JB1387

Julie C. The doctor who did the revision was Dr. Sam Goldberger in Beverly Hills/Fullerton (he has two offices). The doctor who did the fat grafting was Dr. Lam in Dallas (I lived in Dallas at the time, I now live in CA). The fat grafting was very expensive (almost $10k). I'm not sure if it was from the fat grafting but one cheek was slightly bigger (before the cheek lift Dr. Goldberger did in my revision). Everything looks natural and today I can't tell how well the fat took because I am just use to the way my face looks now. When I would go to Dr. Lam for follow-ups he would always take a picture and compare it to my before and then I could really see the difference. I haven't been back since around April of last year (we moved to CA in July) so it's hard to tell now. I am almost 8 weeks out from my revision and I have an issue with the dissolvable suture right below my lash line as it hasn't dissolved yet (internal). It had swelled to the size of a pencil eraser. I asked him to do something about it. At first he said he wanted to leave it alone and let my body do it's thing but then said he would inject a little steroid (which I was nervous about because it can cause fat loss). The swelling went down almost over night but the suture is still there. There is a very small bump, other people probably don't notice it but I do. I have an appointment on Tuesday for him to check on it. My recovery was more painful than I thought it was going to be. Up until last week I could feel where he had cut and it almost throbbed. My upper eyelid (which he didn't do anything to) swelled a lot for a few weeks and was rather painful. It slowly went down and at two weeks I actually felt like I could go out in public. That was until I that suture started to swell. The canthoplasty so far is looking good. At first it was over corrected (which he told me it would be) but by week two it was looking pretty good which scared me because I thought it was suppose to look odd for about 6 weeks. He debated on using a spacer graft on the inside of my lower lid to help give it support but decided against it because he said my retraction wasn't that bad. I do know someone who had a spacer and her eye looks wonderful. The corner of my eye looks natural and level with the other eye. My lower lid is only very slightly lower than my other eye. I only notice it when I am looking up close in the mirror and no one else would notice it except for my Dr. (I'm talking a fraction of a mm). Before the revision I couldn't squint and make that lower lid come up, now I can. He did it through a very small incision that goes from the outer part of my lower lid under the lash line (about an 1/8th of an inch or less) and extends out like a regular bleph. I thought he was going to cut under my whole lower lid and he didn't. He said I had a ton of scar tissue and some of it was probably from the fat grafting. The first couple of weeks I wondered what I had just done to myself. Now I am very happy I had it fixed. My dry eye at first was worse after the procedure but over the last couple of weeks it has been better than before the revision. Almost back to the way I used to be pre-original bleph.

I'm not Gizmo but I had my revision surgery 28 days ago today. The reason your eye is retracting most likely is because of scar tissue, you need to break up the scar tissue. My oculoplastic surgeon had to release the scar tissue from the previous lower bleph, slight cheek lift then do a canthoplasty (only on the right eye) to fix my retraction. He told me to just push up on the lower lid. He did it for me to show me and he used stronger pressure than I would have used so I'm glad he showed me. He had me look up at the ceiling while he pushed rather far up on my lid. He also told me to just do it on the outer corner of the lower lid only. I think that was just because I had a canthoplasty and not a regular bleph. My previous PS who did the original bleph told me to do more of a massage motion from the inner corner of the lower lid and move my way out in a small circular motion while pushing up on the lid. I didn't take massaging my eye seriously the first time around. I wish I would have, maybe I wouldn't have had to have the revision.

Also something I forgot to tell you is that using too many steroid drops can cause cataracts and glaucoma. Some people are "steroid responders" and the pressure in their eyes can really shoot up fast (glaucoma). To get cataracts though you have to use it for a long time. I know this because I have had bouts of UVeitis and have used a lot of steroid drops (even had steroid shots in my eye three times). Although the steroid drops I used(pred forte) is probably a lot stronger than the steroid drop your doctor has you on. I am not a steroid responder but you never know if you are until it happens.

I forgot to mention in my previous post that there is a site I went to that has a message board for dry eye. It is full of information about dry eye. What works for one person might not work for the next. The site is Dry Eye Zone Talk. I don't know if they let us post links to other sites but I will post the link for you and take my chances. If they delete it just google the name.

Edited by Sharon: We deleted it. Please share links privately. :)

I have been through a lot with dry eye after my lower bleph back in aug 2008. I use gen-teal gel at night and Systane (the preservative-free vials) during the day, also keep them in the fridge, it really feels good when they are cold. I like the vials because you can contaminate a bottle pretty easily and the preservatives they put in them can worsen your dry eye if you are allergic to it. I recently found out that castor oil (cold pressed) feels REALLY good in the eye (you can get it at any vitamin shop really cheap). I bought a dropper with a bottle for my eye. There are a ton of uses for castor oil too, google it. It has been used for years for eye irritants. It is also an ingredient in Restasis. I have used Restasis but it burned bad and I gave up (after three months and trying it a 2nd time). Also use warm compresses as often as you can, they help a LOT (as well as massaging the upper and lower lid). I just had a revisionlower bleph (two weeks ago) and I haven't used the castor oil since the revision. I forgot to ask my doctor if it was safe to use it yet when I saw him tuesday but I did ask my Opthamologist before my bleph revision (who I see for my dry eye) and he said it was fine to use it. He also gave me a sample of Smoothe XP lubricating drops but to be honest, castor oil feels the best. I got to the point that I only used it at night and I didn't need anything during the day.