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January 18, 2006, 12:05 pm PST
hope needs help please
There are so many success stories on TV about make-overs and plastic surgery!
Please let me tell you my story.....
I live in an area where there are top notch medical facilities,
including Duke University Medical Center and UNC University Medical Center.
My experience with plastic surgery has been a disaster to say the least!!
I would like to know if and where there might be a support group
online for people like me,
that have gone through plastic surgery with the outcome a total screw up!
In late April 2002 I had reconstructive surgery including a face lift.
I was very pleased with and very happy about the outcome of this.
I went from looking saggy and tired and 62 years old
to about 45 years old and refreshed and no longer saggy!
The main thing and most important thing about this surgery was that
I had a horrible scar on my forehead and had sunken in place where the
bone had shrunk, and getting worse as time went on.
This resulted from having surgery to correct a brain aneurysm
9 years before.
That surgery was done at the same location as my doctor’s office.
I walked into the operating room that time,
and I walked away from the operating table!!
With help, of course!
Then I sat in a recliner for about 1 and 1/2 hours,
and my hubby drove me home.
A few months after the initial plastic surgery,
I started getting a rash all over my body and when I went to the doctor,
I was referred to a dermatologist, and he said I had HIVES!
He prescribed PREDNISONE. He did extensive testing and blood work
including biopsies, but never found the reason for the hives.
The hives would go away during the time I was taking the Prednisone,
then, every time I finished taking the prescription, the hives came back,
this went on for 6 months!
I was prescribed Prednisone from late July until late December, 2002.
Early 2003, I was in need of a simple procedure when I went to visit
who I thought was an eye plastic surgeon, after my ophthalmologist recommended it,
because my bottom eye lashes in my left eye lid were turning inward and poking my eyeball.
The doctor that I went to told me he was board certified in plastic surgery
as well as ophthalmology,
(which I found out later was not true)
he was not and is not board certified in plastic surgery.
He suggested and advised that I needed some other work done as well,
and he said I'd get a 15% discount if I chose to get all of what
he suggested needed to be done.
He told me he was very surprised that the previous doctor had not done
these things for me, but that doctor was just an ENT, and he,
(this doctor) was much more qualified to do the work to help me
and that I needed.
I was in quite a lot of distress at the time with
my left eye lashes inverted and poking my eye ball,
causing me pain and a lot of tearing.
I didn't know better at the time and I trusted him as
I have always trusted my doctors and I agreed to the procedures
he advised me that I needed,
except when he said something about narrowing the eye lids,
I commented that it sounded like making my eyes smaller,
and I did not want that.
March 2003 the surgery was planned and scheduled to be done at
Durham Regional Hospital on a day surgery basis.
When the nurse inserted the anesthesia needle in my right hand,
I told her right away it was very painful.
She said ok, that's just normal...
During part of the surgery I was aware of people talking and laughing
and making small talk.
At one point I was crying and tears were rolling down my cheeks,
and the doctor said, what's wrong, dear?
I mumbled as best as I could that my hand hurt, hurt bad!
I heard a woman say, oh, that's normal.
Right away I felt a horrific burning pain shooting up my arm.
The next thing I remember was I heard people that
seemed to be in panic!
They were saying sit up Janet!
Sit Up and bend over as far as you can with your
head between your knees!
I tried to do as they said, but I couldn't, I was dead weight!
They helped raise my head up and lower it down between my knees.
Then again .... the same thing.... They were yelling at me !!!!!
JANET RAISE UP!!! RAISE UP AND
PUT YOUR HEAD DOWN BETWEEN YOUR KNEES!
Again I couldn't, because I was dead weight! I was very frightened too!
I didn't know what was happening and I didn't understand why
they were yelling at me!
Then I felt a deep deep pain in the corner of my right eye,
and I was groaning and starting to cry again.
Then I had a mask put over my face and people were yelling
BREATHE DEEP JANET!! BREATHE DEEP!
I don't remember anything after that until I woke up in a hospital room!
When I came to I was in a hospital room,
and my doctor was standing there
telling me and my husband,
"When I got in there he found no cheek bone.....
so I inserted some cheek implants made of "mylar"
and attached them with 2 tiny "titanium screws"
he then said, but, I didn't charge you for that dear!"
That was the first time I had heard a word about implants and screws
there in my hospital room. AFTER the surgery!
(I've often wondered how did he attach the implants to my cheek bones,
when he said ("when I got in there I found that you had no cheek bones")
He said he wanted me to stay there in the hospital over night for observation,
because he said I had been through quite a lot,
and he had given me Morphine, for the pain.
