Hi my name is Morgen and I’m one of the PA’s at Florida Plastic Surgery Group. Today I will be discussing your discharge instructions after your facelift which may include fat grafting after your facelift. You will have an incision on both sides of your face that goes around the front side of your ear and partially behind your ear. Your sutures will be outside of the skin and you will be able to see them if you look at your incision line. You will also have one drain coming out of one or the other side of your face when you wake up you will have a wrap around your head the wrap is to decrease swelling. It also has absorbent pads in it to absorb any using or bleeding that may occur from your incision lines we normally see you the day after your surgery at this appointment we have how you at your incisions and any swelling just to make sure that everything is progressing the way it is supposed to we also usually at this appointment will remove your drain so that will come out on that day. If you have fat grafting in conjunction with your facelift, you will have small incisions from in the area that we harvest the fat from these incisions will have sutures that are underneath the skin that will dissolve over time and will not have to be removed you will also have skin glue on top of these incisions you should leave that alone don’t try to peel it off it’ll come off on its own around wherever we get the fat from you will also have a compression garment which you should wear around the clock unless you’re showering when you shower which you can do after 24 hours you should just let the water kind of hit you on the head and run over, do not allow the shower to hit directly on your incisions. When you get out of the shower you should just pat everything dry, you should apply triple antibiotic ointment any type of antibiotic ointment is fine whether it’s Neosporin, bacitracin, triple antibiotic ointment; all of those are fine. You are going to want to apply the triple antibiotic ointment to your incision lines twice a day. When you are out of the shower put that antibiotic ointment on and reapply your wrap around your head. You’re going to want to wear that wrap around the clock unless you are showering. You’re also going to want to put your compression garment from where we harvested the fat back on as well, you’re going to want to wear that around the clock for a week after surgery; as well for the first week after surgery. You’re going to want to sleep with your head elevated the best way to do this is either in a recliner or by putting multiple pillows underneath your back in your head to prop you up in bed. The reason for this is to reduce the amount of swelling in your face it will greatly reduce it if you do keep your head elevated at all times. You can also apply a cool compress not cold or hot. So, not ice or heated but cool like running a washcloth underneath the sink at home and applying it to also decrease the amount of swelling that you may have. After surgery you’re also going to want to keep activity light so no lifting anything heavier than 10 pounds you’re definitely not going to want to bend down and put your head in a downward direction. You just want to make sure that you’re taking it easy, however you’re not on bed rest we don’t want you in mobile so making sure that you’re getting up and walking around your house a couple times an hour every hour. It is the best thing to do there’s always a risk of blood clot after every surgery but being up and active walking around multiple times an hour will greatly reduce your risk after surgery. It’s also very important that you do not smoke as smoking makes it much harder for your body to heal after surgery you also do not want to do anything too strenuous to get your heart rate elevated. If you feel your heart rate becoming elevated with any activity you’re doing or if you’re getting short of breath just sit down and take a rest it just is your body’s way of telling you that you’re doing too much too quickly after surgery. You’re definitely going to want to give us a call if you experience any of the following symptoms that being: a fever over 101, any redness or swelling around any of your incision lines, any boozing or bleeding from your incision lines that seems excessive or abnormal; any shortness of breath; any swelling or pain and one or both of your legs or any swelling in your neck area that seems excessive after surgery. Please give us a call if you experienced any of those symptoms other than that. That’s all I have for today’s video, thanks for tuning in and we look forward to seeing you for your facelift!
Morgen Fletcher, PA-C discuses discharge/Post-Op instructions after Facelift
