No Pain, No Gain - Montreal, QC

I figured that a great number of you are looking for information about Fraxel Repair as I was so I thought of providing you with a series of updates in the hope that I can help as many people as possible. I will likely create a YouTube video sometime down the line if any of you need to see what my skin looks like in the "after" stage.

I had the treatment done a few hours ago in the hope of removing a large number of scars all over my face. My forehead was alright as was the left side even though scarring existed. The right side of my face was particularly bad and embarrassing with a number of ice pick scars, particularly on the cheek bone. It looked bad enough that my students would sometimes ask me if I had gotten burned in a serious fire.

Before the actual treatment, I was given a numbing cream. Once it was applied, I had to wait 90 minutes before they could use the laser on my face. Of course, I was forced to wait another thirty minutes for God knows what reason before they finally got around to treating me. Since the dermatologist wasn't sure how painful it would be for me, he also injected what I believe was novacaine into the cheeks. I was then told that my face would require four passes of the laser.

The first three passes on the right side were painful but not too bad. However, the fourth pass was absolute Hell, especially when the doctor reached areas near my forehead were numbing cream hadn't been used. On the left side, all four passes were relatively painless but because the skin didn't react to the dermatologist's satisfaction, he passed a fifth time which was, like on the right, absolute Hell. Don't believe anyone who tells you that Fraxel Repair doesn't hurt, it's a 10 on 10 in terms of pain.

However, three hours later, the texture already looks much better. It might be the result of swelling which is admittedly not too great at the moment, but it doesn't entirely seem to be the case. To say the least, the result, presently, looks a lot more acceptable than the horrible scarring I had to endure since the age of 18 (I'm 37 now). If it ends up looking as good as it does now then I will no longer have any reason to have any kind of social anxiety.

I would have loved to provide you with photos (and actually asked them to send them to me by e-mail) but realize that there isn't much of a point. In the photos, the improvement is barely noticeable. Even though I feel a lot better walking around because my wife and I both find that the scars are now closer to the surface and not as deep, the photos show very little noticeable improvement. Apparently, it's the result of the lighting and the flash but to say the least, it's not as pleasant a sight as I would have wanted. Dr. Khanna let me know that my improvement is somewhere in the range of 30%. I would put it in the same range as it relates to scar depth. However, what ISN'T considered in such a number is how the treatment helped with the pigmentation of the skin; red spots left over from acne are actually much uglier than the scar itself and removing THEM is more important than removing the scar in my opinion. In that sense, Fraxel Repair has been fantastic.

Of course, nobody wants a scar and treating that is still going to be a priority moving forward. Considering how handsome I know that I am (my wife is beautiful and I often find women staring in a positive way), it just makes sense that I would continue working on the skin as much as possible. I intend to get a Sepsyl (sic?) PRP treatment in January and do another (painful) round of Fraxel Repair in July. If I can get another 30% out of the treatment, I'll be very happy.