My experience after face/neck CO2 laser surgery
I had laser surgery on my face and part neck on a Wednesday afternoon, that evening I took the antibiotics prescribed and a couple of Panadol and went to bed with an ice pack on my face and layers of QV intensive to keep the skin moist and slept pretty soundly.
The day after surgery although feeling tired in general I felt good, my face felt tight and somewhat heated, so spent most the day resting, again with ice packs and continually applied layers of QV intensive cream on my face. This helped keep my face moist, ice packs minimised any swelling, bruising and cooled my face as from time to time it felt like it was burning up. Much like having very severe sunburn.
Two days later I went back out in public, with plenty of cream on my face, a hat on and scarf around my neck, I took myself for a walk down the road to the hairdresser to have my hair washed and get a cappuccino. Yes, I felt very self conscious at first, especially not being out of the house for a couple of days, but then getting a cappuccino was more important to me than what I cared that I looked like or that other people took a second look. I told myself there are people out there with permanent disabilities and mine was only temporary, so I should get over myself. Having the hair done and a good coffee works wonders.
Over the fear of being seen in public, I went for a walk early every morning with cream on my face and wore a hat to avoid any direct sun or heat on my face as it was very sensitive and felt like it was still burning the skin.
Overall I had no unbearable pain or anything to complain about, just a little uncomfortable and a feeling of being unattractive having all the QV Intensive layered on my face. By constantly applying the cream, I believe it help sooth the burning feeling as well as keeping the skin moist so as not to dry out and feel tight.
At the time the weather was particularly sunny so I avoided going out socially until the sun went down and preferred to stay inside in an even temperature, as from time to time it still felt very badly sunburnt and sensitive.
After having 2 weeks off work I returned and although the face was still noticeably red I was able to cover it with make-up, and applied face sun block as a base and over the make-up as well, and found this to keep my face from the feeling of drying out and becoming tight or itchy.
In general I would say it was a painless experience and recovery was surprisingly quicker than I had anticipated. I saw improvement from day one and have everyday since. For the slight inconvenience of not really being able to go outside, or more not wanting to be out in public for a couple of weeks was well worth it. I can now say I am more than 100% happy with the end result and more than fortunate that I had made a good choice. I continually see the benefits and improvement of my skin overall and managed to stay in high spirits throughout the recovery period and continue to do so.
The experience and results were more pleasing than I had ever anticipated.
COLLEEN DUNN
