Jun 24, 2012

Frontalis Sling Surgery - Post Surgery Day 4, 5, 6, 7 & 9

Ainsley's had ptosis surgery on Friday 6/15. If somehow you missed it, you can find the posts here, here, here, here and here.  Here are some more photos so you can see how she's been healing since my last post.

We had our 1 week post-op appointment on Thursday. We expected that her eyes would no longer close completely when she sleeps but so far they have (they are open about 1mm, maybe 2). That may be a sign that we didn't get as much lift as the surgeon planned, or it may just be due to the residual swelling. Dr. S says he's encouraged that there is some change in her sleeping eyelid position and hopes that means we got some lift but that we have to be patient. I've heard that one before. And while I think it's true that she isn't finished healing, I do think her resting eyelid position is lower than we hoped. As you can see from the photos it's not a dramatic difference so far. The Day 9 photo is about how we thought her resting position would be, but she's having to use her brow to achieve this. Ideally it would be nice if she didn't have to work to open her eyes.

The good news:

1) She can lift her eyelids using her forehead muscles. We are starting to see her do this like you see below in the Day 9 picture. I think she will do this more and more.
2) They can go back in through the eyebrow and lift the lids higher if they need to, up to a year after this surgery. So if we want to we can do that.
Post Surgery Day 4

Post Surgery Day 5

Post Surgery Day 6

Post Surgery Day 7

Post Surgery Day 9

The incisions still have some remnants of stitches (they use disolvable) and there is some remaining puffiness in her lids (both upper and lower).  I would imagine that we'll start to see her use her brow more and more over the next week like she is in this picture (hence the difference between the Day 9 picture and the Day 4-7 pictures). So far she really can't smile and keep her eyes open.

Stay tuned for more ptosis post-surgery pictures.

1 comment:

  1. Wow! I think that last picture looks way different! In a good way! My fingers are crossed that you continue to see improvements/desired results.

    Hugs from me! xo

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