“Severe Reaction to Elevess - DO NOT USE”

Late November 2008 at 9:00 a.m. I had Elevess injected under my eyes to correct deep circles. The plastic surgeon used 2 vials.

I looked terrific for about 4 hours and then the swelling began. I had been expecting some swelling. By 4:30 p.m. I was getting so swollen that i called the DR's office and they recommended some Benadryl, thinking it was a mild allergy. By the next morning i was in the DR's office and they were in shock- as I was. They had never seen anything like it. As of that moment I was in that office every day for observation. Thinking it was an infection, I was put on strong antibiotics. Late december I was on on intravenus antibiotics. Test results then showed there was no infection...

This is where the real nightmare begins. The manufacturer never returned the DR's calls for help in resolving my reaction. Toward the end of December the distributor finally sent an e-mail to all clients asking whether anyone had seen a reaction to Elevess and what they did to resolve it. New Year's day my DR received a call from Niagara Falls where a patient had a more severe reaction. They discussed a treatment regime that might resolve my situation.

In the meantime, I work as a consultant and had a contract starting the day after the procedure that had to be postponed. I was lucky to be accepted and I wore a pale shade of sunglasses to spare them the grossness of it all. I beleive the group helped me get through it.

Today I still have some bumps and muscle athrophy on the left side. I will never be the same.

I plan to camapign to ensure that maufacturers are obliged to provide a full list of possible allergens as well as product test samples. I will never again have any cosmetic product injected unless I have had the opportunity to be pre-tested.

In addition, the FDA approval of Elevess may be a hoax. A recent 20/20 episode showed that some FDA employees passed products through approval, untested, for money. Elevess could be one of those products.

Is there anyone left we can trust?

I will continue to trust my DR because he looked after me and had compassion. However, I will not take on anything unless I research it first. No snap decisions.

This was a long and painful journey.

I am now ready to listen to legal counsel. Is anyone interested in a class action suit?