POSTED UNDER Lifestyle Lift Reviews
Very Depressed with the Way I Look..please Anyone Had This Happen? - San Antonio, TX
UPDATED FROM JanTexas
2 months post
Had second Laser
JanTexasApril 29, 2014
$8,000
Had second laser last week (April 23rd). The redness seems to be going away a little faster this time. I can see some of the wrinkles are still there but too early to tell if it at least helped "softened" them up as I was told it would. My dr. so far is trying to work with me. Been checking him out and I can not find one bad report on him. He is a board certificated PS and even board certified in ENT. Will post more pictures after I heal. Still coping.
Replies (5)
April 5, 2014
I'm an RN working for a plastic surgeon. The ultrasound treatments are offered 3 weeks post - 1 tx a week for an additional 3 weeks. One thing I notice is the girls I work with who have had tummy tuck, arm lifts, etc., give themselves ultrasound treatments every day! What does that say for the paying customer who only gets 3 or 4? I agree, a second opinion is warranted. The only problem is finding a doctor to state, unequivocally, your doctor committed malpractice. At the very least, your surgeon should offer to correct the problem.
April 8, 2014
Trying to hang in there Marganina. I can understand why more is better in the ultrasound treatments. My PS staff is great and seem to give me the most hope he will correct the problem. I can not imagine any PS wanting a patient not looking good after surgery, we are walking billboards for them. Time will tell, not giving up yet.
April 8, 2014
Perhaps 2 US treatments a week? Be insistent! Don't settle for 'things will eventually smooth out'. I'm always an advocate for my patients and work for a doctor who is involved throughout the course of recovery. I asked him if I wanted to continue giving US treatments beyond 3 weeks or wanted to give them twice a week would he be alright with it. He told me to do whatever the patient needs to have the best results. What a great guy to work for!!!
April 9, 2014
Had 6 ultrasound treatments total which did not do the trick. The dr. wants to help it along by "freeing the cheeks" also called it planeing ( not sure of spelling). Said you make a very small hole and break it up manually. Have you heard of that?
April 9, 2014
I googled facial planeing and maybe this might be the fix you need? Have you looked this up? I hope for your sake that this will work for you. I wish you the best of luck. Best, Chrystal.
April 30, 2014
Hi Jan,
Thank you for writing back . I'm sorry to hear that your not happy with your results . I can't help but wonder if perhaps you may need to have more of the skin on your pulled back so the bumps you say you have will be stretched out ? Ask your doctor if this would be an option for you . Please stay in touch and I will do the same .
~ Martuśka
April 30, 2014
Martuska..will let you know what the PS says, thanks for the advice!! Sometimes it helps to have outside opinions!
April 7, 2014
Hi Jan,
I know your pain :(
I wish I can tell you that you will look better with time but it sounds like doc is trying to cover his a*s . Be persistent and never give up . Tell the doctor that this is your face and you know it better then him or anyone else for that matter . I know that if you complain enough they will try to correct the problem , or so they say ! I too had a horrible and painful experience and I will need to have this corrected . I don't like my results and I know that it my case the doctor was in a big hurry and as a result I'm the one paying the price .
Emotionally and the $10,000 they took for services which were not rendered . Please be strong and don't give up . Feel free to write to me anytime ok!
Take care ...
April 8, 2014
Martuska thanks for your support. I never in a million years believed this would effect me the way it has. The dr. has at least responded that he is concerned but it is hard to have faith in him. He has agreed to do another laser which will be the end of this month. I do not even like to go out anymore because I am so self concise of my face. I do have a wonderful support with family so that does help. I know what you mean when you say you are the one paying the price. It has taken what was suppose to be a positve experience into a depressing one. I am so glad I joined this site and could talk to other people who truly understand what we are going through. Thanks!
April 8, 2014
Your welcome Jan . You mentioned another laser . I'm supposed to have another one too because my skin looks uneven after the first laser I had a week after my LSL. My God!!! What have they put us all through ! I found out just recently that several women have died from the Life style lift . So scarey !
April 8, 2014
That is horrible that women have died...wow. The dr did laser part of my face but said he could not do the part where the lift was done, basically nose, chin, cheeks and forehead were done . Those spots look great but you can almost see a line where he stopped and did not do. I am hoping the second laser will even the face out. I stayed red for about 4 to 5 weeks so not looking forward to that again but have to try since part of my face looks good. He will do the whole face including the part he already had done and is not charging me anything which I think he should. That will be the last week of April since we always go to the beach at Easter, didn't want to have to stay covered up like a mummy so decided to wait.
April 8, 2014
Plastic surgery is real surgery with real risks. People die from it every day all over the world. Local anesthetic is safer but just like over the counter medicine is real medicine, plastic surgery is real surgery. Statistically speaking, you can't do 2 million procedures with 100% survival rate. It's impossible--and not necessarily the fault of LSL.
April 8, 2014
I am actually afraid to let my doctor lay a hand on me again. I will see him on Thursday, but only after I meet with a very well known plastic surgeon tommorrow morning. I will get the opinion of my new doctor on how this can be repaired properly, then compare notes with Thursday visit. I am most likely going to pursue this further with legal assistance. I now have to go through life with a huge scar in front of my right ear 1/4" X 2". I have more wrinkles than I did before the surgury and my chin looks horrible!
April 8, 2014
Sounds like you have the right approach Jan . As for me. ... I'm not even sure I'll go to Europe this summer looking like this . I too would love to have the mistakes on my face and eyes corrected . I'm so depressed I can't even think straight . I wish you luck tomorrow and I hope the best for you .
April 8, 2014
Jan...please let us know ( if you don't mind ) what this new doctor told you . I want to see a new doctor who can be honest with me and point out what needs to be corrected ? and then I'll have something from a creditable source to address to the LSL center .
