Nice Improvement Now, Not Perfect! - Boston, MA

By age 50 I had extremely droopy upper lids, almost totally folded over. Putting on make-up was a waste of time. I hated it! My eyes were always one of my best features, but looked terrible by now. Went to an opthalmic surgeon (not a plastic surgeon), thinking that was safest, working with the eyes. He was recommended. The 1st procedure, in hospital under a sedative, partially awake. I was horrified when I 1st saw my eyes, totally swollen, stitches through my lids and once novacaine wore off, painful. Had to keep frozen bags of peas on eyes for 24 hours straight, as much as I could. It takes at least two weeks to look even slightly normal. No eye makeup at all for 6-8 weeks until incisions are fully healed. Only antibiotic cream on eyes. You can also experience dry eye during this healing period, which I did. Used lots of saline drops. Since no one can be truly housebound for 2 weeks or more, wore sunglasses out, it would have scared anyone! As they healed I did start to get excited being able to see my whole lid again! However after all this effort, it was very obvious as it healed, I needed to go back for more work. My Dr absolutely agreed and suggested it. It took TWO more procedures to try and get it right. They were uneven, still droopy, he was VERY conservative in what he took off, and I had formed some tiny nodules where the sutures had been. The next two times were in chair in his office under just novacaine, which freaked me out. You can't feel the pain but VERY aware of what he is doing to your lids! I spent weeks and weeks recovering from these multiple procedures. Luckily I work at home! This would have been impossible otherwise. I never thought it was perfect. I still have a bit of a nodule at the end of one incision and another small bump in corner of my eye which I believe is scar tissue buildup. These incisions are like any other, scar tissue is a risk. After 6 years I could probably have it done again but very hesitant to now. It certainly looks MUCH better than before, no doubt. I thought the scar lines would be neater, thinner, almost transparent. The little bumps bother me. I could have gone back to him again at the time. I think he would have tried to improve it, but after 3 procedures the thought was unbearable. I decided this is as good as it will be for me. Maybe he wasn't that great of a surgeon for this, that is what I think now. I expected a better result. But maybe my result was decent, I just have nothing to compare to. When all is said and done I do like the improvement, it looks better, but I would never absolutely rave about my paticular result and experience. My advice on this is seek out a plastic surgeon who specializes in this, has well known reputation.