Facelift and Skin Care

[bobsplace]

My name is Bob and I'm a newbe here. This seems to be a much younger group but hopefully you'll find this thread by an older guy of some interest.

I had a facelift for my 68th birthday and I kept a journal of my plastic surgery journey at http://bobsplace.us. It is the only site I'm aware of that shows the healing process from a facelift week by week, side by side. Normally you'll see a before picture and next to that a 6 month picture. I wanted to show how much you change week to week as you heal from the surgery.

The most important part for me however is the skin care regimen I began at my doctors recommendation and the excellent improvement of my skin after following the regimen. Using the latest Stem Cell (live bovine embryo cell) products from avantgardeantiaging.com I was able to eliminate all my age spots, smooth out the fine wrinkles and even out my skin tone. Non of this is acomplished by the facelift. Facelifts change the structure of your face and hopefully take off a few years, but its the pre and post skin care that really makes a difference in how it all turns out.

For all you younger ones in the audience all I can say is take your skin serioiusly now and it won't be near the problem it was for me. I know you hear it a million times, but stay out of the sun and use a good sunblock. The sun damage I had after 60 years of beach living was bad and I would not undergo dermabrasion or chemical peel. One surgical procedure was more than enough for me so I had to find a way to repair my skin and the products I used did the trick. If anyone is interested I'll give you the names of the products but you can find them all at avantgarde if you care to take a look.
This is not a sales pitch but I really believe in the products and wish to make as many people as possible aware of them.

Thanks for having me on the board and I hope I can make some positive contributions.

[madeupgirl]

Hello Bob and welcome to the forums. I just went through the link you posted and my....what a change. Congrats and thanks for posting the link.

Your changes look more natural than some of the photos I've seen before of even some celebs. What I really like to know is, how you actually felt after the first day. I mean was it so painful? Or painful but bearable? When did you start feeling normal again etc

[Judi]

Welcome to the forums, quite a change Bob you look great. But it looks like it must have been painful for the first while. Your doctor did a great job and you would never know unless like here you told us. Welcome aboard.

[bobsplace]

Thanks guys for the nice words. The srange thing about a facellift, There really is almost no pain. When first awaken after the surgery the pain was terrific but immediatly after the doctor says "are you awake?" you get two jabs of morphine and go back to la la land for about 12 hours. Upon awaking, there is no pain left. You look like a train wreck, but really all the nerve endings have mostly been servered and the most you can feel is disconfort. I stayed in hospital for 48 hours and then went to a retreat for 12 days and just took it easy, read a lot and played on the computer when I felt like it. But mostly just enjoyed sitting on the patio with the beautiful views of I had of mountains and valleys.. Everyday there would be a new twitch here or there as nerves began to connect and the swelling and brusing receded. The hardest part for me was having to sleep on my back for 4 months. I was suppost to sleep on my back for the rest of my life to get the ulitmate longest lasting results but 4 months was all I could take of flat on my back. The bruiising mostly goes away within two weekks. The swelling took six months to go down. At seven months I still feel nerves connecting but its so natural I pay no attention to them any longer. The normal total recovery time is one year. And your face keeps changing during that timel. Granted, the changes gets smaller and you'll be the only one to notice them but they do take place. My neice had her facelift a year ago this month and she says she is still feeling the nerves connecting. Her's looks pretty good too. She is 50 and I thought she would heal faster than me but it doesn't seem to be the case. Of course she had her lift in Houston at a cost of $35,000 and I had mine in Costa Rica (which included an all inclusive stay at a retreat for 12 days and 2 1/2 days in hospital for $5,000 (including airfare). i think out of country is the way to go.


The reason I recommend having a lift earlier in life (about 40 to 45) is the faster healing time and most at that age do go back to work withthin two to three weeks. Since women can hid a lot with makeup, no one ususally notices any difference. At least that's what any number of women I know have said to me about going back to work. The change is not nearly as drastic and mostly people will not notice you had anything done. They may think you just had a great vacation and came back all rested and refreshed.

A friend of mine who had surgery last year was really scared of going back to work after 3 weeks and afraid of what people would say. I spoke with her after her 1st day back and she was upset because no one noticed or said anything at all. I guess it is a let down in a way if you think you are looking better and no one notices, but thats what usually happens in 90% of the cases. It's really what you want to happen. Ten years later the people around you will began to wonder why you haven't aged the way they have. Thats the payback.

[Ocean]

Thanks Bob, this is really interesting. I have to admit that the whole surgery thing scares me but it is really nice to have such a thorough, inside view of it all. You really do look great and your advice about the sun and sunblock is on the mark. I wish I had not tanned when I was younger. Thank you

[blackbird668]

Nice to meet you Bob!
What an interesting journey. Like you said, most places post one "before" and one "after" photo, so you never know what the "in between" was like. I didn't know what the process was like.

[bobsplace]

I had joined a site called plastic surgery journeys but even there, I saw no pictures of week by week. There were a lot of postings about the healing process but the posted pictures left a lot to be desired.. That was where I learned the most about what I was getting into however. It's a very good site.