21 Year Old Girl, Deep Acne Scarring - Texas City, TX

I was told the laser they were using was CO2 fractional, then they said it was fraxel. When I asked whether it was restore or repair, they just said it was the same machine. Im really not sure it was actually fraxel. I should have looked at the machine, but I was soo nervous.
They put numbing cream on my face and left me on the waiting area for maybe 40 min. Every so often someone would come and apply another heavy coat of numbing cream on my skin. They also gave me two pain killers, waited for them to kick in and then told me to wash my face (to take the numbing cream off). Finally I just lay down and waited for the pain. I've heard about passes, but for me it didn't feel like she was doing passes, it just felt like she chose a spot and then lasered it. So she only went on each individual spot once. Then she asked if I wanted her to go over the parts where I had more scarring again and I said yes, so she did. And that was it, it took maybe around 15 min. Did it hurt? Yes, but it wasn't unbearable. I noticed that it hurt more near my lips and on the sides of my nose that on the rest of my face. She put some moisurizer on me and gave me some to take home, told me to put it on every two hours.
As the numbing cream wore off, I started to feel my whole face on fire. Words of advice: Take a cooling mask with you to use after the laser. Really, you'll need it. The pain lasted for a couple of hours and then it was gone, thankfully. When I first arrived home I looked almost completely normal, just a little red. But then, whoa. I became very red and a swollen.
Day 1.
Face became very red as time passed by. Pain and burning only lasted for the first couple of hours (so bad I thought I was going to throw up) and then I was fine. Im takinf 4 days off, so i have everything I think I'll need inside the house. I will not be going out at all.
I tried to sleep elevated, but ended up sleeping on my cheek, as I always do :(

Day 2
I was afraid to look in the mirror this morning because I thought I would be incredibly swollen, but not so much. I do still look very weird, and there's something that bothers me: there are parts of my skin that look bronzed and even some brown spots. Doctor talked to me briefly about the risks of getting brown spots, but I was put on meds before this so the risk would be lower. And still, there they are. I hope I'm being paranoid and they go away on their own, I know most of the time they do. I think they're there because I made a big mistake, I cooked. Now, the sun is not the only thing that can mess up your skin during treatment, any type of heat can. I probably should have waited until winter, but I wanted to get it done soon. Even with the AC on, it's little warm in here and being near the stove didn't do much good. I read that even the heat from cooking can increase the risk of brown spots, so yeah. I really hope they're not permanent.
Today I washed my face with just water and a very little vinegar. The crusting has begun. I'm breaking out, but it's just tiny little white pimples.
My scarring does look a little better, but only on one side of my face. The scars are still there, but they don't look so deep anymore. Maybe that's just because my face is swollen, so I'll have to wait before I get real results.
Day 3
My skin feels so tight and dry, no matter how many times I reapply the moisturizer. Still red, still bronzed and still brown spots.

My skin has finally started to peel off. I'm still on day 3, about to go to sleep. The bronzed skin is falling off.
Now, I asked for only 4 days off work because my dr told me that would be enough, but I seriously don't think I can go back to work on Monday. I look terrible and I don't think I'll look a lot better soon.
I'll have another treatment done after this and I'll make sure to take AT LEAST a week off.
Now, about my scarring. It's still definitely there, but the scars seem less deep. Maybe it's because Im still swollen, so I'm not getting my hopes up too fast.
I don't feel any pain at all anymore, but the tightness and dryness gets worse as every hour passes by, no matter how often I put moisturizer on. The dr said to reapply it every two hours, I'm doing it every half an hour and even that is not enough. My skin absorbs the moisturizer almost immediately, so I would advice anyone getting this treatment done to buy a LOT of moisturizer. The one my dr recommended is Fisiogel A.I.
I'll keep updating.

Tonight every piece of dead skin fell off and I look almost normal now. I had to go to work today when my face was still peeling and I got a few weird stares, but nothing too bad. I was really careful to stay out of the sun, and applied sunscreen every two hours even though I work at an office (because of the windows) and took an umbrella for the walk to the bus stop. Still, i'm aware that it's the middle of summer and there was definetely some sun exposure. One good thing: all the brown spots are gone now, so I'm really relieved for that.
My scars are still here, but my skin looks somewhat smoother. The thing is, I'm breaking out and the redness hasn't gone away yet. I hope the pimples go away without leaving even more scars:( I'm thinking once they dry out and the redness calms down a bit, Ill be able to see more improvement. I really hope so. I know I need to be patient.
About my skin routine this few days, I have not used any cleanser. My dr told me to use gentle cleansers, but I have decided to only use a little hydrogen peroxide (the sort you use for wounds) and tap water. I did not want anything harsh on my skin, but because I am breaaing out maybe I'll increase my vinegar soaks to make sure there is no bacteria on my skin.
Bye the way: I read that you can put makeup almost immediately after fraxel, but if you're skin is anything like mine, do not. Today was the first day I wore make up (it's day 5) and it looked terrible! of course, because of the dryness it looked sooo caky and just plain bad. Besides, I think it made the redness worse. Looks like I will not be wearing any makeup this week.