A New Me

Tomorrow (Feb 17th), at approximately 2:00 pm, this will be me:

 (or something similar...)

This is laser skin resurfacing- something I've been wanting for the past 10 years or so.

For those of you that don't know or haven't noticed or whatever, I have scars on both cheeks from a year of hell right after my senior year. That sounds a little dramatic but it really was awful for me. I'd always had such nice, smooth skin (I rarely even got zits). Even when I was a baby people would stop my mom to comment on my complexion (so she says).

Then in April of my senior year ('98), I got a big, painful bump on my cheek. I went to a dermatologist twice and all he said to me was how beautiful I was and blah, blah, blah. He actually used the exact same line both times and stood across the room from me and told me the horrors of the medication he could put me on. In the mean time, I'm developing more of what I soon found out were cysts and having to deal with people asking me if I'd been burned. Most of the time I'd just walk away and cry. Then my neighbor recommended a different doctor so we decided to try him. As soon as he walked in, he told me to lie down and proceeded to give me cortizone shots in my cheeks. It was thee most painful thing I'd endured up until then (this was before child birth :).  He determined that I was allergic to my own oil and put me on Accutane (it's way more common now, but this was the medication the first doctor tried to scare me away from). I went back every two weeks for more cortizone shots and prednizone. It got easier after a while but I still dreaded it each time. This went on for about two years and finally, it seemed to be clearing up. And thankfully it did, I don't know that I could've taken much more at that point.

As relieved as I was to have it gone, now I had to deal with the aftermath- horrible scarring on my cheeks from the shots. Scars that deep were not something I could just cover up with makeup. I'd always had self esteem issues and this didn't help. I still got asked about my scars but as time went on, they lightened up. I even started to forget about them sometimes. And my sweet, sweet (lying :) friends said they didn't even notice them.

Then last October, I found a deal where I could get this laser skin resurfacing for $99!! This is a procedure that is normally around $800 (it was a Groupon thing- we love Groupon!). Then with the prospect of fixing them, the scars started to bother me again. So I went in for a consultation and now, three months later I'm going in to get rid of them... for the most part. She said it might take a couple more treatments to get rid of them entirely but that I'd notice a significant improvement. I'm super excited and a bit nervous. I have to do a deep treatment so I had to get numbing cream (which makes me think it's gonna hurt and I am not a fan of pain) and then I get to have red, flaky skin (like a sunburn) and not wear makeup for about two weeks. I really don't like leaving my house without makeup but it's a small price to pay for getting my self esteem (well, some of it :) back. Yay!!

I'll pretty much be in hiding for two weeks and then I'll post pics of the new me!