No More Fillers for Me

It's been six months since I received the lumpy Restylane injections and a few months since my last update. Fortunately, the filler seems to be about 50% less visible and the lumps have finally evened out. At this point, I can live with it until it goes away completely.

Interestingly, I received a private message from an MD who said he would not recommend Restylane injections for me again - as if I need to be told twice!

Lastly, I just want to say to everyone researching doctors to be sure to be very savvy about inspecting their before/after photos. As I've been researching surgeons, it is clear that whether intentional or not, many after photos are manipulated. Often the lighting or the angle of the face is different, or the skin is blurred out or out of focus. In order to gain a true assessment of the physician's work, the angle and the lighting need to be the same and the camera needs to be in focus. Look for shadow
differences, whether the reflection in the pupil is at the same angle, or whether the physician has blurred the skin under the eyes (the last one is sadly very common). We need to be our own advocates since it is clear that no one else is looking out for us in the profit-driven plastic surgery industry. Good luck out there!

Hi all and thank you for all the private messages requesting an update. Things are much the same although the lumpy eye's lumps seem to have expanded up but also flattened just a tad. The other eye has a small lump now too but it comes and goes.
One thing I have noticed is that the Restylane did not do much for my bags but instead just appeared to prop the bags up higher into the area under my eyes. This may not be physically possible; but that is how I'd describe the visual effect. In addition, the lumpy filled area is right under where my lateral eye bag is and and also serves to visually extend it further down my lower eyelid.
As someone with negative vector eyes, the product placed in the tear trough added volume to an already protruding area. I think that tear trough injections are probably the wrong choice for those with negative vector eyes. (I expressed this concern at my appointment.)
Will update again in a few weeks. Thank you.

Over a month has passed since I received Restalyne in my tear trough area from Dr. Kotlus. Going into this, despite my fears, I was looking forward to feeling a bit more confident afterwards, but instead I am starting to get depressed about my appearance and wish I had never had the injections.
The left eye's tear trough looks acceptable and that, and because Dr. Kotlus is seems like a good person, is why this review has four stars. My right eye gets zero stars because there are separate, filler blobs that were placed too superficially and unevenly. Under fluorescent lights (which are everywhere!), I appear quite freakish.
After reading all the reviews fillers on this site, which now I'm kicking myself for disregarding, it seems these problems are perhaps more common than doctors would like to believe--or than they are willing to admit for such a big money maker.
In the end, I didn't get the results that I paid for or was expecting, so I essentially spent $850 for embarrassment over my appearance and waiting an indeterminate amount of time for this stuff in my face to go away.
All that said, Dr. Kotlus seems like a good person and a reasonably competent doctor. He is certainly well credentialed on paper. His office was clean and nice, and the receptionist was very friendly. He has been responsive and communicative about my problems with the filler and we discussed potentially dissolving it, but I am really, really afraid that might make things worse and I don't think I can handle that. Everyone makes mistakes and my situation may be an unfortunate anomaly but I felt compelled to share my experience in the interest of providing information to this community.