Eyelid Surgery: Stories

I didn't notice how bad my eyes had become until I saw a recent picture. I knew I needed to have this "tune-up". My biggest fear was that I'd be awake, but my plastic surgeon told me I'm tough, never flinching during Botox, Juviderm, Restylane, etc. The only discomfort was the series of injections on the eyelids to numb them. I had taken Valium so the two plus hours flew by. Oh... My surgery was August 2, 2012.

I went home and iced my eyes for two days. As you can see by the photos, my swelling got worse each day, peaking maybe the third day. While it looks painful, I can honestly say there was no pain from the swelling. Luckily I didn't bruise so I just dealt with the "alien" eyes for about 5 days. By the 7th day most swelling was gone and I had my sutures removed.

I massage the scars to keep them to a minimum, but you can see the last picture barely shows any scarring. That picture by the way was taken two weeks after surgery.

My advice is to find a very skilled facial plastic surgeon. My surgeon strictly deals with the face and he's not afraid to turn me down for fillers if he doesn't feel it's time yet. It makes you feel good that his bottom line is his work and not his bank account.

Ps- when I can figure out how to post photos I'll get mine up.

Photos are up. From looking at other's photos I was quite surprised that I didn't bruise. I'm usually very prone to bruising so I was expecting the worst. I'm assuming it's the magical hands of my surgeon as I didn't even bruise or swell after my rhinoplasty :-)

My Dr told me to expect to see the best and final result a bit after the three month mark, but I'm elated right now with the results. I can't believe I had this done a month ago and you'd never know. No visible scars (ok so maybe teeny little red lines that I use a sweep of cover up on, but that discoloration will fade), no swelling, no indication I had anything done other than I now have bright cheery eyes, and I don't feel my eyelids hang on my lashes!

My 44th birthday is coming up and I really feel this has taken 10 years off my face. In the before picture I feel like I'm looking at a 60 year old!

I wanted to add two new photos taken this morning. It's been a bit over 2 months now. I'm still using a swipe of concealer before putting powder on because the scar area is still redder than my normal skin tone. I believe it's maybelline (?) ... The one with a foam rounded tip (several people have asked).
I'm still just as delighted with the procedure. I'm using Latisse and even with the longer lashes I don't feel them on my eyelids, which by the way is a wonderful thing for those of you who know that feeling of your lashes poking your hanging lid!
I've had questions about the suture removal so I'll address that here... There were two suture lines, one internal and one external. The most painful part of the removal was cutting the suture knots on the inner eye area. It was still a bit swollen so some pain was felt when the Dr dug around (for lack of a better term) to reach the knot. Pulling the internal suture line felt weird, but not painful.