About 18 months ago I suddenly developed bags under my eyes. I went to the doctor because they were sudden and bad so I thought something must be wrong. They ran all kinds of tests and found nothing. They said it's from a lack of sleep and stress and that they would go away if I got more sleep. First, that's easier said than done. Second, nothing helped and I tried EVERYTHING! I was considering eyelid surgery because the bags now made me look significantly older than I had and than I was. While researching eyelid surgery I found out about Agnes RF and made an appointment through Realself with a doctor that had great ratings located at Renew Medispa in Derry, NH. I thought I would try a less invasive and less expensive option before going under the knife.
I had the procedure performed on 4/27/22. They used nerve blockers and lidocaine injections to numb the area. That was a little uncomfortable but definitely tolerable. The lidocaine was quickly wearing off so they had to perform multiple injections. During the procedure you can basically feel pressure and you can hear the "swooshing" sounds of the fat being "blasted". It was fairly painless for the most part except where and when the lidocaine would wear off. They would test the areas for feeling periodically and provide more lidocaine when needed. Parts of the procedure were painless and others were quite uncomfortable. I had numbing down to my top jaw but it wore off after a couple of hours.
Later in the day my face became pretty sore and swelled up fairly significantly. It's hard to see in the photos but my face is swollen all the way up my forehead and down just past my cheek bones with my left side more swollen and bruised. The left side also hurt more and felt different during the procedure. A few hours after the procedure I was in some pain but continued to ice throughout the rest of the night. I also took some arnica. There was a lot more pain the night of than I expected. I've had 3 natural births, numerous tattoos and piercings, numerous broken bones, stitches, and surgery, and I almost never take any meds for pain. Even after surgeries I don't take anything for pain management. My pain tolerance is fairly high but I was definitely in some pain for a few hours afterwards.
When I woke up the next day some areas of swelling had come down a bit, like my forehead, but other areas increased in swelling, like my eye lids. There was no pain the next day.
I have an appointment for 3 months post procedure to determine if, and what level of future procedures are needed. This procedure included eye bag blasting and treatment around the entire eye. Future procedures, if needed, may only be under the eye as I don't really have wrinkles around my eyes yet. Only time will tell.
I'll post updates as there are changes. With "fat blasting" the eye bags it can sometimes look worse a week or 2 afterwards. You should see results within 3 months but it can take up to 6. It can also take 2-3 treatments.
Updated on 5 May 2022:
I am 8 days post procedure and feeling great. Much of the welling and brusing has gone away and just some yellow brusing on one eye remains. The swelling went away about day 5. Day 3 looked the worst by far and it got better from there. I get occasional tingling and have a few spots that are still "numb" but that's typical up to about 4 weeks. So far, judging by how it's looking now I would say it was worth it but final results are up to a few months away and you sometimes need to do 2 or 3 sessions. Any follow up sessions would be far less intense and wouldn't need the eyebag fat blasting. The less intense sessions are also about half the price at $450 currently.
It's giving me a hard time uploading pictures but I'll try again in a couple of hours.
Updated on 22 Sep 2022:
About a week after treatment my eyes were starting to look pretty good. Pain was gone and there was still a sensitive, sometimes sharp pain around my eyes when washing my face. If it stays like this I will be OK but there is still a lot of swelling.
Updated on 22 Sep 2022:
I'm now 5 months pictures. About 2 weeks after the procedure the swelling was gone and my eyes went back to looking exactly like they did. I know there can be multiple sessions needed but seeing no change at all is discouraging. I look nothing like I did just a couple short months before I suddenly developed eye bags amd what also seems like loss of volume in my face. They also suggested using fillers but I really don't want to go down that road. I always looked so much younger than I was and the sudden and drastic change has been difficult to say the least. I included a picture from about a year before and 1 from 2 months before my eye bags started. Unfortunately I don't take many pictures so it's hard to see in pics what I looked like beforehand. It's crazy how much I aged in such a short period of time. When I started my last job I was 33 and everyone thought I had just graduated high school. I don't know why the sudden and drastic change. My doctor said it was stress as I had just gone through a nasty divorce but still seems strange and hard to swallow.
Updated on 22 Sep 2022:
I'm now 5 months pictures. About 2 weeks after the procedure the swelling was gone and my eyes went back to looking exactly like they did. I know there can be multiple sessions needed but seeing no change at all is discouraging. I look nothing like I did just a couple short months before I suddenly developed eye bags amd what also seems like loss of volume in my face. They also suggested using fillers but I really don't want to go down that road. I always looked so much younger than I was and the sudden and drastic change has been difficult to say the least. I included a picture from about a year before and 1 from 2 months before my eye bags started. Unfortunately I don't take many pictures so it's hard to see in pics what I looked like beforehand. It's crazy how much I aged in such a short period of time. When I started my last job I was 33 and everyone thought I had just graduated high school. I don't know why the sudden and drastic change. My doctor said it was stress as I had just gone through a nasty divorce but still seems strange and hard to swallow.