RE: Problems with fat transfer?

safest to go to surgeon that has done it 20 or more times. If I could find one in Toronto area.

Hello Marita (from Skin Magic), I would be extremely grateful if you could tell me how to get rid of fat transferred into a wrong place. My PS turned out to be shocking individual, and he placed fat in places I didn't ask him at all. I am looking disfigured 3 weeks after surgery. I still have a lump going from my cheek vertically into my eye socket; nothing on the other eye or cheek. And a lot of mess on and under my chin. Is there any way apart from liposuction to remove it?

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Dear bklyner, I am sorry to hear it. I didn't go to him for my fat transfer but my situation with face fat is still bad. I agree that he should be stopped. There is a patient who wrote a negative review of him on here although they did not name the doctor, they hinted it was SC. What he did to those women who posted photos of his 'work' was horrendous. If you check out the thread "fat transfer - gambling with your face" then you'll find a lot of discussion re. fat transfer problems and corrections.
Best,
Quno

Realself,

Please stop trying to protect PSs who act with criminal negligence towards patients. You removed my post implicating Sydney Coleman, who personally disfigured me as well as many others I have spoken to over the past decade. This code of silence has to end or you are just as negligent as SC!

Hello bklyner -- Thanks for sharing your concerns with us. As stated above, your post was removed because it violated our Community Guidelines. We do not allow name-calling or personal attacks on RealSelf, whether they are directed at doctors, patients or other community members. You are welcome to share your story, but you must do so in accordance with our guidelines. Please feel free to get in touch directly (click my name, then click "Send a private message") if you have any questions.

There was no name calling. There was no personal attack, Sharon.
I shared my experience, that was all. Sharon, you're acting as a gatekeeper for inept surgeons and an industry that really preys on women in particular, as well as man. And no Sharon, that is not name calling.

I had a lower bleph with fat removal and transfer about a month ago because I had small bags under my eyes and some hollowness in the tear trough amd under the bag. I also have horrible puffiness that makes me look deformed, especially in any type of overhead light. I have seen only the most minor improvement in the past month, but my surgeon keeps telling me this is normal and will resolve, but has no pictures of other patients or even from medical journals to show me that this truly is part of the healing process even though I keep asking for this to reassure myself. My left eye in particular is lumpy and puffy with visible ridges in the tear trough. It feels soft and is not painful and the horrible bruising I had post surgery is gone as of a couple days ago, but the result is still the same - ugly. At this point, I greatly regret this procedure and would not recommend fat transfer to the undereye area to anyone - even if the result ends up being okay, it is not worth more than a month of looking like this. I'd rather have my bags and hollows back. Has someone experienced this problem where it did resolve - and how long did it take?

Sameboat and Puffyeyes, I am the original writer of this question, but have changed my name to Lucette. Here's what I've experienced since I wrote this question: At 9 weeks, I was going insane because I didn't see much improvement. I had already been through exactly what you're going through now--hope that it was just swelling and would go away, but fear that it wouldn't--and being told to wait. At ten weeks my PS said that most of the fat that had not resorbed had developed its blood supply, and it was probably pretty close to what it was going to look like (although more fat could resorb). We decided to use Restylane to even everything out, and the results were amazing. The filler was so much better because my PS would inject it, hand me a mirror, and ask me if I liked the result. The bottom line is that no matter how good your PS is, he/she can't control how much fat stays and how much resorbs --or where it stays and where it disappears. They can control the fillers, though. Anyway, I liked the Restylane under my eyes so much that I had some injected into my nasolabial folds and am planning to have more in my cheeks for more volume there. It's true that more fat from the fat transfer could resorb, but even if it does, I can have more Restylane to fill it in. The point I'm trying to make to both of you is not to despair because even if the fat does does not give you the effect you wanted, you can still achieve it through the fillers. I wish someone had told me that when I was stressing over that puffy ridge of fat that left a crease in my tear trough. The procedure itself was painless and left no swelling or bruising--no down time.

Not sure how injecting more filler will help with overly puffy eyes....I have basically a ridge of fat above my cheek and below my eye that make me look like a ghoul in any overhead light and that pushes my eye up underneath distorting the shape of my eye and making my eyes appear smaller than they did. It seems injecting a filler is only going to make it more puffy. My PS did inject a very small amount of steroid into one puffy area under my left eye last week and it did help that area smooth out, but still puffy, particularly in the tear trough area. My issue was the small bags under my eyes initially and now I have large pouches under my eyes. I had small amount of restylane in upper lip previously with another PS and hated it - was lumpy and irregular and unnatural looking - but at least it disappears fairly quickly. Perhaps I need more steroid injection....now over a month post surgery and still hiding from everyone I can hide from.

