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I'm getting Sculptra tomorrow
It will be exactly 1 year from the date of my IPL disaster. I'm mostly excited but a little nervous since every time I have something done, something goes wrong. When I wrote the last post I was having a lot of swelling. My eyelid has some improvement from before the brow lift, but not enough. My surgeon doesn't seem to think it will need to be revised.
After a year of being invisible to men with my deflated face, they have been flirting with me again. I've been called beautiful..... I believe it has more to do with the swelling filling out my face than the brow lift, but maybe it's both. I had much more severe swelling and brushing than most people do.
I will do a separate review of the Sculptra.
After a year of being invisible to men with my deflated face, they have been flirting with me again. I've been called beautiful..... I believe it has more to do with the swelling filling out my face than the brow lift, but maybe it's both. I had much more severe swelling and brushing than most people do.
I will do a separate review of the Sculptra.
I had my brow lift
I will put the full review of that on a separate review sometime, here is basically what happened so far. I don't regret getting it, I regret going to the doctor that did it. He mixed up which eyebrow was my problem eyebrow (even though I reminded him before the surgery) and moved the left one up high and barely moved up the right one. Now, 15 days after surgery, my right eye looks EXACTLY the same as before surgery.... smaller than the other one, and hooded. And my left eyebrow is higher.
On a fat loss related note, the surgery caused swelling in my face...under my eyes and cheeks... for the first time since my Ipl, I didn't feel ugly. Once the bad swelling went down, it filled out under my eyes perfectly...no more hollows. I am hoping every day that it stays as long as possible. My cheeks were filled out too, which made me look more like me again, but the cheek swelling has gone down some. It affirmed for me that I should do sculptra, and filler under my eyes when the swelling goes down. It made me realize how much happiness the Ipl damage has stolen from me. I can look in the mirror right now and not hate what I see....with the exception of my eyebrow problem- it has been slowly falling and just started looking smaller today.
I will see my surgeon in a month and see what his policy is on revisions, although I'm not sure I want him to be the one to fix it.
On a fat loss related note, the surgery caused swelling in my face...under my eyes and cheeks... for the first time since my Ipl, I didn't feel ugly. Once the bad swelling went down, it filled out under my eyes perfectly...no more hollows. I am hoping every day that it stays as long as possible. My cheeks were filled out too, which made me look more like me again, but the cheek swelling has gone down some. It affirmed for me that I should do sculptra, and filler under my eyes when the swelling goes down. It made me realize how much happiness the Ipl damage has stolen from me. I can look in the mirror right now and not hate what I see....with the exception of my eyebrow problem- it has been slowly falling and just started looking smaller today.
I will see my surgeon in a month and see what his policy is on revisions, although I'm not sure I want him to be the one to fix it.
8 1/2 months post IPL.... Plastic surgery consultations
Before I had the ugly wand stamped on my face, I was 40 and didn't feel like I needed any plastic surgery at all on my face. I had never even done Botox. People were constantly telling me how young I looked. Two men at my work in their upper 20s would flirt with me because I'm pretty sure they thought I was their age. Not anymore. I just get an awkward "hi" in the elevator and that's it.
The first consult I went to, they put me in a room with a laser machine. My heart started beating faster. I told myself to look away, ignore it, but I could see it out of the corner of my eye. I started feeling hot. I answered the nurse's questions and tried to act normal, but I finally told her it was bothering me to be in the same room as the laser machine. She asked me if I wanted to go to another room, so we did. Then I was able to calm down. So apparently I must have some kind of laser machine specific PTSD...
When I explained to that doctor what happened to my skin after the IPL, he said "Oh, you got burned!" Thank you for at least acknowledging it. He says he overfills for fat grafting because half of it is going to die, and didn't have any before and after pictures to show me because he's newer, so I won't be going to him, but I'm glad I did the consult.
The second doctor didn't sound comfortable doing fat grafting to my face, he said fillers would be better, and gave me the reasons I have read about on here about what can go wrong with fat grafting. His idea for a brow lift is really raising the lateral part, just like the first doctor, and I think that would look odd on me.
