Facelift at Age 61

I had my facelift on July 17th. Do not take it for granted that you will be ready to go to work in two weeks. Everyone recovers differently. I had a full facelift. I had my own fat injected into my laugh lines and under my eyes as a filler. I had the brow lift, neck lift and did my eyes. Some people like to add volume to their cheeks, I had fat removed, because when I smiled, I had fat cheeks. This was something the doctor recommended and I thought why not, for as we age, our faces start to droop again, I do not want to have fat cheeks dragging the floor at age 80 (lol). Today is day 25 after surgery and my cheeks feel completely frozen. I did go back to work on Monday, 24 days after surgery. I left work and went home crying. I felt uncomfortable. There are bumps and dents on my cheeks that look worse during poor lighting and it looks bad. I am not trying to discourage anyone from having surgery, just know and be ready if things di not go as planned. I thought it would take two weeks and it's now been three weeks and a day and I have missed five days from work. I have numbness, but no pain. Sunday, I accidentally hit the bottom of my right eye where I had my own fat injected and now I have a bump plus a bruise and it looks like I have been abused. With makeup, I look good in certain lighting. If you decide to do a full facelift, know the risks. As far as scars, I show none, the incisions were done on my scalp, nothing on on the edge of my hairline. My doctor has many years experience and does a great job, the only concern I have is, will my cheeks look ok? Will I be happy with something new? I need to be patient and wait, but like others who have undergone a facelift, it creates anxiety and you worry if you will look good enough to go out in public, especially like me, I had to miss five days of work last week, i had the last stitches removed last Friday and I am still not ready emotionally, I do not have the luxury to miss any more days.
I went my appointment yesterday at exactly 3 weeks time and my doctor showed me how to do massages to get rid of the bumps on my cheeks. Just know that bumps and can be fixed easily, find someone who does non-surgical facelifts of the lunchtime facelift and go for a session and it will help sculpt your face. Do not be afraid you will be like that forever, it is only an inconvenience for a short while. I think what causes the anxiety in us is time dragging and making us impatient. We need to be patient. I will come back to give more updates.

At exactly the beginning of my 4th week, I could not believe it. I got 2 seriously huge n-gown zits and 3 smaller ones on my right side of my face. The surgeon drained the one in my neck and sent a sample to get analyzed. I will see him again this week for follow-up. The before photos in the update are from a face sculpting therapy right before deciding to do the surgery.

Still a little swollen on right cheek from the acne that suddenly attacked me. Dr. Lopez Castillo has been very attentive making sure to stop the in-grown zits. Thank God for make-up! I find that Smartcover covers really well. I recommend it highly. The "Before" pictures are pictures I took after doing a couple of micro-current sessions on myself. The "After" pics I took today - 35 days post-op. My cheeks will come around when I least expect it. There is numbness and no pain. My doctor did a great job hiding the inscisions. I am also using a scar recovery gel. It will help the scars become less noticeable. They say we need to do this early.