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Janice Dean, 46, is a senior meteorologist for the Fox News channel. She hasn’t been on the air for several weeks and it’s not because she’s avoiding various grabby men at work, although she’s likely dealt with that like so many other women at that channel. Dean published a first person essay detailing a bad laser treatment she had to fix crepey skin under her neck. It was supposed to be a simple outpatient procedure with an easy recovery time but instead left her with half her face swollen and a lopsided smile. It sounds like a nightmare, especially for a person who works in the media. She wrote that she was convinced to get the treatment after seeing how great Christie Brinkley looks at 63, although it’s not like Brinkley has admitted to getting it. Dean gets Botox regularly and hoped that this treatment, called “fractora” and billed as regenerating collagen, would do the trick for her neck. Instead she had a bad reaction to it which affects approximately 1-2% of patients.
Every time I would see my doctor would ask if there was ANYTHING he could do with my neck. I’ve had a bad relationship with my neck since I was little. There are weird lines around it like a tree trunk -– they’ve been there since I was a baby.
But now at age 46, I’ve started to notice excess skin gathering like an accordion in the middle. So now along with being able to count the rings around my neck to guess how old I am there’s also some crepe paper attached to it.
My doctor told me there was a procedure that’s fairly new, but it’s changing the game in cosmetic surgery. It’s called “fractora,” an outpatient procedure done in the office that takes under an hour and that regenerates your natural collagen and tightens that old skin.
How long would this miracle laser treatment last for? Five years or longer… What about the downtime?
About 5 days. All right!
The kids have their school break coming up — I was going to take the time off anyway to be with them. Perfect!…
The doctor comes in and performs the procedure. My husband picks me up and doesn’t say so at the time, but later tells me that I looked terrible. Especially the left side of my face. My head is bandaged and so is my neck.
I get home and my kids look a little scared. “What happened mama? Why do you look like a Q-tip? Are you OK?” Yes, boys. Everything’s fine. I just had to go the doctor for a little thing with my neck. This bandage will be off tomorrow and I’ll be fine. But for now mama has to lie down.
The left side of my face was puffed out like a chipmunk. I followed the doctor’s instructions and elevated my head and took more Tylenol to minimize bruising.
The next day I took off my bandages. The left side of my face was still very swollen and I was finding it hard to talk out of that side of my mouth. I couldn’t chew properly. Well, maybe this might help me lose a few pounds too? Nervous giggle.
I had the email of my doctor’s assistant and typed: “Hi there. Just wanted to know if it’s normal that one side of my face is very swollen and it’s really challenging to talk. Could you ask the doctor?”
She emailed back and said to send some pictures – one smiling, one normal, one with a pursed mouth like I’m pouting.
My bottom lip had looked like it had vanished. My smile was lopsided. I started looking stuff up on the internet.
Yikes. Close the computer.
Then I looked at the possible side-effects on the sheets I had initialed before the procedure. Fourth one down: Nerve injury, marginal mandibular nerve palsy, inability to depress lower lip, temporary change in smile or facial expression.
Yes, this looked like what I might be experiencing. I was suddenly mad at myself. Why didn’t I read the fine print? Why did I just gloss over these many side effects without asking questions? How many times do we glance through pages of paperwork without fully reading it and nonchalantly sign on the dotted line? This was on me.
I went in to see the doctor. I took my husband with me who was trying to hold back his anger. The first question is: “Will it come back?” My doctor says, “ Yes. 100 percent.” How long? “Well, we’re not sure. But a few weeks. We can fix it a bit with Botox. You can probably mask it with makeup.” But what about the fact that I can’t speak certain words? And my lopsided smile? “Well that will resolve itself eventually.”
Lately I’ve been thinking about this: If I could choose between having a smooth neck or getting my smile back to normal, there is no question. My smile means everything to me.
They say the eyes are the window to the soul. I disagree. My smile is my window.
I was near tears. This is not what I signed up for. Darn it.
My husband Sean asks the doctor what the percentage of patients was that this happens to. Answer: about one to two percent.
Wow. I wish I was that lucky when it came to playing the lottery.
[From Fox News]
Dean explains that she’s understandably had embarrassment and shame about this, which she realizes was caused by her own vanity. She’s since received a lot of support after sharing her story with friends and colleagues. She writes that “It happens a lot more than we hear about” and that she wants people to be aware of the risks. Honestly I was disappointed that she didn’t include a photo of what she looked like with half her face swollen, but she’s so image conscious that was probably too personal for her. She does include some more recent photos on her Facebook page, one of those is below, and you can’t really notice any damage to her face.
As I often mention I’m getting up there, I’m 44, and I’ve considered getting injectables so many times. I’m scared and these type of stories help me put it off just a little longer. I’m at one of those “ass or your face” impasses now in that my face is looking drawn. There are worse problems, like having half your face swell up for weeks and being ashamed to leave the house. I can’t imagine.
Source: celebitchy.com
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