Losing my Zombie Eyes. Or, Getting Work Done.

I'm not a deeply vain person.

You know this is going to be a good post with a solid self-justifying start like that!

I’m not a deeply vain person. I don't blow dry my hair or wear makeup. I've never dyed my hair. I mostly accept my crows-feet and gray hairs as hard-earned through a pretty well-lived first half of my life. I like nice clothes, but I'm not obsessed about what's in style. I subscribe to zero beauty or lifestyle magazines.

None of these things are inherently wrong, and Lord knows I have plenty of pride issues. But, I just don't tend to fall into the beauty trap too hard. I think of myself as pretty well-balanced in that department. I definitely never saw myself as a “cosmetic surgery” kind of person (whatever that implied in my imagination). 

But, like most people (most women?) I have that "just one thing" that drives me batty - the bags under my eyes.

I know, you're saying, "Jamie, I have literally never noticed this thing about you ever."

I get it.

This really wasn't about you or anybody else - it was about me. I felt like, no matter what I did, I always looked tired.

So, I started investigating what was going on and found out that the poochy bags under one's eyes are actually fat deposits, and there's really nothing one can do about them - this isn't about creams or diet or exercise because it's all under the skin. It's mostly genetic, and some people just have more generous fat deposits under their eyes than others. I just happen to have prodigious under-eye fat.

About a year ago I started to investigate what could be done about this. I had several requirements (not saying these are everybody's requirements, but they're mine):

• No fillers or weird injections
• It had to be something I couldn't correct with diet, exercise, or a healthier lifestyle
• It had to look natural
• Whatever I did, it had to age gracefully and require no upkeep/maintenance/touchups. I was not about to sign up for a lifetime of regular surgeries or injections or whatever to keep things looking right

And after a ton of thought and many discussions, I decided to go for it! And because I know you're wondering, Steve was against the whole thing (mildly, not passionately opposed) and willing to support whatever decision I made. He's a good man.

My surgery was originally scheduled for Thanksgiving and then that didn't work out for our family's schedule so it got pushed to April which, of course, didn't happen for many weeks because of Coronavirus. But, eventually, schedules aligned and surgery centers opened and it was time!

The surgery itself was pretty fast and for sure the worst part of those first day was recovering from anesthesia. Steve lovingly prepared many icepacks for my swollen face. I went back to work (from home, of course) after 5 days. Most of the swelling was gone after a few weeks, and the bruises are still there (faintly) 7 weeks post-surgery.

Here are a few choice shots:

Day 2

Day 11

Day 25

Day 37

And here's a pic from today:

I'm super happy with the results - the bruises are almost gone and I think the overall effect is my normal face, just without the big bags under my eyes (which is what I was hoping for).

I think that getting cosmetic surgery or any permanent/long-term cosmetic intervention is an intensely personal decision with lots of pros and cons.

Am I glad I did it? Yes.

Would I do it again? Yes, having been through it, I would go back and do the same thing agin.

Would I do other surgeries? I don't think so - I stand by my original rationale for which surgeries were ok for me to consider and there aren't many that fall into that same category. Plus, there are risks with any surgery and the recovery, as easy as it was, was still no joke.

So, there you go - the story of my first surgery (unless you count getting my wisdom teeth out)! One surgery every 40 years seems like a decent pattern to perpetuate.