When I saw my results immediately after surgery, I was very pleased

Hi, as of today, I am two days post-op, having had my lip reduction done on 1/10/2024. I was born with pretty big lips and always wanted to get them reduced. I decided to track my day to day healing process in case anyone else was thinking of getting this procedure done and wondering what the recovery was like. So far I've only seen a couple of reviews in this style so hopefully this can be helpful to anyone thinking of going through with this procedure.

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1/10/2024: Day 0
Today was surgery day. I was honestly pretty nervous, but I figured that Dr. Lam had done hundreds, if not thousands, of these procedures, so I trusted him. You honestly don't get to spend much time with him, and he was pretty adamant on asking you to trust his vision. He wants to assure you that he can judge how much lip to take out. I trusted him, and when I saw my results immediately after surgery, I was very pleased.

The procedure itself took an hour and was practically painless. In fact, it was less intense than some dentist appointments I've had. He gives you a couple pills to take beforehand and then you're numbed up and ready to go. All of his assistants are also super kind and warm, and they really help you feel at ease while the actual surgery is going on. After the surgery is done, he'll show you your results before the swelling sets in and I was very impressed! My lips looked amazing and I was extremely satisfied with my results.

Later that day, I would feel some general soreness, but took Tylenol to deal with it. I wasn't prescribed any painkillers or steroids. Some older reviews mention being given a prescription of steroids to take after, but I wasn't given any. Maybe things changed in the 7ish years since those reviews mentioned it.

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Day 1: 1/11/2024
Swelling started kicking in today. I just stayed in all day and tried to minimize swelling with some ice, but still, I could feel the swelling intensify. It was also super hard to eat. I think I just drank a bunch of protein shakes, and then some microwave mac and cheese. My lips were noticeably more swollen than yesterday.

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Day 2: 1/12/2024
Even more swelling today. I had to fly back home, and my lips were extremely swollen today. I looked like a muppet or something. It's still super hard to eat food too. Additionally, the stitches are also getting super uncomfortable as they poke your mouth every time you close or move. It almost feels like your lips are extraordinarily dry and that the stitches are hard pieces of dead skin or something.

I was also drooling a bit due to the intensifying swelling. Hopefully the swelling will decrease in the next two or so days. Allegedly, according to the post-op brief they give you, swelling peaks on days 3-4 so it looks like I've unfortunately got another couple days of swelling to do. Also, the centers of my lips are still numb, which is apparently normal according to that same post-op brief.

A little more swelling today, mostly on my lower lip. I'm still experiencing numbness in the middle of the top and bottom. Some of the sutures are sticking out and sting a little when they poke you, but I presume it's not that serious. I'm mostly trying to control the swelling. Hopefully it'll decrease by tomorrow or the day after (preferably sooner because my lips are quite swollen).

I'm also hoping that I'll be able to eat real food soon. Between the swelling, numbness, and stitches, it's quite hard to eat. I find myself drooling a lot when eating, as well as being unable to tell when food is on my lips due to the numbness. Apparently the numbness is supposed to last a few weeks, but I'm feeling some tingling, which I'll take as a good sign. I don't know if it's because the numbness is subsiding and the nerves are waking back up, or if it's because the sutures are starting to dissolve, but hopefully it's both.

Anyways, hopefully tomorrow the swelling will go down and the numbness will decrease.

Swelling is still present, although it hasn't increased luckily. My lips look about the same as they did yesterday so hopefully that's a good sign that the swelling will only improve from here on out. I'm still having the same numbness mostly in the center of my lips.

Hoping that I'll make some more progress this week and really reduce the swelling.