Thursday, November 19, 2009

24 weeks (+1day) the second beginning

Today I met Dr. T and it appears that I'm headed back for more surgery.
Dr. T explained that Dr. L only removed the skin and none of the tissue/fat underneath and that's why my lovely xanthies are coming back. They were never fully removed!! He took some photos, felt the skin, then used a tweezer type thing to pinch the skin where the xanthies are (mimicking removal of that skin maybe?) and then we talked. He feels he can work with my eyes to fix them but says we may need to do it piece by piece; meaning that we cant just go in and pull it all out at once because my eyes wouldn't fit properly afterwards. I told him that I'm okay doing it little by little as long as the end result is that they will be gone and for longer than 5 months. It appears I have enough skin to go ahead and start this process and we have 3 potential dates, Dec 9th, Dec 18th or Dec. 23rd. The 23rd is a definite but since I have that Caribbean vacation planned (yes, again...) I'm not so sure I want to do it on the 23rd, however, he feels 3 weeks will be enough healing time. I'll go back and check the 3 week post op mark and see how I was before I agree to that though. I have to keep in mind that we are only doing the lowers this time and they did heal faster than the uppers with much less swelling etc. They were bruised and I looked a little beat up but he may be right. 3 weeks...hmmm, a tan would certainly hide any left over bruising ;). I just went back and looked at the 3 week update. Visible scars but not bad. This could work... I'm hoping for the 18th though because 4 weeks gives the eyes 5 more days and more is better for healing. My daughter is not available on the 9th and I'm not sure I want to do this without her. She may not realize it but I'm really glad she was with me before and would really like to have her with me again.

Anyway, I also spoke with the surgical coordinator. This is a different one from last time. She seemed to feel that my insurance will cover it again but Dr. T. said they may lump this into the non covered blepharoplasty category because we're removing the fat below the skin this time along with the new xanthies. We'll see. She gave me the pre-op paperwork and told me to go ahead and get it done. This time they want bloodwork along with the EKG because if they do it on the 9th, the surgi center for that date requires it. They have two that they use. I'd kind of rather go back to the same place as before--on the 18th! Hopefully my insurance sees that this is a work in progress and approves it but if I have to pay for it, I guess I'll just have to tighten up the budget and go for it. I want my face fixed.
I'll update again as soon as I get a date.

Meanwhile, take a look at todays photos. Its dark outside so this is all flash, no sunlight. You can really see the xanthies now.


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