“Fat grafting to correct bad bleph / hollow under eyes - not good.”

I had Fat Grafting done for a previous bad Bleph surgery that left me slightly hollowed in both my lower eyes. I was originally just looking to look a little refreshed. I never wanted to change myself. Unfortunately, everything beginning with him has been downhill from there. I keep going from bad, to worse, to really bad.

February 17, 2009
The Fat Grafting was performed by {edited - provider information is shown above the review for registered users}.

This was my goal I talked to Dr B at length about.

• CORRECT MILD HOLLOWING UNDER THE EYES FROM PREVIOUS BLEPH SURGERY.
• CREATE SMOOTH TRANSITION FROM CHEEK TO EYELID.

The cheek area wasn't that important to me other then the blending in part. I shouldn't have listed it at all. I did my best to convey that the eye area was priority number one.

Results from 1st FG

• It doesn’t look good. I was already hollow and this really emphasized it.
• Rose and filled just the upper cheeks and didn’t touch the eye area.
• Made me hollower by recessing the eyes.
• Exacerbated the transition between my lids and cheek.
• No attempt at all was made to try to blend it.

After it was done I definitely noticed it right off the bat. Some people were telling me to relax that it was just the swelling and it will look great when it comes down. That would work if it was balanced with the eye area. Even a little difference will exacerbate the transitions. The bottom line is that I knew exactly what I wanted and talked to him exhaustively while he just sat there and agreed with me. I really tried to do this right. I researched this for months. I was sooooo determined to do this right this time. When he got my $$ he got sudden amnesia about what we discussed i.e. doing the eye area. It really went in one ear and out the other. I think he was in a hurry too. If I’d known he wasn’t going to do anything in my eye area I wouldn’t had him done it.

The bottom line is that I knew exactly what I wanted and talked to him exhaustively while he just sat there and agreed with me. I really tried to do this right. I researched this for months. I was sooooo determined to do this right this time.

When he got my $$ he got sudden amnesia about what we discussed i.e. doing the eye area. It really went in one ear and out the other. I think he was in a hurry too. If I’d known he wasn’t going to do anything in my eye area I wouldn’t had him done it.

April 14, 2009
I went in to talk to him about it and he said it looked to be 90% better. Funny that when I look into the mirror I see sunken in eyes i.e. more hollowness now. This means either 2 things. Either he’s lying or he has a bad sense of aesthetics. Friends have told me I look worse now i.e. more hollowness.

May 26, 2009 (2nd Fat Grafting)
I foolishly thought that if I once again explained what I didn’t like from the last time we could work this through. My friend said I was crazy. Maybe I am. However, after talking about it with him with him and him saying he understood the problem (demarcation between cheek and eyelid) I decided to give him another chance to fix it. He was only going to once again smooth the area out between the cheek and eye area. He acknowledged the problem with his previous work yet I still had to pay to have this fixed too ($1000). I don’t think that’s fair but I figured that if he got it right I’d still be happy though. He even marked the area with a sharpie pen that was just under the eyelashes to illustrate where he was going to put it.

Results from (2nd FG)
(Again)

• Caused serious hollowness by sinking the eyes back. He went along the orbital rim and not into the eye area to balance it out. Fat was just placed too high on the cheeks w/o balancing it out with the eyes.
• Transition between eyelids and cheeks exacerbated.
• Caused the lower cheeks to be more hollow or gaunt (buckle hollowness).
• Before eye area was higher then the cheek. Now cheek is higher then the eye area. Problem inverted now. Went from bags to hollowness to hollowness with big cheeks.
• (New problem)
• Lumpiness on both cheeks. It looks like I have to lumpy golf balls inside my upper cheek.
• Uneven asymmetric results. L. cheek is lower and flatter then R. cheek which is higher and more pronounced. People do notice it.

Doctor Lam said: When you add volume to the cheek and you don't balance it with doing the lower lids too you'll create more hollowness and exuberate those transitions from cheek to lids. I tried to explain the balance part other doctors had talked about. Basically, saying I wanted a convexity (round) or luminosity from eye to cheek. I want balance. You gave me more hollowed out/sunken eyes. Instead of listening to me he just said it's never going to be perfect.

I can understand mistakes but after you really try your best to make them understand what you want and they do the opposite of that it just gets beyond frustrating. What’s the point of a consultation? He’s going to do whatever he wants and you don’t have any say.

8/25/09
I come in and wait for him to tell me what he thinks. "Yeah, I think it looks good. He says you’re good to go". Oh really. What about the hollowness that's still under the eyes. He tells me maybe he could go higher with it but I think you should just leave it alone. Then I said you know I have to tell you I've been to another very reputably eye Doctor (Hoenig). I then explained to him the problems we talked about. Then he finally acknowledged some of the problems (so much for it looks great). However, he said they all came from the bleph and he did his best after all. He said that it was the bleph you have to blame. No other explanation was given as to all my problems though (hollowness, lumpy and asymmetric cheeks).

