Facial fat transfer disaster

I travelled to Spokane to Dr. Cameron Chesnut for full laser treatment with fat transfer principally to the temples. The entire experience was appalling. I am a very private person and hate having to write a negative review, but after more than 5 exhausting months of trying to sort out possible resolutions with this doctor with no success, here I am. I hope others will benefit from hearing my experience.
Dr. Chesnut deviated entirely from what he had strongly recommended. To my bewilderment, he transferred fat to places we did not discuss, I had not consented to and in fact some of which I wouldn’t have imagined were ‘a thing’. The fat transfer was supposed to be minimal and peripheral due to weight loss; the lasers would do the bulk of the work in a case such as mine where there is little sagging. The result of this deviation is what might be called a ‘face droop’. Along with discomfort, the features are distorted, and immobilized, facial shape is narrowed and elongated due to mid/low face prominence.
When I did have a chance to talk to him, he dismissed my complaints and persisted that it was a matter of swelling, even after five months.
I must press the fact that fat transfer is anything but noninvasive. It was like being in a bad car accident. Also, you really must heed red flags. A website that is altogether too flashy, that paints the doctor as a rock star should make you step back.
if anyone has an interest, I can amplify each of the following in updates to this post.
1) Communication a) initial consultation b) telephone c) written correspondence
2) Scheduling
3) Surgery day environment
4) Recovery
5) Preop, postop & follow-ups
6) Cost & cost effectiveness
7) Outcome

Dr. Chesnut recommended C02 laser to erase vertical lip lines and creases near chin, to reduce sunspots and minor scaring, with the attractive advantage of boosting collagen. I was recommended a package which included neck, chest, and hands along with the face. Since improvements are seen over the course of several months, I delayed posting a review until now to avoid premature judgement.

If you are considering C02 laser, you probably know that it involves a painful, disgusting week or so. My treatment was nearly 2 ½ years ago and I honestly cannot say anything positive about it.

At first, I was bright red, then scabby, and finally flaky. I’d never heard of it being done right up to the eyes apart from the troughs, yet it was. Excellent eye protection should be a given. Even so, one of the covers fell off as I lay there. My eyes were swollen shut, burning and tearing for over a week. As you see from my initial review, I had a fat transfer at the same time, so I attribute changes in symmetry, shape, and size as well as permanent inability to open my eyes fully to that procedure, though it is possible the laser contributed. I plan to do the long-term update to that as well.

The non-facial treatment areas were quite limited. For instance, the hand coverage was approximately 2 ½ x 2 inches, so it completely bypassed the freckles at the base of the thumbs. The neck too was limited to the area that fell between about 1 ½ inches in front of the earlobes on each side, so the sides of the neck where sun often hits were not treated. The chest coverage was like a swoop neck; though mine was clearly not drawn out precisely since it veered more to one side. I saw all this while it was red.

For a full year and a half, even cool temperatures caused my hands intolerable pain. I spent an entire winter wearing wool gloves indoors. To go outdoors briefly, I had to wear ski gloves. Hot weather made them prickly. Thankfully, that has grown less intense this past year. I continue to wear light cotton gloves outdoors when it is warm to protect the fragile skin.

In this long term, none of the areas where I was assured improvement has shown any. The lines are astonishingly more pronounced. As far as I can discern, this can be for one of three reasons: 1) these areas were missed by the laser 2) the laser was ineffective or 3) the fat placement exaggerates the creases in those areas. The same old spots remain as before. In the non-facial areas too, not even a freckle disappeared. Instead, the skin looks thin, crepey and almost bluish gray.

FYO the charge for this procedure was nearly three times the high-end national average.