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Hi Michael,
Thank you for posting about your Recell, I look forward to reading more of your updates.
I am interested in getting Recell, however those tight bandages covering your entire face really frighten me as I am terribly claustrophobic! Can you see and breathe ok with them on? How long do you expect to be bandaged up for?
All the very best of luck to you and I hope that Recell gives you the outcome you've been looking for.
So hoping things come out even better than you expected. Shame it's summer time to have to heal & stay out of the sun but I've had to do that a few times after having something done to my face. Please let us know how you are & what you think of it all. I just had a FL & fat transfer to help some of the scars flatten out so I'm home healing too. Had juve in a couple scars that helped but still swollen & staying in. I won't be healed from all this for at least 3 to 6 months so there goes my summer again. I can't believe what we all have to go through to try to get skin that we're comfortable in. They seem to fix everything but skin. I'll try derma rolling again in the winter. Again I wish you the very very best esp because if it works to your liking we'll all have some hope. Have some protein shakes too besides the soup. We'll all be checking in on you so keep us posted !!
This is really interesting. This is the first time I've heard from an actual person about getting a facelift to flatten acne scars. I've read about it before though.
So hoping things come out even better than you expected. Shame it's summer time to have to heal & stay out of the sun but I've had to do that a few times after having something done to my face. Please let us know how you are & what you think of it all. I just had a FL & fat transfer to help some of the scars flatten out so I'm home healing too. Had juve in a couple scars that helped but still swollen & staying in. I won't be healed from all this for at least 3 to 6 months so there goes my summer again. I can't believe what we all have to go through to try to get skin that we're comfortable in. They seem to fix everything but skin. I'll try derma rolling again in the winter. Again I wish you the very very best esp because if it works to your liking we'll all have some hope. Have some protein shakes too besides the soup. We'll all be checking in on you so keep us posted !!
I had the face lift because I'm in that stage or my life that I could get one, not necessary but what the heck. Anyway I got it mainly because when I had laser damage done 7 yrs ago it melted the fat in my cheek which left a long dent. I had fillers that didn't improve the look & would only last for so long.
The FL helped a bit so that now I can live with it & the fat helped too. I still have scars that it didn't improve but the dent is what bothered me the most. My doctor put some juve in a couple scars that a FL & fat transfer didn't help & the way he did it gave me good results.
It was a bad scar from a cyst & now I don't see it at all. Usually other doctors tried putting filler in the same scar & it gave it a donut effect. This time it's flat. Just hate thinking it will show up again in a few months once the juve goes away.
So I'm still looking for things to improve scars. Needling once a month but I'll take off for the summer & start again in the fall.
@Bexleyrose, the dressings are quite tight, but I think it helps to minimize the swelling... It does make it hard to eat and so forth buts that's about it.... Its not terrible and you only have to wear it for 2 days... It's tolerable...
@BlahBlah82, There was no intramuscular shot or prednisone.... I was given 1 ten milligram valium and then we started with the local lidocaine... Many, many shots of that all over whole face in addition do a dental block of lido inside mouth...
Ok, Big update!!!!!!!!!! Dressings off!!!!!!!!!!!! Hallelujia!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dr. Rawlins thought that everything looked fine and there was no abnormal healing or anything... He says the recell causes everything to heal up much faster than if the cells had not been applied afterwards... He then advised me to cover my entire face with Vaseline for next week or so... He says to stay out of the sun and use sunblock for 3-6 months and after that I can start to get some sun to stimulate the melanocytes to start producing pigment...
Thanks Michaeal, at least you only had the bandages on for two days, it must have been such a relief to get them off!
I think you're looking good! I had fraxel repair approximately five years ago and I looked horrific! My face swelled massively and was red and bloody all over. I expected to see something similar when your bandages came off but you don't look bad at all!
Glad all went well and your healing looks normal
My face is pretty much completely healed up for the most part after 5 days... What remains now are the smaller areas on both cheeks where he went deeper with the dermabrasion... Those areas are still a little pink... Now Im not sure if the rapid healing was due to the doctor not being that aggressive with the dermabrasion or if it was because the recell was used and that sped up the healing... Either way at this point I can tell that the smoothing of the acne scars is not hugely significant... There is a slight smoothing of the scars, but I have had many of these types of procedures that ablate the skin and for the first week or so scars always look smoother and then slowly seem to go back to about the same as they were before... I can already tell that this will be similar in relation to the scarring... But there is (slight) improvement in the scarring... Very slight... I believe if the doctor had been more aggressive with the dermabrasion then I could have possibly achieved more smoothing of the scars but we'll watch it and see.. Maybe the use of the recell afterwards will make this procedure pan out in the days, weeks, and months ahead in a different way.. I.E. Transplanted cells migrating up and down scar tissue and increasing vascularization and maybe that will have a further effect on the scarring.... He did dermaroller after dermabrasion and he was not aggressive with that either... I know because I've had many dermaroller procedures done... He did a very cursory run through with that... But, that may be enough to get some cells distributed throughout the skin in such a way that it will have a significant effect...
