Well, here I sit on a Friday night, a 4+ hour's drive from home - first night of recovery from MixTo laser.

In short: Aieeyah. Kinda painful.

Details: Got MixTo on entire face and neck, blended down into my chest area. (Also got pulsed laser on chest to zap a zillion red capillaries - but who cares about that).

I had a topical lidocaine slathered real thick over my whole face. That was followed by 3 pills: Valium, a pain pill and anti-nausea pill. About 45 min later, I was ready for the nerve block injections. Got those under my eyes, above my brows, and around my mouth. Rest assured I was wooden as a mallard decoy by the time the work began.

It took about 45 min to do the face (chest was done first, tho, and that only took 10-12 min total). I got some extra frying around my under-eye area and around the mouth. I guess I was numbed up enough, cuz my doc said if I felt any significant pain, he'd stop and either apply more topical numbing gel or give me another nerve block injection.

I have to say that on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being unbearable pain, about 80% of my treatment was 1-2; 15% was about a 4; and just the last 5% was a REAL COOKER! It felt like a good hot branding iron was run over my skin; also, there are just a couple areas on the face where the nerve block does not reach; and my neck had nothing but the topical lidocaine, so that was pretty toasty. I was prepared for the smell of nuked flesh: kind of like a s'more over the campfire with a musty overtone.

After the treatment, I just lay back in the chair with gauzes soaked in cold water all over my face. Those gauzes were refreshed a couple times during the half hour recovery.

Bladder was BURSTING .. so I had to go to the bathroom ... and simply HAD to look at my face in the mirror! I promise you, I'd haunt your nightmares looking like this. Swollen and red as a plump tomato. I was surprised how fast the "damage" shows! Plus, I have bruises where the nerve block injections were administered. Upper lip was a slab of absolutely horizontal tube. Overall, my face looked almost identical to that shot of Heather Locklear on the beach - right after her fat graft, if y'all recall?

It's 4 hours after the procedure, and I've taken no more pain pills ... YET! But I will definitely be taking an extra strength Tylenol momentarily. There's no icing for this, cuz the face has a quarter-inch thick layer of lidocaine gel. I am not to wash it AT ALL for 4 days; rather, I'll just carefully apply Aquaphor right over the area.

You have to bring clothes that you are prepared to see completely lathered up in gel - damn stuff does not wash off hands, so I'm guessing clothes will be tough to launder too.

I was told my swelling will peak at day 3 (which'll probably be day 5 for me); and that I could wear makeup at day 10 or so. Whatever.

It will be interesting to see if this MixTo really does rejuvenate the skin, eliminate fine wrinkles, get rid of uneven skin tone, and tighten things up. I was told to take 1,000 mg of Vit-C daily for the next few months, as that will help develop collagen.

I'm feeling really, really warm in the face - like the worst hot flash ever (icy cold and hot at once). But perhaps I'll just power through the discomfort and enjoy the outcome! I'll keep you posted!

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I Bug U

Sounds a lot like my co2....hot hot the first evening.Day 3 my face was swollen so much I was unrecognizable.I had twilight so didn't feel a thing I'm glad to say.Hope it does target the areas of concern.I'm real interested in how the neck and chest respond.Can't really do co2 on that area though my derm has done it on necks but I wouldn't chance it.
Happy healing Bugjune and keep us posted!

Flash forward 20 hours ...

Thanks for all your well wishes!! I will soak them up - and apply the best vibes to my eyes. Ye gads. They are slits today. As always, there will be one side that heals slower than the other. It appears to be my left eye. The lids (upper and lower) are nearly turned inside out with swelling. So I'm pecking like a pirate with one eye working.

I continued to gently scrape off the Aquaphor and reapply it in a thick layer every 4 hours - all through the night even. After that one Extra Strength Tylenol, I felt great! The heat has pretty much subsided .. so I wonder how I can be so RED and SWOLLEN with nearly zero discomfort? Even as I gently take a wooden tongue depressor to scrape off the old layer of Aquaphor, I can do it without even a grimace!

I have tried a couple bouts of icing the eyes - for no more than 10-12 minutes at a time, cuz I don't know how numb my new skin is?

My neck and chest look like a smooth, red, 2nd+ degree sunburn. I'm hoping they'll heal the fastest. But my mouth area is completely crusted over with skin that looks like a rum-buttered waffle. Damn, I wish I hadn't said that, cuz I'm hungry and unable to put more than a tongue depressor's height between my lips. No flossing. No night-time retainers on the teeth yet. I can slip some soft food in the mouth (orzo, tuna salad), but even a blackberry poses a challenge - who the hell engineered these berries so BIG these days?

In the realm of things I'm SO glad I bought, I include: a comfortable, wide headband that keeps my hair away from the greased up face and neck; an inflatable travel pillow shaped like a horseshoe - but I sleep on it with the "legs" pointing up to the headboard - NOT wrapped around my neck. That pillow keeps my head comfortably stable all night long, with zero urge to roll over onto my side. Also, rubber gloves for the endless applications of Aquaphor; camisole tops - easy to pull on up over the hips and still leaves my chest free to apply goo. Button-up shirts for warmth - but the necklines are slick with goo in about one minute. So I pull them off my shoulder and wear them like a stole.

