Dream Run! - Sydney, AU

After two years of research and saving, I can’t believe my facelift is now 4 weeks behind me and I have to say I’ve had a dream run! I’ve had a facelift/necklift to get rid of a dreadful saggy neck and cheek implants where I’d lost volume. My drooping ‘witch’s chin’ has been hitched up to where it should be. The cheek and chin were at the recommendation of my surgeon – and were definitely a good idea. I was contemplating a lip lift but was told it wasn’t necessary and neither was anything to my eyes. With only two tiny patches of bruising on my chin, and a little on one cheek you couldn’t really tell by my skin alone that I’d had anything done. The worst of the swelling went down pretty quickly and then it seemed to stop. Between weeks 3 and 4 it finally started to settle again and I’m really getting a sense of how I will look now. While the swelling felt quite pronounced to me absolutely no-one has noticed. I went back to work after a couple of weeks. My chin is pretty lumpy and bumpy, but I am massaging the scar gently and hoping that over time the two ‘nobbly’ bits will resolve. I know its very early days still and I’ve got a great surgeon and a team that works as a team to get the best result for me so I’m not fretting about that just yet.
For the first 10 days I pretty much stayed indoors apart from 2 visits to the surgeon –firstly for the post surgery check up and then a few days later when all my non-dissolvable stitches came out cleanly. For that period I wore my compression bandage every night and periods during the day and iced frequently. I’m still sleeping on a wedge cushion.  I thought it was an expensive purchase ($160) but as a dead-set side and stomach sleeper it has kept me on my back. I only took Endone for a day, but did keep up the night meds for a few nights to try and get a stretch of sleep and that worked well. And I did take every single one of my antibiotics etc – which is probably a first for me! I ate a lot of soups and tried to keep the protein up.
At the moment I feel like my own personal science experiment – each day brings something new. Mornings I am always more puffy and swollen, my cheeks and neck have tightened up and I can’t smile easily. By the time I’m through my coffee I’m loosening up and I feel my best across the middle of the day. By late afternoon I’m getting tired and starting to puff up again. Some days I feel very tight across my neck from ear to ear – but I love that feeling – it means no more saggy neck! I feel that if nothing improves from here (except my chin bits) I have had a dream run. I tried to be reasonable in my expectations – after all I was never going to wake up with Sophia Loren’s face! But so far I am thrilled. I’ll post again in a while.