Difficult lip lift recovery: wound dehiscence, swelling and nose.

This was my first ever surgery of any kind! So I was really nervous. I’m gonna start my review off with the day of the procedure.

Details of my op:
Starting philtrum length: 2.5cm (25mm)
Length removed: 1cm (10mm)
New philtrum length: 1.5cm (15mm)

Day of op:
I had the procedure done under local anaesthesia and got up pretty much straight up after the procedure. During the actual procedure the worst part was the anaesthesia. It has to be the most uncomfortable feelings EVER. It was slightly painful (like a burning sensation). But the procedure it’s self was not painful (obviously because I was numb). Like I mentioned I got up straight after and the doctor gave me a hot chocolate lol. I did find it hard to keep the drink in my mouth unless I held my head up.

I did have a bit of swelling immediately on my lips and cheeks after the procedure but nothing extreme. I also noticed my nose looked quite stretched out and a bit bigger (but I put it down to swelling). When I got home I was very hungry so I ordered soup and Nan bread. But decided only to eat soup as I was to scared that chewing would put too much stress on the incision. After about 6 hours the anaesthesia wore and that’s when the PAIN kicked in. The pain was around my nose and incision and I’d say it was about 6.5/10 on the pain scale. I did 2 paracetamols and the pain subsided a bit. I also started my oral antibiotics that same night.

Now the days following the operation has been HELL!! Check next posts.

Day 1:
The day after the procedure the swelling got 10X worse. To make matters worse I accidentally slept on my side the night before so my right side swelled up way more than my left. DO NOT SLEEP ON YOUR SIDE GUYS!!! I didn’t have anymore pain just some occasional tingling on the incision and the incision was bleeding quite a bit. I was also able to chew but it wasn’t as my lips were swollen and I did have a bit of tightness in my upper lip.

Day 2:
I was dreading this day because i knew the swelling peaks on day 2-3. I was already so swollen just the day after so I was thinking how worse could I possibly get. Surprisingly, when I woke up the swelling in my lips slightly decreased but the swelling in my cheek got even worse. I started panic at this point thinking that I might have had an allergic reaction because why are my cheeks taking the hit harder than actual area the surgery was performed?? I look a chipmunk. I emailed aftercare and they told me it was normal to have swelling in my cheeks. My incision was still leaking at this point.

Day 3:
The swelling did not get worse, it was decreasing well in my lips but only very slightly in my cheeks. But this is where my incision started to bother me, it started to feel uncomfortable and tight and it was leaking a bit more. I emailed aftercare again scared that I had an infection and they said there was no infection and I should clean the incision with alcohol and keep it dry at all times.

Day 4:
Woke up with a lot of drainage from my incision and still swollen. I was very over it at this point because I felt like I was going to be swollen forever and now my incision is starting to look weird especially on the right side of my nose (where the surgeon said I had really “tough” skin). The swelling my nose did decrease a bit because I could kind of see it going back to it’s normal shape and size. It wasn’t as stretched out anymore.

From the end of day 1 I didn’t experience any pain even though I looked swollen asf. Also eating gets easier as the swelling in your lips decreases.

Other than my recovery, I am happy very with my results I feel as if the doctor addressed my issues very well. I have always been very happy my lips themselves but the reason I had a long philtrum was because my nose is very small and short. I didn’t have thin upper lips so i was scared that my lips would look like fillers gone wrong and didn’t want a gummy smile either. I don’t have neither so im very happy! I just hope it doesn’t drop because I DO NOT want to go through this again!!! Now that I’m happy with my results I’m just praying that I heal well and don’t get left with a bad scar because my incision is scaring me right now.

Also for those wondering, I personally have not lost any feeling in my upper lip at all. The tightness is only coming from incision it’s self, hopefully this will get better with time. Also, my surgeon used dissolvable stitches and he only removed skin no muscle.

In the next posts I’ll put up pictures of my incision and then post day 5-10 then I’ll post updates every 1 week until week 8 which is apparently when most people start to see their final results.

It’s been 7 days since my lip lift and I’m still happy with my new lips and the length of my new philtrum. However, one thing that is really bothering me is my nose. The swelling has really gone down in my cheeks, lips and nose (I will post day 5-10 pictures on day 10) but my nose still seems to look very stretched out which is giving me a very weird look like even my eyes look a bit stretched out because of it. I don’t know if it’s because my incision is still tight but I’m hoping it settles because I just don’t like it. Anyone who’s done this procedure what changes did you experience with your nose and was it permanent? If not, how long did it take to go back to normal?

Another thing that’s really hindered my healing process is the fact that my body has rejected some of the dissolvable stitches. Now, on the sides of my nose it looks like I have abscess because of all the stitches my body pushed out of my skin. I am TERRIFIED of how this is going to heal. I really hope it doesn’t leave me with a bad scar or even worse a keloid. If anyone has experienced this please let me know how you healed. I’m still waiting on a follow up call from my surgeon to discuss how we can go about fixing this.