Final Followup

Before1------------------------After 1

Before 2 ----------------------After 2


Before 3 --------------------After 3

OK, so it's been a little more than 30 days since my face was reconfigured. In fact, the photos represent 5 weeks post-op. With few exceptions I'm back to normal. The exceptions are pretty much a lingering plastic feel to the skin in front of my ears, a tenderness behind the ears, along with a tenderness where the incisions were made over my eyelids. Not a problem, really, but a minor annoyance.

And when I walk by a mirror, I see the "me" I remember, complete with cheekbones and eyes. It's a good thing.

Check Back in 2 Weeks

Though I feel a little tight around the ears and through the throat, I think we will call this adventure a success. I'm sleeping in my own bed (though not as well as I expect I will in another day or two), I'm eating semi-solid food (still no steak) and I'm off all pain meds with the occassional exception of a Tylenol. I have a one-month check-in scheduled with the surgeon for the first week of March; I'll take final photos and do a running comparison then.

See you in two weeks!

In the Public Eye

I think I'm on the last legs of looking like a surgical patient even though it still feels like my head's been twisted onto my neck a little too tightly, and I don't like the dull ache that comes from trying to sleep on my side. Some throat bruising still has to resolve, there are little knots under the skin at the outside corners of my eyes that should smooth out over the next few days, and I keep finding bits of the outside stitches on my lower eyelids as the inside stitches dissolve.

But I did go out to the grocery store this afternoon and there was no screaming from the patrons nor mothers trying to shield their babies from my looks. In fact, no one even blinked looking at me. So I guess my self imposed isolation period is over.

There are a couple of things that have surprised me during this little respite from the world; things I wish I had had the forethought to ask before the surgery, or had the brains to have figured out after. Like:

The itching as I healed was all but intolerable, and kept me from sleeping well more than one night. When I asked the surgeon for more sleeping pills at our one week check-in, he suggested benedryl to both sooth the itch and make me drowsy. Wish I'd thought of that ahead of time. I already had several bottles in the house.

The ointment used to lubricate the eyes and keep the incisions on the eyelids moist came in very tiny tubes. I used up two tubes and started on the third before the stitches came out. I'm glad my husband was available to run out to the drug store for more when I used up the first tube on day 3. If I hadn't had him to run errands I would have been in big trouble. Wish I had been instructed to pick up more than one tube to begin with.

The week before surgery I picked up several books on tape, a novel, and a number of movies to watch as I laid around and ate bon bons. Nobody mentioned that my eyes would be too swollen to read or watch TV for at least a week, and that my ears would be too tender to wear earphones (or hold a phone to!) for just as long. Those first five or six days were so mind numbingly boring that I wanted to scream. Of course, I can't think of what other amusements I might have planned for myself if I had known I would neither be able to see or touch my ears.

During my initial consultation I asked, as I suppose all potential patients do, how long I would be "out". The standard reply is "about a week." Which, in retrospect, is about right; after my one week check-in I went to the movies. But my stamina is compromised; I was in pretty good shape before surgery and now I'm pretty much worn out by simple exertion. When you consider that I'm at the early end of the age spectrum of women who do this, a week isn't really long enough to be back fully in the swing of things. So a better answer might have been "a week to be presentable in public, another week to be back to full strength." Maybe then I wouldn't have planned quite as much activity in post-op week 2.

10 Days Later I'm a Little Chinese

Ten days after surgery, and I'm amazed at how different I look. The eyes are still a little puffy, and there's a little swelling in front of the ears and along the jaw line, giving me a sort of Asian look according to my husband. Put on a little makeup to see if I can get by in public, and I've decided that it's time to get out of the house tomorrow!

I still have some issues with chewing; the tightness along the side of my ears and down my neck make opening my mouth very wide painful, and chewing anything "stiff" (think steak) or too crunchy is out of the question. But every day is a little better.

