2 Years Later - MACS Lift, Neck, Fat Transfer

No, just the midface. I had a lot fat transfer and Juvederm as well. In hindsight I do wish I would've had my eyes done too. Maybe in a couple of years...

He did a great work you look great. Your eyes are not hollow under your eyes nor droopy i don't think they need a lift at all. Yes you are right with age you need to update.

Thank you! I appreciate the kind words, especially since my stylist (the only person who knows I had it done besides my kids and hubby) said that it did not make me look any younger at all. :( It is hard to see in the picture, especially b/c I don't have any eyeshadow on, but my eyelids are getting "crinkly" towards the inside so I have to be careful with certain eyeshadow textures and colors as it will make it more pronounced. If I lift my eyebrows up with my finger, the crinkles go away. In 2 months I go back for a follow-up and we will decide which route to take about my neck. Wish me luck!

You decide what you want maybe you want a higher position or more lift like a slant to the eye some want the over natural effect. I wish you the best luck.

I'm sorry you're not happy with the result, but honestly, you look beautiful. I'm getting one syringe of Voluma on each side and Juviderm some time this summer. It will be my first time. Were you not happy with the Juviderm?

I was happy with the Juvederm while it lasted. Always have a PS do the injections. It lasted longer when I had a PS do it instead of a nurse. There are also other fillers that may last longer for you (but cost more).

You are welcome. I wish I would've read more reviews here on RealSelf before I had my surgery.

Thank you so much for your kind words! I really appreciate it. That last pic was taken a while ago (just wanted to have one in there where I had a little makeup on and didn't look terrible!) and unfortunately the fat transfer under one of my eyes seems to not have survived. Also, the sutures behind my ears (and down some) are now puckered and visible. I believe it is called "dog ears". My neck is continuing to sag. I was not going for extreme, but when I was told I would look 7 years younger and really don't...it's just not worth almost $11K. My stylist is the only one who knows I had it done and she says she cannot really tell any difference at all. :( I will let you know if I decided to have any additional work. Right now I don't have the money. I promised to pay him, and I just want what I was promised (without paying an additional $2k) but I don't think that is going to happen. I am seeing another surgeon near my home on Wed for Juvederm injections that did not last when I had it done at this surgeon's office, and I'm going to see if he comments on my Macs Lift. Thank you again for taking the time to give me such nice compliments. It really does help!

lizzlemcbeal, thank you for your compliments. The lighting in the room helped out a great deal! My hubby said that it didn't even look like me. I'd just had juvederm a few hours before. That was almost a month ago. Sadly, it did not last. Maybe due to the fact that it was a nurse who didn't seem very experienced. The surgeons at Belecara do not administer the injections. Probably gives them more time to do consultations for new surgeries. Trust me, if you met me in person you would know I'm in my mid 40's. Yes, it's great that Dr. Lickstein is willing to waive his fee, as he should!!! He should also not charge me one red cent b/c my neck sags more every day. I really couldn't afford surgery either, so I'm paying it out monthly. That is why I drive a 13 year old car. And I definitely don't have any more $ to spend on a revision surgery-or rather a surgery to give him a second chance to fix what I was told would be fixed! And I definitely did not have almost $11,000 to spend on "looking a little bit better". I would not recommend having any surgery until you've talked with at least 4 PS, and researched them all in depth, speaking to former patients. Know about what could go wrong, or what could last only 5 minutes, b/c some will try to sell you on all the good points and not mention any of the bad. Honestly I don't know if I'll have a revision. But I will update if I do!! :D

lizzlemcbeal, for an update: I did have the revision and it was an EPIC FAIL. To add insult to injury Lickstein sewed my ear lobes to my neck. I was also charged for the OR, anesthesia and some other fee. So that was an addtional few thousand more he was able to pocket while making me look worse than I started out!!!!!!!

Can we not do something legally this is just wrong To treat people this way !

I've research this a lot. For some reason with plastic surgery the doctors end up winning these law suits. Even when it is very obvious they screwed up. I don't know why this is.

Well my most recent surgery, now that the swelling is all gone has me looking like my "before" picture. :(

I understand where you're coming from. I wouldn't let him touch me again. And good luck getting any kind of apology or acknowledgement that he screwed up. Lickstein told me the same BS, that I was the first patient who his "stellar surgeon skills" had failed. BULLS**T.

