Over the past few years, with stresses of kids and life, I noticed a big difference in my face structure. It became very flat looking, and saggy. My nasolabial folds had always even very pronounced, but even more so now. I tried fuller in my cheeks to create lift but it looked too masculine. My lips became very deflated with lines on the upper lip and the lips were down turned. I had some major resting bitch face. I had tried multiple fillers out there on my lips (Juvéderm, Juvederm Ultra, Vobella), but by body metabolizes it too quickly and the results were gone after a month. So I met with my PS who doesn't filler and Botox to find out about lip implants and what m options were on a lift. He said he could do a mini face lift in office under local anesthesia, which made it way more affordable not having to pay an anesthesiologist or surgical room fees. For lips, he said since he was doing the minilift, I could use my own tissue, the fascia from the side of my face right by my ears, for lip implants, which would be more natural and less risk since it's my own tissue. However, I asked him if my body would just absorb it since it so quickly absorbs fillers, an he said I had a good point. So Permalip implants were the way to go. He went over the sizes and explained that the 3mm were too small to even notice. The 4mm only would make a slight difference. He said he mostly uses the 5mm. My motto is always "Go Big or Go Home". So I went with the 5mm, hoping it wouldn't look ridiculous. Updated on 4 Sep 2019: Day of surgery, I took a 0.5 mg Xanax 45 mins before the procedure began. By the time he started injecting me, I was pretty loopy and just wanted to lay down and close my eyes. He started with the lips first: dental block with 3 injections in the upper gum area, 2 in the lower. Then the lidocaine...about 6 each in the upper and lower lips. The shots all stung horribly...the upper was worse than the lower and brought tears to my eyes. Below is a photo of how swollen my lips got just after the numbing. The PS then started on the Permalip. He measured the length of my lips to be 62mm, so he went with the 60mm length, size 5mm for width. I heard the snipping of the scissors on each side. It sounded like cutting through raw chicken. But it didn't bother me at all because I was so relaxed and out of it. I felt alot of pulling and tugging as he placed the implants on the top and bottom. Then gave me 3 sutures on each side, on the inside corners. I can't remember how long the procedure lasted...maybe 1/2 hour by the time the sutures were done. Total time about 1 hour from prep to dental blocks and lidocaine, to sutures. Then he started numbing me for the mini face lift. I can't remember much except for the shots stinging like hell behind my ears! It wasn't long before I was numb and he started on the left side first...snip snip snip, from the top of my ear down and under my ear lobe. I don't remember much and didn't feel anything, except when he started suturing. I could feel a ton of pulling and tugging on my skin, from my jawline, cheeks and up by my eyes. I remembering him pulling so tight on that upper suture I kept asking him if I was going to look asian. He assured me I wouldn't, and said that was the money stitch right there. While doing the left side, the numbing started wearing off on my lips and my lower lip was burning so badly, so he gave me another shot of novacaine. Next came the right side, basically same as the left except because there was more slag and droop on that side, he had to pull more and add more stitches behind my ears. I did feel a bit on that side, and he had to give me another shot of lidocaine. Both lips now started hurting again, so he numbed me some more on the upper and lower lips. He then cleaned me up, putting ointment on my incisions, and bandaged my face for compression, which was super tight under my jaw and felt like I was choking a bit. Total time for prep, numbing, procedures on both sides of face, suturing and cleanup, and bandaging, took 3 hours. Total time for everything was 4 hours. Began at 6am and was out of there about 10:30. I wished I had brought my pain meds with me, because I was in pain on the way home and it was an hour drive. My kind neighbor drove me since my husband was out of town. Thankfully she has Tylenol and I took 2 immediately to help until I got home to take the Norco. The scariest thing was looking at myself in the mirror. I looked like Quasimodo. I was hideous and my lips looked so ridiculous and stretched so wide. What have I done!!!!! Wahhhhh!!!!! I slept most of the day and took 2 Norco's every 4 hours, icing continually. I could hardly drink, and definitely could not eat. You can't use a straw since you can't purse your lips or suck. Easiest thing to do was use a solo cup and drink water that way. But even fitting the pills in between your lips hurt. Later that evening I was hungry but all I could eat was goldfish, one by one, just sucking on them until they disintegrated. Updated on 4 Sep 2019: Day after is always the worst from my experience, so I wasn't surprised to wake up in pain and majorly swollen. Ice ice baby! I slept alot of the day again. Still couldn't eat except for sucking on goldfish one at a time and tiny spoonfuls of yogurt. Kept up with the Norco. Updated on 4 Sep 2019: Forgot the photo for Day After. Extremely swollen. Lips hurt, face hurts. Ears are killing me. They don't tell you about the earaches! Your ears and everywhere around them is swollen, and that leads to swelling in your ear canal and earaches. Also