During the night I woke up, with my stomach swollen
and hard as a brick and was hurting!
I felt like I needed to go to the bathroom really bad!
My face was all bandaged up and I couldn't see, I was searching
for the buzzer, but I couldn't find it.
I was trying to call for help, but I could barely make a sound come out,
I was calling hellllp somebody please hellllp me!
Finally a nurse came in and I told her
I had been trying to call for help and I couldn't find the buzzer.
She said well, sweetie it's right there on the wall behind your bed....
I told her but I can't see, my face is all wrapped up, she said oooh yes,
I see that it is.
She put the buzzer beside me on the bed.
Then I told her I need to go to the bath room really bad!
She said well just go, you have a bag there, and you have a catheter.
I said but I can’t, it won't go, it won't happen. She said she'd be right back,
but she never came back.
Sometime later another nurse came in.
I told her the same thing that I needed to go to the bathroom.
She checked the catheter and said no wonder, this is inserted incorrectly.
She fixed it and I got relief.
Then I told her my hand was hurting really bad too.
She took my bandages off my face, and then I noticed
my hand was 3 times larger than normal and black and blue!
She took out the iv, and put an ice pack on my hand.
She was an angel sent by God from heaven to help me!
My doctor had told my husband to go home the night before,
that I would be sleeping all night and no need for him to stay...
My reason for adding this to my post is to say,
all surgery can be risky!
Especially when anesthesia is involved!
All doctors are not great surgeons,
and some cannot be trusted to have your best interest in mind.
All hospitals are not the safest place to be!
I was released from the hospital about 36 hours after I was checked in.
Right away after going home I noticed my other eye (my right eye)
that the eye lashes inverted
on the bottom and my right bottom lid was twisted inward
and both eyes were pinched in at the outer corners.
Thus making them very much smaller, and different
from the other.
This caused my right eyelid at the top and bottom to grow together
forming a "web like" affect at the outer corner of my right eye.
Every since then my eye lids have been deformed,
with my eye lashes growing inward poking in my right eyeball,
(Some doctors have cauterized some of the eyelashes
that were poking my eyeball, some have plucked them out with tweezers,
I have had to pluck some out with tweezers all along also.
My eye lids and my face always feel like they are on fire!!
My eyes are always tearing,
and they feel like something is sticking and pinching them!!
My face is lopsided and my cheeks look like huge marbles under the skin
high up on my cheek, (and each side different from the other)
My face has scars from the surgery all around my eyes and cheeks.
My upper eyelids and cheek areas feel numb and
like fine grit sand paper!!
My nose is larger now and crooked and always feels cold,
and I most always have a runny nose, and sneezing spells!
I've been to many doctors in this area including some at
Duke Hospital and UNC Hospital with little or no help!
They all tell me that there is so much damage already to
my facial tissues and nerves that they are afraid what ever they do will make it worse.
My whole life has changed, for the most part I lay around with a wet towel
on my face to help relieve the burning.
I've gained over 20 lbs, I've lost muscle tone, have very little strength
and energy,
I've lost mostly all of my social life.
There's a tremendous burden on my heart from the bitterness
I feel towards the doctor that did this to me!! I'm just going down hill fast!!!!
My mother lived an active live until she was 83, working for the most part 5 days a week!
Driving herself back and forth to work too!! Then she had to slow down because she fell,
and only lived 2 years after that.
My grandmorher lived until she was 92 and in good health until the end!
I was a happy grandmother and had a very close relationship
and very active with my grandchildren, and I miss that so very much!
I haven't given up hope yet, but I've been suffering needlessly for a very long time now!
I did some homework on this before I entered into it,
but not enough, evidently!! I was way too trusting of doctors
because I had never had any reason to not trust my doctors.
Dr. Phil, can you help me? please........
If anyone can offer any suggestions or help please let me know.
Thank you for reading, I know it was long, but it was short...... considering ...
hope911
PS: I have recently been to the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida trying to get help..... Well, guess what? Nope, not even they cannot help me!!! Doctor there said too much tissue and nerve damage, same as the local doctors here have told me!!!!! He said he was afraid to take the implants out or to do anything to try to correct these problems would make even more tissue and nerve damage and more pain and more deformities to my face!!! Oh Lord.............
I just don't know what to do now!!! My eyes and my face are burning like fire and now even my lips are too!!! My lips are starting to look like dried up prunes too, like my eyes have done quite some time ago starting after the surgery in March 2003 >>> from the burning and the pain!!!
If there is anyone that might can help for me or tell me where I might be able to get help, please let me know, please get in touch with me, here through this message board, or at
hope91127511@aol.com
Thanks so much, Hope911
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