39 and Ready to Get my Profile Back!! - North Carolina

I am driving in from ohio, so yes i have a long trip ahead of me, but i think Dr.Harley wil be worth it. I wanted someone who specifically specializes in faces. Have you already did the lift? I would not worry about some filler. I think if you did the lift already you should be fine. I feel like getting over and over makes my face look heavy and if you keep filling the skin and then it disapates i would think it would eventually stretch the skin, but thats just what i feel personally!

Your explanation makes perfect sense to me.

They all of course say i dont need it blah blah, but i feel like if something is bothering you fix it. My best friend is almost excited as i am. Lol. My bf on the other hand is worried about the scars. Have you did it?

I agree with u That's why I'm fixing it ! I had my upper and lower eyes done 8 years ago i had no eyelids .very happy with them . I'll be seeing Dr Harley. March 31 can't come soon enough ! I'm very spontaneous when I want I want it now lol so this is torture. I will be looking forward to hearing about your journey ..

I get something in my mind and just do it! Its a good and bad thing. Lol

My dictation must've gone wild and kept retyping what I said sorry about that. You get the gist - we think this guy is terrific!

Did you fall asleep before he began? Im so nervous. I see that every review is positive. I know he will do good work. How was the peel?

Oh! I just saw! You are scheduled for March 1st! That is AWESOME! Make sure you start eating fresh blueberries and pineapple. Also, cold pressed, organic pineapple juice is a great way to get the enzymes into your system to help with bruising and swelling. Go buy the arnica pellets. If you are unfamiliar with these, they are homeopathic pellets you take, sublingually, at least 3 times a day. You can get them at Whole Foods, Garners Natural, or Earth Fare, or any health-food store. You will take 5 pellets each time and let them dissolve under your tongue. I had 3 tubes and used them all. Also buy bromelian supplements and take them. You will want to have a triple antibiotic gel/cream, peroxide and q-tips to clean and dress incisions while the stitches are in. You will want a cream or gel like Mederma or a scar gel like Scar Zone or scar away for after when the stitches are out. I also got the silicone strips and liked them a lot, but the kept falling off in the night. You will want to bring a stool softener in case the meds constipate you. I never used mine and I chalk that up to the bushels of fresh blueberries and the cold pressed pineapple juice I kept drinking after the sx...they have lost of fiber! Lol! You will want a travel pillow and you will want comfy clothes to lounge and sleep in, preferably with a very loose neck or a zip front for ease of getting into and out of. You will want to pack or think of snacks and foods that you will like and want to eat that don't have a lot of sodium. You will want lots of bottled water to stay hydrated. You will want gel packs for icing your face. You will want GIANT sunglasses and take your ball cap. If you aren't going to stay on Rx pain pills ( I did the whole time and recommend it! LOL!) you will want to bring an over the counter acetaminophen product. Make sure you bring tampons if you are going to need them. You can think about a wedge pillow, I found that stacking bed pillows gave me more adjustability and comfort. bring a mild baby shampoo to wash your hair the first couple times. Other things I could personally not live without were 1)my humidifier (walmart, $29.99...you will not need if you are not having an bleph) 2) Starbucks...I am a caffeine junkie...I had my boyfriend with me to run to starbucks, but if you are going to be alone and you like your daily caffeine fix, be sure to either ask for extra coffee pods for the coffee machine when you check in or make other arrangements. I don't know if you are SUPPOSED to have caffeine after your procedure, but I NEEDED it!) and 3) Netflix...I brought my laptop. OH! and if you are having the bleph...there are 2 different kinds of eyedrops they recommend. one is like water and one is more viscous, like a watery vaseline. Get them both and use the thick one at night...but be prepared because it really blurs your vision. Non drops if you are not having an eye procedure, of course! I will try to think of more...

Very helpful !!where did u get the antibiotic gel ?

