Here's my 5 week update:
It’s been more than a month since my surgery and I am thrilled with the results. Every criteria I expressed to the surgeons has been addressed - droopiness, bad shape, and short lateral length. The natural asymmetry of my eyes has improved too.
As I was healing, I could tell the crease would look super good through the swelling. Now that the swelling is mostly gone, the crease stands out and is cute and defined. The epicanthoplasty and lateral canthoplasty also met my expectations. My friends said my eyes are way wider and make more of an impression with the length. It’s so wide. I can see the exact amount added because you won’t have eyelashes there since the cut goes past your natural lash line. My new upper lashline is now bare at the outer corner - this is something you have to consider if the look of your lashes is very important to you. Personally, I don’t notice the bare part because my lashes (with and without mascara) still point outwards and downwards, covering the eye corner. Even if it was noticeable, I think the added eye length is very worth it.
Dr. Song does canthoplasties with a technique he created. It’s different from the standard technique in that it takes longer to heal, but your eye corners won’t reconnect. A side effect of the standard canthoplasty technique can be that the tissue (periorbital membrane) reconnects during healing and you lose the added length you had right after surgery.
Besides making you look more awake, ptosis correction also ensures your lashes won’t point down into your eyeballs, which is something that can cause damage over time. Now that I see the results of ptosis correction, I understand how important it is for a good DES for people with sag in their eyelids.
This surgery changed my facial proportions and makes my face and nose look smaller. One feature can change a lot about the overall impression of your face!
Recovery was a little difficult but in an expected way. Before the surgery, Girin gave me a packet with info about things I would experience during the recovery process, such as red eyes and edema that looked like egg whites on my eyes. All that happened. I had to wear sunglasses in public for weeks because my eyeballs looked crazy. I’ve found that many DES-only reviews say recovery is fast and quick and focus on the skin swelling, but epi and cantho do things to your eyeball too. They are temporary and do not leave lasting damage but they look terribly scary, so be prepared. The whites of my eyeballs (but not the irises) were covered with edema that had the look and texture of egg whites for around 2 weeks. It wasn’t painful but it was super gross because they drained from my eyes and there was nasty jelly running out of my eyes for 2 weeks. I stayed inside for 2 weeks because I didn’t want to terrify people with my oozing jelly eyes. After the edema cleared, the whites of my eyes were covered with large patches of solid red (blood) that cleared up over another 2 weeks. This also looks scary because it’s blood but it’s a normal and expected part of the healing process and you just have to be patient and wait for it to clear up. Girin’s English consultants made a group chat for me to ask them questions during recovery. I asked a ton. It was good for reassurance because I had read the packet and I knew it was normal but when your eyes look like they’re from a horror movie some psychological reassurance is necessary. Sometimes my questions were a bit repetitive but they were patient and thorough the whole time. There was a time I freaked out since my right red eye had become whiter and then the red came back, while my left red eye continued to get whiter. I was super worried something bad was happening since the healing seemed to reverse and they reassured me things would be fine, and they are. I was also always asking about damage to my vision since my vision was blurry, which they (and the sheet) explained was due to the edema. As the edema went away, my vision improved. Sometimes it was hard to read from all the blurring, so I would stay away from driving, cooking with knives, doing lab work, etc. if you get these surgeries.
I also had zygoma reduction done at another clinic 10 days after DES, which likely extended my deswelling time. The more procedures done, the longer recovery gets.
There are still traces of surgery. The eyelid scars have gotten a lot better but are still there, and the outer corners of my eyes still have some redness (which is expected for 2 months). My vision also isn’t at 100% yet. It’s still blurry when I wake up in the morning and takes around half an hour for me to adjust. I’m not worried about this because I know it is a normal part of the healing, but you need to take into account how the blurred vision can impact your life. My recovery has taken a long time and I believe it’s a combo of asking for super dramatic results and receiving two surgeries. I’m sooooooo happy with my new look and choice of clinic!
I don't want to share pics for privacy but the extra white part added by the cantho looks similar to
