Day 14 after round 2 of surgery: (lowering the hairline, brow reduction (which includes “opening” eyes by reducing the orbital bones). Day 25 since the first round of surgery.
All the remaining stitches were removed today!
Removing them wasn’t much fun, because the scalp stitches were long ones, OTOH, the doctor said that was a good thing, since most of his patients still can’t feel anything at this point (nerves are temporarily cut during the procedures, so scalp is numb until they grow back).
Brusing under the eyes will take a couple weeks to go away, but at least concealer can hide most of it.
The scars themselves are going to turn red and ugly during the coming weeks, before eventually fading to gray. Just have to remember it’s part of the process (and yes I’ll be using scar-prevention gel). Unfortunately, hairline incisions never heal that well since it’s under tension and the forehead moves a lot, neither of which is conducive to good healing.
Doctor says about two-thirds of the swelling will be gone in three months, but it’ll take year before it’s all gone (the nose in particular takes a long time to rid itself of swelling).
However I can definitely see and feel the changes. You can’t really see them in the photo, but I can definitely feel my (newly-augmented) cheekbones. Hopefully they’ll be more visible as the swelling recedes.
But even it it’s incomplete state, it’s nice to finally look in the mirror and see a face that looks like “me.”