Revision Silicone Removal

10+ years ago I had silicone using the microdroplet technique. My mother had the same procedure on the same day and she still looks great, but for me, within a few years it started to grow and become rock hard. This has caused me so much embarrassment and grief over the years. I was still a teenager when I did this. I wanted to do something to look pretty, and I ruined the next decade of my life, and brought about years and years of severe anxiety and depression. It is something I have thought about every single day, and it has severely limited me from socializing, as I have felt so self conscious about this. I've had 2 surgeries with a doctor in Plano, Texas, who is the "expert" on removing silicone from the lips. I've also had a bullhorn lip lift, as the weight of the silicone pulled the top lip down over my teeth.
None of the results have been that great, to be honest. They were all little improvements, but it was nowhere near what needed to be taken out. The expert Doctor in Texas told me that even though my lips were still WAY too big after two surgeries and very still very uneven and unnatural, that there was no hope for me, and I needed to learn to accept that I was forever deformed. He wasn't willing to make the lips more even, and said that he couldn't operate in the area around the lip where the silicone had migrated.
The lip lift I had with a different Doctor helped a bit, but it left me with unnatural scarring and an awkward upper lip shape.
I tried to ignore this, as it has caused me so much grief that I just wanted to move on, and I had WRONGLY been told there was nothing else that could be done for me. I believed the doctor who told me this because he does so many of these. Fast forward several years and now I am finishing up prerequisites to start nursing school. The thought of having to be in a job where people might stare at me was giving me so much anxiety that I thought about dropping out. I realized that although I've done my best to move on mentally, I really haven't. I saw that this has been affecting me more than I was admitting to myself and I decided right then that I was going to fix this, no matter what, because I just couldn't live this way anymore.
I met with Dr. Brucker after doing some research into plastic surgeons near me who were excellent. He really is fantastic. I'm about 3-4 weeks post op from my upper and lower lip reduction and scar revision around my nose, and for the first time in several years, no one is staring at my mouth with a weird look on their face! I've been dealing with this for nearly 1/3 of my life and honestly...I still don't believe it. There are still a couple more minor corrections that need to be made, but for the first time in my life I feel like I might be able to someday in the very near future have a natural smile.
Unless you've experienced the humiliation and anxiety that silicone gone wrong can bring, you have no idea how amazing it feels to find a good doctor. I have tears in my eyes as I'm writing this.
I do need one more surgery to fine tune some spots, but I knew this going in. This is silicone we are dealing with and to be to this point - to be able to look at my lip and see a natural shape is incredible. For the first time I am able to see more than just a weird blob on my face: there is a pretty lip that is very close to natural looking.
I'm going to have what I believe will be the last revision I will need at some point. I'm not in a super big rush because I no longer feel deformed, but at some point it will be nice to put the icing on the cake.
The point of this is to share hope: I've made some friends on here who have been disfigured by silicone. I know what you're experiencing, but just keep looking. In the right hands, this is something I am able to overcome, and I thought I was hopeless.

The pics I added aren't that great, but I wanted to put something up for people to see. I don't really have many pics of myself before my surgery, and when I did take pictures I was so self conscious that I would try to change the anglenot my face or suck in my lips so they would look a little better, so it's hard to see how much improvement was really made, but I did find a couple that kind of show the difference. My swelling is t completely gone just yet, but there is a big improvement and I'm very happy.

I had plans to have 5fu shortly after surgery, but I never followed up and about 3 months later I'm beginning to see the scar tissue form again. I have an appointment with Dr. Brucker this week to talk about it. It was so great going out and not having people look at me funny when I talk, but I feel like I'm back at square one.

This wasn't Dr. Brucker's fault - I just want to make that clear. He did a great job, and I'm grateful to have found him, but silicone is silicone. I should have followed up.