“Had SmartSkin Fraxel 11 Days Ago - Los Angeles, CA”

I'm 54 years old and wanted to get rid of the lines around and above my mouth. I've always had peaches and cream skin, but was told to do my entire face so the color would match. I also had my chest and neck done because that was the special the plastic surgeon was running in December.

Lidocaine was applied to my face for an hour and I was given something to relax. Let me just say that this hurt! There were areas of my face that didn't hurt, but there were areas where it felt like the doctor was drilling a hole in my face. I didn't have my eyes done as we had not discussed this possibility until he was getting ready to start and when he started talking about inserting metal contact lenses into my eyes to protect them I said no. I was not mentally prepared for that.

The first two days I felt great, on Christmas Day in the afternoon I climbed into bed and didn't leave it until that Friday. It wasn't that it was painful. It was just so freakin uncomfortable! This is NOT like a bad sunburn. I've had PLENTY of sunburn in my life, even sun poisoning once, but never felt this awful. My skin felt like it was a hard shell and I could barely feel it when I touched it. My doctor had given me 5 percoset and those were the only things that took the edge off, although unfortunately I needed more like 25.

I was told to apply the SkinMedica Ointment to my skin to keep it moist for the first 5 days and then to use the SkinMedical TMS Ceramide Cream. At 7 days the doctor said I could start wearing makeup and recommended YoungBlood only as it didn't clog pores. On day 8 after the laser I started breaking out on my chin with cystic acne...then my chest started breaking out with it. I quickly started treating it with zinc oxide. I've never had an acne issue, and at my age I was shocked that this turned out to be one of my side effects, but apparently the greasy ointment along with my compromised skin/pores made it a petri dish for acne!

I was told that it would take 5 days to recover from this procedure and on day 11 I'm just now back at work, although I would have preferred to have another 3-4 days. The only result I've seen so far is acne. I don't see that any of the lines around my mouth have disappeared. I know it's supposed to take some time for the collagen to kick in, but was under the impression that the lines disappeared as they were being zapped. I haven't come to any conclusion yet about it being worth it or not. I'll write more in a few months to see if anything has changed.

Updated on 30 Jan 2012:
Update: Hi. Today is January 30 so it's been a little over a month since my laser skin resurfacing. About 2 weeks after it I also got 3 syringes of Juvaderm (LOVE!!) and since those results are instantaneous and the laser isn't..I still feel I can't fairly judge the laser. I was having a problem with my face flushing and turning bright pink throughout the day and discovered when I stopped using the Obagi Blender with the retin A (like the doctor told me to), the redness quickly started disappearing. One thing at a time, right! Once I get the redness completely cleared up, I'll decide to use the retin A or not. I still have a few light marks on my chin from the acne outbreak I had. It takes forever for any kind of trauma on my fair skin to return to looking normal.