Shrink Wrap That Sagging Skin

I know that headline reads like an ad for a product in the back of a cheap magazine but there actually is a proven way to restore youthful firmness to sagging skin on the arms, legs and abdomen. Now I sound like an infomercial! But if you're like me, as swimsuit time draws near you start to look at those areas with a more apprising eye and until recently there wasn't much you could do to improve matters.
So what's changed? Laser technology is exploding. You may remember that last November I had my face resurfaced by an ActiveFX lazer, one of the newest and most powerful ones on the market. The results were extraordinary and for the first time in my life I have porcelain like skin.
There are now a number of so called skin tightening systems on the market. However the gold standard is a combination treatment using Infrared Skin Tightening followed by Fractional Skin Resurfacing and can be applied to any part of the body. Before you say WHAT? I'll try to explain in less technical terms.
Infrared light has been proven to tighten loose or wrinkled skin by causing immediate collagen contraction and long term collagen stimulation. As a result skin tightens and fine lines and wrinkles even disappear over time. Infrared Skin Tightening treats the deepest layer of skin 1-3 mm beneath the surface. There is no downtime and the recovery is immediate.
Fractional Skin Resurfacing uses a nonablative (non damaging) fractional laser to deliver energy to the upper and middle areas of the skin, stimulating collagen production in these layers and creating a smooth even toned and even textured surface. When used together all three layers of the skin are treated and there is virtually no discomfort.
Scott Wells M.D. a plastic surgeon in New York City and Great Neck, NY who has pioneered this ground breaking method of treating damaged skin calls it Skin Refabrication.(trademark). It is especially effective when used in conjunction with liposuction. Many women while delighted to have the fat removed are sometimes less than happy with the sagging skin that they're often left with. The results when the two procedures are used together is nothing less than amazing. This is also the solution for those who are not overweight but whose skin, in spite of hours spent at the gym, has that less than firm look or whose slack belly skin announces their motherhood. It is recommended that four treatment be administered in a series of one a month.
Most amazing of all is that this even works on areas for which it was once believed nothing could help such as knees and elbows.
Beam me up Scotty!
Cheers,
Barb

PRE & POST SURGERY PICTURES and WRAP UP!

BEFORE

AFTER

DAY 3

DAY 5

Looking like a leftover from Halloween I arrived back in Dr. Well's office on Monday. He removed some of the stitches from behind my ears and then the nurse,Carol took over to clean my face of its peeling skin. First she bathed it gently with water and then coated it with an enzyme that she left on for a few minutes. Then she spent the good part of an hour meticulously dermaplaning my face with a razor like tool . When she was done she smoothed it with a moisturizing gel that felt like heaven and then Ta Da ! she held up the mirror. My skin which had been heavily sun damaged was smooth and pink with no sign of discoloration save for a bit of bruising under my eyes. My chin line was defined, my eyes bigger, my face more lifted.

And all in the space of less than a week. Amazing! But judge for yourself...... I go back again on Friday to have more stiches taken out and some more dermaplaning on my neck

I'VE MADE MY DECISION

After thinking and rethinking and spending way too much time in front of the mirror lifting my eyes with the fingers of one hand and smoothing out the wattle beneath my chin with the other; and after asking the opinion of close friends and family and also several members of my ballet class, I'm going under the knife as they used to say or in my case the Active FX Laser and a few strategically placed incisions.
My surgeon Scott WellsM.D. assures my that my years of sun damage will be erased and my skin tighter due to the ongoing collagen boost the Laser provides. My eyes will more resemble their former wide awake selves rather than the tired droop they've been wearing in later years. I've seen Dr. Wells twice and have an appointment later today to fine tune the procedure and pick up my prescriptions.
So,yes I'm actually doing this. The date is November 8 (Election day for my elective surgery)
So stay with me. I'll keep you updated with before and after pictures and all the details. Yes it's a bit scary but blogging about it helps. And an interesting aside. There was not one negative response to the question. Should I do it?

Cheers,
Barb

IS THERE A NIP AND TUCK IN MY FUTURE?





A few years back after seriously researching the pros and cons of plastic surgery, I decided that the face I had was the one I would keep. Let others go under the knife, I would just admire the results and try not to harbor any jealousy. After all there were risks to consider what with all the anesthesia and cutting and what have you and I didn't want my children to have to say that their mother had succumbed to the hereafter while undergoing a face lift. I didn't want to be a woman who felt compelled to have her face"done"in order to feel attractive. I would take the high road and settle for for sags and wrinkles rather than be accused of excess vanity.

Who was I fooling? I am vain. Witness my obsession with each beauty fix that makes its way into Sephora. Not to mention that at different times I have had Restlyn, Collegen and Botox and while I found them somewhat effective, they didn't do enough or last long enough for me to rationalize their cost.

Meanwhile I continued to take note of every face altering product and procedure that came on the market and kept abreast of recent advances in face resurfacing especially with the new and more powerful lasers. I liked their promises of dramatic results with little down time. But would they work for me? I was doubtful. My face was not aging at all as gracefully as I had hoped. I could either make my peace with it or do something to change it and stop bemoaning the situation. Still, being who I am, all I did was think and rethink

Then this summer I received an e-mail from my friend Marcia in which she mentioned in a sort of by the way manner, that she had made an appointment for some facial surgery. "I'm thinking of doing something about my chin and eyes," was the way she put it. Now Marica would be absolutely last on the list of my wide group of friends who I would pick to do such a thing.
Was she sure? I e-mailed back. "Absolutely", she said. She had confidence in the surgeon and this was not the sort of thing she was going to over-think.
When I saw her two weeks after the procedure her eyes were wide and bright, her chin line defined and the skin on her face smooth and glowing without a trace of her previous sun damage. She didn't look done; she looked great. Evidently facial surgery had taken a big leap forward when I wasn't looking. It certainly wasn't the big deal it was even a few years ago.

"Plastic surgeons on the forefront of their profession now take advantage of the advances in lazer surgery and combine them with more traditional methods to get natural looking results with a minimum of incisions and very little down time," Scott B. Wells M.D., a New York City based cosmetic surgeon, said. He is especially enthusiastic about the Active FX Laser. The first of its kind, it is a partially ablative laser with reactionalized technology for skin rejuvenation. It utilizes CO2laser energyto treat fine lines, wrinkles, skin laxity, discoloration and other effects of aging and sun damage in a very fast single treatment. This provides a collagen boost that is then followed with IR(infrared treatment )which further contracts the collagen and continues to stimulate new collagen production. "Used in conjunction with an eye lift and chin restructuring it results in improved facial contours, smooth glowing skin and a much younger and refreshed look that doesn't look at all done," Dr. Wells said.

Just maybe this is what Ive been waiting for. However in all likelihood there will continue to be more technological advances. Should I wait to see what comes down the pike? Should I stick with my original decision and let my face take its downward course or should I follow Marcia's lead? Stayed tuned. I'm still thinking.

Cheers,

Barb