My third consult was with a plastic surgeon with 25 years experience. His idea of what to do for a brow lift is what I want. He doesn't do fat grafting. He listened to my story of how the IPL killed the fat in my face, and didn't deny that it could, or I wouldn't have anything done by him. But he didn't say much about it either, he just asked where I had it done. I booked my brow lift with him for next month. Something I need after losing fat in my forehead and temples.
Trusting someone with your face is scary, but especially after a traumatic experience for a treatment that was supposed to be minor and ended up being life-altering. I am scared to have this done, but my right eye looks smaller than my left because my skin of my forehead started sagging after the IPL and I can't just keep looking in the mirror every day at how uneven it looks.
I thought about what the second doctor said about fat grafting and decided to hold off on it. I have been looking into sculptra, and I think I will do it when the swelling from my brow lift goes down. I want to do voluma but I would have a hard time spending the money on it and having it be so temporary.
Right now what is bothering me the most isn't my flat cheeks, it my hollowed out under eyes. It's like literally a C from one end of my eye to the other. I look at women older than me and my age and NO ONE has hollowed out under their eyes all the across like I do. It isn't a natural way to lose fat, even with normal aging.
I'm still using L'oreal revivalist volume filler. It did improve the look of my cheeks somewhat. Still fighting to not be depressed about this.
The first consult I went to, they put me in a room with a laser machine. My heart started beating faster. I told myself to look away, ignore it, but I could see it out of the corner of my eye. I started feeling hot. I answered the nurse's questions and tried to act normal, but I finally told her it was bothering me to be in the same room as the laser machine. She asked me if I wanted to go to another room, so we did. Then I was able to calm down. So apparently I must have some kind of laser machine specific PTSD...
When I explained to that doctor what happened to my skin after the IPL, he said "Oh, you got burned!" Thank you for at least acknowledging it. He says he overfills for fat grafting because half of it is going to die, and didn't have any before and after pictures to show me because he's newer, so I won't be going to him, but I'm glad I did the consult.
The second doctor didn't sound comfortable doing fat grafting to my face, he said fillers would be better, and gave me the reasons I have read about on here about what can go wrong with fat grafting. His idea for a brow lift is really raising the lateral part, just like the first doctor, and I think that would look odd on me.
My third consult was with a plastic surgeon with 25 years experience. His idea of what to do for a brow lift is what I want. He doesn't do fat grafting. He listened to my story of how the IPL killed the fat in my face, and didn't deny that it could, or I wouldn't have anything done by him. But he didn't say much about it either, he just asked where I had it done. I booked my brow lift with him for next month. Something I need after losing fat in my forehead and temples.
Trusting someone with your face is scary, but especially after a traumatic experience for a treatment that was supposed to be minor and ended up being life-altering. I am scared to have this done, but my right eye looks smaller than my left because my skin of my forehead started sagging after the IPL and I can't just keep looking in the mirror every day at how uneven it looks.
I thought about what the second doctor said about fat grafting and decided to hold off on it. I have been looking into sculptra, and I think I will do it when the swelling from my brow lift goes down. I want to do voluma but I would have a hard time spending the money on it and having it be so temporary.
Right now what is bothering me the most isn't my flat cheeks, it my hollowed out under eyes. It's like literally a C from one end of my eye to the other. I look at women older than me and my age and NO ONE has hollowed out under their eyes all the across like I do. It isn't a natural way to lose fat, even with normal aging.
I'm still using L'oreal revivalist volume filler. It did improve the look of my cheeks somewhat. Still fighting to not be depressed about this.
Provider Review
Name not provided
She should have explained exactly where on my face she was putting the IPL wand ahead of time. I would not have agreed to have it right under my eyes. They need to have a nurse or doctor look at your medical history questionnaire before doing this, but they have a esthetician, not medically trained, look at it and she did not talk about the answers with me. When I went back to the clinic to show them the damages to my face and to ask what to do about it, instead of getting an apology and advise to go to a dermatologist, I was treated like I was lying and the nurse practitioner denied that IPL could affect anything except brown spots.