I had a bad neck and facelift (look the same) but he said my 2 hematomas were rare, my necrotic skin was rare and that it was rare that my procedure didn't work out. They all say this. After reading hundreds of complaints here, I'd say our outcomes are par for the course. Also, to be told to wait a year is common but it is also when the statuette of limitation is up and you can't sue after 1 year. Coincidence? Hmmm.

are you f’ing kidding me? such f’ing bs. paid off by these doctors much??? you should be ashamed of yourselves but I guess it’s hard to be when they are lining your pockets as well.

Thank you for your post! Very nice of you to take the time. Yes, it's very frustrating and stressful. Also on my family as well. No, there is no incision. He had talked about doing that during my consultations, and also said something about tying the bands together. My neck has become worse since my original post. Upsetting b/c my neck was the reason I came to see him in the first place. He says "surgery is unpredictable"....grrrrrrrrrrr

Also, I forgot to add that in an email he sent a few days ago he said what I was afraid of- that I would have to pay an anesthesiologist, and pay for the use of the 'facilities'.

If there is no incision then the neck was not addressed ...when the neck is lifted , the surgeon has to go in there to pull and sometimes do lipposuction too , have you asked him about that ? Since your neck was what you really wanted to fix, it all sounds strange to me that this was not made clear by him....

I told him that I am very disappointed (moving towards devastated since I spent over $10,000) as my reason-and ONLY reason- for seeing him in the first place was b/c of my neck. It was his suggestion to do a Macs Lift (never entered my mind to do that). He said it would fix my neck and that I wouldn't have to have Juvederm anymore. He said he's "never had this happen with a patient before"-that the neck has "fallen" after surgery. He's not said anything about liposuction, possibly b/c I'm pretty thin. He said something about Botox injections to see if it's the muscles. It's not. It's saggy skin.

Because you did not have a neck lift !! You wanted your neck lifted, he should of listened to your needs, i am very slim too but my doctor did a little liposuction so things fall better into place and also performed a lower face lift , you can see my posts on the facelift here ...i am so sorry to hear you are dissapointed...

Exactly! I know I didn't and I am not understanding why he didn't do what he said he would do!! And expects me to pay the additional money for anesthesia (which from my research I know I don't have to use general) and 'facility fees' again. Not to mention the time and being cut open again. It's just not fair. And every month when I send $1000 to care credit I want to cry. And I have many more payments. Plus possibly more. It is not fair and I don't like being taken advantage of. I think he's a nice person in general and perhaps he thought that just a Macs Lift would work. Maybe I misunderstood how long/how many he's done. But in the brochures it says he's been named "Top Surgeon", is an expert of sorts, yada yada blah. Had he TOLD me BEFORE the surgery (or had it been mentioned in the brochure) "Well, it may not work. Surgery is unpredictable", then of course there's no f'ing way I would have done it.

can you file a complaint with the medical board? also maybe sue as if someone botches me from the first to the extremes I am not going to let that person touch me again! our bodies are not like a car give a body shop/auto shop a chance to correct this is our body for God's sake! Hope you can get a full refund plus extra for the suffering and find a more qualified doctor.

I agree! I know for a fact his nurses posted positive reviews. Real Self did take them down, so kudos to them for that. I have a very hard time now believing any reviews that do not provide a lot of information or pictures. There is an interesting article (made the cover) in this month's Consumer Reports Magazine about doctors and the harm they cause-and get away with it. Very scary.

