It is a medical issue. Katherine Hepburn had her eyelids done even though she did not believe in plastic surgery. I hope for your sake your insurance covers this because not being able to see because of excess tissue is not some sort of vanity surgery. Call your insurance and ask. It is not a particularly invasive sort of procedure.

My insurance covered it. I am very happy with the outcome. I no longer have to force my eyes wide open to see. ;)

Shop around, get someone that knows what they are doing for sure. Two friends had it done. One has an eye that doesn't close quite all the way, the other has one eye look wider open than the other.

Needles to say, I didn't use their doc.

Moni

Planning on calling insurance tomorrow. I looked tonight and plastic surgery was covered to correct some conditions. One of my doctors ten or so years ago mentioned I would need the surgery. More concerned if I would need to have bandages blocking my vision and for how long.

One is probably ready for surgery but not the other one. I have read where it is best to have both done at the same time so they would look even but even though I can dress myself in the dark the guys would be rushing to the door any time they heard a sound if I would have to stay at their house.

Moni how long were you unable to see?

My BIL had it done before his 10 wk Europe trip this year. Not cosmetic and insurance paid. It healed amazingly fast, uppers only, both done at the same time. He has quite fair skin, but little bruising. There was some redness and swelling for about 48 hours, and then not a lot that was overly noticeable if he was wearing just his regular glasses after that. I could call for details, but he didn't complain of discomfort, went out to dinner with us after about one week and he had to remove his glasses so I could best see his results. It seems like there was just a trace amount of greenish bruising right in the upper crease of his eyes. And he's been quite pleased. A few months before his 70th birthday.

The way I bruise I am expecting to have shiners. Thank you for the offer to call but it should not be necessary.

My husband had his eyelids done several years ago and it was a huge improvement for him. Insurance covered all but a co-pay and the recovery was pretty straightforward.

Your eyes will not be bandaged up, if that's what you mean. You will never NOT be able to see. The lids will be gauzed up and I recall a gadget that provided soft ice packs. He applied a gel on the incisions, and kept the cold packs on them. He did have both eyelids done at the same time.

I think that he slept in the recliner for a couple of days. He looked a little rough for awhile but the bruising, which was very little, healed up rapidly.

Neither of us remember much other than it was a very simple process with little discomfort and a swift recovery.

I consider being 'gauzed' as being bandaged unless it is to stop the immediate blood and can be removed before leaving the office.

My former housekeeper had it done—at my urging. She was about 70 at the time and all went smoothly. She was so happy to be able to see again! And it was covered by Medicare.

Thank you all for the information. Has given me things to think about as I am not quite ready for both eyes. In looking on line most sites suggested doing both at the same time.

Your eyes won't be covered.....your eyelids may have temporary gauze bandages on them just to keep the incisions clean. It wouldn't make any sense to have the lids done one at a time......you'll never be without your vision at all.

Of course, if only one eyelid is drooping, that's a different scenario.

My husband noticed an immediate improvement after his surgery.

Oh, yeah, it was recommended to sleep in a recliner... not owning one, I slept in my papasan chair. It will help with the swelling if you can sleep with your head elevated.

This was about 2 weeks later. You can not see a scar on my eyelids. Some docs cut right below the eye brows, mine did , when I close my eyes I can feel the scar (with my fingers, not with my eyeball), about the middle of my eye...

"I consider being 'gauzed' as being bandaged unless it is to stop the
immediate blood and can be removed before leaving the office."

Is there a reason why bandages would need to be removed before you leave ?

What type anesthesia is used? Thanks.

I was "out". That is why I needed a driver.

I have a friend who had the surgery done recently. She had black eyes for about a week, which weren't horrible and she had very little pain. She did the 20 on 20 off with ice and slept in a recliner for a couple nights. She was amazed at the difference with her vision. I wish you well if you decide to have the surgery.

Elmer, I would like to remove the gauze so that I can see. While I can ask the guys if they are available to drive or take a service but stumbling on my sidewalk and steps is not something I want to do.

OklaMoni and others I am one of those people who scar easily so just expect it to happen. It will be interesting to see where the incision would be because I have what my doctor called double eyelids. Some sort of genetic thing in that my eyelid has two creases.

Good luck. Someone may be needed to help you in and out of a car if necessary but bandages or not, they send patients out into the world to go home every day they do procedures. You should ask and hopefully can follow their advice. Even Uber or taxi drivers would surely help you to your door and in if that's what you use .

A friend had it, and it helped her greatly. I believe it's called blepharoplasty. I recall she was holding warm compresses to her eyes during home care after the surgery (or was it cool?).

Some medical centers will not let you go home with commercial transportation after a procedure, must be a family member or friend. neighbor.

Ice on and off, no bandages, no one was needed to help me inside the car, or house... I live by myself, and my friend drove home after dropping me off.

Moni

My DH and I have both had a blepharoplasty. He had his about 2 years before me and that was almost 15 years ago. The plastic surgeon who did ours used a general anesthesia in the operating suite in their office. It makes sense to have both eyes done at one time so you really should do this so your eyes will ‘match‘. The recovery will be about 10 days to 2 weeks. There was no ‘gauze patch’ that I recall. I did have eye cups to wear at night to protect the eye from inadvertent injury (rubbing, poking in your sleep) by me or my DH.

For our insurance, we had to have a certain eye exam performed prior to approval of the surgery. Something akin to proof of visual impairment due to the drooping eyelids. I forget what he particular eye exam is called but it is the one where you have to identify blinking lights and your peripheral vision is checked. Post-surgery there were various drops during the day and ointment on the incisions at night but all in all, it was worth it.

Like any other surgery, the first couple of days were the most uncomfortable but not painful. Just hard to do much since you need to keep ice on your eyes periodically.

I had this done years ago when it affected my vision. I had terrible black eyes for a couple weeks. They took out over an inch of skin from each eyelid...which had brought my eyebrows too low.

Best of luck with your surgery, maifleur.

There are lots of before and after Blepharoplasty images at google.

ETA does anyone notice something remarkable about all those patients photographed?

I noticed two things. Some of the people look much younger while others I could not tell any difference between the before and after pictures.

Well that I also noticed, maifleur.

What I found most striking, however, was that all (?) the patients had rather light complexion. I didn’t see any dark complected people.

Perhaps light complected people are more prone to sun or UV light damage; or perhaps genetically the structure and makeup of their skin and underlying tissue ages differently, loses elasticity or underlying “fat” or is more prone to atrophy. It seems that the root of the sagging lid and facial tissue is not just on the upper skin layers, but the underlying supportive tissue as well.

I don’t think that any economic or cultural disparity would account for this. Maybe.

Any ideas beyond my above thoughts? Curious.

I agree with the underlying supportive tissue being more of a cause than just the skin being stretched. However the possibility of damage to the muscles/connective tissues if they were shortened is greater. Damage that could cause the inability or open or close the eyes fully.

I think part of the difference between showing pictures of light skinned people vs those with darker/olive skin is that the darker skin in some people tend to scar and the line where the cuts were made would be of greater color contrast for longer.