Asian Blepharoplasty to Correct Inconsistent Asymmetry - Clackamas, OR

I realized that I never posted an update on how my creases healed and "settled" after my monolid blepharoplasty. I would say that by the next summer, everything was healed; I only had a fine pink line from the incision. At nearly 3 years later, the incision line is still there but faded and only noticeable to my husband who A) knew I had the procedure and B) is really the only person who gets that close and stares at my eyelids. I'm still extremely happy with the results and with all of what Dr. Chan and his team provides.

As a child, I didn't like how my eyes were lopsided, and vowed that one day, I was going to change them. Fast forward to a few years ago, when I found out that it was possible to change mono-lids so that they had a defined crease. The next couple years I felt my self esteem sliding, and even though friends told me the difference was not noticeable, I still would avoid being in photographs or making eye contact for fear of people seeing my lopsided eyes. Skip forward again to the summer of 2013, when, upon my engagement, I decided I was going to go ahead and fix my lids. I didn't want to absolutely hate all of my wedding photos every time I was going to be looking at them in the future.

I am so incredibly happy with the results of my procedure; it was so easy! I went to the office, had a local injection to numb my eyelids, and within an hour, walked out with stitches in each eyelid. Sure, I didn't look great the first few days, but after a few days (Days 5*+) I felt comfortable going out in public with my stitches and slightly puffy and red eyelids. I had been given antibiotics to start before surgery and to finish afterwards, as well as a pain killer, of which I only took on the day of the surgery as directed. The rest of the time the pain was not anywhere near enough to warrant taking such a strong painkiller--and I have an extremely low level of pain tolerance. My only complaint is that my eyes felt sore, like a raw sunburn, and the stitches would sometimes aggravate the sensation (Days 2 - stitch removal). It helped me to put antibiotic ointment on the area to keep it moist and lubricated, to use ice packs, and to keep my eyes closed to keep my swollen skin from rubbing between my new eyelid fold.

Once the stitches came out (around Days 7 - 10, can't remember!), my eyes healed quickly, with swelling subsiding almost immediately. Every week my eyes would get softer and more natural looking, with the initially too-high (for my taste; would still look 'normal' on someone who wanted a more defined crease) crease relaxing into it's more permanent shape. It was very interesting, actually, to watch my eyes morph as they healed deeper. I would say the next 5 months they were still slightly shifting as swelling went down and things settled back to their pre-surgery undisturbed state. The result is such a natural look, that no one would ever guess that I had surgery. I am so impressed with the evenness results, especially considering where I began, and am happy to smile for photos and maintain eye contact again.

To recap timeline:
Day 1: Sore and slight swelling
Days 2-5: The worst days in terms of swelling, redness, and soreness
Days 5-7/10 (day of stitch removal): still somewhat swollen, redness and soreness diminish. Soreness goes from feeling like whole lid to just the stitch 'holes'. Not noticeable to strangers (minus stitches). I began to wear mascara and lower eyeliner again at this point. As a note: The photos included look worse at this time because I was too much of a wuss to fully remove the dried blood around the scars.
Day 7/10: Stitches removed. Immediate relief from stitch soreness in the next few hours post-removal. Barely pink skin, red (scab) at the incision line. Essentially, appear to look back to 'normal' minus new eye shape.
2 weeks-5 months post-op: No pain/soreness. Increasingly diminishing swelling, scar getting less and less noticeable (slightly raised red>pink>>normal skin color line). Easily covered with coverup or other makeup.