3 solutions that were given to me

• Pearl grafting

He said that the bleph caused my eyes to sink and that's why you see the hollowness. He then tells me that I should go see Dr Frank Meronk (the eyelid specialist) in Oxnard, CA. Was about to write his phone # down when I told him I know all about him already. So I said no way. Why didn't he refer me to him in the beginning if that's what he thought I truly needed?

• He could take it higher up into the eye area. However, he already admitted all you’ve done before is take it along the orbital rim and no further. He even drew a line w/a sharpie pen right below the lashes last time to show how far up you were taking it.
• Fillers

He tells me that he agrees with me that it's a good idea for me to try fillers with another Doctor. However, he told me the exact opposite when doing the original consults. Talking me out of doing the fillers. Saying there’s not enough to fix the problem and it will give you the Tindal affect with lots of bruising.

After he acknowledged the real problem (eye hollowness) he finally referred me to someone more qualified. That’s all well and good. Unfortunately, it’s way after the fact. Why couldn’t he of done all that before and save me an extra $4000 and all that wasted time and pain?

Why am I hearing this all now? He's basically admitted that he understood what the "real problem" was (lack of volume in the eye orbit). So my big question is why go through all this hell then. It was hell going through recovery for all this which didn't achieve anything other then new problems. I already had good cheeks. They didn't need anything else done. (My problem wasn't cheek hollowness). It was lack of eye orbit volume from the previous bleph causing me to look hollow under the eyes.

He explained that he had to build up the cheeks. He said he's had people develop bags because he just did the under eyes. All well and good. However, you forgot about doing the under eyes too like I'd specifically asked multiple times. After the first procedure left me with huge upper cheeks and very hollow eyes I went back 2 months later and was very clear with him. It's the eyes. Not the cheeks. So he said he understood the demarcation between the lower lids and the upper cheeks as he called it. Before the second procedure he even marked me right under the eyelashes with a felt marker. I was thinking...wow he's really going in close. During both procedures the swelling and bruising was confined to just the cheeks. The under eye area (lower eye orbit/lids) wasn't changed at all. No bruising, swelling, or change in any way. I've heard that it can bruise very easily in that area too. Also, the holes are in the lower part of my face where he went in each time.

So now he says it’s a good idea for me to go somewhere else. In other words, go anywhere else but here now. Were done. I've now been duped by 2 doctors. I'm not even angry anymore. Just sad. I'm just tired of being deceived by doctors I actually trusted whom I believed will look out for what’s best for me.

If you have been hollowed by a bleph you have to be careful about what you do to fix it. Just raising the cheeks can really be a disaster because it really makes the situation much worse. Before I’d have to tilt my head back to see the hollowness. Now I get the luxury of looking at myself straight on to see the hollowness. I’m getting worse and worse with each procedure.

The other Dr told me I have a reverse problem now. Before I had high lower eyes and low cheeks, then after bleph it was low lower eyes and low cheeks, and now its low lower eyes and high upper cheeks. Basically, my eyes keep sinking back in my head.

Dr B's excuse was that he did his best afterall. Yeah, how about just doing it right then. He then used his hands to illustrate this. Here you are. I took you here (inching his hands up 6 inches) or maybe it's just the same and you’re no different. However, I don't believe I made you any worse (bank account allot emptier now). So I said oh really. That's not what the other Dr said. He just called it a mess. Wrong fat placement, cheeks not symmetrical, and lumpy. He also said it's made me more hollow on top and also below. I researched it and found out this is common. It's called buckle hollowness. Basically, making me gaunt in my lower face. Something I didn't have before. Great. This is something everyone can easily see now. So yes obviously I agreed with the other Dr.

The other Dr said that all he did was go around the orbital rim. I brought that up. Dr. B said yes that's as far as he went. I said how’s that going to treat my orbital hollowness though. He said well I placed it high along the orbital rim. Whatever, that means. It’s just not in the orbit itself where the bleph took out the fat. Drs say that to treat eye hollowness you need to go into the eye orbit and inject deep into the eye muscle.

Whenever, I go see him I feel like I'm playing who's on first with abbot and costello. He just doesn't give me straight answers. They change moment to moment. I feel like I'm at a used car lot. Except my face is the lemon.

I told him that the other Dr said it will have to come out. He asked how that might be done. He said he would either use a 5fu solution or micro lipo. He said he's crazy. He never offered an explanation as to why there uneven, lumpy, and wrongly placed.

I also had 2 friends come up to me recently and ask what's wrong with my cheeks. They said it best (without my asking btw) "Why is the right cheek higher and bigger then the left cheek? So basically he fucked up something I never even asked to have done. Gee, maybe I should be grateful he never did my eye area. You know being way more complicated and all. Especially, if he can't get the cheeks done right. This seems to be a problem for him too there’s others that have similar issues with cheeks not being symmetrical.