The antibiotic gel that my boyfriend used to clean my incisions was Bacitracin. You can get that at any big-box pharmacy like Walmart, Walgreens, and CVS and probably at any local pharmacy. I am sure that any triple-antibiotic cream or gel would work fine, if you have a tube in your medicine cabinet that would work. You just need to keep the incision sites from getting infected while they heal. So anything you use on cuts, I guess, would work. The scar gel you can get at Ulta (they have a whole section for scar care products), at Walgreens (in the pharmacy section, they have a whole section for scar care too, ask the pharmacist) or on Amazon. I encourage everyone to browse through those sections then check product reviews online and see what feels right to them to deal with the scars. I can say that I am pleased with both Mederma ( which was recommended to me by name at Biltmore plastic surgery) and the Scar Away gel (silicone gel was also recommended as an option.) I really love the silicone strips as well, and they seem to be very highly rated by the Drs on this site. I kind of gave up on them, however, because, as I mentioned, I would wake up with them all over my face in places I had not put them and on my pillows...they aren't cheap and I wasn't sure when they were falling off in the night, so I was not sure how much value they were adding. Now that I am back in FL and have the house to myself with no one to hide the existence of the incision sites from, I intend to start wearing the silicone strips during the day. Sorry, Melissarennee...didn't mean to hijack your review with that reply!

Omg no thank you so much!! You gave me all the info i needed! I feel more comfortable now. Thank you for all your kind compliments as well:) i will def take the pain meds the entire time. I hate pain!! Did you fall asleep before he began the procedure? Im afraid oral valium will not knock me out! Sorry for all the questions, but you've been extremely helpful. Reading your response helped my anxiety! Thank you! Thank all of you ladies for the support!! Im keeping the procedure a secret, so i dont have tons of support

I know u didn't ask me but I thought that I would give u what I have read from everyone that had it done . You take like 4 different pills when you get there then he marks u up by the time he's done marking u you fall a sleep. Some do wake up during it but don't feel anything and it doesn't seem to bother u They go right back to sleep or some have woke up toward the end but never feel anything and don't remember even going back to the hotel. I think your pretty much out of it and if your not he will give you more so u are. I know that was my fair too .

Ok great! Thank you.. I am a big baby and i dont take pain well, but my real fear is just feeling the tugging or blood dripping. It just doesnt sound like something i would enjoy. Lol

Tracyanne i just re-read your review and looked at your pics and i AM NOT prettier! You are beautiful and you seem like a beautiful person on the inside as well! I def dont have a 28 year old bf!! Lol so you know you are a hottie. Your results are amazing.

