Smart Lipo of the Chin: Life-changing!!

For as long as I can remember I've had a double chin. Even at my lowest adult weight (5'10/118 lbs.) it stubbornly refused to budge. When I was getting Botox I ended up bringing up my dissatisfaction with my chin and how it made me really self-conscious. I hate having photos taken, especially at side angles, and am always acutely aware of it when I'm giving presentations or the like in my public-facing, high-level role. Since I can't live in turtlenecks, I hoped there would be something to do. I showed my doctors photos of me at my thinnest weight and she looked at me now and said it's definitely hereditary (I'm adopted, so who knew?!). She suggested laser-assisted Smart Lipo. I came on here to read everything about others' experiences and felt really confident saying "YES!" and putting a deposit down a week later. Today is the day! Here are some before photos. I'll update with information about the procedure itself and results!

Prior to my procedure they had me fill prescriptions for Keflex (antibiotic), Valium (to calm me during the procedure), and Vicodin (for pain and calming). I brought those prescriptions with me and when I arrived at the office they gave me two Valium, two Vicodin, and I was instructed to take the final Keflex post-op. I waited about an hour for those to kick in and then we were ready to go! They’d instructed me to wear a sports bra and tank top so we could just pull down the straps during the procedure. They settled me into a chair and put on protective ceramic goggles I couldn’t see out of and then prepped the work space around me. Dr. E injected a spot under my chin with numbing agent and waited a few minutes for it to spread. Then she immediately got to work!
I’m not going to lie, the first passes to break up the fibrous parts in my neck were uncomfortable and rather jarring. They’re going at it pretty aggressively and the numbing isn’t fully doing its job yet. However, maybe 5-10 minutes into it, my entire lower neck (and part of my lip) were numb and I got used to the sensation. This was laser-assisted so they used both laser and suction cannulas. The entire procedure took about 45 minutes to an hour. All I had to do was lie there, and sometimes follow instructions to tilt my head a certain way. It truly wasn’t bad once I got used to the odd sensation.
Once they were done I pulled back up my tank top straps and they fitted me with my oh-so-sexy compression garment. I was instructed to make sure I kept pulling down the bottom part of it, which tends to roll up, and to massage that bottom area a few times a day while I wore this 24/7 for 3 days, followed by four weeks of wearing it 12 hours per day (mostly while at home and slewing). I have follow-up in a week to check my progress and get lymphatic massage.
The photos below are of me the morning of the procedure and 5 hours after when I had to adjust my compression garment. Even with so much swelling, I can tell the results are going to be amazing!
A few things: I have a very, very high pain tolerance and I will say I 100% needed to keep dosing on Vicodin: after the numbing agent wore off it was crazy painful. Also, because some had traveled p to my lips, I could barely talk for a few hours. I mostly napped, got up to walk around and massage my neck, and take in fluids while trying not to drool on myself. I found that ice packs for the swelling and arnica pellets and arnica massage cream have seriously been helping.
I’ll post once I’ve slept in the compression garment all night! I fully expect swelling to get worse before it gets better.

As expected, swelling is way up from yesterday and there are parts that feel really hard. Spent a good 20 minutes massaging in circular motions with arnica cream (also....ow. Massaging less than 12 hours post-op is not for the faint of heart, but it’s necessary). I’m trusting in the process that this is going to be awesome!
The most fun thing is I have a work event I absolutely can’t miss as the boss (that was scheduled after I scheduled the procedure) this evening, so I’m going to have to use copious amounts of makeup for the bruising and hope that my 3/4 zip work will come up high enough people won’t question the swelling. I’ll be back to 24/7 wear of the garment after that for the next 3 days.