Fractional CO2 Laser resurfacing

This is my first attempt at blogging anything and I hope I can get it right because I want people to know what happens for this process.

I went for a consultation with Dr. Boggess at youthful reflections in Nashville, Tennessee. For the past year and a half I have been really bothered by the hollowness underneath my eyes. I was considering surgery because I thought I would get the best an longest-lasting results. The doctor did not believe that I was a good candidate for Lower eyelid surgery. So we decided on Plan B, which was laser resurfacing of the whole face. The idea is that it would tighten all of the skin and help me produce more collagen which would in turn improve the looks under my eyes, as well as around the mouth where I am starting to get the vertical lines above my lips.

The nurse spoke to me about pain management for the procedure, offering topical numbness or nerve blocks or a combination of both. I scoffed at the idea of needing anything more than topical numbing. I consider myself strong. I have survived a lifetime of migraines. I have broken toe bones for which I never received treatment. I gave birth with no medication at all. I told he nurse I would be fine. He said I could change my mind if I needed to, and I said yah, okay.

So I checked in on the day of the procedure and took the two Valium the doctor had prescribed. We chatted a little bit, and it was time to get started! Dr. Burgess started with the laser at the very top of my forehead. About 10 seconds in, I stopped him and begged for the nerve blocks, lol. It seems there's certain types of pain that even I cannot handle. It felt the same as when I got a tattoo years earlier. I knew I wasn't going to be able to get through the whole face without some stronger pain blockers.

The nerve block injections were unpleasant, but worth the temporary pain. Once my face was numb it was smooth sailing. The whole process took a couple of hours from the time I came in until the time I was wheeled out to the car.

When the pain blockers started to wear off, I could feel the burning. It was maybe a six out of 10 and quite manageable. And it only lasted a couple of hours so my evening I was feeling fine. No pain medicine necessary. I slept with an airplane pillow around my neck to keep my face from touching the pillow and had a decent night's sleep.

When I woke up the next morning, my face was swollen quite a bit. So wait meant which has been on from the day before felt gritty so I figured it was time for the first face wash. Whatever hey put on was not Going to come off easily! I did the best I could. I ended up just wiping it with my hands and then cleaning my hands on the towel and repeating a few times. Once I got all the greediness out I reapplied the healing ointment and everything was fine for most of the day.

Now I am at the end of day two, and I still have most of the swelling and I'm starting to itch a little bit.

I'll try to upload some photos and provide another update tomorrow.