I'm Keeping my End of the Bargain! Costa Rica, CR

Forgot to incluse pics!

Hi everyone. I've been missing in action here on RS for a long time but decided it's time to write an update and post some pics.
It's been 15 months since my first surgeries in Costa Rica and almost 6 months since my revisions so I guess things have pretty much settled down so I can give a true assessment of what I had done.
First of all my chemical peel.....what a nightmare! The area at my lower anterior neck has scarred. It is rippled and looks like I've had a thyroidectomy. The area is still painful although certainly not like what it was. I've had one set of steroid injections into it and am scheduled for another in August. The redness has diminished considerably but the scar is raised and weblike. I have been seeing a dermatologist and Dr. Arguello is having me massage it multiple times daily with oil. I've been using castor oil in addition to a homeopathic cream I ordered on line that has many good essential oils and herbs in it for healing and scarring. My neck looks good as does my facelift. Very natural. My boobs are much improved with the different implants so no real issues there except they still get shooting pains occassionally. They still feel a bit heavy sometimes. Because I don't have adequate pectoral muscle thickness, my implants are subglandular so there is a bit of sagging but overall not too bad for 66! I'd look stupid having boobs under my clavicles at my age. I have great cleavage when I wear a push up bra! Yay!!.
The second recovery was much more of a challenge for some reason as it took much longer for me to heal.
My eyes look great although I have a tiny bit of webbing on the outer corner of one eye. Only I can notice it, I'm sure. The milia are mostly gone and one eye has no scar at all, the other has a little but I'm assured that will likely disappear in time. Everything takes time. Things are still changing. Some days I look puffy and some days I don't feel pretty...other days I look fabulous! Go figure!
I've gained and lost 10 lbs or so and that makes a huge difference in my overall looks. So was all of this worth it? Yes and no.......yes to the surgeries, no to the chemical peel. I'm hoping I will continue to not look my age for many years to come and have continued good health because if you don't have your health who cares how good you look! Right?

Well today is 5 and a half weeks following adventure #2 in Costa Rica and I just had a feeling at some point my luck would run out. My chest post 35%TCA peel is almost as painful as in the beginning. I don't know what's going on but I went to a dermatologist who put me on a steroid cream...so far it's doing NOTHING to alleviate the redness and hypertrophic scars forming at the anterior base of my neck. She is very concerned I might form a keloid. I'm also on an antibiotic cream for a couple of open wounds and silver sulfadiazine cream (burn therapy). I am keeping the area very moist with Aquaphor ointment but it's just not improving. The area feels like it's being scraped with a wire brush anytime anything touches it......imagine continuing dermabrasion.....24/7. I think what may have happened was some areas absorbed the TCA to a deeper level. I've read that TCA can sometimes be unpredictable.
I have been in contact with Dr. Arguello who is giving great advice but of course unable to provide treatment because I'm too far away! He did offer though. I will be seeing the derm again in 2 weeks. If it's no better she may opt for steroid injections. Yuck, yuck and more yuck! Not in the true yuck sense of being grossed out but in the sense I'm a chicken s**t when it comes to pain so submitting to that when my pain level is already mostly off the charts is not something I'm relishing. But...I've spent too much time and money on "improvements" not to follow through with whatever I need so I don't scar.
I do have a bit of advice to those who might be considering revisions...make sure you give enough time from initial surgery to revision. Things constantly change that first year post and to go back in and be cut on again has other consequences you may not have bargained for. For instance...I had a couple of small tweaks on my eyelids and some scar revisions. Because I'm not healing very fast this time those areas hurt more and the numbness that had almost entirely resolved is now much more pronounced. I'm hoping its swelling in my lower face, neck and chest although it really doesn't look swollen. I know I'm still early on in my recovery but I'm not any more patient this time around than I was the first time! It's so easy at first to think everything is wrong but trust me when I say... so much of your concerns today will resolve tomorrow. Remember that your skin is dynamic. It moves and stretches and is constantly being subjected to the forces of gravity...from what I can tell there's no way to mitigate that one permanently. We just take care of the sags and bags temporarily until we're too old to see them any longer! Gee aren't I just a fountain of optimism? That's what happens when you have too much pain for too long.
On a happier note....my neck and lower face are very tight and the skin is silky smooth. The skin is even toned although still a bit pink. I'll post some pics soon.