Upper and Lower Eyelid Surgery with skin removal from lowers

Dr. Tarbet was one of the oculoplastic surgeons recommended to me by the optometrist at Sharpe Vision regarding my right eyelid (ptosis and different eyelid crease than the left one). Her attitude is delightful and upbeat. Her approach reminds me of someone about to give you a really fun make-over. She recommended against ptosis repair -- "No one is going to notice that small degree of ptosis after the fat is removed, they're just going to see cute eyes." Yes, she said cute! She also uses words like beautiful, gorgeous, and pretty. And why not? Isn't that what this is all about? It was refreshing.

Since the ptosis was evaluated to have no medical impact, and it's the eyelid shape itself (the upper lid rested on my eyelashes) that annoyed me, I thought about how ptosis repair might alter the character of my face. I was born with one eye just a touch lower than the other, including the eyebrow. We hear a lot about how symmetry is beauty, and certainly at a point asymmetry looks unattractive, but perfect symmetry can also look unnatural. Her point made sense -- if both eyes are pretty, what does it matter if they don't line up by a millimeter or two?

As other reviewers have mentioned, if timeliness and punctuality are important to you, Dr Tarbet's office might frustrate you. She's worth the wait, so if your own schedule is also tight, try to get in on one of her open Saturdays. She's very willing to make scheduling work -- she gave me her cell phone number, and we texted to figure out a time to talk in the evening so she could answer some of my lingering questions before scheduling the surgery. After my surgery, she immediately answered her phone after hours when I had a concern. Once she is in the room with you, you have her full attention.

Her medical staff, Chris the medical technician and Steve the nurse anesthetist, are fun, playful, extremely smart people who had my full trust. Steve called me the night before surgery and Dr. Tarbet called me the next morning to make sure I was feeling ok, and Chris did my post-op examination.

Dr. Tarbet offers the option of having surgery in office under IV sedation or at a hospital under general. I opted for IV sedation, which is a cocktail of painkillers and a medication that often causes amnesia. I have a few odd memories of the experience, but then I wonder if they were dreams. I felt stitches going in at one point, but it was more an odd than painful sensation. Thankfully they gave my partner all the post-op instructions before he drove me home. I don't remember the drive home or the rest of the evening! They send you home with anti-nausea medication just in case, but I didn't experience any.

I hadn't anticipated quite how much bruising and inflammation I would have. I looked really monstrous for three days, but I wasn't in pain, thankfully. In fact, I had a lot of numbness. Before surgery make sure you buy a gel cold pack for the eyes, and a wedge pillow to sleep with your head elevated. About day 5, I started taking long walks to help de-swell. Also if you're like me, and restless and hate staying at home, buy a nice pair of sunglasses to hide your stitches and swelling from the world. I also didn't anticipate how much my vision would be affected. For some people, the eyedrops you need to use after surgery can cause blurry vision, and honestly I found this far more frustrating than any other part of the healing!

I'm 13 days post-op today, and am already extremely thrilled to see that my lower eye bags are GONE. I will post pictures when the swelling from the upper lids has passed.

I'm at day 15 post-op. Time to discontinue the ointment medication, another week on the eyedrops. I'm hoping my vision improves. The stitches haven't completely dissolved yet, my upper lids are still slightly swollen. My lower left lid has a lump along the incision and the right lower lid seems crooked. I am super jealous of the folks who are able to put on make-up and go to work ten days later!

Today I feel completely differently than I did yesterday. Yesterday I was worried about what the final outcome would be, and today I really like what it looks like and am looking forward to the final result!

My right eyelid was quite a little weirdo of an eye -- not just the eyebrow and eyelid ptosis but it had two creases that didn't meet in the middle, but passed each other slightly, with one higher than the other. And then those creases were covered up completely by the upper skin fat. So now that the skin and fat has been removed, and the surgery joined the two creases it's a very different shape than it was before and a different shape than the left. And the ptosis is just a touch more noticeable now, since you can see the distance between the lash-line and the crease. Expected, but still interesting to look at and think about all the options I was offered when I talked to different doctors -- just fix ptosis and upper bleph on right, bleph on both and ptosis on right, and one even offered bleph on both and ptosis repair on both, just more correction on the right. One of the doctors who suggested bleph only said I did have ptosis, but some people really liked the look of slight ptosis ("bedroom eyes") and he thought it looked fine. Honestly, I like the look as well.

And the dark skin under my eyes is showing up again as the swelling subsides I expected that as well, as a lower bleph can only deal with skin and fat (and I had plenty to remove of both). I'm hoping makeup will work now. Previously, concealer just sunk right into the wrinkles and highlighted the orbital bone.

And I can't wait til I can fix my eyebrows, too!