Recovery Phase, - Westport, CT

So on a beautiful Friday afternoon today, before a long Labor Day weekend, my husband and I figured we'd take in 9 holes on a local golf course. It was , of course, jammed packed. The single player in front of us suggested we play as a [RS bleep] since it was so backed up. It was around the 5th hole ...my husband was just getting ready to tee off and he stopped , turned around and said to the guy, "I know who you are...you were my wife's anaesthesiologist!" Glen, the nice guy single, turned to me and said, " what did you have done?" "Uh", I said... " I had a facelift" Talk about awkward moments. Who would have ever thought? Glen was an amazingly nice guy who admitted later he couldn't place us either but THOUGHT that he knew us. In the end, after we finished and left, I realized he was the doctor who, despite my saying I wanted to go home post surgery,told me that I wasn't convincing him and needed to stay longer for observation because I was feeling like I was going to pass out. Momentarily I was having a hard time concentrating on golf thinking , geez...this guy has seen more of me than I really wanted.. but in the end we all had a great time and it made for good levity throughout. When we finished, I told him how nice it was to meet him... AGAIN... and thanked him for his expertise. Not for anything, these guys/women who administer the anaesthesia during our procedures are as much of an artist as our PS. They get us through without trauma and pain. I know that my own PS commented ahead of surgery that his particular team was the best and I was happy to relay that information and compliment to Glen. This was such a weird, chance meeting. Add to that that I played pretty well which felt good. :) All I can say is that you never know who you're gong to meet and when! To all of you out there post FL, hope your healing is going well and have a good Labor Day holiday. Cheers..FG

So here I am at 3 1/2 months. (yes I am counting!) It's been a while since I've updated my progress so I thought after giving all of this filler work a chance to settle in that I'd post my latest pictures.... especially after the horrible one of the bruising I've left out there! I have been incredibly pleased with my FL results. My PS and I have accomplished exactly what we set out to do with a minimal amount of processes involved. At this point in the recovery phase I have the same little obsessions as a lot of you out there. For instance, there's a part of me that wonders if this is the morning I'm going to get up and find something dropped or see my old neckline reappearing. Ugh! Me and myself, we then have to have a good stern conversation with each other and just get over it. Fact: the aging process will continue from the point of our facelift once again. My PS has said that to me many times over and I've seen it posted on the Q & A sections as well. So I have to tell myself to just cut out the obsessing. :) As far as the recovery is going, I have mentioned to someone else that I have swelling on my lower jaw that doesn't increase ever but just seems to be very slow at going away. There is still numbness in front of my ears that continues to gradually be decreasing but also just slow to go away. If I gently tap my fingers on the numbness I can feel a momentary tingling; to me a sign that improvement is continuing. There are times when I'll get a little pin prick sensation or a shooting 'zinger' in an area of the face. In addition, my neck under my jawline feels tight but good... not a strangling tightness. Absolutely none of this is bothersome. In fact I have embraced this as the whole FL being done right and so the healing continues! My husband and I played golf the other day and accidently connected my jaw and his head together bending down and getting up. Ouch! That didn't tingle , it hurt! I was wondering if I disturbed anything but I didn't get a bruise although it seemed hard enough to me to have one. I do have this little niggling fear of hurting my face in some accident. :) At all costs, I think, protect the face!
As for the fillers, I think it has enhanced most everything. The bruising was tough to take around the mouth. I did not like having to do the whole cover up thing for work! Nothing would work on those bruises but the heavy dermablend; not even my 'favored' Makeup Forever! So it was layered like a cake around my mouth until they faded away. The Botox, on the other hand was a breeze with no bruising whatsoever. The one caveat with the Botox, it did seem to give me a slightly heavier brow on my left side. My PS did say that could happen and it did. It will resolve and I actually do see some improvement. That's really a minor disappointment for me because I don't have very large eyes to begin with. The upper bleph was such a dramatic change only to look a bit heavy lidded post Botox. Yet, as you'll see , no horizontal lines on the forehead any more! In my work industry it's all about the risk and reward. So there's a little trade off here in this process which is about the risk and reward too. THAT was a little learning process that I went through in having more work done to my face. I'll remember those little trade-offs to manage expectations of the results I'm looking for in the future. I guess that means I'm still growing up if I can still learn. lol So I'll post a few pictures to give you the current look. I'm happy and life is good! I want to say it's been wonderful to communicate with everyone publicly and privately and I appreciate the kind words you've all said as I've gone through this process. Like so many others have expressed, it's been a great support group and it has enhanced my experience tremendously! To all of you out there a very heartfelt thanks!