He's the best

I wasn’t planning on providing a review until I was totally at the end of this process. I was asked, however, to provide this interim review and so I am happy to share my experiences and thoughts at this point in time. I understand it can take up to a year to completely heal from this surgery; therefore, the things that I am going to mention in this review as a concern may very well resolve themselves with time. I will update this in mid-2019.
It is my opinion that Dr Spiegel is one of the best, if not the best, cosmetic surgeon. As a prior paramedic, I have met many doctors and so I feel that I can recognize a doctor possessing great confidence yet humbleness. Dr Spiegel certainly has those qualities. He never made me feel I was just another number. I am impressed with how he has addressed all of my concerns before and after the surgery. I left Boston and The Spiegel Center feeling confident that if anything needed a touch up he would take care of it. He is truly “A Doctors Doctor” and I love the fact that he is also Professor Spiegel who has a passion to teach!
Dr. Spiegel has a wonderful staff. In particular, Carole was fantastic. At times I became frustrated and impatient with the healing process and needing to return to work pressures. Carole had an uncanny timing of calling me at the times when I was feeling down and most needed reassurance. It was always comforting to hear her easy to talk to, stay positive voice that everything would be okay. Carole was also of great help to me in completing medical leave and return-to-work paperwork. Thank you Carole and all the staff at The Spiegel Center.
I met Dr Spiegel for the first time in consultation Nov 2017. Dr Spiegel had a pleasant demeanor and was very patient listening to my concerns and what I wanted. He then began to demonstrate his professional opinion pointing out the things that he could do covering everything I had talked about. He did simple things like pulling gently on certain areas of my face showing me where he could tighten up skin in a face lift and showing how contouring the forehead would create a genial slope to the bridge of my nose. He was confident that he could give me what I was looking for. After doing my due diligence, I decided he was the right doctor for me. His schedule was completely booked for more than 6 months out!
My surgery was scheduled for July 31, 2018, with Dr Spiegel and his intern Dr Kuperstock. I did inquire as to who would would perform the actual surgery and was assured that Dr Spiegel would be performing the surgery with Dr Kuperstock assisting. Doctor Spiegel is a teaching doctor and I love that he is passing his craft along to other very capable doctors. The day before the surgery we had one last consult making sure we were on the same page. He went over the order in which procedures would take place and asked me if I had any concerns. I did add a fat graft upper lip to the list of things since I was already having a lip lift. I had a lot of procedures preformed at the same time, some of which, with 20/20 hindsight, I wish I had waited to do separately. One of my lessons learned from this experience has been that perhaps it would have been better to not try to accomplish all of these procedures at the same time. Some things did not turn out exactly as I hoped and I think doing too many things at the same time contributed to that. This will be discussed in the review.
Surgery Day
I thought I was ready! I had a little more than 6 months to prepare for this day. I had watched videos on Youtube of each and every procedure. I knew how swollen faces can get after these procedures and I was ready, or so I thought. All I can say is I was shockingly unprepared. Thank God my husband was with me, but even he was having a hard time. The first night was spent at Boston Medical. I thought my face would fall off if the bandages were removed. My pain level stayed pretty much a continuous 8 out of 10. The nurses were in and out of the room all night and the next morning I was visited by Dr Kuperstock. Dr Kuperstock has a great bedside manner. I could not see anything and I was feeling no pain from the medications, so he left me with a detailed video on my phone on how to care for, dress and wrap my head. He addressed my concern about my ear closing up and popping and this was after he had demonstrated how to apply the bandages so he unwrapped to take a look and re-wrapped. It turned out to be fluid from the surgery that had drained into the eustachian tube. It was like having an ear full of water and would clear with time. During our conversation he talked about what a privilege and how fortunate he was to have worked as Dr Spiegel’s intern. For those living in DC metro area and are interested, he will probably be in practice some time in September. Being trained by the best, he’s is worth checking out.
Below I am listing every thing I had done. I put * by the things that if I could do over I would do so separately or have a “clearer understanding” about the procedure. Just because I put a * next to something does not mean I would not do the procedure.
Forehead conturing with scalp advancement & browlift *
Face Lift
Upper and lower blepharoplasty
Rhinoplasty *
Lip Lift with fat graft
Co2 laser - Face *
Procedures
I am very impressed with the forehead contouring and the slope to the bridge of my nose. Included in the procedure was a brow-lift and scalp advancement. My concern: I’m not sure my brow-lift is where it should be, but it is looking pretty good now and I don’t want to look excited all the time either. Time will tell. I’m not sure if the scalp advancement was beneficial for me because I have thin hair and there appears to be no advancement at all because the incision runs across the top of my head ear to ear through the hair leaving the existing hairline intact. I did try to communicate my thin hair problem before the surgery and Dr. Spiegel said he would take a look to see if I needed the scalp advancement. Perhaps we should have agreed up front to skip this one.
Face Lift—He did a great job on the face lift even though there is still a little waddle under my chin and is a concern. I’m really hopeful that this will disappear with time.
Blepharoplasty—The upper and lower blepharoplasty is still a little puffy at the outer corners of my eyes and are still a little tender but they are looking better every day. Makeup works wonders at covering up the incisions that continue to heal. I had some stitches that had come loose and I was concerned enough to send a pictures to Dr Spiegel. He assured me it would be okay.
Rhinoplasty - At this point it is one of the procedures I wish I had done separately because it didn’t turn out exactly as I had hoped. In the consultation he listened to my concern about the bumps and size of my nose and then he demonstrated how he would address the bumps but also give my nose a gentle slope from my forehead. I guess I thought it would include the tip of my nose also. I am very pleased with the transition from my forehead to the bridge of my nose and it is narrower at the bridge and he did take care of the two bumps I had on each side of my nose at the bridge. It’s not that I think my nose looks bad - quite the contrary. Dr Spiegel gave me a nose exercise to do twice daily. I have done this every day trying make my nose thinner at the tip.
Lip Lift— I love my lip lift. I will be re-visiting the lips in the future, I think mostly the lower lip this time. My only is concern is a little pocket that opened up right after Dr Kuperstock removed the stitches it remains a concern but is healing. The picture is a little blurry like my vision was at the time I took the picture.
The last procedure was Co2 laser-Face. I watched many videos on all of these procedures and when I included the Co2 laser face treatment, I was expecting the whole face. I could not tell anything for the first couple of weeks about what was treated but began to realize that the only area treated was the deep smile creases and the tip of my chin. There was a lot of surgery that day - over five hours. When I asked Carole about the Co2 laser face treatment, I was told that it would have been too dangerous to do my whole face. Dr Spiegel has already said he will take care of the rest of my face whenever I am ready to visit. I’m planning a 2019 visit to complete the Co2 laser and address anything else that may need his attention.
Every day gets better and better. I am enjoying my new younger looking self. There is this friend of mine who has seen me a few times through this healing process and the last time he saw me asked if I was related to Benjamin Button!
Thank you again Dr Spiegel, Dr Kuperstock, Carole and the rest of The Spiegel Center staff for your patience with me and just being the nice and caring persons you all are.