Face Lift Diary - Choosing a Plastic Surgery Team
As I mentioned previously, choosing the surgeon is the most important step in the process of getting a face lift. Choosing the anesthesiologist is #2. Sometimes you don’t get a choice on the anesthesiologist, you get who the surgeon uses. So part of choosing the right surgeon includes making sure he uses a very good anesthesiologist—if anything goes wrong during surgery it is the anesthesiologist that will save your life—not the surgeon. Also included in choosing a team and sorta wrapped up in choosing the the surgeon and anesthesiologist is making sure the OR (operating room) is well equipped and it’s staff well qualified. All of the above will help ensure you get the best results and that you are reducing as many risks as you can.
I went to the consult with Dr. A July 18th. You may remember that in my mind he had several strikes against him before I got there—the typos in the forms, the sale on “boob jobs”, and paying for referrals. There were more typos in forms after I got there. Having worked for an orthopedic surgeon in the past, I guess I can’t blame the Dr. for typos. But it does reflect on the type of staff he hires, and if he hires a bad secretary, does that mean he would hire a bad OR nurse? Hopefully not.
They took me in on time - which is good. I first met with his nurse who put in a video on face lifts for me to watch on the computer. They had already given me an info packet with printed info on face lift. However, a few minutes later, the nurse came back in with another info sheet on a MACS face lift - she said that I should look at that it well. The video was very good, explained the whole procedure and I had to answer questions at the end of each section. I guess I got them all correct as the video kept progressing. At the end of the video the doctor shows up. Late 50s I guess. Which is good, I don’t want to be his 10th face lift.
He asked me what I didn’t like—"what was it I was hoping to correct." I said, “I hate that I have lost my jaw-line and my neck is starting to sag.” He says, “well you don’t need a face lift for that. Liposuction would probably fix it—you have plenty of elasticity in your skin, so by lipoing out the fat and pressing the skin back in place with a compression bandage/garment, it should give you the result you are looking for.”
“OK,” I said, “but I also don’t like that I am starting to get naso-labial creases.” (lines or creases from the nose to the corner of the mouth. Lines from the mouth down to the chin are called marionette lines and a face lift can’t fix those.) “I don’t want them to continue to the point that I get a wrinkle that won’t come out.” Doc says, “well, you don’t need a face lift. Let me show you something that would be better for you.” And he walks me through a presentation of a MACS or mini- face lift. (Very astute that his nurse picked this up right when I first walked in and gave me info on this.) Then he shows me several women that he has done this procedure on. Most of them were 5 to 7 years younger than me, but looked 10 years older. Which makes me very happy that I have taken care of myself and kept out of the sun.
He said the mini-lift was more for younger patients that want to do preventive type surgery. Face lifts are for older women who have waited until things need more drastic correction. He also said a plus for the mini-lift is that it can be done under local anesthesia. “We give you a valium and an ativan about 30 minutes before and you just calm down and lay there for 4 hours. There is some pain when we separate the skin from the muscle underneath, but most women tolerate the procedure very well. If you think you just can’t do it while awake, then you can have general anesthsia.”
Wow, new wrinkles in the decision process. Can I take the pain or should I be put to sleep, and do I want the mini-lift? hmmm.
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