Melissarenee, you are a doll! Thank you for the compliments!
Let me tell you what my experience was with the surgery itself. I showed up at 6 am with my little dog and my boyfriend. I know that for sure. I signed some release forms. I know that, too. Dr Harley handed me a paper cup with some pills in them and some water. Took the pills. Got straight up to go pee. Walked the 10 yards to the bathroom...sat down, peed. Got up. Washed my hands...thought "you know, this is so FUNNY! It hasn't been 2 minutes yet but I could swear I feel those pills already..." at that point, I presumably opened the bathroom door and went back to the front room to sit down. But i don't remember it. There are selfies on my phone of me in that front room, I guess I wanted one last round of "before" pics...but I don't have any memory of taking them...apparently the chick in those selfies was HIGH AS A KITE, because i also do not remember going to the back room for my procedure, nor do I recall them taking the official before pics i was so upset they had forgotten to take (oh, they took them, but I had NO memory of that at all.) Here is the part I hesitate to tell you, but do not fear!...I did actually wake up at one point during the procedure...and I know that sounds awful, BUT IT WASN'T!...some people do wake up, I am not the only one...HOWEVER, we all report feeling no pain and having ZERO anxiety when we wake up. I woke up near the end of my procedure (I think)...I had no sensation of any kind. I could not feel what Dr Harley was doing, I could not feel what he had done, I could not feel my a$$ on the seat. I had NO ANXIETY about the fact that I was awake. I had NO ANXIETY about the fact that a person was working with a sharp object near my eye. I had NO ANXIETY of any kind, only a mild, sleepy, detached interest in what was going on. I am pretty sure I asked Dr Harley how it was going, he indicated that I was "doing great" and I was "doing awesome" ( Dr Harley is fantastic at calmly convincing you that you are an over-achiever at doing nothing...like sitting still and being asleep while he does surgery!) Almost as soon as I woke up and found out I was getting an A+ in Facelift with a Minor in Uppper Bleph, I was back asleep. I very vaguely remember John receiving me at one point. I remember, without any specifics, the kind and encouraging voices of Dr Harley and nurse Kelly assuring me I had done great as we said goodbye...there is a lot more blank time...then I remember somehow being in my onsie pajamas at my suite in the Hilton, reminding my boyfriend that Dr Harley said I could take 2 pain pills. I would like to take this opportunity to say that I had no pain, ZERO. I just wanted 2 pills because I am a recovering alcoholic and lets face it, that's the closest to "partying" that I am likely to get ever again! LOL!!! I am kidding. Kind of. Mostly, I didn't want to ever feel any pain because I was advised by a nurse friend that the best way to manage pain is to not ever let it get a foothold...so I dazedly asked my bf to please remember to give me 2 pain pills when it was time for my meds. That is the last thing I have any recall of until the next morning. Oh! Wait...at one point during the first night, my eye started to bleed down my face. My Bf, John, called Dr Harley. I remember that. They had some sort of discussion, to decide if I was dying, presumably... must have decided I wasn't, and I went back to sleep. Never in any pain. No pain. Now, I have read other reviews, where some people have said they felt discomfort from the bandages around their face. Not only did I not have discomfort, I had to ask John if I ever had bandages around my face, too. He assures me that I did. They didn't bother me, obviously. At no point in my recovery did I ever have anything like "pain"...I asked for extra pain pills and I received them and I took them...when they were all gone I was at a point in my healing that all I had was some soreness under my chin which I still sort of have. I love that soreness, because I know that is the muscle, which was worked on, healing. That soreness, which is not uncomfortable and was only a little uncomfortable when I sneezed, is how I know that the work Dr Harley did on my neck was "more than skin deep" and that my results will last.
I am not saying that you will be as knocked out as I was, I have some friends on Real Self who definitely were less knocked out than I was. I don't want to give you an expectation that might not be your reality...My advice to you is to tell Dr Harley that you are really afraid of waking up. He will explain to you what he is putting you on and he may even throw in an extra pill for good measure. What I DO KNOW, because I have been told, is that you will receive a series of shots in your face before any surgery begins. I am confident that Dr Harley and nurse Kelly will be sure you are properly out of it before that happens, and if you aren't they will MAKE you properly out of it. They do this day after day and they are very, very good at it. This is one of the MAJOR reasons I chose this procedure with this doctor. I chose it because this is not some hospital or surgical center, where you are a just number on an operating room schedule and a doctor checks a clip board right before he scrubs up to remind himself what procedure he is doing that day...I chose it because you are not a body knocked all the way out on a table, being breathed for by a machine. I know that you are traveling for this procedure, so what you may not know is Dr Harley operates out of his office. This office is a beautiful, welcoming converted bungalow. There is soft lamp light and antiques. There is beautiful artwork. It is well-appointed and calming and pleasant to be in. This is the equivalent to a home, only, in the back, there is a room that will remind you of the DENTIST, not of a surgical operating room. There will be one doctor, who will drive in to do this procedure on you with you and you alone on his mind. This procedure is a procedure HE developed and that he does to perfection every week. It is a one patient to one nurse to one doctor ratio in a clean, calm, beautiful environment. Dr Harley and Kelly and Juanita will see to it that you are taken care of, before, during and after. It is the intimate and personal nature of this procedure, the way they do things at Biltmore Plastic Surgery, that convinced me that this procedure in this place with these people was safe and reasonable and was the exact right fit for a scaredy-cat like me. I bet you find it is the exact right fit for you, too! The irony of this is that this is Boutique-style, A-list , high-end attention that you get for LESS than it would cost to have some hack that does every procedure in the book have a scheduling app tell him when he needs to come in to do work on you in a surgical center with a waiting room full of patients and a multiple operating rooms!

Melissarenee, I have said this to other people about to have this surgery with Dr Harley AND I MEAN IT...just get yourself to that office for the procedure and put yourself in their hands and you have nothing to fear. Everything you will have gone through, emotionally and logistically, to get to that point is the hard part. On the day of your surgery, you leave that all behind and put yourself in their capable hands...and when you walk back out of that beautiful little bungalow a few hours later, your life will be changed for the better and you will be the very best version of you! That moment was one of the best moments of my adult life! (I don't specifically recall it, mind you, I was far too doped up, and you probably will be, too, but its still gonna be a great moment!)

PS. Just for the record, my boyfriend is 25! LOL!!!

I think when you keep filling the skin and it begins deplete that it stretches it worse.i still will use filler in my lips. It gives your face a heavy appearance.

I use juvederm btw lol

We are going to drive, because you cannot fly or he recomends you do not for 7 days and i cant be gone that long! Thank you very much!! Im trying to hold on to my youth as long as possible. When are you sceduled?