Under-eye Collagen Injections, a Living Nightmare

I compeltly agree with what you said. I had the same experience 4 days ago. the doctor told me that the erea under the eye will look much better after the injuction. he injected it and I thout the swelling after the surgery is normal. now I am in my fourth day and tow black circles are under the eye and the swelling looks like eye bags wich I did not have before. I really regret going under this procedure and wish to have a solution.. I am soo desperate now..

As a fellow sufferer of under eye circles / bags, I completely sympathise with you. When you have lived with them all your life and think you have found a solution to get rid of them it is DEVASTATING when the 'solution' ends up making them worse. I totally feel you pain. How long are collagen injections supposed to last? Is there light at the end of the tunnel for you? Did you have botox in your crows feet etc at the same time? Sometime botox can make undereye filler last longer. Have you tried manual lymphatic drainage for the swelling? Another RealSelf member "Learning" had some success with it. Let us know how you are doing. Cheers

I had juvederm, not collagen but I think the effect is the same. I also do not look people in the eye anymore and people constantly ask me what is wrong. I have been speaking to Learning (I live in Australia and she lives in New Zealand) and she has had some good results with manual lymphatic drainage for undereye swelling. I think it involves mainly massage to stimulate the lymphatic system and clear swelling (which is particularly difficult to get rid of under the eyes because it pools up again every time you go to sleep!) I am looking into it myself because I have one eye bag. Yes, that's right - only ONE! My right eye looks pretty normal but my left eye has a swollen "Nike swoosh" underneath it because I think some of the juvederm escaped out of the tear trough area and is sitting in the eye bag and puffing it up. Looks HIDEOUS especially when I smile. I asked you about botox because some of my issues are botox-related. I think the botox around my eyes is preventing me from clearing the swelling because the pump action of my eye muscles has been diminished. YUCK! I say again - I feel your pain. I only got into this whole mess on 15 June, so I have a long, long wait ahead of me. Ironic how when you like something it never lasts but when you want something to go away, it hangs around for months. Try google or the yellow pages to find a lymphatic drainage person in your area. I think acupuncture also might help? Let us know how you are going and believe me, you are not alone! Cheers

Hi Darryl - I feel your pain. I got botox-induced cheek ptosis from crows feet injections in July 2009. I have written all over this website about it. Like you, the muscle under my eye flattened out across the bone and all my facial fat drooped down my face. I also got the puffy bags under my eyes. It is week 30 for me and I still have the puffy bags under my eyes from herniated fat pads, the dropped facial fat, the flattened muscles across my cheek bones, the strange 'chipmunk' smile, the divots on either side of my nose when I smile. Cheek ptosis is the worst botox effect and it lasts for a very long time. I can see some posts from other people who had botox-induced cheek ptosis that their results diminished after about 24 weeks, so it would seem that my result was particularly extreme to still be so evident after 30 weeks. I got a Tua Viso (electric facial muscle stimulator) but I don't think it can really help until the facial muscles have reconnected with the nerves and are working again. This morning, I was (stupidly) looking at some photos of me before I had botox and I am crying as I write this. I was really pretty before. I had a lovely smile and I would give anything to get that back. I am also pretty sure that I am going to need a blepharoplasty to fix the mess under my eyes but I am terrified of that too. I thought that botox just made people look younger and better but still like themselves. My face and my smile are not my own. I feel sick at how foolish I was. The terrible, terrible regret of it all. I wish you the best of luck and please keep us updated about your recovery. Cheers x I will let you know if I think the Tua Viso is helping or not. I have been reluctant to use it because I didn't want to do anything that would stop the acetylcholine receptors regenerating properly. There is no information about whether stimulating the deadened muscles too early with electricity might affect the nerve-muscle reconnection. No doctor was prepared to offer me an opinion on this. After 30 weeks, the nerves should have all reconnected to the muscles now, so I am going to use the Tua Viso everyday for the next two weeks and see if there is any difference. I will post my results on this site.