Scar Revision and Face Lift

It has been almost five weeks since my face lift and scar revision. Wow – this surgery has been so much harder to recovery from than the ones I've had in the past.

So, let me talk about the scar revision first. I had the vertical scar from my lower body lift revised. The part above my belly button healed poorly – I called it the worm, since that it what it looked like. This will be the third try for the scar (I already had it revised once). I'm hoping the third time is the charm. Dr. Sterry said he did everything he could possibly think of, so I am remaining hopeful. He also tightened the muscles again. I am spitting out some of the sutures, but Dr. Sterry said I don't need to worry unless I see purple ones – so far they have all been clear. The most amazing thing, it looks like I am going to have a little bit of a waist after this! That would be amazing.

Now the face lift – right now the recovery is really rough. The day after my surgery, Dr. Sterry took the bandages and drains out. Even though I was a black and blue mess I could see that the difference was amazing. I actually had a jaw line! WOW! The first few days weren't so bad; in fact I wasn't taking any pain medication after 2 or 3 days. I started to develop some swelling under my chin and on my neck. It got to the point where it was extremely uncomfortable. The surgeon checked several times, but determined all I had going on was swelling. Wow – I know about swelling from my other surgeries, but I never experience pain like I have with this surgery. I ended up back on the pain medication at night. It has been pretty miserable. Dr. Sterry injected a little steroid into the swollen areas as he thought it might provide some relief. I've had a little softening of the swollen areas, and I would say that there has been about a 30% improvement in the overall discomfort. I am just going to have to ride out the recovery period. I am also amazed with the bruising. It's two days short of 5 weeks since my surgery and I am still using cover-up for a bruise on my face when I go to work. I really didn't expect to have the bruises last this long. I didn't bruise like this from any of my previous surgeries. The positive in all this, I do believe I am going to be thrilled with the result once I am done healing and this surgery was a surprise boost to my body image. When I had the lower body lift, I wasn't surprised by the change in my body image. I knew as long as I had a hanging stomach I wouldn't see myself as a thinner person. I didn't realize that getting my hanging chin removed would have as strong of an impact – but it has!

I am going to get Rodney to take some pictures on Friday, when I hit the 5 weeks mark and put them up. Although the recovery has been tough, I think the difference is already obvious!