Chalazion Surgery: 12 days and it is still red, with a bump and a bit swollen. Will this go away?

You are still early in the healing process and what you are seeing is not your final results yet. It usually takes around 6 months to fully heal and only by then will you be able to conclude your results. Follow your surgeon's instructions to prevent any complications.

Hi there. Everyone heals differently, but in general, there is not immediate improvement after this procedure. It takes time for the body to heal and for some of the residual scar tissue to go down. I routinely also inject steroid and 5 fluorouracil at the time of the incision and drainage and even with the added benefit of the injection it can still take a couple weeks for everything to settle down. I'd advise you to continue to follow your doctor's recommendations. I typically ask my patients who have a chalazion to use hot compresses routinely. A small subset of chalazions can be stubborn/persistent and may require additional treatment. Considering this, I ask my patients to follow up with me if the chalazion has not fully resolved by one month. At that point, the area can be re assessed and further treatments (drops, injection) can be considered as needed. Rarely, when a chalazion does not respond to treatments as one would expect, a biopsy can be performed to exclude alternate diagnoses. Hope this helps.
Best,
Pradeep
Pradeep Mettu, MD
Oculofacial Plastic Surgery
Raleigh, NC