- Istanbul. Shopping two days after a deep plane facelift, head still wrapped.
I’m sure some of you saw the photos of this Bachelor Australia alum walking around Istanbul shopping with her head bandaged on day two following a deep plane facelift she booked through a medical tourism agency. The story made the rounds last week on Fashion Times UK and the Daily Mail.
Now, I’m not going to sit here and diagnose this 39-year-old woman’s facelift, especially since no surgeon was named, and we certainly don’t do that kind of armchair quarterbacking here at Southwest Plastic Surgery. But I will say that being out and about on day two is consistent with what we see in many of our own deep plane patients, which is why I wanted to take some time to walk you through what to expect in the days following this type of surgery, and who should be there for each of them.
Day Two: Bandages in Public Are Fine
Shopping in Istanbul on day two after a deep plane facelift? Not shocking to me, honestly. Facelift recovery is physically easy and mentally hard, and I say so before every one of them. “The surgery itself takes about six hours. It’s general anesthesia, and you go home the same day. The good thing about this face surgery is there’s no pain, so the physical recovery is easy. The hard part is you’re going to be swollen, there’ll be some bruising, you’ll look in the mirror and get a little impatient. So it does take about two weeks to start looking good and feel comfortable with other people seeing you. If you have a social event, I’d say six weeks is when you start looking your best. You’ll have a drain that comes out back here. It usually comes out at five days. We remove it, not you.”
So the picture of her out with bandages on day two makes sense to me. Day two was never the part I worry about.
Day Five: Who Takes the Drain Out
Most of the patients I operate on live out of town, so I have a spiel for this, and here it is. “To be here in El Paso, I recommend staying one week so we can remove the stitches, check that everything is fine, and do the treatments. We have a light treatment called Elixir MD that speeds the recovery almost by double, so that helps you get back to work faster.”
“After seven days here you can go home, and all the follow-ups can be virtual.”
Then there’s the practical stuff. My rule for out-of-town patients is a week near me. I pull the drain myself on day five, take out the sutures, and feel for any fluid under the skin, then you go home and spend two weeks being patient. A medical tourism package has to answer for all of that. Sure, the surgeon may do a beautiful facelift (check that too), but who’s going to remove the drain? Who examines you when there’s a question about swelling on day six? Who reassures you when one side is a little more swollen than the other on day nine and you’re sure the surgery must have gone terribly wrong? And what about the added risk of blood clots and swelling that comes with a long flight in the first week? No help from the booking agent for that, either.
What the Week With Us Actually Includes
| Day | What happens at Southwest Plastic Surgery |
|---|---|
| Day 0 | About six hours under general anesthesia, home the same day |
| Day 1 | Nurse visit for the first shower and a walk through the instructions |
| Days 1 to 7 | Elixir MD LED light therapy sessions to speed healing |
| Day 5 | Drain out, in the office, by us |
| Day 7 | Stitches out, a check for fluid under the skin, cleared to fly home |
| Weeks 2 to 6 | Virtual follow-ups; socially presentable at about two weeks, looking your best at about six |
“And whenever I do a facelift, I finish with Morpheus, which is microneedling with PDGF, and that also helps the skin quality look smoother and younger.”
Week Three: The Mirror Lies
Our pre-op nurse says the same thing to every facelift patient before surgery: “So the majority of our patients, around week 3 to 4, they’re regretting what they did. I like to let you know, because once you remember what I tell you when you’re healing, you’re like, okay, she did tell me.”
That is the week you need a phone number that answers. Ours is the nurse line, 24 hours a day.
If You Had It Done Somewhere Else
Every so often one of those patients ends up in my office, which is why I wrote about aftercare for people who had surgery elsewhere last month. The short version of how that goes: “After their surgery, they still need aftercare. Whether it is routine or not, they find themselves in a bind because they cannot easily travel back to see their surgeons.”
What we offer: “We can help patients that have had surgery elsewhere during their post-operative recovery. For a smoother and enhanced recovery, we do offer lymphatic drainage massages after liposuction, LED light therapy with Elixir MD for recovery after facial surgery and body surgeries, IV fluids, IV drips, and peptides.”
What I need from them: “Documentation of the operative report and drain output, as well as any implant cards, is beneficial, but oftentimes not available immediately.”
And what I will not touch early, no matter how much someone wants me to: “In the early stages, we really cannot revise any of the surgery itself.”
One more thing, because people flying home tend to forget it. The go-to-the-ER list is the same in every country. “In terms of when to go to the ER, this is very clear, and the patient should already have these instructions from their original surgeon. This includes any changes in vital signs, such as low blood pressure, tachycardia, which is a high pulse rate, fever, lightheadedness, or fainting; redness, purulent discharge, changes in the color of the drain output, specifically if it becomes white, yellowish, or creamy; a fluid collection that keeps growing, shortness of breath or chest pain, swelling in the legs or tenderness in the calves, a breast that suddenly gets larger and painful, or uncontrolled bleeding.”
Why 39 Is Not Too Young
Whether a deep plane at 39 makes sense at all, and which deep plane fits a face without much excess skin, I go through over on Agullo Plastic Surgery. My overall take on the story is on drworldwide.com. The short version came out of a consult this fall: “The sooner we do it, we kind of lock in a younger age. If we do nothing, it ages a little faster. That’s just for you to consider, not something you have to do.”
Why Choose Dr. Agullo
I am a double board-certified plastic surgeon, a Mayo Clinic fellowship alum, and a Clinical Associate Professor of plastic surgery at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. I trained in the ponytail lift at the Ponytail Academy (the intermediate course in Pittsburgh, the advanced one in Santa Monica), and I do these every week in El Paso. Every surgery is done in our QUAD A accredited surgical center, and my patients have direct nurse access 24 hours a day.
Ready to talk?
39 and thinking about it? Ask these questions first, before the price: Which deep plane? Can I hide the scars in my hair? Who takes out the drain, and when? Who do I talk to if, in the third week, I’m freaking out that my reflection looks totally messed up?
Call the office at (915) 590-7900, text us at 1-866-814-0038, or book a consultation at agulloplasticsurgery.com/appointments. Find me @RealDrWorldWide on Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat, @Agullo on X, or @AgulloPlasticSurgery on Facebook.
#StayBeautiful
