Your ultimate guide to a speedy eyelid surgery recovery [Shannon O'Brien, MD, Portland]

Eva Sheie (00:00):
Let's talk about recovery from eyelid surgery. So it's a quick surgery, you're in and out the same day you go home. When do we come back to see you for the first time to look at those results?

Dr. O'Brien (00:13):
You go home the same day. I do place tapes on the eyelids for the first week, and so you really don't get to see much, but it does very impressively help with bruising and swelling. And then when those tapes come off at the one week post-op visit, which is usually a nurse's visit, she gets the stitches out, she gets the tapes off, and you really get to see where you are. And then I see everybody somewhere between two and three weeks afterwards. And with that, you still have some puffiness, but people are back in action, ready to go back to their activities, that kind of stuff.

Eva Sheie (00:50):
Would you have black eyes, would anything look like you got beat up or not so much?

Dr. O'Brien (00:56):
Usually not, thankfully. There's a medication I give that's an IV medication at the start of surgery that helps limit bruising. And then I typically have people take an over the counter medication called arnica. It's a supplement, it's an anti-inflammatory. It does seem to help people reduce their bruising earlier. There are creams and there are tablets and with the tapes in place, and just in general, anything surgical, I tend to have people take the arnica tablets. And then if they have any residual bruising after the tapes come off, they can certainly apply the cream and continue the tablets until they feel like those are resolved.

Eva Sheie (01:36):
Is there anything that would affect your vision in that recovery period following eyelid surgery?

Dr. O'Brien (01:42):
Well, depending on how much somebody swells in general, they may feel like their vision is a little bit fuzzy for a little bit, and that can last for a few weeks. It's not a permanent change, it's just sort of some of the swelling on the conjunctiva and around the eyes can make everything just a little less crisp. You can't wear your contacts for the first couple of weeks, you've got to wear glasses so that there's not a lot of manipulation of the eyes. But other than that, most people are watching TV on their computer, reading books, doing kind of normal things, just having to take pauses the first few days in order to ice their eyes or just close and rest 'em a little bit.

Eva Sheie (02:20):
Are there any complications to be aware of stuff that comes up here and there? Obviously they're rare about what are the usual things when there are any?

Dr. O'Brien (02:30):
So we talked about bruising and swelling. Most people have a little bit of asymmetry when they look in the mirror, and there's usually still a little bit of that. But usually, I mean, I tend to tell people they're probably going to be closer afterwards than they were at the beginning. There are muscles around the eyes that could theoretically be injured. There are also, if there was a complication with bleeding, which is one of the things we worry about the most around the eyes, it can create bruising, but if it puts pressure on the eye, it could actually cause harm to the eye or the structures around it or even the sight. And so there have been cases of blindness after eyelid surgery, although that's exceedingly rare.

Eva Sheie (03:10):
This has been coming up a lot lately. Dumb things people ask if they can do in that week, the first week after surgery. Is there anything that comes to mind?

Dr. O'Brien (03:21):
I mean, I have people who are asking that ask if they can ski, if they can garden, and I mean all these things, if I just get on the treadmill for this long, is it really a problem? It's like probably you might get away with it, but if you don't, it's a big deal, especially with eyelid and facelifts, people don't feel that bad. I mean, their energy returns pretty quickly, but they still need to not overdo. And so yeah, it's education and then reminding. And then oftentimes having a friend, spouse, somebody saying, quit it. No, you can't do that. They just out of habit will sort of overdue. I mean, the biggest concern for those facial procedures is bleeding. That's the kind of thing that can require us to go back to the OR, sometimes emergently. And when those muscles get to contracting or if you get really hot and sweaty or what have you, you'll vasodilate and then all of a sudden you can end up having those little, a bleeding complication. But otherwise just extra bruising, extra swelling, and then you just look a little rough a little longer. And so just to try to get people back into their normal stream of life as quickly as possible, it's worth taking it easy.

Eva Sheie (04:47):
Do your patients say, is there anything that they say when they come back and you see them at that two, three week mark where you know that they're happy?

Dr. O'Brien (04:57):
Even folks with aesthetic eyelid surgery, not the folks that feel like that are having it for medical purposes, but some of the folks that have had aesthetic eyelids, they feel like they can see better because there's more light. They love the way that their eyes just look bigger and brighter. They look happier, less angry, less tired. It's a fun one, eyelid surgery.

Eva Sheie (05:21):
On this podcast, we bring you directly to the doctors who are where before meets after. Links to our guest's website and contact info are in your show notes. Follow us on Instagram @wherebeforemeetsafter. Where Before Meets After is a production of The Axis, the podcast agency for aesthetics, theaxis.io.