“I could hardly see anything any more. I couldn’t look up at all, it was unbearable. My sagging eyelids limited me so much that I started to consider surgery,” the 70-year-old pensioner says, looking back at her difficulties before the procedure, and describing the difficult path which finally led her to the UVEA clinic: “At first, money was the problem, but then this was followed by a disease requiring complicated treatment, and the eyelid surgery has to wait. When I was given permission to go ahead from my general practitioner, I tried to find the option with the best price that I could afford from my pension. However, in hospital they sent me away, and when I when to ask my health insurance provider, they told me the opposite. But I didn’t feel like going back to the hospital and coming up against the staff’s unwillingness. In the end, I decided on a private clinic, and even though I had to pay for the surgery, I don’t regret it. In the end, it didn’t cost anything like what I originally thought, and my life has improved greatly as a result of the surgery.”
Textbook surgery
Mrs Božena’s problems with sagging eyelids were to be resolved with a simple surgery procedure called blepharoplasty. “This is the removal of the excess skin of the upper or lower eyelids, in some cases together with the fat pads and part of the free muscle, which causes flaps on the lower eyelids. Blepharoplasty is one of the most frequently performed procedures in aesthetic and plastic surgery,” explains Dr. Miroslava Budinská. It is carried out on women, as well as men of different ages. If the surgery is performed well technically and in detail, it refreshes and rejuvenates the patient’s whole face. The final effect lasts for 7 to 12 years. “Patients don’t need to worry about ugly scars after the surgery. These are hidden in the skin flap above the upper eyelid and just under the eyelashes on the lower eyelid. When the eyes are open, the scars are practically invisible,” says the doctor.
Blepharoplasty is performed in an operating theatre, with local anesthetic, which means desensitizing the eyelids with a subcutaneous injection. Subsequently, the surgery is completely painless and takes around one or two
hours. “I wasn’t apprehensive about the surgery at all, because everyone told me that it wouldn’t be bad. The only quite unpleasant part was desensitizing the eyelid, otherwise everything went well. I even slept all night after the surgery, in other words there was no pain, as if I hadn’t even had the surgery,” smiles the lady...
Read more about eyelid surgery
After this type of surgery, you should expect certain limitations. Even though we let you go home approximately three hours after surgery, with the cuts bandaged so that you can see normally, you still need to rest, especially during the first hours following the operation. The wounds will be able to heal better, and you will thus minimize any bruises or swelling. “We recommend that patients should return to work at the earliest on the 5th day following the operation, and you should expect some visible bruising. If you can’t afford to stay home for one week after the surgery, you can return to your work duties even on the third day following surgery, albeit with difficulty. However, the patient should unconditionally set aside the first 48 hours after surgery to rest, mainly with closed eyes,” warns Dr. Miroslava Budinská, adding that “stitches are removed in 6 to 7 days. Within a month of the surgery, the eyes should look natural.”
Mrs Božena’s operation was a textbook example of how surgery should work. As agreed with her doctor, she came to have the stitches removed, and since everything was all right, no further check-ups were necessary. She did not need to use any special products, after the first two days she even stopped wearing sunglasses, except when she was going out in public, to avoid pointless questions.
Thanks to the surgery, she can see the world as she did before
“Before the surgery, I could hardly see anything. When I wanted to read something, I had to put my glasses on. Now this is all over. I only reach for my glasses if I want to read really small letters, otherwise I can manage quite well without them. I’m very happy that I can finally look wherever I want and see everything without my eyelids getting in my way. What’s more, it’s lovely to hear friends tell me that this is me, and this is how they remember me. My eyelid surgery changed my life and I can tell everyone who is still hesitating that it really is worth it,” she adds.
If you want to make an appointment for a check-up, just fill in this short form and we will contact you.
