Not much action here lately - Here's my take on Facial PS

What I did NOT know, but would have liked to have thought about:

0. Get a good recliner and ICEMAN.  2+ months out I still sleep propped up and ice stills feels good and helps with swelling.

1. Grow your hair out.  I have worn a SHORT pixie for awhile and even though I let it 'grow in" for a month before surgery and a month after - it was still very short.  A short bob would have been better to hide the scars in your scalp.  If you are a guy, grow it out also. 

2. Swelling was a problem for me. I wish I had a "ice bag hat" - made for people who have migraines and a face ice mask - they look crazy, but it would have helped more with pain, than just ice bags and peas.

3. Ice will also help with any pain.  Check into getting an Iceman - I got one for my shoulder, but too late to help with this. 

4. I think that this doctor wrote the most accurate description of what to expect.  I don't know him, he was not my surgeon, never met him, but his paper was accurate - I was not one of those people who are ready to go outside in 3 days.

http://www.shahfacialplastics.com/agingfaceinstructions.html

4. There will be scars in your hair - you will feel the bumps from the scars for awhile. They stick up alot at first, but do get smaller over time (months).  That is why you want more hair. 

5. Doctor should call you when you get home to check on you. 

6. PAIN was a problem (no it was a PROBLEM)-- oxycodon is nowhere near as effective as the injections you get in the hospital and if the pain really gets away from you before you get home post-op, it will make for an agonizing 4-5 days.  Take some yogurt and percoset to the surgery with you.  Take it when you feel pain and the staff do not give you anything for it.  If you wake up in pain, you do not want to wait until you get home to take pain meds. 

7. My Brow Lift caused me to be in unrelenting agony for 3-4 DAYS.  It is a HUGH and trauma-inducing surgery.  They drill holes in your skull (halfway though not all the way to your brain) and insert clips and then pull your forehead skin or muscles up and mash them on little hooks on the front of the clips. You have to have more than percosets if you get this.  For the rest of the face lift,  percs would prob be OK.  My doctor refused to give me anything other than pers, when I practically begged for a shot at my 24 hr post op he said, We don't do that here and told me I would be happy with the results in a few months.  I asked for a shot to get hte pain under control.  He refused and I went home and sobbed ad cried for 2 more days.  I was in such bad shape, I should have gone to the emergency room.  Here is what I looked at AFTER 4 days so you know what I mean.  I was told it was worse after days 1-3, but I did not look in the mirror and still have not looked at pictures from these days because I do not want the images seared in my mind along with the pain. (I was in so much pain day 1-3 that I thought my face must look like hamburger meat.)

DAY 4 - Totally unrecognizable - I look like an ALIEN or a russian babushka grandmother.

 

 

Here is a link to the BOTCHED dr's brow lift.  He was not my doctor, but I had the same surgical process.  Even though the skull does not have pain receptors, how anyone would think that 2 percosts would do anything to the pain caused by this surgery is a F*&^*ASS^&%*, IMHO.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfEJgdA7BsQ  

 

 

8.  I still need to wear make-up on my neck (over 2 months out) - I got a few beige shirts where the makeup does not really show if it gets on the blouse.  The sides of my neck were black after surgery, they are still bluish.  

Add ideas of your own.