Yes, I see what you mean about fillers possibly making your condition worse. Mine was a ridge of fat that "took" just above the tear trough, causing it to appear that I had one strip of puffiness and an indented line beneath it (the tear trough). It was a true bag where I had simply had hollows before. Mine did not reach up into the area immediately under the eye, and it did not distort the eye at all. The filler smoothed it out for me by bringing the cheek up to match the strip of fat. I will say that I lost quite a lot of the fat from the transfer fairly rapidly. Maybe yours truly is the "normal" healing process and you will end up with a good result. After all, we elected to have fat transfer because it would supposedly keep us from having to have fillers injected. Anyway, most of the doctors posted on this site say we must wait 6 months for the final result. I didn't need the six months because most of the fat was already gone. Post when you have some resolution.

It takes about 2 months to look completely normal after fat grafting. After that, as resorption continues, a filler such as juvederm could be used to fill in any spots. If you are lumpy after 2 months, you may need to see a more reputable person about removal of the lumps. As a whole, I really don't trust doctors. I have found a number of them to be not only incompetent in certain procedures, but also arrogant enough to not wish to admit butchering, which is a frightening combination. When one thinks one is perfect, one will do nothing to improve oneself, no matter how awful s/he may be.

I couldn't agree with you more Krystal. I'm sorry but in NYC I found that most PSs are like that. They are concerned with money, not with the art and psychology of plastic surgery.

Yeah, how do you find a decent competent ps in NYC/NJ. I think the problem with plastic surgeons is that they all try to be good at every body area when they really should pick and area and master it. I'm sure there must be some good ones in NY, but if you read the ratemd reviews, they all seem to suck at something. You can't trust those
Top Doc reports either. I just had a botched fat transfer to under eye area myself in NJ. Not sure who to see next to fix... Very aggravating.

I would recommend going and seeing a reconstructive plastic surgeon. They are trained to reconstruct and are so much better than say, a regular plastic surgeon. I went to one after a mishap w tear trough injections of Radiesse. Nurse injected that substance when I thought I was getting restalyne. My reconstructive surgeon refused to do anything until the eyes settled down. It is a year now and now he is going to do a very conservative lower eye lift w no fat removal. Usually a good surgeon will not take the fat but adjust it and move it higher. Thankfully I found a great reconstructive surgeon who was not in it for the money but wanted to make me look better. I was thrilled w his upper eye lift on me.

Hope this helps. While he refused to do anything, I did have injections of other fillers to try to fill out my face. My left side due to her 2 jabs of Radiesses caused so much swelling. I actually ended up with my face so uneven. So, after a year and backing off the injections, I am ready.

I just think that women need to research and read about these fillers and procedures and know what can go wrong and ASK questions.

I would recommend a reconstructive plastic surgeon. They are trained to do surgery in ways that regular plastic surgeons are not trained. They are conservative and try to do minimum amount as needed.

who is the dr your goin to see ? and location .I had fat transfer whole face 3 days go have so many lumps ,one side uneven so scared,

I went to a reconstructive surgeon in Beverly Hills. He is the one who made a mess of my face. He used the Coleman method and grossly overfilled. He tried to fix it at the 7 month mark, but actually made it worse by adding scars in the creases of my eyes. Now One year later, I still am lumpy expecially around my eyes, half my face is bigger than the other half and when I smile the fat distorts my face. I don't smile much anymore. So I disagree that a reconstructive surgeon is the answer...not doing it at all is the answer.

You are so right! Also, conservative injection is the key. A little goes a long way. He could have used 1/4 of what he put under my eyes, and it could have turned out nice.

Hi Lucette, Thanks so much for responding! I talked to my PS and he said the same things that I read on here which is that he needed to fill in the areas under the bags to smooth everything out. He did that and I look better--not perfect yet because I still have a partial "bag" under one eye and the other eye has a small area that needs to be smoothed, but at least I'm starting to see that things can be improved in little steps. I just really wish my PS would have informed me before I agreed to the first procedure that it could take several procedures to look normal. I do hope it will turn out ok, but I would not have done it if I had known how many times it would take to get it looking ok. Your answers helped a lot!! Sameboat

I'm glad to hear it helped. I've since added some Radiesse in the cheek and am even happier with the result. I'm beginning to see that my problem was loss of volume and that adding the volume makes a tremendous difference. Smooths out fine lines as well. I won't do more fat because I just lose too much of it. You didn't say for sure, but it sounds like you used fat again. If so, congratulations. Yours will be permanent. For me, I'll need to add more filler later.