49 Years Old Asian Upper/Lower Blepharoplasty + Facial Laser Resurfacing - Duluth, GA

First, I want to say, I am a person who is against cosmetic surgery and instead in favor of getting old gracefully. I believe appearance is automatically enhanced if people take care of themselves by having good life style of eating healthy, exercising regularly, and maintaining a peaceful mind.

Secondly, I am not a “look” person. I hardly wear any makeup and only learned to do skin care about two years ago.

Thirdly, I hardly write any reviews. However, due to the fact we each have only one face and sadly its appearance valued more than its functions, I feel so obligated to document the whole process to give back RealSelf community, and hoping to help other people to make right decisions.

I wanted to tell my story before going into my motivation:
In 2006, I started one change, which was to reduce my food portion (no food components change) to 80% of what I had eaten before. In the next 6 years, slowly I lost 20 lbs. to 123lbs. I’m 5’3” and have stayed with the same weight since then. In the year of 2012 when I noticed my body had a few mild symptoms here and there, I started a life style change: jogging 3 miles for 3 times a week; using Vitamix blender to make green smoothie in the mornings and fruit smoothies in the afternoons. As time goes by, I have less craving for meat, and vegetables have become more tasteful than ever. As age increased, I have gained more wisdom which help in maintaining good mood. Weight loss has never been my goal. Looking back it was just a byproduct of healthy living. Luckily, I’m still eating what I want. However, in the last decade my body has changed a lot to reshape my wants in a very healthy way.

My mom is the most honest person on earth about my look. Three years ago, she said, “You look older than your age.”One year ago, she stated, “You look about your age. From your back, you look 10 years younger though.”I replied to her, “I feel 20 years younger inside”.

I knew early on I might need to have upper eye lid surgery to remove excessive skins at certain point of my life. When I was a kid, I had no creases. The creases were developed during my high school years. Not long ago, I realized my creases actually were the result of my upper eye skin drooping. The continued drooping made my upper eyelids touch my upper lashes if my eyes wide opened.

That being said, I was not expecting the operation happen this soon though. It started by coincidence when I was searching something else it brought me to RealSelf site. The seeds planted earlier let me read different reviews from RealSelf, where I learned that people normally take care of their eye bags by doing lower eyelid surgery with upper together. I had eye bags and I might need both procedures, I thought loud. I pretty much did my research on one weekend and made the decision next weekend.

So my answer to my motivation is for matching. The goal is to match my outside to inside, and my front to back. In my mind, it will be the biggest gift I give to myself for my 50th birthday – an enhanced refreshed natural face.

Once the decision was made, I wanted to hire one of the top doctors as I don’t mind spending top dollars. The first one I found was Dr. Burke Robinson, who has 5 stars RealSelf reviews. One of the reviewers wrote something like: “Dr. Robinson is one of the few left in the industry who has integrity and pride of his work.” This statement touched my heart as integrity is one of the qualities I am striving to have and I knew how much weight it has. When I set up the appointment and visited Dr. Robinson’s office, I was very disappointed to hear him say, “I have only done one or two procedures for eye anatomy like you. The results were OK. What you need is to find a surgeon who does a lot for the same eye anatomy like you.” Then he recommended Dr. Kim, whom he hadn’t met personally but saw a result from one of his patients, and the result was really really good. The result was referred to blepharoplasty outcome performed by Dr. Kim. From the surgeon like Dr. Robinson using two “really” in front of “good”, it meant a lot to me. I understood more why his reviews are so good. If he took my case, it would not bring him the pride. He simply hinted that he is not the best for my eye type. Kudos to Dr. Robinson! His office staff was very nice too and did not charge me any consultation fees.

My instinct told me Dr. Kim should be the one. I started searching Dr. Kim and learned that he has 4 stars review on RealSelf. I read each of the reviews for Dr. KIm, two things were noticed: #1- not too many reviews. If he can stay in business for 20 years, he should have done many many procedures. That means a percentage of unsatisfactory rate is very minimal; #2 - No negative reviews on eyelid surgery.

