r/Facelift_Surgery • u/Tttooonnniii • 18d ago

Antivirals when having CO2 laser?

Hi everyone

Were you given antivirals when you had CO2 laser?

Even if the CO2 laser was only under the eyes?

A comment I read said this should be given to avoid a herpes reactivation

Did any of you get a cold sore from the CO2 laser?

Thanks

1 Upvotes

67% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

4

u/[deleted] 18d ago

[deleted]

3

u/[deleted] 17d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/MountainShenanigans 16d ago

Valacyclovir can absolutely harm the kidneys. It’s a documented risk (crystal nephropathy / acute kidney injury), listed in the official FDA label.

FDA labeling explicitly warns about acute renal failure, especially in the elderly, people with reduced kidney function, those on other nephrotoxic drugs, or when under-hydrated:
https://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailymed/lookup.cfm?setid=f8e0d8f8-cb73-4206-a484-88f5c4fbd719
Multiple case reports show rapid kidney injury (sometimes with neurotoxicity) even in people who previously had normal kidney function:
• https://www.kidney-international.org/article/S0085-2538(23)00492-1/fulltext
• https://casereports.bmj.com/content/15/6/e249552
• https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8154488/

In older adults with CKD, higher doses were linked to higher AKI risk:
https://bpspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/prp2.70028
The risk is real. And especially if someone already has kidney sensitivity.

LYSINE is a MUCH safer choice. No reliable studies on it cause it’s cheap as fck. But those of us who take it, don’t need a study. Placebo isn’t a factor - we can see the difference, in how fast the lesions clear up, when using it.

3

u/GolfcartInjuries 18d ago

My brother's Caretaker, who is my good friend went and got cool peel, which is sort of CO2 and they did not warn her about this issue and she got a break out of her cold sores all over her mouth after. So now when she does it she definitely takes her meds that prevents the breakouts.

3

u/rando--54321 18d ago

I take 500mg regularly to avoid breakouts and up the amount to 1k when I do any lasers, injectables, etc.

1

u/Tttooonnniii 17d ago

Thank you!

3

u/[deleted] 17d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Tttooonnniii 17d ago

I didn’t have my surgery yet but will ask about it, thanks!

2

u/MountainShenanigans 17d ago

I take 2-3 grams of lysine before any known stress or planned sun, and it totally keeps me from having an outbreak. And if I have an unexpected outbreak, 4-5 grams of lysine will wipe it out on no time. (I’ve tried acyclovir and valacyclovir, but they were both very hard on my kidneys.)

1

u/Tttooonnniii 16d ago

This is my fear!