NERVES

So obviously, this next surgery is not my first rodeo. I am almost having flashbacks to when I did the body lift in June 2006.  The incision for an outer thigh lift that is needed in order to make sure all the burn scar is cut off starts on my back side and ends right in front of my hip bone about 3 inches on both sides.  If there was not soooo much tissue (and a little fat) that needed to be removed doing this on my left side would not be necessary, however that is NOT the case and in order for my body to look even I have to take off the left what comes off the right. Then I am having my front scar revised from my c-section to make sure that “matches” the rest of what I am doing on my outer thighs, and corrects a deep indention that was made after my c-section scar opened wide up 3 days after Priscilla was born due to all the fluid I was carrying around in that area, and the doctor allowed the wound to stay open and the fluid to continue to leak out. When it finally healed it didn’t make a pretty scar-it left a wide scar and indention!  To say the least there will only be about 3-5 inches on my back side that will not have an incision, so basically I am 3-5 inches short of a body lift AGAIN.

I am excited, yet nervous all at the same time.  A regular body lift take a full year to heal, so my “almost” body lift re-do will take about the same amount of time. Swelling goes down in about a month or so, so I can see results pretty quickly, which is very nice.  The stitches internally feel like wires from the outside of the body, but they are dissolvable, so eventually they go away. The feeling of tightness can be a struggle sometimes because I feel like I should somehow crouch down when I walk. I can stand up straight, but I can’t lean too far to one side, or lean too far backward or forward because it pulls on the incision.  Last time I had this surgery within 6 months, and before I officially was 100% healed my husband got the idea that having a baby would be fabulous.  Even though I loved the idea too, I wish he would have had this bright idea before my surgery.  Regardless his bright idea turned into Priscilla, and we are so happy to have her.  Any repercussions my body went through after surgery in order to carry her are worth dealing with any day all day. I never said I did things in my life in order anyway. So I am just rollin with it. It is what it is.

I am FINALLY,  after waiting a long time going to do right by my boobies, and get them BOTH lifted at the same time so that I get perfect symmetry.  Lefty has never been lifted, which means that even though nipple placement on both breasts is the same they still look a little more like sisters than twins. One year after the breast lift I will (Or one of my best friend’s Tish will) tattoo flesh colored pigment (the same color as my nipples) over the breast lift scars to “fog” out the incision line and scar so that they look like they have never been touched. My right breast was lifted several times over the years to correct symmetry, and you can’t see the vertical scar unless I lean back in a certain way, in a certain light and actually point it out.  I am grateful I healed so nicely from those lifts, I am hoping the same thing happens with this one.

And lastly if it is not one thing it is another-my scar tissue in my lips, which holds the implants in place has ripped at some point making my super fabulous lip implants lose their positioning.  This could have happened during a dental visit, or multiple visits over the years by stretching my lip too far too soon after I got the implants not allowing them to heal properly.  Who woulda thunk it? My top one is too far to the right, and bottom is too far to the left.  I am the only one that notices it, but we are going to fix it.  The good doctor may just reposition the implants I have, or he could opt to switch them out.  If he opts to switch them out I am going to ask to see in my hands the size implants I have now, and then one size smaller, and if there is not a huge difference (there is actually 1mm difference between each implant size-3mm, 4mm & 5mm-I have 5mm) I may go down to a 4 if he and I agree that is the best thing.  I may need a longer implant to prevent this incident from happening again.

So these are the trials and tribulations that come with plastic surgery, and maintaining what you have done before, especially if you do anything to “undo” what was done to start with.  That is why I call it the plastic surgery train, because once you get on, if you want to keep that “look” to some degree there will be more surgeries in your future-especially where breast augmentations are concerned.  After this surgery I am hoping to maintain my appearance with my body with no problem, and maintain my appearance with my face through little things like Botox, and fillers, and then some time when I am around 38-40 I will do a very conservative lower face lift, so that I get just a little lift on my lower face and neck.  If I have to repeat this process at 50, again in a conservative way the results will be phenomenal because I will be able to still “age” very gracefully without ever looking stretched or pulled, which is EXACTLY what I want to avoid at all costs.

When I turned 30 and had my body lift and breast implant replaced I got a conservative lower eyelid lift so that the excess skin under my eyes could be taken off, but as requested, it was done in a very conservative way so that no one would be able to tell, and thankfully that is exactly what I got. I had a friend who discussed this procedure with her doctor and she is 39 now and he said he would never do anything like that until she was older.  She doesn’t look near 39, but she complains of the same problem I had of the excess skin under my eyes that my make-up would settle in, and did not look good in pictures.  The problem with doctors being overly conservative and not allowing women to do work that in a lot of ways is “preventative maintenance”, is that when they finally DO get the work done at 50 or later there is such a drastic change you can tell they had work done, because they LOOK different.  I would like to maintain my look, and have changes I make (especially with the face) be so subtle that no one could tell unless I told them.  To give you an example that proves my point to a certain degree-At one point Dolly Parton got a face lift/brow lift/neck lift done.  When she did it the results were noticeable.  People could tell she had work done and she didn’t deny it….BUT, from time to time I am fairly certain (a little birdy told me) that she goes back and gets a little maintenance done on these areas so that she stays looking fresh, and now no one can tell if she has done more work because she looks the same.

For all of you “grow old gracefully” women/men, I intend to allow myself some of leeway to look close to my age.  I won’t get rid of every single fine line or wrinkle (that just about impossible anyway), but I DO intend to “grow old gracefully”-SLOWLY, and this is very possible to attain with little maintenance botox/fillers, and conservative facial surgery in time.  I never want to look “surgerized” and so far I think I am doing good.  Admittedly after my brow lift at 25 I DID look surgerized for awhile until all the nerves and muscles connected again and movement was restored. That was the price I had to pay to avoid looking pulled in my 40’s or 50’s by doing that part of the work at 25.  At 40 or 50 I may need a touch-up brow lift, but if I do, I will do the endoscopic one, instead of full coronal one (the one where the incision is ear to ear-like my first brow lift) so that it is not extreme looking.

In the meantime I hope you will send good thoughts and prayers my way for surgery next Thursday. Before surgery next week I will post pre-op pictures, and then afterward I will post post-op pictures so you can follow the progress, and see for yourself how it is going.  You can subscribe to this blog, and it will email you when I update it.

Peace~

Jenny Lee

Cilla & Me (Maria Bernal Photography)

Advertisement