Towards the end of the 15 min consult Judy the office mgr kept interrupting our consultation at least 3 x by reminding Dr B there was a person waiting to be seen. Probably a potential paying customer as opposed to me I assume. She just stood there behind me impatiently reminding him. When I arrived on time I was told to wait 20 min because he was taking his time with another customer. Don’t remember her once doing that for me.

Also, at the end he starts listing his accomplishments. Bragging to me that he's the president of the plastic surgery association or something. I'm not interested in hearing that. Plus, you’ve already told me that multiple times. Like every other time I’ve seen him. I was thinking why he is telling me this now of all times. I mean WTF. What does that have to do with what I’m talking about anyways?

BTW. An employee there has cheeks like mine. Just much bigger. She reminds me of a chipmunk with a mouthful of nuts. I think Dr. B gives everyone that walks through the door the same cookie cutter look. He calls it the (space lift) where he stuffs a bunch of fat on top of the cheeks. However, he doesn’t balance it out on the face. Suppose to give you kind of a face lift. Something I didn’t need anyways. Consequently, it just doesn’t look natural on me.

He just doesn’t get it. You talk, and talk, and talk to him till your blue in the face and still get bad results. I’d get more communication between myself and a wall. At least with the wall you know it’s not sitting there just pretending to listen. People have said here on the boards that he’s not a good communicator and tends to make everyone the same. Plus, in every consultation he won’t get close to me. Preferring to stay away by at least 6 ft. Every time he says I look good I say try getting closer to look at it and he won’t. Yeah, everybody looks good at a distance. I shower every day too so I don’t know what’s up with that. He’s definitely not a up close kind of Doctor. The only good news out of all this is I’ll never go back there again and from now on I’ll only give them only one chance. No more.

Maybe I just expected too much from someone who also does boob jobs. I should be looking for an eye specialist and not a jack-of-all-trades kind of Doctor. If someone needs something and you can do it fine. If not then you need to refer them on to someone appropriate. I came to Dr. B and he looked at me and knew then what he couldn’t do i.e. fix the problem (eye hollowness). Instead, he goes into salesman mode to get me to fork over the $4000 of my hard earned money. He could care less if what he knows how to do is right for me. It’s just not fair. Some of these Drs need to find a moral compass.

September 9, 2009
I’m being treated by Dr Hoenig. I’ve seen him before so he knows what I looked like before. We've started the 5fu right now in hopes that it will bring the fat in my cheeks down. It breaks down scar tissue. If it doesn't work at the very least it will soften it up to make the micro lipo more effective. It will be a series of 5 treatments. Then comes the Lipo. Last case senerio is to just cut it out. Obviously, not my favorite. He assured me it won't come to that though. We can't do anything else though till this is done. Probably somewhere around March. Then he can start to work on fixing the hollows which were only mild to begin with. Dr Hoenig said "I'm not going to kid you. This is going to be a long journey for you". Hey, at least he's honest.

Treatment of cheeks and original problem
5fu (5 treatments) $500 - $500
Micro Lipo (1 to 2 treatments) $2,000 - $4,000
$2,500 - $4,500

Filler – 3 to 4 syringes for top and bottom of cheeks $2,250 - $3,000
$4,750 - $7,500 Total

9/25/09
I came back to help me figure out what went wrong and to see if I could negotiate some money back to pay some of the new expenses I have because of the fat grafting mess up. He actually got upset and said I'm not giving you your money back. I can't afford it. He reminded me that there are only 3 doctors that can do what he can in the country. I said do you feel you've fixed it. He said well not all the way. He reminded me that this is an inexact science. I said is that a yes or a no. He said he didn't feel he fixed me because I'm not happy. He felt its good enough though. I reminded him I didn't come here for just "good enough". So then I said do you feel you've made any improvements. He said yes. You were 70% and I took you to possibly 80%. I asked where the improvement is. He once again ignored that.

He also thought me going to the other Doctor was a real good idea. He agreed with the 5fu saying if you get the cheeks straightened out and get them to come down you might just like it and maybe wouldn’t need the microlipo. He said have him put in some saline to get an idea. I said I wished you'd done that for me before.

At the end of 10 min he just walked out on me. The last thing he said to me walking away was you'll get this straightened out eventually. I said I hope so before I go broke.

9/26/09
The bottom line is that I’m in worse shape now after the fat grafting with new problems to boot. This has really made the situation much worse. Before I’d have to tilt my head back to see the only mild hollowness. Now I get the luxury of looking at myself straight on to see the major hollowness. I’m getting worse and worse with each procedure. I’m really disappointed and sad. This hurts especially since I had the bad bleph surgery. I wanted this so bad too. I feel like I’ve paid so much good money ($4000) to end up looking worse. What’s most amazing of all is that afterwards these guys just walk off like nothing ever happened. Just business as usual. No help. No nothing. With just me worse off then before.

Updated on Oct 16, 2009:

Updated on Oct 17, 2009:

Updated on Nov 2, 2009: