Where's my bags and droopiness gone?

In the year before my 60th birthday, I promised myself a facelift when I reached that milestone. For several years, I would hide my droopy under chin by resting it on my hand when I was getting my photo taken. Then I noticed that my upper eyelids were drooping to the extent my eyes disappeared under the heavy lids. I could not hide the fat eyelids from the camera unless I had someone behind me holding them up while I held up my chin. I used to be photogenic up until 10 years ago until my face started it's downward slide. For the past year, I have read practically every review on RS and because I was mostly encouraged and I appreciated the candidness of people, I felt it my duty to describe my experiences. I have photos of my before and after photos but they are on other devices (I am writing this on a new laptop). As soon as I e-mail myself the photos and put them in order, I will post them.

The first step was to choose a Surgeon. The cost in the UK was prohibitive so I looked abroad using my tablet to surf the world. I wanted some place in Europe and I was drawn to the Czech Republic. I had to be able to fly there from Newcastle and not have lengthy transfers. Jet2 flights are every Monday and Friday so I chose to fly out on Monday 24th September and return on Monday 1st October 2018. I arranged with the clinic to have the operation on Tuesday 25th September. The Clinic provided me with several dates but the date had to sync with the flights. I had the operation on Tuesday and stayed in the clinic for 2 days and 2 nights. The clinic was very clean and the staff were professional and friendly. Dr Vasek had only seen my before photos, front, left and right views (I managed to stop myself from hiding my double chin.) I was given a thorough pre-op examination, ECG, bloods, urine, legs checked for veins, my back was thumped all the way down (not sure why). I had to touch my toes, passed that test, stand on my tip toes (easy for a vertically challenged person like myself) and touch my nose with my eyes closed, pass, then stretch upwards with my hands above my head, the GP said I had a tremor in my right hand and suggested I take magnesium and vitamin B complex. Dr Vasek examined me. He used some clippy things to demonstrate how loose my upper eyelids are and look how far they can be stretched out. (Huh, now that's not a pic which will reach my Face Book profile). He did the same with the lower lids. I was horrified how far they could stretch. I would always apply that stuff which temporarily smooths out bags and wrinkles. It worked so well, I would not walk out of the house without applying it. Dr Vasek said he would liposuction fat from my neck and chin. Sounded good to me. The muscles in my neck would be tightened and facial muscles would be lifted. Then any excess skin would be trimmed off and the stitches hidden behind my ears and in my hairline. He said I had nice skin so would not need a face peel. So, despite all of my bad habits, I have nice skin. I do however have one good habit, more a fear really. I am more scared of the sun than a blood sucking creature of the night. While a vampire would burst into flames should sunlight hit it, I burst into freckles and red skin. My best friends are factor 50 sunscreen, sunglasses and a hat. Dr Vasek marked my eyelids with a pen and before I knew it...
I was awake. Oh My Gosh. I had done it. I had gone to a strange city on my own without getting run over, lost or arrested, now here I was with a massive bandage round my head. I looked in a mirror. Oh. I looked like a monster. My eyes were a mass of blood and stitches. I think I asked the girl in the bed next to me to take my photo. If I did, I will publish it here. The food was excellent but I had no appetite. I spent most of the time sleeping. The second day, the bandages were removed and I was given a head support thing. It is black and stretch thick nylon. It fastens with Velcro at the back and supports the chin and squashes the cheeks outwards so I looked like an assassin hamster. On Thursday, I was signed out and I went straight to the apartment which was in the same block as the clinic. The apartment would not be ready for several hours so I had to wander about and lurk in Marks and Spencer shop to kill time. The security guy didn't like me. I could tell by the way he followed me about. Admittedly I did look a little suspicious, wearing a hoody, a black stretchy thing round my face and dark sunglasses, and, oh yeah, a backpack. Surely the little monkey swinging from the back pack would prove my innocence of intentions?
I spent 4 days in the apartment watching a dearth of TV channels. I learnt how to polish a chrome mobile home with baking powder and that life on Mars is highly likely after the discovery of blue cobbles on the red planet. On the first morning in the apartment, I noticed quite a substantial lump sticking out of the right side of my head. This proved to be my ear which was so numb I had not noticed that when I put the SAS head cover on, I had inadvertently folded my ear lobe up.
The second day, a cleaner came to empty the rubbish bag. I could see the shock in her eyes when she witnessed the purple of mine. The following evening three cleaners turned up. It was either curiosity or safety in numbers.
On Monday, I got the eye stitches out The top stitches were easy peasy. A little snip and a length of stitching was smoothly pulled out. The lower stitches were not so easy. They were individual stitches which had to be snipped and then tugged out. Did sting a bit. A few hours later, I was at the airport without getting lost, run over or arrested. I was wearing my hoody, but not my head thing. Sadly it was a dull day and I had no reason to wear sunglasses but I did. My eye lids had faded to a pink but there was a line of dots under each eye. I still looked spooky and I swear several people were staring at me. I kept my head down and felt really lonely. The I felt really worried. Prague airport had new passport machines which compare the passport photo with an electronic image. What if the machine could not match my new face with the passport one? There were several million people behind me. Would they laugh when I was arrested? I was genuinely scared and braced myself for the embarrassment which would surely follow. I placed my passport face down and then looked up at the camera with my strange alien eyes. The barrier lit up green and the gate opened and I walked through. If they had had a sweat detection machine, I would never have made it.

I will post this now and in my next post will describe my recovery, going back to work, and getting chemosis which I am still dealing with