I thought ...Ultherapy Ruined my Undereyes.

I am pleased to be writing this... I feel like I went through hell and back in my mind, and especially after reading so many other horror stories and concerns. Here are my new updates, and they are positive. As the initial review states, I was very scared and did not understand my under-eye skin, and the change in appearance. I am not sure what happened, but I left this site for a couple of months -- I was driving myself insane and I resolved to simply accept what I had "done" out of my own vanity. I focused only on eating really well and working out, and sleeping a TON. I did get under eye fillers not too long after the procedure, but they did not really address what my concerns are. However, I left it all alone and took care of myself to the best of my ability. As of right now, I can't believe I'm saying this, but my eyes and face looks the best I've ever seen it. I will see I do not think the ultherapy worked on my jowls. MAYBE 5% improvement. Which, is something at least. However I do notice MILD thinning around the jowl on one side of my face -- this could be a trick of my mind, or it could actually be from the procedure. I am not happy about this, but it is something that had started prior to the procedure anyhow. It's hard to say. Most importantly however, my eyes look great now. I was terrified for my life at first. I was convinced I was paying for some huge sin I committed. I debated updating this here, but I felt like I would want to know what the update was if I were in someone else's shoes, since mine was initially so negative. I do not have any concern over sunken eyes anymore. In fact, I do believe it tightened the skin around the undereye and while I would NEVER do that again!!!, it really does look better and I am surprised to even say this. I look refreshed. Whatever my skin was doing the first few months, it is not doing it anymore. I do feel that a doc will never tell you the full truth, maybe for legal purposes. My assessment is that the skin was traumatized (obviously), and everyone's skin will have a different reaction to that trauma. Lucky for me, I am EXTREMELY healthy (I don't smoke, almost NEVER drink, I sleep at least 8 hours a night, I work out regularly, and I am pescatarian) and I feel this has everything to do with the skin rebuilding accordingly. If I ever did this again, it would be only on very targeted areas...I think I can wait until something better comes out, the pain was not worth it at all and it scared me. At any rate, I wanted to leave this update because I was a mess the last time I reviewed. And I promise that at this moment, I could not be happier with the way that I look -- even pre-procedure. I attribute this to many factors, and also that I went to an expert doctor. I would never suggest doing the eyes, but if you decide to, go to a great doc and stay very healthy and maybe your outcome will be like mine. Just be sure to give it at least 4 months to assess before fully panicking. I'm still leary since this is so soon after the procedure, but I feel like I am thwarting my worst fears from before and my face is responding in kind. Much luck to all of you out there, I send you my prayers and I do believe that our skin has the ability to heal itself especially if we work with our emotions and lifestyle so it all works together.

I can not believe I am writing this. I waited over a year to do ultherapy because I was considering the risks. After more than TWO respected NY doctors suggested it as their favorite remedy for jowls, I decided to go for it. I researched the method and decided that the negative reviews were probably just less than the 1% rare cases gone wrong, or poor candidates, or poor doctors. I truly thought long and hard about this, and despite being told by another respected woman that it damaged her face, I went in. I scheduled ONLY for my lower face/jowls, as my Dr. had suggested over the many times we had discussed ultherapy. However, when I booked the appointment, they said "full face, yes?" and I said "no!" and they said "ok no problem". When I got to my appointment, they reminded me that I was doing full face. I was surprised. I thought maybe this was a sign. Since my Dr. had done a serious bone surgery for me years prior, and I still do respect and trust him (I no longer trust him or ANYONE stronger than my own intuition), I asked him if he was sure. I am a very thin-skinned Caucasian woman, and I definitely did not have under eye issues. I have never even done botox. I am 39 years old. My under eyes have been very good to me! The nurse tech who is very nice told me "it will tighten loose skin and prevent under eye circles". I thought, ok then, they know what they are doing. The Dr. came in to confirm again that yes -- I should do my under eyes and temples so that my full face is "even". I understood that they used different depths for the sensitive eye area (which was NOT of my concern -- I had never even done fillers and I was waiting years for that!).