Just Another Day

Lest you think that the first week is the only week that counts in the healing process, let me say that, although I'm feeling 1000 times better than I was a week ago, I'm not all the way back. My ears are so tender that I still can't lay on my side, which means I'm still sleeping in the recliner. Geez. The lymph nodes at the back of my head and neck are the size and texture of hazelnuts, and I can't set the ear pieces of my glasses on the top curve of my ears for more than 15 minutes at a time. The bruises on my throat and under my left eye still haven't faded enough not raise eyebrows in public and the odd way I have to turn my body instead of my head is a real bother.

But other than that, I'm in pretty good shape.

What a Difference a Week Makes

It's been exactly a week since the surgery, and time for the stitches holding together my eyelids and chin to come out. I slept badly last night since it's still very uncomfortable to sleep in any position but sitting up; the tenderness around my ears is significant, and even the light pressure of a pillow on the side of my head is disturbing. If I had had any more sleeping pills (they only dispensed 5; one for the night before surgery, two for during surgery, and two to be used during the first week post op) I would have taken one. But all things considered, I woke up feeling pretty much like myself, albeit like myself with puffy eyes like I had been crying all night.

Headed to the surgeon's office to have my stitches removed. His Surgical Manager met me at the door and escorted me to an exam room where she snipped the threads holding my upper eyelids together and pulled them out, and did the same with the two little stitches under my chin. Didn't hurt a bit. She reviewed what care and treatment I should follow for the next week, took some "after" photos, set up an appointment for a one month check-up and went to fetch the doctor.

Then the doc came in and gave me a hug. "You look wonderful," he said, "better than expected for one week." He reviewed another few items (I could go back to exercising if I started slow and was careful, could start wearing make up if I kept it off the incisions, and could switch to warm wet compresses instead of ice if I was so inclined.)

"But doc," I said, "the stitches in my lower eyelids are driving me crazy." Turns out the lower lids are stitched with dissolvable stitches that would take care of themselves. "But it's like having caterpillars on my eye, and they itch. A lot. And I'm not sleeping very well." Though he couldn't refill the sleeping pill script, he suggested I pick up some Benedryl at the drug store that would help both with the lingering itchiness and would help me sleep. Those two little stitches at the inside corners of my eyes were buried pretty deep, but he took a good look and told the Surgical Manager she could go ahead and remove them, too, since I was healed well enough.

She had to dig a little to get them out. That hurt. But it was such a relief to get them out that I forgive her the 10 seconds of real pain.

There's still another week or two where the swelling will diminish and the real shape of my "new" face will reveal itself. I'm beginning to see cheekbones.

On Being Human

On the 5th night after surgery I slept like a rock. Maybe that's because I hadn't properly slept since I left the surgeon's office, or maybe I was just exhausted from doing nothing for so long, but in any event I slept well and felt almost human when I awoke.

I'm beginning to look like myself again, but it's too soon to tell if I'm a younger version of myself or not. The eyes, clearly, are different, but the chipmunk cheeks from the swelling make it difficult to tell what I look like underneath the bruises. DH says there's a real difference in the number of countable chins but he's a good man who like to tell me what I want to hear so his opinion is suspect.

I'm fascinated by the way the incisions around the ear were done; almost imperceptible around the front and very thin around the back. I can detect no stitches around the front of my ears and can't figure out how the incisions were closed; glue, maybe? (Don't laugh; superglue was originally a skin adhesive.)

I'm still missing some feeling in the right ear, and there's a steady ache in my cheekbones, but neither is unbearable. My neck is still very tight; turning my body seems to make so much more sense than turning my head. I had to sneeze today, and the shock to my eyes and neck with the jolt of the sneeze was like being zapped with a taser. (OK, I've never personally been zapped by a taser, but it felt just like it looks on TV.)

I did sneak out of the house for about 30 seconds in the middle of the night; it was trash day, a chore usually attended to by The Man of the House, but he pulled a hamstring playing basketball and went to bed without setting out the recycling. When it occurred to me that someone should do it and the choices were slim, I sneaked out, ace bandage wrapped around my head, and took the trash to the curb. The night was brisk, the stars were out, and to some small degree it was like getting out of jail.