Day 2 post-surgery for round 1 (eye lift, cheek implants, jaw reshaping, under neck lipo, cheek lipo, face lift — required when one does jaw work)
Doctor stopped by for a follow-up exam and said things are healing well. Next follow up is Monday at the surgeon’s office (they’ll have a driver take to/from).
The big news is that the bandages came off. Yay!
Not only a lot more comfortable, but means I can get serious using the cold packs to reduce the swelling. Doctor today said swelling usually peaks around the third day, so hopefully Monday I’ll start looking better.
Looks awful, but doesn’t particularly hurt, although I’m still on painkillers through tonight. (Can do them longer if needed but it tends to messes with your stomach.)
Mostly my face just feels weird. Learned the hard way that I needed to move my head rather than my eyes, although that’s getting better, and it’s a little weird seeing in my peripheral vision the swollen bags under my eye. Some parts of my face are a little numb — probably some cut nerves from when the cheek implants went into. Usually the nerves regrow later. Could also be just that the skin is being stretched so hard that it’s throwing off the sensation.
With all the swelling it’s hard to tell how effective the under-neck lips was, but my face definitely looks narrower and less jowly. Probably the combination of face lift and cheek lipo, as well as shaving down the jawbone (male jawbones typically flange outwards in a way that female jawbones typically don’t). I’ve hated my jowls for years, so that’s exciting. Also seems like I’m a bit less square-jawed now, but hard to tell with the swelling.
Hard to guess what the eyes will end up looking like, but hopefully it’ll reduce the bags under my eyes. (Plus there’s more work to be done in round 2, grinding down the orbital bones to give the eyes a more open look — eyes being one the things Dr. Di Maggio takes great pride in.)
Definitely no regrets so far.
Even though I’ve got a lot of energy, I’m staying inside to today to use the cold packs every half hour — plus it’s 87 and muggy outside. But tonight I might walk down the block to the gelateria, even if I may scare small children along the way.
More adventures in Argentine groceries….
1) They only sell instant soup — no canned soup— but it’s actually pretty tasty. Far better than the powdered soup in the States. I may end up taking some back home.
2) The can of tuna I had for lunch was minced. Odd but worked out well since my jaw is still pretty stiff and it’s hard to chew. So I could more or less gum it down.
I wanted something more substantial than the soup and yogurt I’ve been living off of — and one of Buenos Aires’ better hole-in-the-wall empanada shops was only two-and-half blocks away.
Unfortunately they turned out to be closed — it’s summer vacation season here and a lot of people are out of town — so I had to settle instead for going to the pizza/empanada shop across the street (they’re pretty ubiquitous).
But definitely a lesson in needing to sure not to push myself too hard. Even though it was just five blocks total walking, I could tell that if I walked around more, it would be easy to over do it. (I’d been warned that could be an issue, but I knew there was a McDonald’s and two cafes along the way, so I had places to stop and rest if needed.)
Part of it also is the heat and humidity — 87 and muggy today — which were draining even before the first round of surgery.