My Endolift journey, 61 & show obvious signs of neck & facial aging

Preamble: I am 61, in decent shape for my age, but show obvious signs of neck and facial aging. To turn back time properly I need a full deep plane face lift but can't afford that - especially not in Los Angeles. Honestly, even if I had the money, I'm not sure I could do something that invasive. So this week I tried an Endolift. I watched hundreds of tiktoks and chose a Doctor in Mexico City - I've been learning Spanish and always wanted to visit there. The cost of the trip and the procedure is still less than any quote I got in LA.

I paid $50 for a video consult with Dr. Santos. He asked for a complete blood panel which luckily I'd completed recently with my own Doc and could forward that to him. He then asked for two additional tests - speed of blood clotting, which I got for another $50 from a walk-in place in LA.

DAY OF: Dr Santos explained everything in English and Spanish. His colleague, also a Doctor, assisted - took my BP. Lidocaine was injected - then followed by another slow delivered anesthetic. In total, I was there for 3 hours. I think this doctor is very careful - but I was also a difficult case because I have old filler (Artefill/PMMA) which is far worse than hylaronic based fillers - it's permanent and migrates. It's essentially a kind of plastic which is at risk of "melting" with the application of a heat/energy device. Or worse, lighting on fire during the endolift. So the doctor was very careful/gentle. Pain wise - it was all tolerable. I've had way worse procedures. However, I was sent away with a compression bandage which has thus far been the most uncomfortable aspect of the whole experience. I will post my before and day of soon.

The Dr. also ordered multiple prescriptions. Antibiotic. Pain meds (just analgesic). A diuretic pill. And an intra muscular anti inflammation injection.

Day 2: Was sent for a lymphatic drainage facial massage - the first of three over the course of post treatment week - cost, $45 a session. I held a metal rod and the therapist used gloves to massage while the machine sent on a vibration. Neither pleasant nor annoying, but the lower face and upper neck were considerably swollen and slightly hard to the touch. The swelling never got terrible and I did venture out with the dumb compression garment on, but I hated wearing it at all times - but did see why it was necessary.

Days 3-6 the swelling continued - I had a follow up with Dr Santos, had an exosome treament then flew home, wearing the compression garment on the plane. Bruising was light but evident - even when I finally took off the compression garment for Thanksgiving - 9 days later (the last photo)