Mini Facelift and Eyelids

I was considering kybella, but with very mixed reviews I thought I would do a mini facelift, to get rid of jowls and extra skin under my chin. Also upper eyelids, to get rid of some of the droop that comes with being 56 years old.

Both procedures done in one sitting (about 90 minutes total), in doctors office under only local anesthesia. I did take Arnica for about 4 days prior, to help reduce bruising. No real prep needed, other than comfy clothes, and I had eye and face ice bags ready to go and all frozen at home. I drove back from the doctors office too, with a scarf around my head and sides of face so I wouldn’t scare little children. Ha!
I had a prescription for painkillers too, I needed those for only two days. See if you can have that prescription filled and picked up beforehand... I drive to the pharmacy right after my surgery. Not that I was in discomfort but I certainly looked very swollen and odd.
Slept ok the first night, woke to pain in the middle of the night so took a painkiller and used more ice and that did the trick. Slept fine the second night, just a painkiller before bed. And ice before I fell asleep.
I could take a shower and wash my hair the very next morning after surgery, helped my mood a lot. I put on big sunglasses (eyes were red and swollen) and actually went shopping for a couple hours.

Day 3 I had a followup appointment with the doctor, all going well, eyes still quite red and I can tell I’ll bruise under my eyes due to pooled blood, but the doctor says it will go away in a week. He took out the eyelid stitches at this time (eyes heal fast).
I still occasionally used ice between days 4 and 7, it felt good. But the physical ice benefits at that time were minimal,at best. It’s most important to use ice for the first 48 hours or so, and I did that diligently.

At my one week followup appointment, the mini facelift stitches came out. Eyes still a bit red, my lower cheeks and by my ears feels ... numb and a bit tingly. That’s normal, just healing. Will be that way (though to a lesser and lesser degree) for a few months. No other side effects. The surgeon I used is fabulous.

Posting photos of the progression, hope you find them helpful. Let me know if you have any questions, I’d gladly answer them.

Entire procedures took 90 minutes max, including prep and wrap up instructions. So I’d say 60 min of cutting and pulling and stitches. Local anesthesia so I was fully awake.
Here’s my note to the squeamish ... you won’t feel much, some pulling but no pain, it you will hear the snipping of scissors and if your surgeon cortorizes you will smell a bit of that too. For me it was just weird, but I can imagine some people would really dislike those sensations. (And some would not care at all).
Forgot to mention that above, it might be important to some of you when you decide on anesthesia. The pros for me outweighed the cons, no general anesthesia risks, and I could even drive home.

A noticeable improvement, could have pulled a bit more akin to get even more underneath my jaw, but the improvement is quite noticeable to me.