My experience with filler

I'm writing so long after the fact because I just read someone else's similar, more recent, experience and thought mine might be helpful also. I went to Dr. Rajani for filler in late 2013. Voluma had just come on the market and I was interested in that for my cheeks, but for some reason I ended up having Juvederm XC. In 2010 I had had Restylane injected in the same area (with a different provider) and was quite pleased with the result. Before I left the office I asked about the lumpiness in my cheeks. I hadn’t experienced that with the Restylane and was concerned. I was told it was just the swelling that happened around the injection site and it would go away. The next day I remembered that when I had the Restylane done the provider had massaged my cheeks after injection. Dr. Rajani did not. When I ran my fingers over the lumpiness it didn’t feel like swelling it felt like globs with distinct outlines under the skin.

I got online and did some research about whether or not there should be lumpiness from swelling after Voluma injections. From what I read there was not. I called Dr. Rajani’s office, but was told I hadn’t given enough time for the swelling to go down. I was really skeptical and, based on what I had read online started to try to massage the lumps to see if anything moved. I was able to move the filler and smooth it out, which you can’t do with “swelling.” But I was nervous about getting too aggressive. I then emailed Dr. Rajani’s office sending photos of what the lumps looked like before and after I massaged the filler and asking for advice and whether or not I should come back to the office. I can’t recall what the response was, but I never did go back to the office, so it must not have been suggested.

I’m including the photos I sent to Dr. Rajani’s office in the days after the injections. Ultimately I was able to smooth things out, but it shouldn’t have been my job to do that. And I’ve always wondered what would have happened if I had just left things alone. Clearly the lumps were not “swelling due to the injection site.” You can’t move fluid under the skin due to swelling. And when I pressed on the lumps they had a definite outline to them and a sense of a substance under the skin.

Since then I’ve had more filler injected by other providers and all of them massaged to a certain degree. In fact I know someone who’s been getting fillers over the last year and she goes back within 48 hours of injection for even more massage, to make sure the filler is positioned correctly.

Note on my photos: the big red mark was not a result of the filler injections. It was a large pimple that I had picked at days earlier. (My penchant for not leaving things alone pays off sometimes and not others!) The photos were taken about an hour apart.

Hope this helps anyone deciding on fillers.