It also addresses the "Top Doc" thing, (not exactly what we think it is sometimes!) and to beware of positive reviews. They also assert that what you don't know about your doctor (that is not in any reviews) can kill you. Or disfigure you for like. I thought that apex 98,000 people were killed each year by doctor mistakes, but they say 440,000!!!!!! I cannot wrap my brain around that. I know of 2 people recently at our local hospital that were killed by doctors. One was a child (adult dose of a med) and a 19 year old girl, the niece of one of our cub scout leaders. She went to the ER and was given Penicillin, even though she was wearing a medical alert bracelet. Killed her. 6 months prior my husband took my son to the same ER when he was very sick with strep throat. Although my son's medical file folder was RED, indicating he has an allergy to a medication, and it was stamp on the cover "Penicillin allergy", they gave him a dose of it right there in the ER, and gave my husband a Rx for it. He called me at the pharmacy, saying he couldn't get the meds b/c in there system it was flagged that he was allergic. The hospital apologized, they did an "investigation" (sent a letter about it, with an apology) and stated that b/c of what happened to us (my son was lucky and didn't die!) that new procedures were being "put into place" to make sure this didn't happen again. 6 months later they killed that poor girl with the same mistake they had supposedly put in new procedures to assure it would never happen again! It was never reported in the local paper. We only knew about it b/c we knew the family. And what is also sad is that a year prior they had amputated the wrong leg when they operated on her uncle! Then, a few months later my was rushed to the same ER again b/c we thought he had appendicitis. They starved him for a day and a half so they could do surgery, and ran all kinds of blood tests. Had an MRI even. The surgeon booked an ER. About an hour before the surgery a brave young Peds Doctor came into his hospital room and said there was no reason to operate on my son. That he did not have appendicitis at all, and even the surgeon knew this b/c the blood test showed no such infection. He had mesenteric lymphandentis. Sounds scary, but it was inflammation in the lymph nodes in the membrane that attaches the intestine to the abdominal wall. It was from having strep throat. It resolved on its own. The surgeon just wanted to cut. The nurse called the surgeon while he was in the OR (she was pissed) and told him "this child is eating right now b/c there is NO surgery b/c there is no need for surgery". The surgeon refused to talk to us.

I have a horrible scar under my chin. He cut the bands, and they grew back-quickly. I can add a pic of the chin of you don't believe me.

So thanks for the information, but I already knew that. He told me he would "tie off the bands" like a corset. Nope. And also, he didn't correct the jowls and lower cheek with 2 Macs Lifts, in addition to the "neck work". Total, complete waste of time and money. Not to mention pain, and not be able to leave the house for weeks. My profile picture shows me after surgery, but now with Botox in my neck (for bands he didn't correct), Juvederm in NLF (he swore I would NEVER need that again) and in lips as well as Restylane in lips not op of Juvederm, Juvederm in sides of chin, Botox on forehead, "11's", crows feet, Restylane under the eyes (hollow and tear trough). Very expensive to keep up. And NO, Lickstein did not do injections.

Hi beautyrules! I did do research about getting a lawyer. Still have not ruled it out. But I'm afraid it would just be a waste of even more money. At least with the injections I KNOW I'm getting something for sure! Yes, I have to have injections, more than every six months. Just dropped $1025 last month. He left my face uneven. The right side droops and is very evident, especially around my mouth. What bugs me though is the uneven fat transfer (what did end up "taking") that caused 'frontal bossing'. A little bit of Botox helped to even some of it out, but not much. They don't want to put any fillers there-said it may cause more lumpiness. The worst thing is the neck issue. I'm getting these injections from another PS, by the way. He (current PS) did inject the bands in my neck that Lickstein promised me twice he was going to fix. It did work a bit- for 3 months. But it takes many units and I just cannot afford it. Gotta pick and choose which injections I have done. I'm a SAHM currently, and thinking about getting a part time job to pay for the injections. If I don't get them it looks like I've had a stroke or something. I feel guilty feeling so vain about all of this. But mostly I just feel sick and disgusted at being conned out of thousands and thousands of dollars. The 3 PS I've consulted said Lickstein did a terrible job (one even said it looked like someone's first attempt at plastic surgery). I'm like, uh, yeahhhhh. I know he did. I've got a mirror or two in my house!!! But I highly doubt I could get any of them to testify that it was a hack job. Plus, several women on here that had bad outcomes with Lickstein have tried in vain to get their medical records from him and Belcara. One lady who DID get them said that half of the records were missing. Imagine that.

Hi, under the data protection act it is your legal right to see your health file, a health proffessional cannot refuse and if a patient feels part of thier records are missing they can raise the issue with the relevent body. I am going through this at the moment and its a long haul, very frustrating, time consuming and draining, you want to give up because you are banging on doors and being fobbed off but the law is the
And we legally CAN HAVE ACCESS to our health records. I research and study every night and when you learn your possion legally it is very empowering ! : ) xx

don't let the same doc touch you again. he might do further damage. he started with a fresh face and made it worst. he will scar you for life. he's not certified, there's something wrong in the whole picture with him, not you.