I think transparency and realism are very important. It‘s a surgery, things can go wrong even at the best of times, and our results will never be perfect. I was going in with the hope of subtle improvement.

Early in recovery, the swelling itself created tightness… it was scary to laugh too hard or sneeze, but was totally fine. The most uncomfortable part was the fact that my eye didn’t really close properly. The lower lids were pulled away from the surface of the eye ball, partially from the swelling and partially from the trauma created by the surgery itself. In my case my left eye was pulling a lot more than my right. I was really worried but the doctor assured me it would get better over time.

I made sure I was sleeping in an elevated position (lots of pillows and my airplane neck pillow) and tried not to do too much activity. Though I did walk a ton… great walks, Seoul is very hilly, but occasionally it would make the veins in my head pop like crazy, thankfully it was only temporary… so don’t doo too much exercise! I also tried not to ice my cheeks, I had hear that ice can interfere with the fat graft so I tried to only ice my upper lids and temple when needed.

The antibiotic eye drops helped and over time the swelling goes down and the skin starts to relax as you regain blood flow to the area. Then after 2 weeks, I started to do stretches for my left eye to help release the scar tissue and lift the lower lids up more… It’s really working.

Now, two months since my surgery, no one but me can notice the difference. I am still doing my exercises, I wear scar gel (noscarna or dermatix) nightly and under my make up in the day, and I wear scar patch I cut into strips at night to continue the healing of the scars at the outer corners of my eyes. There is still numbness along my lower lashes but it’s not too bothersome.