My eyelids have what look like dark blue eye shadow, and there are huge stitches on them as well as on my forehead.
I don’t look good with blue eye shadow.
I really do look like the world’s ugliest drag queen without the gown, wig and lipstick.
The stitches also give me that slight Frankenstein look that is guaranteed to make small children scream and run to mommy.
Due to a genetic family curse of oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy, one of the first signs are drooping eyelids. Grandfather, grand-uncles, mom, aunts, cousins, brother all had/have it - yep, we all get to go through this rite of passage of getting this eyelid surgery done. Not only are the drooping eyelids unattractive, but at a certain point, it is hard to see and it severely limits your peripheral vision.
Luckily, I found a great plastic surgeon and my insurance covered the cost. Some family members have had less than stellar results with doctors who fix the problem, but don’t have the experience; results vary from adequate for vision to bad Joan Rivers cosmetic after-effects that make you look like you are always surprised!
My surgeon is well-known and respected; he has written books, teaches at university medical centers and is the go-to-guy for people who have botched plastic surgery from other doctors. He specializes in this procedure as well.
Swelling should go down in next couple of days (and the blue eye shadow effect go away) and stitches will be removed next Friday (ending the Frankenstein look).
In the meantime, I look like what Divine might have looked like after an all-night-bender and brawl at the local drag bar. Not pretty. I have to wear sunglasses that make me look like Joan Collins cruising the pool at the Beverly Hilton.
The good news is my vision has improved 100%, I can see up and down and to the right and left and my glasses are worth putting on again…I can see!
I am assuming I will once again look like Brad Pitt when all is healed…then again, my vision has not been all that great for the past few years, so maybe I really look more like Nick Nolte’s mug shot…I guess I will have to wait until it all heals to find out for sure.
One side funny comment:
While being prepped for surgery, behind the curtain next to me a nurse asked a man, “You can watch TV while you are waiting, or should I bring in your wife to sit with you?”
From behind a curtain across the hall a man yelled, “Pick the TV! Pick the TV!”
