“Still Swelling After All These Years...”

I should have known. The doctor is highly advertised. However I was shocked when I walked in his office and the man I saw was not the same man in the glossy advertisements. OK, technically it was the same man... only about 15 years older. Looking back I'm assuming that most of his before and after pics were also from 15 years ago.

He is triple board certified. He has credentials on top of credentials. I mean how else do you pick a doctor?

When the surgey was over my blood pressure shot through the roof. His main concern was not getting me stabilized but getting me out of his office (he has his own surgicenter).

Immediately thick scars started forming under my eyes and started causing my lower lids to droop. I sent many pictures via email with little or no response. I made a follow up appointment to see him. He said "either you need to be patient or I can prescribe some Valium for you". I can assure you I was calm and in control. I just wondered why my eyes were drooping and thick, visible scars were forming. He finally put me through a series of steroid shots (in my lower lids...not for the faint of heart). Those did help a little with the scarring but did nothing for the drooping.

THREE years later I still have droopy lower lids, visible scars under my lids, around my ears, in my hairline and the scar from the brow lift looks like someone cut it open with scissors. On top of that I get marked swelling in my brows, eyes and forehead on a DAILY basis. This seems to be perpetuated by stimulation to the scalp - like when I fix my hair.

The doc was totally dismissive after surgery. I felt like there was nothing I could really do. I wasn't 'maimed' it just wasn't good. I finally gave up.

I am marking 'undecided' to the "Was it worth it" question. I am not disappointed that I had the procedures. I just wish I had chosen a different doctor.

Updated on Dec 7, 2009
Hi Everyone,

Three years ago I had a facelift, necklift, "cheeklift" and browlift. The browlift was done using a fairly long scar right at the hairline. The scar is pretty bad and is causing the hair to grow in funny directions in some places.

The real problem, however, is that I am still getting swelling in my brow and eye area. At first I thought is was related to what I ate or drank or even the heat. It seems to ALWAYS be the worst when I had somewhere to go. That's when it dawned on me. Most days I spend a lot of time at the gym so I just stick on a cap and go. But when I have someplace besides the gym to go I spend a lot of time fixing my hair. It seems to be the stimulation of the scalp that is causing all this swelling/distortion.

Whenever I fix my hair the top of my head becomes very numb and my scalp gets very tight. There is swelling above and below my brows which pushes/pulls my brows really far down and causes severe puffiness in my upper lids. This swelling continues onto the sides of my eyes and below my eyes causing the lower lids to pull out/down worse than they already do.

Has anyone else experienced this? If so what is causing it and is there anything that can be done about it? I just can't understand why THREE YEARS later I am still fighting this. It really does cause a very severe distortion around my eyes to the point that I can't even look in the mirror. It also affects my vision.

I've tried heat and ice to no avail. One thing I have noticed is that if I'm at a party and drink alcohol (which I guess is very dehydrating) the swelling starts to subside.

I had a terrible time recovering. It was nearly a year before I felt comfortable enough to go into public but really only because I convince myself that others probably aren't looking as closely as I am.