Thank you for your question.
You stated in your question that you had Asian Eyelid surgery approximately one month prior,
and that you were panicking everyday, but now things have settled down and you're feeling
good then along came a cat-related allergic reaction that resulted in eyelid swelling
and rubbing.
You want to know about the consequences and the impact on your eyelid surgery.
Well I can certainly help you.
I'm a Board-certified cosmetic surgeon and a Fellowship-trained oculofacial plastic surgeon.
I specialize in Asian Eyelid surgery and I've been practicing in Manhattan and Long Island
for over 20 years.
So I think that this question is very straightforward, particularly since you describe a time where
you were concerned and finally things settled down to where aesthetically the eyelids look
fine.
Understanding the principle of what was done with your eyelid surgery is critical.
So let's just start with that.
Whether you underwent an incisional or a non-incisional Asian Eyelid surgery, the key to both procedures
is a connection between the skin and the levator muscle.
The levator muscle is the muscle that lifts your eyelid, it's like the word elevator without
the letter ‘e’.
When the skin is connected to the muscle, what I'm always concerned about is the early
period of healing when the swelling could potentially put pressure against that connection.
Now, it is possible for a crease to diminish later from just movement and stretching, but
at least in the early post-operative period that is one area of concern.
Now the fact that you looked good up to the point of one month and then you had the swelling,
well with the photos you submitted it doesn't look like you're in bad shape, so chances
are the swelling was limited to a relatively small degree, and even with eye rubbing, which
is natural to do when you have an allergic reaction, it doesn't appear that you've done
anything to detach those connections.
It actually takes effort, once those connections are made, the wound healing process is ongoing
in terms of the collagen remodeling and the strengthening in that connection between the
skin and the muscle.
But, as a general rule, once it holds, it holds very very well.
So I think, and again I would say it's important to understand that this opinion is based on
a history and photos, physical exam being a critically important part of this, I would
suggest that you go back to your doctor who did your surgery just for peace of mind, to
just kind of look and see how your skin looks, and how the area looks.
Possibly there may be some value in terms of guidance with allergies.
You know it's not unusual, this type of story, people discover all kinds of allergies during
the post-operative period after cosmetic eyelid surgery, and occasionally we need to manage
them with topical treatment, with oral treatments, so there may be some value—even eye drops
can also have some role to reduce the impulse to cause you to want to rub your eyes.
So I think meeting with your doctor to discuss the situation and how to manage it should
it happen again.
Understanding that this is your cat or whether you're going to be exposed to this cat again,
you want to be proactive, so you might want to take an antihistamine or eye drops and
the like to manage and prevent this from happening again.
But from a general perspective, with the photos you submitted, it doesn't look like there's
anything to be concerned about at this time.
So I hope that was helpful and I wish you the best of luck.
Thank you for your question.