Festoon Surgery

I started getting a bag on my cheek when I was 30 years old from crying when my childhood pet passed away. The bag went away and it only came back a few times when I either was stressed out and suffering from insomnia or cried. But it would eventually go away and I was back to normal good skin. I never suffered from acne or any other skin problems. I got some under eye filler done thinking that would help and the next month the bag was bigger and under both eyes for the first time so I started doing research and discovered it was called a Festoon and when I googled festoons this particular doctor pulled up talking on YouTube about how he can treat festoons easily with Bi-Lateral Lower Lid Blepharoplasty and Bi-Lateral Lower Lid Laser Resurfacing. So I said sign me up and within a few weeks I had the surgery. There are not a lot of doctors doing festoon surgery so I thought he must be the only one with the skills. But turns out it’s because it is not an easily treatable thing and this has been the worst experience of my life. Right before my surgery I didn’t even have the festoon it was gone. I had called to cancel but his office talked me into it saying it would always be a structural issue and better to do it when I’m young and I’ll heal faster and the collagen will grow. Well it has been two months and my skin still looks awful from the surgery. I wish someone would’ve posted about this so I could’ve been warned and not followed through. It has been a complete nightmare. I did well over 100 hours of vinegar soaks as instructed and walked around for a month with aquaphor on my face but I was at least hopeful then that I would look better when it was healed but once it “ healed” my skin looks so much worse than the festoon that I didn’t even have all the time. The skin is now bumpy and scaley. I knew ahead of time that the skin would be red but I thought I could just cover the redness with makeup until it evened out. But it is uncoveravle with makeup and looks like I have bad acne or wrinkles under my eyes. I am posting this to see if anyone can suggest what I can do to improve my healing. I was prescribed Clobetasol steroid cream to use once a day for one week on and one week off intervals. You can literally see where he put the laser on my face in vertical lines. I want to cry every time I look in the mirror. If I could go back I absolutely would never have done this. It ruined my face. I will do anything to make this skin normal again so I hope some doctor out there has a suggestion.

It has gotten worse to the point of starting to form a keloid scar and all the doctor that did my surgery prescribed me was a steroid cream that I use every two weeks and it wasn’t getting better after 3 weeks on that so I finally went to a dermatologist for a treatment plan and I received 5-FU chemotherapy shots under my eyes and did red light therapy and IPL. They also told me to use silicone gel sheets as much as possible and I woke up today looking much better. I get another IPL in two weeks. So I feel a lot better that I’m going to actually heal now but no thanks to the plastic surgeon. Dermatologists are the only ones I want doing lasers on me from now on.

It’s been 5 months since my surgery and my under eyes are VERY red and the skin is still a little bumpy and uneven. I have to apply lots of makeup every day. I can’t even go to the gym without makeup on because I’m too insecure about it. It’s definitely way worse than the small festoon that I had 20% of the time before. The doctor I went to has been mentioned by others. It’s crazy that they knew without me saying anything who would do this. The surgery was NOT worth it and I’m sure in time they will come up with better ways to fix a lower lid festoon other than burning your face off. Since my already overpriced surgery that ruined my skin I have already paid over $2k to a dermatologist to try and heal faster without scarring. I’ve gotten BBL laser,
2 IPL’s and Two 5-FU chemotherapy shots, Fotona laser for redness 3x, and steroid creams.