Feel the burn

Today was my first laser treatment since 2001. I was delighted to see one improvement to the procedure above all, a tube of ice cold air for me to blow on my birthmark as they zapped me with the laser. I put a cream on an hour before the treatment, a topical anesthetic. It numbs the skin some but I still feel the laser hit the skin. Being able to blow that cold air on the skin made such a difference.

It was weird zapping only the chin area. All my previous treatments involved the whole birthmark, which includes the chin, right cheek, right side throat, right ear lobe and the upper part of the chest. Honestly, it was a piece of cake doing only the chin. And the treatment was over in five minutes. That's a lot faster than before.

Here are the pictures from today. The first one is after I put on the numbing cream, looks like shaving cream. The next one is after I apply some plastic wrap and tape. I have to cover the cream and tape it up, otherwise the cream dries up and it is way less effective. Don't I look great? Just to pamper myself, I stopped at Sonic for a Route 44 vanilla Dr. Pepper. I nursed it all day. The last picture is right after the treatment. Right now it looks like my birthmark is really dark. I'll post a picture every couple of days to show how the treatment works beyond today.






I took some Advil and slept the afternoon away. My cats loved having an extra "pillow" today. Now I look forward to days of itchy skin that I can't rub or scratch. Yeah, not fun.