Puffy, swollen, sunken eyes from botox with eye bags - horrific disfigurement. Likely permanent. - West Bloomfield, MI
Well, here I sit looking like an absolute monster...
Well, here I sit looking like an absolute monster and having doctor after doctor lie to my face and say it is NOT from the botox.
I am beyond frustrated and absolutely furious.
4 days ago, I was a normal 28 year old woman with BRIGHT eyes and a few wrinkles in my forehead. 21 units of botox later, I cannot even recognize myself. I look hideous, angry, old, and I am scared to death that I will never be able to leave my house again.
I have spent several hours scouring the internet, praying for something to just help the slightest bit. It seems that there are tons and tons and tons of women suffering from the same side effect - yet doctors want to lie and say it is not from the botox or that this occurrence is "rare". I posted my picture on another website and was told that I needed an upper eye lift and that there was no way my new found jabba the hut look was from botox. There are tens of thousands of women on these forums suffering from drooping eyelids - and those are just the ones taking the time to actually come online and write about it... imagine how many just suffer in silence. Even if they do complain to the doctor, I would bet my first born that these doctors are not rushing to report the side effects. At best, the statistics showing that eyelid drooping is "rare" is inaccurate... but I think it is just a blatant lie. Greedy doctors wanna sweep this under the rug so that it won’t decrease their sales. It makes me absolutely sick.
Enough with my venting, I will document my suffering, and hopefully my progress. I will detail what I do on a day to day basis and take pictures as I go. I am praying that my eyes will return to normal and that by sharing my experience, I can help others or at least educate them. If you have had this happen to you, please give me some hope that my face will become my own again. For as many women as I see on here telling their horror stories, seldom come back to update their progress.
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Oh yeah, I can definitely see the problem in the black & white photo. Hahaha - you are too funny!!!
Seriously though, comparing your before with your afters I can see a bit of swelling & "fullness" on the lids. :-/ If I hadn't seen the before picture I wouldn't have thought anything was wrong with your lids though, so hopefully that helps you feel a bit less self conscious about it.Â
What looks bizarre is how the inner corner slopes in while the outter wings out. Luckily, I am showing improvement since the black & white photo was taken ;)!! It definitely helps to keep some humour !
Agreed, humor helps - so glad you are able to keep such a good attitude even when things arent going exactly as you would like. :)
UPDATE: So, today makes my one week post botox...
Here is what I have been doing:
1.) Apraclonidine eye drops - expensive and ineffective for my situation. Apparently, these drops will not help if your saggy eyelids are caused from dropping eyebrows (like mine). They only offer relief for actually eyelid drooping. I was desperate, so I gave it a try. Fail.
2.) I started boiling water on the stove in a pot and "steaming" my face by placing a towel over my head while holding my face over the water. I move my eyebrows as much as I possibly during the steaming. I have done this 3x per day for 10 minutes each time and I swear that this has HELPED! I have more movement in my brow and the drooping has shown some minimal improvement.
3.) Every spare minute of the day, I have been "exercising" my forehead by raising my eyebrows up as high as possible and holding them in place. I also massage my forehead muscles. I am not certain that this is helping, but I have noticed I have more movement in my forehead. I think I may actually be strengthening other muscles in my forehead that were unaffected by the botox (not the ones that were paralyzed) and they are helping to lift my brows.
4.) Great ready for this one..... during the day..... I have been using scotch tape to take my brows in place. I leave them taped up as high as I can for as long as possible. I think this s helping as well and I am fairly certain that this is also strengthening muscles that were previous dormant.
5.) I noticed that my eyes were WAY worse in the morning. They feel "squishy" - like they are filled with fluid. I read that botox can cause transient fat to sag around the eye which in turn causes issues with your eyes lymphatic draining. Once you are up, with the assistance of gravity, the fluid slowly drains. I am no doctor, but I think this is exactly what is happening to me. So, I have been sleeping nearly upright. It is not the most comfortable position in the world, but it has HELPED! I wake up looking less puffy.
So, while I am far from looking like "me", I am excitied to see improvement - even if it is minimal.
I'll update next week :)
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So day 8 has NOT been kind to me :'(. I woke up...
I had skipped the tape yesterday because I had been showing some improvement. I woke up today with my forehead feeling completely numb and my brows sagging more than ever. I plan to spend the entire day in tape. I am truly praying I won't get any worse :'(.
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How are you doing today KaelynsMom? I think when anything like this goes on its pretty normal to have good days and bad days...regardless, each day is one day closer to the Botox being out of your system.
Sending you a hug.
I like your saying of one day closer though!
Well I am really glad you are on here so we can support you & help you through. Come on and share, and talk whenever you want - we are here for you!!
I'm sorry to hear how upset and disappointed you are with your Botox results. I would love it if you would post a "before" picture, as the afters don't look bad to me, but maybe that is only because I don't have a before to compare it to.
Just to play devi's advocate a little I think your point about how many people suffer in silence is a valid one, but we also have to keep in mind that people who do have an issue after their botox are more likely to jump online to try to research it, and discuss the problem. I would have to guess that a lot of people who have no problems with it just go about their daily lives and don't come on and share. Of course we will never really know what those numbers are.
It seems the skill level of the injector plays a vital role in the way Botox turns out, so unfortunately people who go to less skilled injectors often times have more complications. Here is a blog about that, that you might find interesting:
Staggering Differences in Satisfaction Between Board vs. Non-Board Certified Doctors
The one "good" thing about Botox when something like this goes on is that it is not permanent. It seems it usually goes through a person's system in 3-6 months. Perhaps that is why a lot of the people don't come back to update, it just stops being an issue for them. Hopefully it will go quickly for you.
Looking forward to your updates! Hang in there, it will get better!
I feel 100% positive that my results are due to poor technique! I went to a newer facility and let the fact that I LIKED the staff overshadow that I was being injected by a nurse rather than a certified Doctor.
Oddly enough, I have had trouble getting my photos to reflect the true extreme of the swelling and deformed appearance of my eyes. I honestly look like quasimodo!
I cannot wait to go back to normal so that I can hopefully have a good laugh at my "monster pictures".
I have noticed the few people that do come back to update are the ones that had some type of very severe trauma (nerve damage etc) and they are requiring plastic surgery to remedy the problem. Seeing their stories was terribly disheartening and caused me great panic. Hopefully I can come back soon and say that my face is my own again :)!
Yes, thankfully those seem to be the very rare cases...still, so sad for them.
I completely understand about the pictures not capturing everything. Usually its nice when the camera doesn't pick up every line, wrinkle, and blemish, but not so much in this case.
My guess is once it passes through your system you will be back to your normal self, so don't let yourself get too worried about the what-ifs.
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