PLASTIC SURGERY WHATEVER YOUR AGE!

written by Roslyn Motter 

As we women pass the age of let's say, forty, we gaze sadly at sagging jawlines, laughter lines and the beginnings of wrinkles where we previously only had smooth, taut cheek bones.

It's all a bit too much to bear. Suddenly we are staring down the barrel at old age.

It's all very well for twenty somethings to say that they'd never have anything done to their face. The reality is that a deep furrow on your face can be a very disturbing thing to see. We don't like it on our own faces and apparently we don't like it on other people's faces either, or why else would female newsreaders lose their jobs at forty?

How often do we smugly say, "I couldn't believe it was her! She's only the same age as me and she had so many wrinkles!" or "I thought she must have been at least seventy but then she told me she was fifty!"

Well, my mother who will be 82 on 3rd February, decided that enough was enough. She's been talking about having a facelift for years and frankly we'd all got sick of hearing about it.  We told her to just 'do it'.

My mother (before surgery) and her friend who is 104 

Still it was hard to know where to go for a safe and beautiful job. We've all heard about cosmetic surgery disasters and well, that was something that no one wants.

My mother holidayed in Brazil last year and had a consultation with a cosmetic surgeon who held her face in his hands and whispered, "I'm going to make you into a very beautiful woman."

Who could resist such a charming manner?

However, when I emailed him to find out his bank details and to ask about his facilities for post operative care, he failed to reply so it was back to the drawing board.

Now to be fair, my mother has very good skin and her wrinkles were not the worst in the over 80s category. Most people have thought that she looked much younger than her years.

I was given the name of Dr. Warrick Nettle in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney and she rang him at the beginning of January, 2011 and was not able to get a consultation to see him for five months, such is his popularity.

Although she thought the day would never arrive, she finally got her appointment and I think she was disappointed that Dr. Nettle didn't caress her face and promise to make her into Miss World. Frankly, I was happy that he held a very realistic attitude. He was more concerned about her advanced age and whether her blood pressure would hold up. I found this quite reassuring.

Dr. Nettle is an extremely charming man and very 'normal' and approachable. I for one, am quite fed up with doctors who have a curt bedside manner and Dr. Nettle was certainly not one of those.

Having been passed for surgery by her doctor, my mother was given a date in November for her facelift.

Prior to the operation she had a final consultation with Dr. Nettle who gave her a comprehensive list of foods she should not eat prior to surgery. These foods which include shell fish and other seafood, are blood thinners. There was also a list of vitamins and natural products to take both pre and post surgery to ensure fast healing.

I sensed that he was also concerned by her high blood pressure which she controls with blood pressure medication. Just to be on the safe side he gave her a particular brand of blood pressure pills to take should the top line of her post operative blood pressure (bp) exceed 145. He explained that if the top line is excessively high it can explode blood vessels. She promptly lost the pills.

She was booked into St George Private Hospital at Kogarah and was to stay overnight.

I must say that her determination to have the facelift never wavered. We all tried to talk her out of it though. For starters, we all thought the post operative pain would be horrible.

When the day rolled around she was very excited. We'd arranged that I would pick her up the next morning and take her directly to Dr. Nettle's clinic for an inspection and then take her to my house where she was to stay for a week.

I got the shock of my life when I saw her. She was wearing an elasticized bandage around her head and her face was puffed up and bruised and looked remarkably like Donnatella Versace. 

She'd had the loose skin removed from her upper eye lid; she'd had dermabrasion above her top lip; the skin on her cheek had been stretched and she had a scar behind her ears.

However, mumsy said it did not hurt at all and seemed quite happy about her  surgery.

Dr. Nettle seemed quite pleased with the results but told me that I had to take her blood pressure every four hours and if her top line was over 145 I must give her one of the special blood pressure pills immediately.

At that time I didn't realize that she'd lost the stash he'd given her.

When we returned to my house she plonked into a chair and watched television. Four hours later I asked to take her bp. Unfortunately, she is a cantankerous woman and she refused to get up because she 'felt fine'. It wasn't until 6pm that I was able to force her to check her bp and it was close to 200. I freaked. 

I wasn't sure what to do but rang Dr.  Nettle who asked me if I'd been taking her  bp every four hours as instructed. Oh dear! Then I had to admit that she'd lost the pills he'd given her. While we were having this discussion I heard a gasp and saw her slide off her chair and hit the floor.

I always remember the Colombo television series where Colombo caught out a surgeon when he appeared to lose his temper. This was a ruse to hide some dissolving sutures in his hair and Colombo made the observation that surgeons are trained to hold their nerves.

Never was this so apparent as when I was freaking out that my mother had fainted and that her bp was through the roof! Dr. Nettle stayed calm and told me exactly what to do. He also phoned through a script to an all night chemist so we could pick up the super duper bp pills.

He told me to ring him if her bp had not gone down in four hours.

Now, from not wanting to take her bp at all, my mother could now not be stopped. She jumped out of bed every fifteen minutes and I could continually hear the whirring of the bp machine in the lounge room.

At 1.30am I asked what her bp was.  It was about 179. I hated to ring anyone at that time but I forced myself to ring Dr. Nettle's mobile phone. He didn't answer and the message went to his message bank. I blurted out that her bp was still high and that I wasn't sure what to do.  Then I hung up.  Unfortunately I was ringing from my home phone which is an unlisted number and I'd forgotten to leave contact details.

I felt absolutely dreadful the next morning when at 7am he rang me from his clinic. Worse still, it was Saturday morning and he'd had to go all the way into work to find my home number. 

I was ever so grateful for a surgeon's remarkable self control as another person would not have been as pleasant to me as Dr. Nettle was. I felt so ashamed I seriously considered moving to the country post haste and wearing a hair shirt for ever after.

Fortunately, my mother's bp had now stabilized and continued to be within a satisfactory range thereafter. Phew!

Now her problem was that the area behind her ears where the stitches were became incredibly itchy. However, although itchy, it was not at all painful which was very surprising.

My mother had to attend check ups with Dr. Nettle every three days and he was most impressed with her fast healing and impressive results. On each visit she was given a lymphatic drainage massage which she thought was very pleasant.

Her face had now transformed from Donatella Versace to Glenn Close. I found it hard to look at because it looked so unlike 'her'. No wrinkles can be just as disturbing as too many wrinkles. Her face now looked like a blank canvas.

She had to rub pawpaw ointment into the dermabrased area which made her look a bit yucky.

But as the weeks passed her face seemed to take on its former shape and a much more natural appearance.

Now she is thrilled as she looks in the vicinity of 60 years of age.  So that's not too bad, is it? A twenty two year improvement for around $25000. She'd just knocked more than 25% off her age. All in all it took about five to six weeks to completely recover.

Is a facelift the right thing for you?

Well, I can only go by my mother's joy in her new face. Have a look at the pictures and see what you think!

day after surgery

2 days after 

3 days after 

4 days after 

5 days after 

6 days after 

7 days after 8 days after 

9 days after 

SO NOW A BEFORE AND AFTER SHOT

Amazing results you would have to agree!!!

copyright RoslynMotter2012