by Clare Sargent

It’s been a little more than three months since I had the laser Active FX resurfacing procedure at Dr. Zimmet’s office. I am happier than ever with the results. My skin has never looked better. It has continued to improve since I had the procedure. The thing I notice most is that my skin is tighter overall than it was before. Because the treatment stimulates collagen formation, it should continue to improve for a year. Friends who know that I had the treatment and who don’t see me every day have remarked that they can see the difference from month to month. It’s been very gratifying to receive lots of nice compliments on my skin.

The only regret that I have is that I didn’t have the treatment done on my neck at the same time. A friend of mine is about to have the laser FX treatment on her face, neck AND chest. We are about the same age, and one of her main complaints is sun damage including large freckles and brown spots on her skin. I look forward to seeing her results. I sort-of jokingly told Dr. Zimmet that if money were not an object I would have had the treatment on my entire body. That would have made for an interesting recovery!

Clearly, I would recommend the laser FX treatment to almost anyone. The discomfort was minimal, and the results have been totally worth it. Seven days in the house was an investment, but I was prepared for it and it went by quickly. I would definitely do it again. Thank you to everyone for reading my laser FX diary and for your comments. This has been a fun and rewarding adventure.

Here is the third and final part of the video from my laser resurfacing procedure, taken by my talented friend Julia Hilder of Hilder Productions. If I do say so myself, my skin looks great. I will post additional “after” pictures soon.

It’s Day 7 and I am going about my normal activities. So far, no one has pointed and/or gasped. Without the ointment now my face feels tight and very, very smooth. Still a tiny bit of peeling and the one bruise over my right eyebrow still slightly visible. I’m obsessed with being covered with sunscreen, and yet still, for the few minutes I’m in really intense sun walking to my car between meetings, I’m paranoid about my tender new skin. I put on sunscreen at 6:30 in the morning to walk the dog–that’s new. I’m carrying sunscreen in my car in case I need to re-apply, or ever forget to put it on in the first place (unlikely).

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Here's one of my "before" shots.

Another "before."

The first "after." Dr. Zimmet took this one in his office.

Still Tuesday, July 27

See the Active FX Laser Resurfacing Video, part 1.

It’s the evening of the procedure day and I want to give a quick recap. First we shot some “before” pictures. At about an hour before the actual procedure began Dr. Zimmet’s aesthetician, Hadley, covered my face with a topical anesthetic and gave me a Xanax (mild tranquilizer) and a Vicodin (pain reliever). After about 30 minutes my face started to feel quite numb. After 60 minutes, Dr. Zimmet came and in and administered shots (nerve blockers) to my forehead, near my eyes, and near my mouth. The shots weren’t too bad; Dr. Zimmet “shakes” the area so the shot doesn’t pinch much. And by this time I was feeling the Xanax, which tends to make everything easier. I tied my hair back and Hadley gave me a headband to get all of my hair off my face. They started the chiller—chilled air was blowing on my face the entire time, which felt really good, because the primary feeling from the laser was heat.

Dr. Zimmet started the laser treatment around the edges of my face—he called that “feathering,” I’m not sure why. I think he starts there because the sensation is the least strong. The most sensitive place was around my mouth. It reminded me a little of the sensation with Thermage, which is kind of like being zapped with something hot. He did my eyelids last, and I think using a different tip. I expected that area to be the most sensitive but it wasn’t bad at all. The whole procedure took maybe 30-35 minutes. Afterwards, they gave me a mirror. My face was already kind of brown with little spots all over my skin. We took some more pictures, and then Hadley covered my face with ointment. Dr. Zimmet had told me that it would feel like a major sunburn, and having had some bad sunburns in my teens I remember what that feels like, but I think this may have been even hotter. They gave me some ice to hold to my face, and I did so all the way home. (I went through P. Terry’s–best veggie burgers in Austin!–drive-through on the way home, and I’m sure the guy thought I looked freakish, but I was starving and didn’t really care).

When I got home I felt very sleepy, probably from the Xanax. (And I’m still sleepy now, so will post the recovery directions tomorrow.) When I woke up it felt like most of the ointment had soaked in, so I put some more on and took a close look at my face. It’s pretty puffy, which is normal for the first couple of days. It’s quite brown, like someone with really terrible sun damage. You can see the little dots created by the machine. I took a few pictures. I don’t really feel pain unless I touch my face; the right side feels a little bit sore. I’m supposed to put the ointment on four times a day and not let my face get dry, and I think I might need to apply it even more than that because it feels like it’s soaking in. It still feels kind of hot, and tight. All of which I expected. Can’t wait to see what I look like when I wake up in the morning!

Tuesday, July 27

Today is the day! I woke up at 4 a.m. with that pre-vacation sort of anticipation. I was happy to have time to walk my dog, since he probably won’t have a walk for the next four days unless I can get a friend to walk him. I remembered to wear my glasses instead of contacts, since they’ll be putting the disc things in my eyes before the treatment. I’m here now at Dr. Zimmet’s office, early to meet Julia who is going to interview me and Dr. Zimmet, and possibly Lydia. He went over the entire procedure with me again and asked several times if I had questions. They are very, very thorough here with preparations and checking in. Hadley called yesterday to make sure I’d gotten my prescriptions. I’ve remembered not to wash my face with anything but mild soap (not exfoliating) the last couple of days and I also remembered to take the Valtrex twice yesterday and once this morning. I’m a little nervous . . . curious what it will feel like and will be happy when the actual procedure is over. Dr. Zimmet told me again that I’ll look sunburned and possibly puffy at first and that in the days to come it might feel like the getting-back-to-normal process is taking a long time. I think that will be one of the valuable things about this diary. There are lots of before-and-after pictures online, but I haven’t seen any of the in-between pictures. I plan to post a picture or two every day so you, my readers (I hope there will be some readers!) can see the whole process—the good, bad and the ugly.