Neck Lift, Deep Plane, OMG I Am Doing This!

So now it looks like the content of my 5-month update has disappeared - twice. I'll try once more to post it. So glad I saved the contents in a Word file! Suggest you all do that too.

Hi all, It's 5 months since my Deep Plane neck lift and I'm so glad I did it!

Dr. Harley's technique of using only local anesthetic plus very effective oral drugs left me sane and healthy, so much that I could walk a couple of miles slowly the very next day. I experienced huge swelling with bouts of pain after that which came and went but the pain stopped after a few weeks. And I could stop taking the major pain meds after only a couple of days. Dr. Harley performed a small miracle on my neck that necessitated pulling the tissues really hard, so I suppose a long healing process is to be expected. He was also very responsive and reassuring by phone when I was concerned about some scary after-effects.

Remaining icky effects: Nearly 5 months after the surgery, my face is still quite swollen around the cheeks and edges, causing new jowls I never had before. And I'm still experiencing numbness around the sides of my face from mid-cheek on and beneath my chin; I feel like I'm still wearing the ghost of that compression bandage all of the time. It's weird and sad to not feel the skin of those I hug. But at least my forehead has more feeling now, and the huge painful lump at my temple has gone away. My ears still have big hard lumps beneath the lobes, and there are hard lines and lumps behind them too & up on my scalp, which hurt when I wear glasses that sit on them. I rub on these places many times per day, hoping the hard lumps will eventually fade softly away and that my facial nerves will regenerate feeling once more.
Would love to hear from others who have experienced these things - did you get better? How long did the process take? Do you have suggestions for how to help the process of healing along?

But OMG do I look great. I can look into the mirror and also at photos - even those taken beneath my chin - without cringing, for the first time in a decade or more. What a blessing. And others are responding too, even strangers: in the past months I've gotten hit on at the grocery store by a 20-something man (!), asked by another if i had any grown daughters that he might meet because he thought I was so beautiful, and a waitress gave me an unsolicited compliment on my beauty after lunch. (Yes, I'd already tipped her. ;-)) But none of my friends or colleagues have noticed that i had surgery - or at least they haven't said anything, apart from one I hadn't seen awhile who complimented my nice jawline.

So I feel this was totally worth it and recommend Dr. Harley and a Deep Plane Neck/Face Lift to anyone in a similar boat.

Thanks to others who shared their stories here which inspired me to go through with this. I hope my share carries the goodness forward further. Wishing you all well!

Here are more photos taken directly under the neck - aka The Site of Horror. :-)

(This site is SO BUGGY that my attempt to share these failed 3x!! Hope it works this time. And it won't accept posts of pix without at least 200 characters of text accompanying, so here is a nice poem for you. I hope you like it.)

Finding Her Here

I am becoming the woman I’ve wanted,
grey at the temples,
soft body, delighted
cracked up by life
with a laugh that’s known bitter
but, past it, got better,
knows she’s a survivor-
that whatever comes,
she can outlast it.
I am becoming a deep
weathered basket.

I am becoming the woman I’ve longed for,
the motherly lover
with arms strong and tender,
the growing up daughter
who blushes surprises.
I am becoming full moons
and sunrises.

I find her becoming,
this woman I’ve wanted,
who knows she’ll encompass,
who knows she’s sufficient,
knows where she’s going
and travels with passion.
Who remembers she’s precious,
but knows she’s not scarce-
who knows she is plenty,
plenty to share.

- Jayne Relaford Brown

Here are some pix to go with my update below. The "after" photos were taken around 2 months in. Now at 5 months, I look about the same. I feel so much more youthful-looking, beautiful and indeed "refreshed." Even though I still feel numb and swollen all around my jaw and have hard lumps around my ears and head, which I'm hoping will eventually pass, I am really happy with my results.