vickifa7

Painful Due to General Anesthesia, but Worth It - Westport, CT

Eyelid Surgery Got Rid of Dark Circles and I Feel Pretty Again! - Westport, CT

Somewhat Painful but Worth It - New Skin is Soft, Smooth and Glowing

I ended up getting upper and lower eyelids, and also did a VI peel and restylane for my nasolabial folds. See my reviews at: http://www.realself.com/review/westport-ct-eyelid-surgery-feel-pretty http://www.realself.com/review/westport-vi-peel-worth Interestingly, it was the 2nd or 3rd time I had injectables for my facial folds, and I figured I'd just keep doing that until it was eventually time for a face lift. But after the peel I started using Retin-A to maintain my skin, and I haven't needed any injections since- over 2 years now! It's like the deep grooves in the skin were smoothed out. Good luck!

My skin is pretty good, I guess. I'm 45 so I had concerns about whether my arms would shink back too (unfortunately I don't have any before and after pics). I was religious about wearing the sleeves for the full 6 weeks, and actually was reluctant to take them off. My arms are much better than they were and I can't really seen any loose skin per se, but they are still more flabby than I would like, especially with all the strength training I do. It's not fat so it must just be the skin. Maybe if I'd had it done at an earlier age they would have come out better. But they still look a lot better than they did, so I'm glad I did it.

Hi Nicole, I apologize for my delayed reply, I haven't been on RealSelf in a while. I'm not sure if they can use lidocaine with general anesthesia, it might be too much for the body to handle. I think my pain may have been on the extreme end, as I had a number of different body areas done at once. I did talk to my doctor afterward and he was surprised I was in that much pain. Maybe I just have a low pain tolerance ;-). Or maybe it's because it was so unexpected. Most of what I'd read led me to think it would be no big deal, so the shock of the pain made it that much worse. In any case, the most unbearable pain was really just when I woke up- after that, once I got some pain meds into me I was OK. Again I think it's about knowing what to expect. I did like the idea of being "out" during the procedure but if I had to do it over again, I might have chosen local. My doctor also prefers local because it's much less risky overall- any time you go "out" it's a risk. But in my case, because I have GERD and needed to be on my stomach for him to get the backs of my upper thighs, he said general would be less risky. Anyway, I wish you the best of luck and let me know if you have any more questions!

My esthetician advised no exercise at all until the peel was fully complete, as she said there was a risk of blistering if the skin overheated, etc. However the instructions that came with the peel did not mention this restriction, nor did the company's website, so I did exercise the 2nd day after the peel was applied, and I was just fine.