Lip Lift with Dr. Pearson

I've been researching the lip lift procedure since I first heard about it about ten years ago and always knew it would change my face for the better. Recently, though, I needed a lip reduction and that was more urgent. That's when I found Dr. Pearson. (I've also reviewed that procedure.) After the reduction, I was ecstatic just to look normal! But soon, I wanted to look better than normal and went back to Dr. Pearson for a lip lift.
I've looked at hundreds of reviews and before and after photos of lip lifts by various surgeons on Real Self and other sites and noticed that it was mostly younger women having the procedure, now, to get glamorous pouty lips. The few photos I've seen of women my age, 72, didn't look much better in their after pictures...it seemed their surgeons may have been tentative. In any case, I didn't want to go through a procedure just to have a shapeless lip a little higher on my face. I wanted the lips I had when I was younger. I explained all this to Dr. Pearson and he listened to every word. Dr. Pearson explained that a lip lift wouldn't make my lips fuller and he explained that the width of the base of the nose, where the incision is made, determines how much of the upper lip is affected.
Dr. Pearson is the most patient doctor I've ever met. I showed him how I felt my upper lip was curled in and demonstrated how it looked when I "unrolled" it with my finger, which restored the shape. I explained I didn't want an exaggerated cupid's bow, which I've seen on some After pics. I asked everything I could think of about angles and curves and the shape of the incision. I agonized, with him, about whether 5 mm or 6 would be better. I trusted him but was worried about looking funny. He kept listening and listening, just amazingly kind and patient.
The morning of the procedure, I was over an hour early. (This happened often since I was coming from far away and never sure about traffic. Whatever time I got there, he always managed to accommodate me and the receptionist was wonderful and fun to talk to if I had to wait a few minutes.) Again, before we started I agonized about how much to remove and, again, Dr. Pearson was kind and patient. We settled on 5.5.
The procedure was comfortable, as everyone says. The minute I saw myself afterward, I knew he'd done a perfect job. He'd completely transformed my neutral expression from "sad clown" to happy and pleasant.
My healing was slowed a bit by an allergic reaction. Contact dermatitis has happened to me before, usually from strong cleansers. Dr. Pearson was as caring and kind as he always is, checking on me constantly until everything cleared up. Even with hay fever, and contact dermatitis I was looking pretty much okay in about 8 days. It's been 15 days, now, and I'm only slightly numb around the nose but I can smile (carefully, because of the scar.) again. The scar is delicate and clean and I'm wearing silicone tape to flatten it. Nothing I've ever done has made me feel better about myself than this little procedure and I'm so happy I chose Dr. Pearson. There is no one like him.