60 Years Old and Happily Lost a Decade - Northern Virginia

I had a lower bleph, SMAS facelift and neck lift on April 9, 2014. Always looked younger than my age, but around age 55, no one was surprised I was in my later 50s. Five years later, I looked every day of of my 60 years and probably more. Still, I was not really going to worry about any cosmetic surgery. I was happily retired and busy with things I enjoyed. BUT, my husband started in on wanting a facelift and hair transplant (We had talked about doing it over the years). I'm thinking about the pocket book....he never has, and really didn't want to spend the money. Finally, last fall, he said he was going to go ahead with it, and if I didn't want to get my face done, fine, but he was going to do it. OK...the idea grew on me (how can I pass up a gift like that!!...:-) and I actually ended up going before he did.

At this writing, I am almost exactly one month past my surgery. I think I look 10 years younger. My husband says I in no way look 60 anymore, but he is being rather conservative with his opinion until all my swelling and wonkiness settles down. Even with the swelling, I think I'm looking pretty good.

I want to submit my story because I found RealSelf invaluable in knowing what to expect and what everyone else has experienced. I'm not too worried about my lumps and ridges, scars, zingers and residual swelling as it all seems to be expected..now and in some months to come. The only thing that has freaked me out to some extent are some of the lower blepharoplasty stories and a LOT of the rather scary doctor responses. This has not left me feeling very confident at all. I am glad to get rid of my huge eyebags, but a little concerned that my eyes are rounder and I have a tiny bit of scleral show. My PS says it will improve and I am doing massaging and eye squeezes.

Anyway, I will submit this for now and try to go back and document my experience. Thanks to all of you who have shared your stories. It is soooooo helpful.

Having trouble at the moment uploading my after pics. Will do so as soon as I can.

I didn't get much sleep the night before, but it wasn't because I was over anxious. Don't know what was the matter with me, but I was never very concerned over my upcoming surgery. Ignorance, I guess....:-) Anyway, early morning, I went to the surgical center, had great anesthesiologist, and off to la la land I went. The nurses were great, too, and reassured me that it would be over before I knew it. I woke up to a bit of nausea. It wasn't bad, but I wanted to tell them before it got any worse. They gave me a Phenergan suppository and then propped me up in a recovery chair. My most overwhelming sensation, after the nausea, was that I felt like I had a very tight noose around my neck. I was so sure they had done the dressing too tight but my doctor came in and assured me it was all the work they had done to my neck. She was right, but it sure felt like someone had gotten overzealous with the bandaging. And, of course, I was hideously parched. They let my husband come in and sit with me until they felt the nausea was improved and he could drive me home. Oh...the other thing, I had one heck of a headache. It was so bad that I called the doc when I got home, because I knew I could not take any Excedrin Migraine, which always knocks my headaches out very quickly. I was also afraid to take any of the Vicodin as that might make me nauseous again. She said headaches often happen to big coffee drinkers (yep, that's me)...it has to do with caffeine withdrawal. She advised me to drink coffee and take Tylenol. It worked. I laid back in my LaZy Boy recliner and don't remember much about the rest of the day. It was so good to get rid o the headache and nausea. I knew I could handle the rest of it from there on out. I didn't even risk taking any of the Vicodin until the next day. Oh, and my husband was great seeing to it that I had the cool gauze patches on my eyes and waiting on me.

On my sixth day post op, went in to have my lower lid stitches out. Love how smooth my jowls, cheeks and neckline were, but some of that was thanks to the swelling. Still, I could tell I looked so much better than before, even with bruises. And yes, getting the stitches out was not the most painful thing I had ever been through, but it smarted quite a bit.

The days in between my surgery and to this point are a bit of a blur, but my only complaints were my dressing. Even though I had the large dressing removed 2 days after my surgery, and the less cumbersome one put on at that time, I nearly went stark raving mad over the itching around my neck and chin from the gauze and my left ear being pinned back against my head was absolutely unbearable. Nothing else really bothered me. It was such a relief on the sixth day to just get into the chin strap. The doc told me to cut a slit for my poor beleaguered left ear (I never could stand to have it pinned against my head....ear muffs would kill me after about an hour after wearing them) I was quite good. Just sore, swollen and numb in front of my ears and oddly, very numb and sore all the way up my temples to the very top of my head. I didn't have a brow lift, so I wasn't sure why that was so. More on that later.