Fraxel: Restore - Painful
It is now June 2010, about 6 months since i had 2...
I did a lot of reading about Fraxel:restore and...
I did a lot of reading about Fraxel:restore and decided to do one treatment (that's all I could afford) at a medi spa because they had the best deal. I have fine lines and wrinkles, hyperpigmentation, and acne scars that i wanted treated.
On 10/30/09 I had my appointment. They put numbing cream on my face for an hour and then wiped it off and lasered me. I told the technician that I wanted an aggressive treatment. After a series of passes, she asked me if she could turn the energy up because my skin was reacting very well and wasn't even red. I of course said yes because i want more bang for my buck. She also had a wand that blew out cold air that felt really good on my skin. She put it on 18 energy, 10 density and did 8 passes.
It is very painful, felt untolerable at times, but i told myself "no pain, no gain" and tried to focus on how great I would look afterwards. I took a vicodin an hour before treatment because I had read about how painful the treatment is. I am glad I did. Right now, (30 minutes after the treatment ended) my face still feels hot under my skin, but is very tolerable. My skin is slightly pink and my face is swollen. Right after the treatment it took me a few tries to open my eyes.... they were a little watery and obviously, swollen.
So far I am very pleased with the way my skin reacted and a little disappointed that the technician didn't put it on the highest settings.... but then, she said she didn't want to risk me getting hyperpigmentation... so .... i can live with that. I will post more in the future about how my skin is recovering. please ask me any questions.
Replies (3)
Thursday, November 19, 2009. I just had my...
Thursday, November 19, 2009. I just had my second treatment of Fraxel Restore with Nurse Shannon. I am very pleased with the treatment process. It was very different from the treatment i received from Doctor Kristen 3 weeks prior. With Shannon I felt like i was at a spa and felt like a million bucks, whereas, with the doctor I felt like she was more robotic and not as easy to talk to.
I told Shannon about the scars on my chin and jaw area and told her that i wanted an aggressive treatment. She talked to me throughout the procedure to tell me what she was doing and afterwards i asked her to write down the settings that she had the machine on because she used different settings for different areas. This is what she did:
10/8/6 around my eyes; 35/8/6 on my forehead and nose; 40/8/6 on the side of my face and my chin area; and 15/6/6 around my mouth. She did a few extra passes on my scars and even did a few passes on my neck because i had a scar there.
this is what the numbers mean: x/y/z; x= mjoules; y= treatment level; z= density/pass
The pain was not as bad in some areas, the eyes were the worst! I took 800 ibuprofen 90 minutes beforehand. Shannon did a really good job keeping the cool air on the areas that needed it.
it is 45 minutes after my treatment and my face is still burning and is more red than after my first treatment, but i like it because i know that my skin is going to look so fabulous in a few months. Nurse Shannon recommended that i use hydrocortisone about 5 times a day for the first few days and sleep with my head raised on a couple pillows. I will write more about my progress at a later date.
Replies (4)
I'm a 29 year old woman and I just had my second Fraxel treatment Thursday (it's Saturday morning) and had a huge break in treatment between the two (first was in mid-August) because of school. Although I'm olive complexion, I'm very fair and I have some acne scars and pitting on my cheeks (mild) from cystic acne resulting from PCOS. I also freckle a ton so I wanted both treatment for my hyperpigmentation and the scars.
This was my experience with the first:
Day 1: I put on Clinique Medical probiotic cleanser and creams (it comes in a package) post-procedure. I had tons of swelling and immediately noticed tiny pinpricks all over my face minus my eye area (which had been incredibly swollen anyway).
Day 2: Still no pain but the swelling around my eyes was incredibly frightening despite sleeping sitting up on pillows and taking dyphenhydramine. I also applied moisturizer every couple of hours and ice packs. The pinprick scabs literally covered every inch of my face and made me look very brown.
Day 3 and 4: No pain but it felt like my mouth was cracking from how dry my skin was. I didn't start peeling much yet, but I did notice some white pustules forming around my nose that were too small to be blisters. I'm thinking it's just trapped sebum under the dried skin from my pores. I continued to moisturize with Clinique but added Aquaphor to the dry areas to encourage their sloughing.
Day 5 thru 7: Incredibly peely. I've never felt such itchiness in my life. Thank goodness I was on Summer break since there was no way I was going outside. I was told that I had an intense setting (she said that for my age I'd heal well), but I looked like a monster despite my icing and creams and the pustules/blisters lasted around 10 days.
Before this last procedure I took inventory of my skin. A few weeks after the first procedure I had noticed some freckling under my eyes despite my religious use of SPF60 and limiting sun exposure. I used IS serums to help diminish pigmentation and continued with my Retin-A 0.1% almost nightly. Although my acne breakouts were far less because of my special care to my skin, the acne scars were still noticeable, my pores were still large, and my freckles were even more pronounced.
The second treatment (as I said before) was this Thursday around noon. I always use Carla at Marina Plastic Surgery, and she's a doll. Young, friendly, and super sensitive to what we want/need while in her care. The first procedure required nerve blocks (3 if I remember correctly that she injected under my lips/gums) but this time I told her I wanted to look human for Xmas so she went lighter and they gave me Motrin and Tylenol about 35 minutes prior instead. Yet again, some of the most painful "scraping" feeling of my life. Eyes, lips, and hairline are the worst.
Immediately after, they gave me an ice pack (my eyes get super huge from this procedure) and applied sunscreen all over. This time they also put me in front of this machine that blinks like a strobe and is used to reduce redness. I immediately drove home, took a Tramadol and Benadryl and fell asleep for about 5 hours. I'm a huge baby when it comes to pain but I have yet to really experience anything other than discomfort, swelling, and severe tightness.
Day 2: serious edema around my eyes and general puffiness throughout my face. I'm using Cerave cream per the NP's orders which is OTC. It doesn't feel like it lasts very long but I'm not peeling yet so I hope it's at least doing something to promote healing. I'm very afraid I'll get those "blisters" again around my nose and I want to stay away from the Aquaphor and the Clinique creams so that my pores don't clog any more than they already are.
Day 3: I haven't had much energy to refill my ice packs for my eyes but they're not as bad today. Still no peeling but my normally fair/freckled skin is literally brown from the pin-prick scabbing. My skin feels like fine sandpaper and no matter what I do, I'm constantly thirsty (I'm guessing from the ibuprofen and benadryl I'm taking religiously to help with swelling and itchiness). I plan on taking GNC healthy skin vitamin packets (It has fish oils, vitamin E, etc) and being more consistent with my Cerave applications and ice.
Hope this helped!