some blood may have dripped inside and can cause ear pain as well. I removed the bandages and showered, cleaned out my ears with Q-tips, and there was alot of blood in there, some still fresh. Updated on 4 Sep 2019: Ok, so knowing the day after is always the worst, I expected to look much better day 3, and I guess, when comparing, I did look a bit better, but was really upset the swelling was still so bad. Under by eyes was so swollen, ears still hurt, mouth is killing. I finally attempted some ramen noodle soup, which I ate all of it, but not very ladylike. Lots of slurping and drooling going on. I also ate some greek yogurt and sucked on little pieces of graham crackers. I'm still hideous so I keep wearing a scarf tied around my face like a bandit when I go downstairs around my kids and husband. Still icing like crazy which feels amazing. By the way, haven't been able to brush my teeth hardly, even with the tiny kids brush. Only a little in the front and the tops of the teeth on the sides, but can not brush the outside of the teeth. It hurts too bad with the incisions. These incisions are awful! I'm careful to gently swish with water after every meal and I also swish with hydrogen peroxide before applying the ointment with a Q-tip. For pain meds, I switch to Advil to hopefully help with the inflammation, and just take a Hydrocodone at night. Updated on 4 Sep 2019: Annoying my day 3 pics didn't save in prior post, so here they are. Both sides of my face. You can see the right ear, where he had to pull more because of more sagging, and add more stiched, there's bruising on my neck. Updated on 4 Sep 2019: The mornings are the most painful, waking up. Especially my ears, those hurt the most! Showered, blew dry my hair, and actually put makeup on for the first time, so I felt a little more normal. Swelling is down when I compare photos so that's relieving, but I'm still probably 70-80% swollen. I texted the dr saying I'm freaking out because of the size of my lips and he assures me it's normal and it'll look great and my lips and face are still very swollen. But I'm up and about, driving the kids to school, but still not going out in public for people to see me and my huge lips. I can talk a bit better, but after a while it really starts to hurt the incisions. The incisions for the lips (on the inside corners) are the worst...like way worse than a bad canker sore. I have been staying on top of the antibiotics, antiviral, and putting aquaphor or coconut oil on my lips. They've scabbed some and peeled all ready, and still bruised on them and underneath the bottom lip. I can't smile or laugh, and they're still pretty numb feeling. I ate some spaghetti, which was amazing, but the sauce did burn the mouth incisions because of the acid. Updated on 4 Sep 2019: I don't know why my photos aren't posting with my updates! Very annoying! Here's Day 4 & 5 pics. Blah blah blah, just trying to fill up space to get the minimum characters. This is really annoying. Frustrating. Updated on 5 Sep 2019: My face is at least starting to resemble me again, except for my sausage lips. The right side of my lips (see left side of photo) is visibly more swollen than the left. Anyone else had that happen? Maybe because he had to pull more and suture more on the right side of my face for the lift? Here on the emerald coast of Florida, where it's in the upper 90's today, I've noticed that as soon as I step outside, the heat instantly swells my face. It's instant pain behind my ears. So note to self: keep icepack near by when going outside. Here are some comparison photos of before, 1 day post, and now 6 days post. It's nice to see progress, even though I feel it'll at least be a month before my lips fit my face. Updated on 16 Sep 2019: It's been 2 weeks post op. Overall, I definitely think it's a nice improvement, both my face and my lips. BUT.....It's hard to get used to these lips and I'm worried I chose the wrong size and that perhaps I should have gone with the size 4 instead of the 5. I feel like they look a bit too stretched out for my face, in a relaxed position. They look decent when I smile, but them I get that little horizontal wrinkle just under my nose. They're a bit uneven...on the right side upper lip, the implant looks like it's migrated and pokes out above the vermillion border. I called my PS and he said it's unlikely because he didn't tunnel up there and that it looks like it could be the start of capsular contraction and that I can manually recenter it and start the stretching exercises. I recenter it and push it down, but it just goes right back up there. I can feel the end of the implant just fine on the left side but not way over on the right side. You can see in my photo the lack of volume on the right side (left side in photo) near the W/D border, and the lump above the V border. Implants are very tight and I still have pain in my lips. Can't rub my lips together (like after putting on aquaphor)...feels like big rolls inside them, which essential is what they are. Drinking is still a bit difficult. I can use a big straw, or if I use a small straw I have to put my tongue on the bottom of the straw instead of my lips. Drinking out of a coffee cup has me dribbling LOL. I know it takes time to get used to them and for them to soften up. So I've been doing the stretching exercises religiously and I'll have a follow up with PS this Friday, which will be the 3-week mark, to get his opinion on the shifting and also to ask "IF" I wanted to swap them out for size 4, how much would it cost me and when could I do it.