Lip Lift with Dermal Fat Graft to upper lip

I had a surgery scheduled on November 8, 2016 on my neck to fix two herniated discs, so I was going to be out of work for 6 weeks recovering with a neck brace on. I thought to myself, “What a great time to get a little work done!” My spinal doctor said I would feel significantly better at the 3 week mark, so I knew I wanted to wait until then to have something done….and whatever procedure I chose, it would need to be healed in 3 weeks so no one would notice when I returned to work.

I scheduled an appointment with Dr. Jeffrey Spiegel to see what he recommended I have done on my face during my time out of work. He said the “only” thing he could do would be a lip lift, because anything else would require him to turn my neck, which couldn’t be done during this time frame. We also discussed filler in my upper lip as another option. I’m not a good “maintenance” kind of girl. I can’t see myself going every 6 months to have filler. I wanted to be “one and done”. Dr. Spiegel didn’t recommend a lip implant, saying if you can go without having something foreign in your body, that’s always the best option. I opted for a fat transfer, only needing it in my upper lip. He was very honest that while a fat transfer is “permanent”, it’s not really “permanent” and varies person to person. I decided I’d take my chances since I knew for certain I’d never keep up with filler.

My procedure is scheduled for November 28, 2016. I let the patient coordinator know I’m pretty nervous, so they will be giving me a prescription for a valium to relax me.

I'll keep everyone posted!!!!

Hi, I know many of you are waiting for my post-op photos. I had the surgery about 2 hours ago (around 4:30PM) and took some photos after about 1 hour. The surgery went well, it wasn't so bad after all. I took a pill they prescribed to relax me, although I don't think it really did anything. Dr. Spiegel played Elvis music for me during the procedure which kept my mind occupied. Several of you wanted to know how much he was going to take off. He said I was starting at 22 or 23 and he took off 9. He then used the skin he cut off and used that as the fat graft to my upper lip. My husband is very nervous that my upper lip will look too big, but I keep reminding him it's swollen, and I told Dr. Spiegel my husband said, "Not too big". I have my follow-up to remove the stitches in one week, December 5th. I'll keep you updated of my progress!

It's now been about 24 hours since the procedure. I'm REALLY swollen, I think more-so than yesterday. There's not "pain", just it feels really uncomfortable. PS told me in 10 days the swelling should be done for the most-part. My husband is really upset by the way I look now. He's concerned it's not going to look natural and I'm going to look like a Kardashian. I keep telling him it's just really swollen and it won't look that way. I'd like to have other procedures done, so fingers crossed we're "both" happy with it or he'll never let me have more work done again! I've gone out of the house a few times to go for walks, but I've been wearing a surgical mask...I'd rather look strange vs scary!