there is anything new. I plan to confirm with him what my laser settings were, and I will post that information here.

On the subject of laser settings, if any Fraxel patients reading this know their settings, can you post them? I just read on another site where someone said they had this done with a setting of 70 mJ at 60%! I would think one's face would fry at that setting (they were pleased with the results, though). Compared to that, I was done at a very light setting.