Thank you !
April 9, 2014
Frus1g, good for you. I am so glad that you are being proactive and seeing a 2nd doctor. At least this way you will know for sure what the problem is and if what your doctor is doing is going to help solve the problem. I'm sorry about the scarring that you have in front of your ears, a Lifestyle Lift was the worst thing that I ever did. The best thing I did was to find a really good surgeon who was kind enough to listen to me and he understood how vulnerable I felt after the LSL. I just could not get over what they did to me. He fixed 90% of what they did... BUT, I will never get over how I was treated and I just want to scream it from the rooftop for other women NOT to fall for this HYPE and the Infomercials/Commercials they keep running. Let us know how it goes for you. Best, Chrystal.
April 9, 2014
Martuska, Not seeing a new dr. yet. This dr. wants to manually free the scar tissue. Sounded like worth checking out. They deaden cheeks and make a small pinhole, doesn't seem to invasive. Checking it out. Will let you know.
April 9, 2014
Chrystal, sorry you have had such a hard time. Your scarring sounds horrible. I have not had any trouble with being treated bad by the dr. or office staff. I do have a problem with the commercials showing how if you do the LSL everything will be wonderful, it is really deceiving. I guess I was to naive. Good luck Chrystal
April 9, 2014
JanTexas, I'm pretty much over my "Pain" and my scars have been fixed. The ones that do show, I wear as a warning to others and as a lesson well learned for myself. I do worry though about others out there who are being run around and around like I was. Please google Facial Planeing, from what I understand from the information available, it is used to fix a SMAS lift. It addresses the underlying tissue on a deeper plane as a whole. I hope this works for you, Best, Chrystal.
April 8, 2014
A great deal of bunching (which is what you have) will smooth out as the swelling resolves. I had pronounced bunching under my chin which flattened out perfectly in 10 weeks and is now gone and my scars are invisible.
April 9, 2014
Been almost 7 weeks for me, maybe need to be patient. Glad yours turned out good!
April 10, 2014
Scar tissue? Really? How is scar tissue in the middle of your face? That is extra skin folds & tension lines. Nothing is going to address the fact that this was a limited facelift when what you really needed was a more advanced technique. You really need to go see someone else Jan, you were fooled. Tell him you need a refund. If it were me it would be worth a few hundred dollars to see a personal injury attorney to have him/her write a letter requesting every dime back plus legal fees. So sorry this happened to you!!
ORIGINAL POST
I have bumps on both sides of my face and deep...
JanTexasMarch 24, 2014
I have bumps on both sides of my face and deep wrinkles that look worse than before I had the lift. The dr. keeps saying "you are still healing" give it time. He did agree to do Ultra Sound, which I have had 3 treatments so far with not much improvement. Is the dr. just trying to silence me or will this help? I feel like a freak and emotionally having a hard time.
Replies (3)
March 26, 2014
It sounds like you have some valid concerns. Keep in contact with your doctor and don't give up. You have to keep yourself in the front of the doctors eye and make him aware that you are very unhappy. Also, you have to be realistic. Is this beyond the realm of what was agreed to in surgery or is this something that has happened because of the surgery? Be sure to keep good records of contacts, who you spoke with, what was said, etc. This can really help at a later point. Is the doctor saying anything about the bumps other than they are "healing"? Best, Chrystal.
March 27, 2014
Thanks Chrystal..I have been taking pictures to document what is happening. He said the bumps are the muscles under the skin and should smooth out. The nurses that do my ultrasound said to be patient. I have two more treatments then the dr. will decide if we will do more treatments. I am trying to stay positive but it is hard. Never having this procedure I don't know if this is normal. All they show is the before and after of the successes, nothing in between so wondered if anyone else has had this problem or is the dr. stringing me along.
March 27, 2014
I cannot say for sure if you are being strung along or not, but if I were you, I would get a 2nd opinion from a board certified facial plastic surgeon. That being said, if the 2nd surgeon agrees at least you will know if you are doing the right thing to help heal yourself. I do hope that this is the case. I wish you the best, C.
March 27, 2014
Thank you for sharing your experience so far on RealSelf! I truly hope those bumps do smooth out. Keep us posted!
March 28, 2014
Thanks Angiemcc..will keep you posted. Had another ultrasound today, 1 more to go next week. Dr. says he will reevaluate whether to do more treatments. Time will tell.
March 31, 2014
It takes 3-6 months for all of the swelling to resolve. Keep going to your doctor and keep in mind that he's a plastic surgeon, not God. Complications do happen and plastic surgery is real surgery. Do you smoke? If you do, quit because that is the worst thing you could be doing while recovering. Document everything and keep in mind that in order to prove medical malpractice, you have to PROVE the doctor acted in a manner "not in compliance with standard medical procedures" which is a huge burden to prove. My best advice: Be nice to them, they have a vested interest in helping you and if you are nasty and threatening legal action, you will see their attempts to help you come to a screeching halt. Without B&A pix, it's impossible to determine if you have a real problem or not, so you might want to post some. I'm not the only med pro on these boards.
April 1, 2014
LimboBarbie, thank you for your advice and insight. No I do not smoke. I am trying to be positive and try to work through this. I have not or would threaten legal action at this stage, it is way to early for that and have remained in good standing with the doctor and his staff. I think I was totally unprepared for what to except. It is very hard to sit in the office and see the promo tapes of the before and after raving about the results which is only the best of the best that they show en only to have problems. I will try to get some pics posted and keep everyone posted. Thanks for your response.
April 1, 2014
No worries. It will be all right, you have to give it time. You should have seen my husband recoil when he saw me the day after surgery!! I looked like a bashed melon!!
Replies (2)