“San Diego LSL BAD Experience (62 Years Old)”

I had ALL the LSL procedures because I'm 62 years young and figured I'd be disappointed IF I only had the LSL neck procedure and didn't try all of it, so I went for the full-deal on 10/8/08.  I had the LSL neck procedure, upper eyelids loose skin surgery, with neck/chin and lower eye bags liposuction.  I still have some pangs of pain from time to time all-over swelling, bruises under my eyes and severe scars on my eyelids to deal with.

I think I had the same surgeon as another San Diego reviewer in this review column because he was rough.  I would never choose this surgeon again because he has absolutely NO bedside manner whatsoever.  Due to this, I probably won't even go to my 1 mo. follow-up appt. unless I have problems for him to fix, like my eyelids...I cannot take much more of his condescending behavior and attitude...but all their docs appear to have that problem (I saw 2 different doctors during the after care there).  During the neck part of the surgery the doctor was a little rough, but I have faith that he is competent, did a good job and eventually everything will heal well and look good.  I am less happy with the incisions on my eyelids as they are unnecessarily rough, VERY visible and longer than I was told they would be, but like ALL of this surgery, I will not add negative comments about the results until I have completed the healing process and see the final results.  The doctor's medical assistant (a guy) was VERY kind, gentle and thorough, so that gave me some comfort during my appointments at the center.  The assistant was very patient and good to address any issues I brought up, which the doctors are NOT as good at.  As for the surgery procedure itself, it wasn't much worse than oral surgery...I've had dental implants with the same anesthetic and pain killers, and would relate this experience to that.

The main negatives I see at this point are: (1) they are not telling you up-front how painful the procedure is in fear of making you fearful; (2) they are not honest about the length of the recovery time (2-7 days PLEASE! More like 30+ days in all, at best) and I'm healthy, not a smoker or drinker, not a bleeder and I AM a quick healer, but still, the first week was rough!; (3) they obviously will operate on anyone (even the unhealthy) who will pay them;  (4) their corporate office (which everything LSL HAS to go through) is VERY DYSFUNCTIONAL (thank God I didn't need to have my surgery at the corporate center...now that would have really SCARED me!) and this did not give me a good feeling of their competence from the beginning going into this important surgery.  Corporate is very slow in responding to EVERYTHING...they even mailed my confirmation for the consultation appointment 2 days AFTER the appointment had taken place and there were many more examples of corporate's dysfunction and slowness in everything they had a hand in!  I'm sure this company operates like this to control that they get their share of this lucrative pot, but this company would be much more functional IF they allowed each LSL center to handle ALL their own appointments, consultations, etc.  Overall, I only had a small time frame to allow for this procedure and the healing, so I didn't have a lot of time to shop for a better price, etc.;  (5)  LSL does NOT stand behind their work or live up to their "1 year guarentee"...when you have a problem (which MANY do) they just ignore you and won't return your calls (dirt bags!).