I Am 68 and Tired of Carrying Around Xtra Bags . Yes the Ones Under my Eyes and the Sagging Above My Eyes. - Westwood, CA

after surgery I was shocked as no one told me what the eyes looked like directly after surgery. OMG. However, I did what the doctor said,,,iced every 30 min for two to three days. I took one pain killer and then over the counter tylenel for discomfort. The most important part of reducing the swelling aside from icing was was the Ledum palustre 30c , a homeopathic tablet that one buys from a health food store. Only get the ones in blue tube container.I have had problems before with swelling and I tell you the first 3 days i must have used the whole bottle. I was given steroid anitbiotics for 7 days, liquid ointment and night time ointment for dryness.Everyday day my eyes looked better. Like everyone else I experienced bruising. Under each eye, at different times, my skin turned blue, yellow and red . For me, that was another OMG moment because i had never had any kind of trauma to my body that went through these stages. One day the left eye looked big or small and then the other eye did the same thing. . By the end of the first week I could open my eyes and see. My eyes did not close completely for several weeks though. I stilled use the ledum.By my post op appointment the Dr. and his team were amazed at how much I had healed and the swelling went down. They said that I progressed as someone many months further along. I know it had to do with icing and Ledlum. Now, if I ended my story here I would say that I was pleased with the surgery. It amazed me that I could go from disgusting eyes that barely opened and had blue, red and yellow bruisings and the colors changed on different days.Also, on different days the size of each eye changed.Crazy.I wish that I would have know about these normal experiences before the surgery so I would have been prepared and not had those OMG moments. I hope that part helps others to know what is normal healing. I also one night had blood in one eye and freaked. I called the doctor and he explained this too is a normal process and it went away in a week. The result of the 2 surgeries is this: my doctor did change the shape of my eyes from oval to round. The top of the nose is thinner and there is more face showing where there was once puffs and bags. post op pictures of women that I have seen ,seem to have this similar look and I think the are amazingly beautiful. I had not thought of what the difference on me would mean to others. My adult children, who I live with, cannot get used to my rounder eyes. I am also not wearing make up till i am fully healed. This also means that I have to change the way I wear my eye makeup. I used to use make up to make the eyes make appear bigger and now i have to make them look more oval to fit my face. This will be so much fun to play with eye shadows, liners etc, just like when I was younger. I am thrilled with the results.
To note, after the first month the Dr found that my 2 tear ducks were clogged and I needed to go back for 2 more procedures to drain the infection and clog.After that, I had a fix from the first surgery. There was a droop on each eye and I felt that I spent so much time , money and energy I might as well fix the droop. So, yesterday I had the stitches removed and I am done. Love it all but no more nips, tucks again.I commend all of you who continue to have procedures. I do not have the courage to go for more, that is unless it is an emergency. I hope my story helps someone.

When I looked into the mirror one day and saw my mothers' eyes i knew that i had to have upper and lower lids surgery. Medicare pays for top and i negotiated lowers. For the past years I wore glasses for distance mainly to cover the bags. I looked at my 9 year old grand daughter and tole the doctor i want eyes like hers. and that was it. two weeks later i was in surgery.