Now, Having said that... I am noticing a very vibrant, tone and texture to my skin... The skin color specifically is very warm and vibrant compared to before when my skin always seemed to have a very dull, dead look to it... I am not sure if this is temporary and due to the skin just being resurfaced or not... As far as any pigmentation goes, I think it is far too early to detect that at all, and I don't expect to see any improvement in that area for about six months or so from what I've heard... I will probably begin using fresh ginger on my face in about 2 months as that does stimulate melanocytes from all the research I have seen...
I don't think the recell by itself really does all that much for acne scarring.. (except for if it is injected directly into existing hard scar tissue that may be different) I think what the recell possibly does do is it allows a physician to be more aggressive with whatever resurfacing technique is being used because it speeds up the healing re-epithilalation of the tissue afterwards (less downtime)... I also believe it probably helps color and texture... And I am very sure that it repigments with melanocytes... (that however takes a while to occur) My biggest reason for doing this procedure in the first place was because of the hypopigmentation (loss of pigment) of my face... If I can achieve improvement in that area I will be happy and I am very optimistic at this point... If I ever have any skin resurfacing procedure in the future I will be doing recell afterwards there is no doubt...
I do definitely think that the recell procedure is very expensive right now after just having completed my procedure in britain.... I paid 4800GBP which equals about $8200.00... USD All in all Im about $15,000.00 in with flights, hotels and food... This is however to be expected I guess with something so new... I expect that when this finally hits the states it will at least be half the cost of what they are charging here.... If you have the money go for it... I am very optimistic so far about recell and believe the technology is sound.... I am quite confident that this will not be my last recell experience... I will wait for it to get cheaper and have it done in the states next time.... I think I will probably have the whole thing done again in a year or two, and by that time it will surely be available in the states....
I will be posting some new updated pics tomorrow morning so you guys can judge for yourselves if there is any improvement so far...
Goodness Michael,
Fresh Ginger? Dont throw all that money away.... Let the recell do its job. No alkohol, no parfum on skin, no rubbing, no scrubbing,for next 6 month. even if the skin looks healed it actually is not. I know you obviously had alot of treatments but treat your skin as if it was your own baby's life. My advice ( don't we love to give them?) Try to get some 99% Aloe Vera Gel from the health store and use a good sunblock. No unnesesarry experiments!!!!!!
looking good already!!!!!!
Just want to wish you the best of luck with results. Looks like you're healing well.
Thanks for sharing your tragic journey with scar treatment as well. At times, we can make matters much worse while we're searching for perfection. I think everyone needs to be aware of this potential. I do hope your latest treatment works out for you!
Hi Mikey, I stopped lurking and joined the board just to thank you for documenting your journey. I've got some laser damage myself and I look like a reverse leopard with a lot of spotty hypopigmentation. Your insight is really helpful.
Also - I don't know if it's a temporary after effect of the surgery - but I DO see an amazing improvement in the tone and luminosity of your skin, so even if the dermabrasion and needling don't affect your topigraphical scarring as much as you'd hoped, I believe the tone and texture improvements the recell has given you will be absolutely wonderful and make a huge difference for you!
I'm not sure I will be able to handle putting vaseline on my skin like that though, because my new skin would be extremely broken out... I wonder why the doctor wouldn't recommend using something like Vigilon wound dressing instead. I used that after my dermabrasion (sans recell) and it was awesome.
I hope you continue to update. Thank you again for posting!
jwiggles thank you for the reply... I too am noticing a big difference in the tone and color of my skin... The scarring seems to be about the same.. But my skin seems warmer.. With a healthier tone.. I too am wondering if this is going to be a short term phenomenon from the resurfacing or if in fact my skin tone has been permanently changed for the better because of the recell.... I am now 8 days out and I still have this great skin tone... I hope it continues... Because if so that alone will be life changing for me.. As 90% of the perception of healthy skin when you look at someone is tone/texture/color.... I am not sure if everyone knows this but with recell many different types of cells are transplanted, including melanocytes, keritinocytes, langerhorn cells, stem cells, fibroblasts, and I believe maybe even oil glands, (although I am not completely sure of that) So in essence recell is putting back all of the things that may be missing from skin that has been permanently damaged by lasers, or other types of skin damage and procedures... Therefore in theory restoring it to an earlier state before one started down the road of skin destroying lasers and light modalities... I am very excited about the recell aspect and looking forward to further improvement with the melanocytes and other cells starting to work that were transplanted... I've got noting but positive reviews about this procedure so far as my healing has been lightning fast!!!
Thank you for posting Mike and I am very sorry to hear what happened to u. I have somewhat similar of a situation but mine damage was done after one laser treatment. Fatloss, terrible scarring loss of pigment, some hyperpigmentation....I even lost pigment on my lips. I also only had very minor shallow scarring in a few areas and the doctor "treated" my whole face and ruined my perfect skin for no reason at all. I am a completely different person than I used to be.
Anyway sorry for rambling but I am looking into recell and appreciate ppl like u who are trying to help. Thank u and I hope this is just the beginning and u see great improvement from this. Good luck to u my friend and I am excited to to follow ur progress.