One Month Mark

A lot has happened since I last posted.  My daughter got married and my brother died. In addition, I started back to school. That being said, I am a little late in posting the lastest picture.  I am now at the one-month-mark of the day of having had surgery.  The total healing process is supposed to take 4 months, so I will actually be my best on New Year's Eve.  What a way to start the new year!

 

 

One Month Mark

 

My eyes, just prior to the surgery one month ago!



I don't even look like the same person!  It would probably take one of those eye recognition things to even verify that I have the same eyes.  People keep saying to me, "Wow, you've lost a lot of weight!"  I smile and think, "Yep, I have---all around the eyes!"

I have to go get glasses in a couple of weeks.  My eyes are aging and I have reached that point.  I think I am going to go for some contact lenses.  I don't want to cover up all that work!

Compare my eyes to before surgery, 3 weeks ago

 

This picture was taken 3 weeks after the surgery

 

 This picture was taken just prior to the surgery

 

 

Wow! That is quite a difference--if I do say so myself!

It has been three weeks!

I started back to school this week so my time has become more limited to do the blog. It also has retricted the amount of ice packs and heat I can apply. I still try to do it once or twice a day because my eyes still get swollen a little.  However, the improvement has been dramatic in three weeks--and even dramatic in the last four days.  You can see that the bruising is gone except for an almost unnoticable blotch under one eye.  My eyes look "brighter" compared to 4 days ago.  I have continued to apply vitamin E, and the wrinkles are still minimal.

I have noticed that when I am out in the sunlight, I squint more because more light is coming in. I didn't wear sunglasses before, but I kind of like them now. I think the squinting was contributing to the wrinkling. 

By the end of the day, my eyes are still pretty tired and I look forward to icing them.
 

 

Today

Four days ago

3 weeks ago

 

I will be going back to the doctor next week and I will try to get the picture of my eyes prior to the surgery.  It would be a nice comparison!

Two Plus Four - Two Weeks plus four days

I went to see Dr. Kennedy yesterday afternoon. He took me right in the same day I called.  The eye twitching is normal while the muscles are trying to communicate during the healing process. The occasional stinging pain is also normal. I didn't have any infection and the stitches were mostly healed.

Dr. Kennedy suggested that I break open a vitamin E capsule and put a little of the oil on the places where the skin was still healing--which included the mass of skin where the wrinkles had suddenly appeared.  The first picture is a picture of the morning AFTER I put on the vitamin E oil.  (Who needs botox when you have vitamin E??!!)  The second picture is a comparison picture from the day before I put on the vitamin E.  There was a HUGE difference in the wrinkles.  I did get it too close to the eye when I applied the vitamine E, and because it is thick, it blurred my vision and made my eye sting.  That went away in a few hours.

Today

Yesterday

 

two plus two

It has now been two weeks plus two days. There are some interesting developments.
     1.  My eyes are twitching, especially my left eye. That is annoying.
     2.  For the first time, I have felt a tiny bit of pain, but it is only brief and it is more like a stinging
          sensation in the eyelids.
     3.  Once in a while, my left eye aches, but only  for a few seconds, and then it goes away.
     4.  The swelling has gone down, but it seems like I am going to be left with a cluster of wrinkles
          under the eye. That is annoying because I never had wrinkles before.

Perhaps all of these are normal.  Just in case they are not, I have called the doctor and asked that he return my phonecall. 

Within the stitches, there is more redness, but I think what I noticed the most today, is that  there are bumps in the area where the eye muscle was reduced under the eyelid. In the photo, you can see some of these indentations and another angle of the wrinkles under the eye.

One Week, One Day

Dr. Kennedy said the brusing would be gone in two weeks and a couple of days. Even if "coupole" means two, he is going to be pretty close in the prediction.

When I first get up in the morning, the space under the eye is very uneven in its puffiness. I can almost feel the ridges of where the muscle was cut away.  You can see what I mean by looking at the eye on the left.

Yesterday afternoon was I really freaked because as the day progressed, I seemed to be accumulating a large area of wrinkles. Prior to the surgery I had puffiness, but no wrinkles. I don't see them there this morning, so hopefully it was just that  with the reduction of puffiness, the skin was also adjusting.

Two weeks today!

The bruising is finally started to diminish.  The biggest thing that I have noticed is that my eyelashes took a beating. I normally have pretty long lashes, after the surgery, they seem to have gotten buried in the swelling.  Now that the swelling has gone done, I can tell that I will need to apply some type of eyelash stimulant to help revive them. With a little eyeliner, I can get by until I start using latisse or some other eyelash helper!

Today - two weeks since the surgery

 I didn't take a picture yesterday, so this is from two days ago. My eyes are much less swollen today, and, although still bruised, they are getting better every day.

First Day after the surgery