On my first visit to Dr. Kim, I told him my goal was “natural look”and emphasized “conservative”when talking about the operation. He listened and wrote it down, then explained the two procedures of upper/lower blepharoplasty. For upper eyelids, cut out excessive skins and sew the edges together; for lower eyelids, make a cut inside lower eyelid, scrape out protruding fat which makes eye bag, and use laser to tight under eye skin. I had some knowledge about laser resurfacing. My immediate thought was “I don’t want my under eye skin to stand out from the rest of my facial skin”. Dr. Kim asked me what my concern was. I simply said that I was afraid of not being able to close my eyes after surgery. He stated that it had never happened in his career. At the end, I agreed to do all three procedures together: upper/lower blepharoplasty + face Fraxel CO2 laser resurfacing. I was given big discount to have final price $5,000, which is a very good deal. Not only money wised but also time wised, I would not need extra office visits and extra time off. Good decision, Good strategy! I pat myself on the back.

I scheduled my surgery to be on 11/19/15, Thursday, planning to take time off including next Thanksgivings week to make total time off 11 days for recovery. The deposit was 1/4 of total which was $1,250 and refundable if cancelled within a week. The balance would be due on the surgical date. The consultation fee is free if you schedule your surgery or $90 otherwise. I also was instructed to apply HQRA cream provided twice a day starting at 14 days prior to the surgery. Dr. Kim said it would help the recovery.

I normally don’t think much once a decision is made , especially when nonrefundable payment is made. Somehow, I felt this decision was very heavy. One question I asked myself, “What if it failed…”. I was not sure how to answer and hoping to find answers from RealSelf. I started reading all Not Worth reviews about those procedures. One of the reviews suggested to do your homework and ask detailed questions. It sounded right to me. I should spend more time on my part. If it failed, I would regret less because I have done my homework.

So I wrote down all my questions and made second visit to Dr. Kim. My questions included:
For upper eyelid surgery:
#1 – Please draw the line on how much skin cut.
#2 – Except skin removal, any fat or muscle removal?
#3 – How to handle inner/outer corner?

For lower eyelid surgery,
#4 – How to make sure fat is not protruding again after surgery?
#5 – Is it possible that too much fat removal yields sunken look?

For fractional Fraxel CO2 Laser Resurfacing:
#6 – Erbium vs CO2?
#7 – What does “fractional” mean?
#8 – How do I look like next day after surgery?
#9 – How much likelihood for scar, burn, waffled, stretched marks to happen?
#10 – Identify my deep lines (as laser does not remove deep lines).

Dr. Kim answered each of my questions, but nothing certain. He used a lot of words like “a few”, “many”, “no guaranteed”. Then he asked me what my goal was. I said I wanted to be natural. He’s like, “Without doing anything, it’s your most natural state.” He said straight to my face. That’s so true. Anti-aging self is not a natural process at all. I had to revise my answer, “The ‘work’ should not be noticeable by non-acquaintance.” During the whole Q/A session, I felt so silly and regretted coming out for the second visit. As I graduated from medical school in my native country, I knew this profession is doomed to have no guaranteed outcome. All the numbers spoken must be a range not specific. That’s why patients have to sign lots of papers even for a small procedure. To my question #10, Dr. Kim pointed out that laser would not fix my deep lines like “worry line” in my forehead, wrinkles around my mouth and nose. What could fix is fat injection and it is a quick 30 minutes procedure. My instant thought was that if I did that, it would make my neck mismatch my face. I was not forgetting what my motivation was, and I didn’t want to create another matching challenge. The laser procedure already made me feel I had gone a little far. I swore to myself no more cosmetic surgery after these three procedures done. Last thing Dr. Kim said, “Quit Reading.” I did by unsubscribing RealSelf.