Well. Fast forward two months, and after just one week of treatment, I have been up all night each night wondering what has happened to my face. I have been up all night again, sleepless and anxious as hell. Just one week after the procedure, my jawline looked slightly "tighter". I was super pleased. It seems to have just moved a tiny bit, and that was enough for me considering I wasn't a nightmare case. I might add, that I work on camera often. That is another horrible aspect to this absolute oversight across the board. At any rate, within just over one week I had a photoshoot. At the shoot, the same photographer whom I had shot with before, could not figure out what was going on with my under eye. We thought maybe it was because I had hired a new makeup artist. My under eyes looked shallow, oddly slightly wrinkled with just the littlest tinge of concave, and red-blue in color, but also SWOLLEN. There was a noticeable difference between my eye socket and upper cheek bone, which had the illusion of a ski-slope. I did not even CONSIDER that this was from the ultherapy. I think I could not bring myself to believe that I would make such a bad decision, and I think I was in denial.
After that week, it only got worse. I would wake each morning, and it was if I never slept (like tonight). I looked haggard. People were asking me if I was "ok". It was as if someone carved out my eye socket and put in red, swollen, scoopy bulges. I am not exaggerating. I tried to sleep more each night, and work out. I took constant selfies. I still could not admit that it might have been the procedure. I reached my breaking point a week or two ago, and I began reading on here endlessly. I thought about the fact that maybe, just maybe, this was financially driven (which I do not believe, because this Dr. is a wonderful person), or a COMPLETE mis-step and I am the victim who is supposed to warn others against a Dr. or technician (who did my procedure) going ANYWHERE near my eyes. I knew better, and I went ahead with this! That is what makes me the most angry and torn-up. When I called the office of course they were wonderful and offered to see me. But at this point, my head was/is spinning, and it is to the point of crazy-making. I have never felt or seen myself like this before, inside or outside.
Knowing that no Dr. will EVER admit that this was a mistake or an oversight, I had to cut my losses and I could not bring myself to enter that office, as much as I love the staff. I already knew what suggestions they would make, such as filler, which I did NOT NEED before this stupid procedure. I feel even now, that if I go into the office, I will lose it because no one will admit how wrong this was to do to my under eyes. I am also worried about the rest of my face, since we are just two months out. I will say this: if anything else changes, I will make a visible youtube video about the entire ordeal. NOTHING can fix this. NOTHING can fix the stress that I feel over this. NOTHING can fix the EYES -- the windows to the soul. This is HORRIBLE and I am so upset with myself, there are not enough words to explain it.
I contacted another very respected NY Dr. whom I have seen for other procedures like simple laser and some mild filler. He was very surprised, as was his staff, that anyone would touch my under eye or temple area with ultherapy! He has respect and did not say that the procedure caused this, likely because of some Dr. code. Everyone there who had seen me months earlier was surprised at how awful I looked, and I was on 10 hours of sleep. "Are you having an allergic reaction?" "Are you anemic?" "Did you do fillers under your eyes"? These are the questions I got right off of the bat. I felt desperate at this point, and I accepted the suggestion of fillers from this skilled Dr. I am frankly terrified, but at least I feel like I took "action" and fillers ARE reversable. I do not know if ultherapy is. The nurse at the ultherapy Dr.'s office told me it is not. I do not know who to trust at this point. I want to trust her. I want to believe that.
I am a beautiful, inside and out woman, and I feel so foolish for caving into this "simple and natural" beauty TRICK. While it is probably common sense to other doctors to NEVER go near the eye area, especially for VERY thin skinned light skinned woman, I can't say it enough: ULTHERAPY IS NOT FOR THE UNDER EYES. I do not know that I will ever do it on the jawline again either, and I am terrified for what the next few months or beyond will bring. I can only hope that God will have some mercy on me for sharing this here, in the event anyone else considers this procedure. The truth is, we only have ourselves to hold accountable. I can not blame anyone but myself. It will probably be impossible to sue or pursue damages, and I could not imagine spending my time that way. However, I WILL be vocal about this, and I will use any of my publicity I can to address this. I am not shy about the truth. And the truth is, Ultherapy royally messed with a perfect situation that needed NO touching in the first place. Shame on me.
*I am currently terrified of posting photos. I hope that the sincerity in this post will be enough for now, and I TRULY hope to have some positive updates soon. I don't even know how the fillers will settle (I am equally freaked out about them). I do care too much to hurt the Dr. or staff so I will not be posting names.