64 Year Old Getting Upper and Lower Eyelid Surgery, Fat Grafting, and TCA Peel.

The inflammation in my left eye is gone, as I have been using the Prednisolone eye drops prescribed by my PS at my appointment one week ago. I emailed the nurse a picture of my left eye with the bruise, and also asked about tiny, sharp pains I am now experiencing in my eyes. She said everything looked right on track, and as the nerves start regenerating I will be feeling different sensations. The drooping of my upper left eyelid is very noticeable to me, but I remind myself there is still lots of healing to take place, and if that isn't resolved with the healing, the PS will fix that in his office. Patience!

Yesterday was the one week post op visit to my PS for removal of stitches and scar care. The upper eyelid stitches were easily removed by the nurse, and she gave me information on continuing to use Vaseline on the eyelids and to start massaging the suture line. In a week I will start using other products for the scar care. Mederma was one option, as well as Scar Recovery Gel (which could be purchased from the dermatology group at the PS's office. I have used Vitamin E on a carpal tunnel scar with good results. What have RS people used on their upper eyelid scars? I will continue to massage the scars, and was advised that sunscreen should also be applied to the scars, which I had not thought about. My left eye had more bruising and swelling than the right eye, and I had noticed the white part of the eye had more red than the right one. The surgeon commented on this and gave me a prescription for Prednisolone eye drops to use for one week in my left eye. If the inflammation has not been resolved in a week, he wants to see me then. I have been very pleased with how pro-active Dr. Bortnick has been throughout the consultations, surgery, and recovery. The left eye is more droopy than the right, and he said there is still a lot of healing to be done, but that at my one month appointment if there is still the drooping, we would talk about correcting that with a procedure in the office with local anesthesia, at no additional charge to me.

I'm now 6 days post op. I have had no pain, and continue to sleep propped up on pillows and use the ice packs. I found that the soft gel ones work best. I had thought about using bags of frozen vegetables, but the gel ones conform more to the eye area. My laser peel has not been painful, and I am keeping Vaseline on the peel and my sutures. I wear glasses, so I'm often cleaning them as the lenses get Vaseline on them. For anyone who has had this surgery, how was the stitch removal? Mine is in two days.