Since my second visit to Dr. Kim, I hardly thought my procedures anymore after what I called “failure analysis”. Surely, my medical background helped. I felt that I had done enough homework and no surgeon could promise 100% success. From the moment I asked for “conservative”, I have left the room for the surgical mistakes if any. Here is my “failure analysis”:
#1 – For upper eye, my biggest concern is my eyes not being able to close. Since Dr. Kim has never had this kind of failure, it should not happen to me. – Checked.
#2 – For lower eye, there should have not much room for mistakes as lower rim of eye frame is a good reference of how much fat needed to be taken out. – Checked.
#3 – For laser, almost all unsatisfied reviews from RealSelf are due to doctors being “aggressive” or “inexperienced”. I asked for “conservative” and Dr. Kim is experienced. – Checked.

On 11/05/2015, 14 days before my surgery, I started applying HQRA cream to my face twice a day. I was informed that my face was going to be red. Three days after, my face started peeling. While using my cleanser or applying the scream, there was tolerable burning sensation. I stopped using toner and serum, only applied moisturizer on top of the cream. In the later course, my face turned to red, have more breakouts and peels, but it was less noticeable when applying moisturizer multiple times a day.

Finally, the date came. It was at 1:00 pm on 11/19/2015, Thursday. The surgical process was like this:
Place numb cream on my face
Wait for 30 minutes
Laser resurfacing
Local anesthesia injection on my upper and lower eye area.
Wait for a few minutes
Upper eye operation
Lower eye operation
Wait 10 minutes
Leave for home

The whole process took about 2 hours. During the whole operation, the pain was tolerable. It was probably 7 or 8 out of 10 scale. Some skin area was more sensitive than the other. I was holding my fists most of the time as I did not know what the next move would cause what kind of pain. After the surgery, Dr. Kim told me my eyes were very swollen and would take long time for recovery.

I was so happy when I found my eyes were able to close. It was hard to tell the result as my whole face was very swollen. After the operation, I literally had no pain. I followed the instructions to take care of my face: 20 minutes ice on my eyes and 30 minutes ice off; vinegar water to clean my face and Cetaphil cream to apply every 2-3 hours in the first 24 hours, 3-4 hours in the second 24 hours. I extended the routine to the third day due to my eyes and face being too swollen.

Day by Day, my face was getting better and better. On 11/25/2015, Wednesday, the day before Thanksgivings, it was the day to take the stitches off. I was happy to see Dr. Kim and told him I was very happy with the result. Even my face and eyes were still very swollen, I could see the potential. I was even happier when Dr. Kim offered me Erbium laser at free charge. He explained that the CO2 laser takes care of wrinkles and pores; Erbium is less aggressive for brown spots. I was very impressed with the stitches. As I only saw a thread knot in the inner and outer corner of each of my eyes, I thought maybe the cuts were glued not sewed. As I used to perform stitches while at medical school and at work after graduation, I knew what normal stitches are like, and that’s what I saw from the RealSelf pictures as well. It was Dr. Kim’s assistant, Alexa, took off my stitches. She explained that it was loop sewed and one thread only. I was joking with Dr. Kim, “You would be the best tailor in the world.” Very impressive!

If you are still reading, I am hoping your take away is:
#1 – Plastic surgery even laser resurfacing should be the last resort to enhance your appearance. Try healthy life style first. The reason is simple: the result stays longer on a healthy stable body.

#2 – Find a doctor with lots of experiences on your procedure and with preferred age between 40 and 60.

#3 – Understand your procedures and make relatively predictable result. Less complex ones yield fewer risks. Don’t try to make too many “corrections” at one time.

#4 – Be realistic. Have a bottom line kind of goal. In my case it is “be able to close my eyes after blepharoplasty”. I don’t mean to speak for doctors, but I did see some very good result, in my opinion, from the unsatisfied reviews.

In conclusion, I am very happy with my result, but is it optimal? The answer is “No”. High risks, high rewards. At the end of the day, it is you to take consequences for your decision; not a doctor for their bad performance.