MissJ, I am indeed taking pictures of the daily progress, and hope to post these shots after they have been shrunk in PhotoShop. I want everyone to SEE exactly what the day-to-day progress is after "skin rejuvenation" - much as DCNGA did after her procedure several months ago. No one should go willy-nilly into MixTo without knowing how the road to recovery is. Cuz all you see in brochures is the glowing, dewy skin - several days later. C'mon, we're not babies! The more I know what I'm in for, the better I can prepare.

I'm using my sick, ol' traveling Vaio, so I may not be able to launch PhotoShop on it. We shall see!

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I Bug U

Thanks Amber!

And seriously, MixTo is not as bad as Fraxel cuz it's a "microfractional" vs "fractional" laser zapping. That means that like one out of five cells are nuked, instead of maybe every other one?

But still!

I am taking pictures on a regular basis and would love to post them here after I shrink 'em in PhotoShop.

Oh, and I still need to learn HOW to post a pix here .. but let's not get our pants in a twist over that one yet.

Cheers - from the one-eyed-Jack! (left eye nearly swollen shut)

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I Bug U

Hah Bugjune...sounds like you are doing everything right.Wish someone would have told me about headbands because it took weeks to get the vaseline out of my hair.Can't wait to see how it improves your neck and chest.That's the area that needs work for me along with almost everything else that is!

The "but still" is the thing.

The device itself is only a fraction as destructive to the tissues as fraxel. That only means that more passes are required to generate the same level of tissue damage. A practitioner can still make a pretty deep wound with it, pretty much as deep as he or she likes, as deep as one pass with fraxel or deeper. But it's still a lot safer than the devices that do a lot more with a single pass because the operator would have to go over the same area maybe 10 times repeatedly or more to eff it up.

Sounds like you got the works, but in a safe way. I wish you a speedy and uneventful recovery. And I envy you that you are reaping the benefits of the previous mistakes with stronger lasers and peels that so many others suffered from. I never had a device but I did have phenol. Total nightmare.

Bug, your are ONE BRAVE woman to brave all of that with a local. You are swelling as I did about my eyes. Ugh.

Hope all heals quickly and everything turns out as you hope! Healing vibes on the way!

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DCNGA has left the board and is no longer taking PMs.
She requests that if you wish to e-mail her to use her direct e-mail address which is: laserandiplsupport@gmail.com

Bug, late to reply, but wishing you a great result! Kind of sounds like when I had my Erbium, only more intense with the swelling you are describing.

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Sorry, Laz, but there has been plenty of damage by fractional lasers--PLENTY. Please, don't ever forget what happened to Angela Walker. Fractional lasers are not safe and especially not safe in the hands of those who've merely had weekend seminars to learn how to use them. Also, forget lawsuits against manufacturers or doctors. Of all of the people (one being an attorney herself) that have ever posted on the support board, NO ONE was able to find an attorney to take their case, even when they had pictures before and after of their damage--not even Angela. See her story and pics here:

http://www.realself.com/review/do-not-do-fraxel-ruined-face-burns

For as much as I do not care for the owner of RS, it is a good place to research and get the opinions of those who've actually had the procedures done with specific devices. We all know what happened with first generation Thermage but did you know that the company never had one successful law suit lodged against them?

(sorry, Bug, my comments are not about what you had but about true fractional lasers).

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DCNGA has left the board and is no longer taking PMs.
She requests that if you wish to e-mail her to use her direct e-mail address which is: laserandiplsupport@gmail.com

Yeah, I was very skeptical about MixTo initially, cuz it seemed like just a "kinder, gentler" version of Fraxel - which my PS had said would NOT be appropriate for my fair, thin skin that has no acne scarring, but rather, just the crinkles and lines that come with being over 50.

From what I've read, as Kosmeds said, the person administering MixTo can actually dial in the frequency, width, intensity, and variables on the laser wand that *could* produce a damaging result, and that's why the experience of this practitioner is key. My PS gives seminars and training on the MixTo, and has done hundreds of procedures in the past year. But still. It is a waiting game that will be over only when the raw skin resolves, and things get back to normal. That could easily take 6 mos.

I can honestly say that having the MixTo on my face & neck were even MORE involved than all the facial surgery I had done 6 years ago (brow lift, upper eyelid bleph, MFL, neck lift). I think it's cuz the raw skin requires tender handling and fussing over ALLLLLL day long! It's exhausting! There is no pain, a fair amount of ITCHING, but you can't just pop a Vicoden, put ice on the face and rest. No. The Aquaphor has to be carefully scraped off and reapplied over and over and over. If you ice an area, it's got to be re-slathered with Aquaphor.

And when you're done fussing over the face, your headband, collar, pillow, at al, need to be washed. Doing all this far from the convenience of home requires even more logistical planning.

But y'know, I've got a neighbor, I'll call her Nosy Nancy. She ALWAYS seems to catch me at the very moment when I return from a confidential procedure! I don't hear from her for weeks, but the day I get home with my MixTo'd face all monstrous looking, she'll be right there at the door, suggesting a LUNCH date! Yeah, till I send her screamin' to the hills after one look at me. Feh. >:-(


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I Bug U