“My lifestyle lift”

I am a 44 yr. old single mother of 6.  I had the LSL last February, and have had nothing but problems.  I was also told I would be able to return to work after 2-3 days with little swelling and bruising. 

When I went in to see them, I told them that I was only needing a little work done, and they proceeded to tell me what they would do.  I took a week vacation from work, and for once did something totally for me.  I don't even remember much of the first three days after the surgery.  I went back to work two weeks later, still with swelling, and people asking me (people I didn't want to know) what had happened to me.  I have since went on medical leave, and have not returned to work. 

Before I went in I was doing modeling for several different photographers, and working on an acting career, plus working two jobs.  I went back in three times in the first five months, trying to tell them that I continued to have swelling in front and back of my ears, and in my jawline.  Every time I went in, they made a big deal of telling me how great I looked from the minute I walked in the door.  And each time I tried to explain that it felt like something was fermenting behind my ears under the skin, they would poke and prod and say everything looked great.  I told them, it may look great to them, but it felt like they were pushing pus pockets further under my skin. 

Finally at 5 months, I went in and told them that after all the swelling had gone down on my face, there was no difference.  The doctor told me that if we tried the botox and restylane injections it might help the complaints that I was having.  The same complaints that I had when I had come before all the surgery, and believe me, it is surgery.  Like an idiot, I agreed.  Now, one year, one Lifestyle Lift, two separate botox visits, one restylane visit, and two syringes of permalyne later, all at the suggestion of my Lifestyle Lift doctor, my face looks the same, if not worse, with the added beauty of pixie ear deformity (which I'm told is a sign of a bad facelift), scarring, chronic fatigue, and frequent pockets of pus behind my ears. 

I returned to talk to the doctor last week, and was met with the same smiling  "Oh, you look so great."  and I sat for over two hours crying and trying to get them to listen and understand that although I am not a facial reconstructive doctor, I do know that my face is not pulled back, but my ears are now pulled forward and down (one farther than the other), and I actually look worse than before.  My main problem with them is that I told them what my problem areas were, when I went in, and as a professional doctor, he should have told me that the Lifestyle Lift is not what I needed done, and gave me suggestions of what I should have had done. 

If I go to my medical doctor and tell him I think I need my gall bladder removed, he doesn't just remove it, take my money, and then find out later that I just needed medicine for an ulcer.  I don't even want to leave my house anymore, much less try to work on my modeling or acting.  I tried some photo shoots after the surgery, and my photographer of 20 years told me that I looked older after the surgery than I had before.  It definitely took a lot of photoshopping to make the pictures usable.  I don't enjoy going to activities with my children, and have started putting on weight, something that I have never done in my life, even after six children. 

I have went to see another plastic surgeon, and it's going to take at least 7,000 to 10,000 dollars just to fix the pixie ear deformity.  If anyone knows of anyone who can help, please let me know.

Updated on Apr 27, 2009:

This is just to update my previous review. After the last time I was on here, the corporate office called me and said that my doctor had offered to do Botox and Restalyne injections for free, to fix the fact that I had addition nasolabial folds on my face following my February 2008 Lifestyle Lift. I told them that that would not correct the fact that my ears are forward on my face, and my face is drooping lower on the right side. My ear is now an inch and a half lower on the right side of my face. I feel like my face is melting. I continue to have swelling around my ears. I can't wear my glasses, or sunglasses, not only because it hurts, but the glasses sit very crooked on my face. She told me she would contact the doctor and get back to me, and she actually did. She said that he was offering to fix what had been done to my face. So I called and set up for another Lifestyle Lift surgery. Four days before the scheduled surgery, the nurse called and asked for my pharmacy information, but gave me no pre-op instructions. (remember it has been a year since I originally had this done). I tried to call and get some information, and was told someone would call me back, which they never did. So I waited over the weekend for my Monday surgery, tried to remember what I was supposed to do Sunday before I went to bed, and then had nightmares for the two hours I was able to sleep. (For some reason it bothered me to think about letting the doctor, who I had pissed off by complaining about his work, cutting my face and ears off yet again, and reattaching it) I got up this morning, April 27, and went back to the Dallas Lifestyle Lift, for my procedures, only to find that the doctor wasn't even there, plus they wanted me to sign a waiver/release form, releasing 'forever' Lifestyle Lift, and Dr. S, from anything resulting from my February 2008 surgery. When I said that there was no way that I could sign the waiver, they said that it was the standard form that I needed to sign for surgery. There was nothing STANDARD about it. It didn't even mention the procedure that I was to have today. It wasn't anything like the release for medical treatment form that I had signed previously. It was more like the form you sign after an auto accident, when you accept a settlement check, and can't ever go back on them again, if for some reason something gets worse. Plus, they were only planning on fixing my ear lobes. So if I had been ignorant or trusting enough to sign their paper, I would have sat in there all drugged up thinking they were actually correcting the procedure, and walked out of there all wrapped up, and only later realized that they had only done my earlobed. And they told me the only way I could have a copy of the paper, is if I signed it first. So I left. And in all this time, my doctor still had not made an appearance. Not only had I gotten a hotel room to stay at after the procedure, I had arranged for someone to care for my children and get them to school and back. Not to mention the emotional, and physical problem that this has caused me in the last 14 months, and the depression, and feeling as if not one at LSL cared what they had done to me. The fact that I bawled like a baby, when the reputable reconstructive surgeon that I consulted after not getting satifaction from LSL, took one look at me and acknowleged that there was a problem, and that it was caused by a bad facelift, and put a name to it, is proof of what an emotional roller-coaster the people and doctor at Lifestyle Lift have put me through. IF ANYONE KNOWS OF ANY PEOPLE IN TEXAS THAT ARE PLANNING A CLASS ACTION SUIT AGAINST THESE RUDE, HATEFUL PEOPLE, PLEASE LET ME KNOW. I'M IN!!!