Hello Joaniepm and others,
Just happened to check in on the board.
I am no expert and especially no doctor, I advise you on all counts to listen to your dermotologist and do what they say. I have only been through this one time like most of you, and my one time was only a measly 14 days. Seems that 28 days are becoming more the norm. Having said all those disclaimers, I guess I just seem to like to share my experiences a tad more than others and to help them get through. This site got me through my experience and I feel gratefull. I seriously might not have made it through my own 14 days, I almost quit b4 every treatment the last 2 days, but I took them all one at a time. And time felt like it was standing still. Like when I was in high school and the clock would move only 1 minute no matter how long I waited to look at it again (that was prob my history class). I feel terrible for those that have to go 28 days, and I admire your endurance. This is a marathon that you will finish and it will make you stronger, healthier, and wiser.
Awesome!! You are going to Jamaica on Nov 20th, what a great reward for you. Let me do the math, today Oct 30th you have 8 days to go, that puts your last day Nov 7th. So 13 days after your TX stops you are heading to Jamaica. I'm jeleous, never been there. I'm betting 90% odds that you will be so much more normal looking and feeling better that you will be soooooo happy you won't care if you are still slightly red and peeling just a bit. I had to go back and look at my pics to see where I was 14 days after my TX ended and I was still lookin slightly sunburned 14 days post-tx and still peeling slightly. I peeled a total of something like 7 times. The first 2 times were gross, the next 5 were smaller and smaller peels, and those later peels didn't bother me much. Now mind you, everyones reaction is different, but here is my photo from my Day 28 which is 14 days after I stopped my TX: http://www.slide.com/s/eCWhmMaS0T_RZQykTAbj5xcl-g7t48do by the way was in Palm Desert, a desert paradise.
I didn't go out in the sun once without a hat and 85 spf on. Take some high SPF with you and buy a big pink, red, and blue floppy Jamaican hat while you are there. I promise you will want to go shake people that are baking themselves in the sun for hours, and scream at them: "What do you think is going to happen to your lovely skin in 20 years!! Are you crazy!! Not to mention all the wrinkles you are self-inducing!!" But you probably will just think that to yourself instead and really won't do something like that out loud. But ... if you do let me know how that goes :-)
So maybe the government should pass a law that you can't lay out in the sun? Probably sunbathing is worse than smoking cigarettes. Just kidding, but they banned smoking, why not sunning too?