Lip Lift Experience Day 1-5

I have wanted lips since I can remember!! I was okay with my small lips until social media happened and selfies happened. I really hated my lips and even with fillers they didn't ever take a lip shape that was pretty because the filler would move above them within months because there wasn't really anywhere for the filler to go in actual lips. So, I ended up with weird looking lips every time I got filler and you could see the filler above and around my lips, but yet I still disliked my lips. I figured I would have to give up and move on. Then...I found out about Dr. Talei and his lip lifts. I watched all of his YouTube videos and analyzed his before and afters. I still wasn't sure this was right because I was 1.terrified of the scar and 2.everyone who got the lip lift done seemed to have nice lips before (which I couldn't relate to). I finally found a couple patients, as time went on, that also had small, thin lips who got this done. I was amazed at the difference in shape and almost Bardot like shape that their thin lips could achieve with this lift. I knew I would never get this look with filler (unless I went Kylie Jenner on it, but my job will not allow me to have duck lips and my family would absolutely bother me about it!) I finally decided to book my surgery after seeing the new patients he posted about on his YouTube that had lips like mine. Because I think it is very important to look at reviews of people who have features like you. One surgery on someone might look bad on someone else if their face features are completely different. This is very important in cosmetic surgery. SO...day before surgery- Dr, Ben Talei was busy in surgery and I decided to wait til the morning of surgery to talk to him. Usually this would have freaked me out, but I had been stalking this doctor for a year before deciding to do this surgery, so I didn't mind waiting until day of to meet him. Prior to this, we had only a face time call. I would not suggest doing this going into any surgery, but since I knew his reputation and people who got this done, I was fine not seeing him until right before surgery. Please do not ever do this with any surgery. This a rare case, as Dr. T does lip lifts all year long and has been for years and years. He is an expert. He met with me 30 minutes before my surgery, measured out my lips, numbed the hell out of my face, and then we were ready to go. As for the surgery part- didn't feel a thing! I did feel the numbing shots going into my face and I hated that. My face immediately swelled up from the shots, but the shots are absolutely necessary for the surgery so you don't feel a thing. Funny how the numbing process was worse than the actual surgery for me. The surgery took 20 minutes. I was out of there with my boyfriend and in bed within 30 minutes icing and resting. As for pain during day 1-5, there wasn't a lot of it. I took one pain pill on the night of Day 1 to help me sleep. Day 2 & I took Tylenol extra strength 2 times a day. By day 4 I didn't need any. In comparison to my nose job, this was like going to the dentist. Nose job recovery was the hardest thing i've ever done and the pain was 10 out of 10. I still have nightmares about that recovery process and I had a hard time sleeping with nose packing. As for this, I slept like a baby. I will keep y'all updated as time goes on, but for now I am really early in the healing process. I get my stitches out tomorrow and will update with pictures.

After the sutures came out and day 5, I have been healing pretty fast. The blue bruises that went to yellow are now almost completely gone. My cheeks are still puffy, which I expected as I had the same thing after my nose surgery. Dr. T put what felt like gallons of numbing liquid into my face before the surgery, so expect your cheeks to be looking like a chipmunk for the first 2 weeks. My face swells up easily, so maybe the numbing shots won't have that same affect on you because I've seen some girls who look completely normal within 1 week of this. I don't have any pain or any irritation on the incision lines. I cannot smile, but I can talk 90% normally. I had a work call that went fine on day 7 and a facetime with my family and no one even noticed. I expected this recovery to be AWFUL. Knowing how bad I felt after my nose surgery, I expected to be miserable for a month. If anything the worst part is the medications you have to take for a week, as my body never likes medications (you take steroids, antibiotics, anti viral meds after this surgery FYI). So I am so happy to be done with week 1 which is also when the medications stopped.I haven't felt any pain except on day 1 so I didn't need the pain medicine, which if you can NOT take pain meds, then don't. They are so bad for our precious systems. As for work, I am working normal hours and even did yoga yesterday and today (although he says 3 weeks for working out, but I really feel good so I figured some light stretching wouldn't hurt.). I am only applying aquaphor to the incisions twice a day and wiping it down at night with a wet gauze pad before re-applying. You want to keep the incision area moist with ointment at all times. Overall, I am really surprised by this surgery and how well it went. I am also so happy about the look of my lip and shocked at the fact that I have a top lip. I love the upturned shape and I even experimented with lipsticks yesterday and got so excited to have something to put my lip stick on. If you have any questions comment below and I will try to answer all of them!

I cannot believe I have lips that people actually want. My whole life, I was insecure about my small lips. Im in shock how much lips really do change the face, and I could never have gotten this look with just filler. I had a straight line lip. Now I have a pout. I do not look like my family which is kind of awkward because I look like a different person completely. But it was 10/10 worth it. It helped with my confidence and most people assume I got filler.