Question
I hope you all can answer some questions for me, particularly those of you who had your surgery 4-6 weeks ago or longer. I'm going to talk to my PS about these, but wanted input from "the girls" first:
#1: LUMPINESS
Parts of my face feel like a bed where you pull up the coverlet and leave the sheets and blanket underneath all bunched up. EWWWW. This will go away right?
#2: SETTLING IN?
Yesterday I noticed that the area on my jawline that I hated so much because it was droopy looked slightly droopy to me again which of course, makes me buggy since that was the main place I wanted to fix. ALSO it seems my cheeks should be higher, I swear my face looks a bit flatter than I thought it would. When does all this settle in? Do my cheeks seem flat because the area under them is still swollen, so by comparison it doesn't look right to me?
#3: STIFF NECK
My neck is still soooooo stiff. There's also a "band" of "rubber" under the front of my chin area where he put in some fat, going from left to right, just under and behind my chin. I swear I cannot feel this at all. He said it was I have 2 things that might help YOU:
1. I bought liquid THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!. I love hearing from people that have been there, done that who REMIND us that we aren't alone in our inpatience, but the wait it worth it.
I'm sure you look great. I'm 5 weeks today. I have days I think, " lookin good there Kimmers " - Others.........I'm swollen, eyes look "vacant", etc. I'm anxious for the day that I feel I look like my "final" result.


Answer
Bren, thanks SO much for reassuring us all! For those of us just a few weeks out of surgery, there is so much angst in anticipating the "final result." Like Kim, I have days where I'm delighted....I see my eyes as "wide-eyed and innocent." And other days where I look "stunned"... a deer in the headlights. Intellectually, I KNOW the "finished product" will take lots more weeks....but it's so hard not to want a glimpse into the future! Thanks for reminding us to keep our eyes on the prize!
TwinA


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oh Bren, thank you for your post. I'm like everybody else--at 3 weeks (today) I have all these lumps and bumps and they don't seem to be exactly the same lumps from one day to the next, and that nasty rubber bandy thing under my chin area is extremely creepy!
If what you say is accurate for me, I should start to look good sometime around the end of JULY. But it's great to know that this will all come out in the end.
Thanks again for your encouraging words.


Answer
Ah, Bren....
.....your words were music to my ears!! At exactly 6 weeks since surgery, I waver between "Alllllll right! Looking better!"...and "Hey! Who stuck this inner tube in my lower face!??!"
My cheeks and jaws remain very swollen ("Where are the contours to my face??? I MUST find the contours to my face....."!!!) And lots of lumps and pimply bumps abound, all round my ears and just below them. My swollen neck tendons under my ears keep me in my playing position of "Wide Receiver"...and my left eye still has this "beaded" hard ridge along the crease. Add to that my semi-smile (temporary nerve damage slowly recovering)--and I would pronounce myself exactly "HALF-baked!"
Yes, definitely not yet ready to come out of the oven---but, still, a slowly moving work-in-progress. And I have tried my very best to see the cup half full--not half empty--and enjoy the fact that I HAVE improved....and I DO look younger...and that my face had every right to sentence me to "hard-labor-healing" for playing "Scrabble" with it--for rearranging and moving all my facial features in one full swoop!!
So....it was lovely to come across your message and be reassured that I am just in the "right place"--the "not quite finished----but baking nicely" stage of my recovery!
Thanks for taking the time to write! Lynn


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Bren,
Thanks for the encouraging words. My surgery was April 27th, and I mostly feel like I will never, ever, look normal again.
I just don't look like myself at all! My eyes are still swollen and I can barely close them; I still have a couple of bulges on my cheeks, I can't move my eyebrows (brow lift), and I have significant bare spots in my hair that won't even begin to look normal.
So, I don't have a hematoma, or an infection in an incision, but it's nice to hear "it's going to be ok!".
Gebbie


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12 weeks, yikes! Why didn't they mention this to us? I'm going to Paris for my 30th anniversary in 4 weeks, so that will be 8 weeks total. I wish I had known, because I don't look forward to having this tight feeling while there. Also, we are going to spend 7 days on a hotel barge, and friends are going also, and I'm sure the wind will be revealing the nasty raised scars behind my ears!
Something no one else has mentioned is that the skin in front of my incisions around the ears is a completely different color than the ear. I guess it's still bruising, but it's a very ugly shade of yuk. My ps didn't do the incisions in the ear, so I think it's really noticeable. One more little tell tale sign!
I'm so glad to hear from all you and know that WE ARE NOT ALONE! Hugs to all!