Someone had asked me about doing a follow up of my last post about FFS so I thought 3 months seemed fitting as this is the point at which I'm cleared for all activities from my surgeon. I know I've posted about my experience throughout the sub so hopefully this isn't too much noise but it has certainly helped me to talk about my experiences.
So to recap. I had FFS with Deschamps-Braly on 7/23/20. I had the following
- forehead feminization including type 3 brow ridge reduction and contouring of the orbital bones
- brow lift
- hairline advancement
- reduction rhinoplasty
- sliding genioplasty (chin reduction) consisting of 11mm height reduction, 8mm width and 8mm advancement
- mandible/jaw contouring
- thyroid cartilage reduction (trach shave)
- fat grafting to my lips, cheeks, infraorbital rim, nasolabial folds, and temples.
I'm incredibly pleased with every aspect of my FFS and with my experience with Deschamps-Braly. I'm so happy with my nose, something I did not put a lot of stock in previously, I feel like it has feminized my face and aesthetically enhanced it a tremendous amount. Another thing that I had asked about during my consult with Deschamps-Braly was the fat transfer which he thought would be helpful for me and I'm super glad I got it. I let him decide where and how to place the fat and I'm really pleased. I believe I've retained a significant amount of the fat and I think it has added a nice fullness to my cheeks, my lips are subtly plumper without being "done" and I previously had a gummy smile that this less gummy because of my lower lip. With the sliding genioplasty my lower tooth show has been reduced which I really like with my smile as well. I feel like my eyes are really opened up and my forehead advancement feels so wonderful. Previously, my hairline was probably one of the areas of my face that I hated *the most* and I feel like the difference is stunning. I feel like as my voice improves that even with my mask on, despite being 6' 1" I still get gendered femme, which is what I want from strangers.
So here are a few pics of me now my hair is a little wet so these aren't my favorite but I was getting laser on my face later so I didn't want to take pictures with my face all swollen:
image complete somewhat messy room
Also my friend mentioned that these pics don't look as good with wet hair so I've added a few older ones with better hair.
Here are a few before pics
very severe front profile view for surgery consult
side profile I used for surgery consult pics
what I actually looked like more commonly pre FFS
At this point in time I feel mostly recovered. I have feeling back throughout my jaw, though there is still a bit of sensitivity when I say put a significant amount of weight on it (like for instance if I press my chin against the ground in yoga) and I can feel that the gumline incision scar is still there. Similarly, while I have all feeling back in my forehead and some feeling back throughout all of my scalp I do not have all scalp sensation back - I am still actively regaining it. Also the tip of my nose still feels a little stiff - it is not painful but it does not fully feel like my tip did pre-surgery. My understanding is that all of these are common for this stage of the recovery period and it does not bother me.
How has recovery been over these intervening 3 months? As many people have mentioned, the first 3-6 days kind of sucks. There was some pain, but more so, I was just extremely tired, swollen, and had to do lots of upkeep to myself like making sure I ate on a strict schedule (I'm very happy I did not lose any weight during FFS, something I feel may be useful in retaining fat from the fat transfer). After about 2 weeks I occasionally had headaches and low energy but pain had largely subsided. I returned to work after 4 weeks and still had low energy and was still working on fully opening my mouth as I continued to stretch my jawline incision and lower jaw swelling reduced. By 6 weeks I feel like a significant amount of swelling had gone down
Also here are some pictures of what my scars look like at +3 months. I had a hairline incision as well as a submental incision with two small endoscopic scars for my thyroid cartilage reduction ( trach shave ) as well as a scar on my columella for my rhinoplasty
it is very faint but there was an incision made on the middle of my nose (columella)
If you're interested in seeing in detail all the phases of my recovery I have it documented on my instagram as well from day of surgery, through first post op, second post op, and once I felt like less crap pretty much every day for several weeks with lesser frequency after that, starting from this post and moving upwards https://www.instagram.com/p/CDC14zUn9P7/ or just from my profile .
I'm obviously happy to answer any questions about this too of course!
Oh yeah as for what's next:
November I'm getting lipoabdominoplasty with autologous fat transfer for primary breast augmentation with Dr Zeidler
January I'm getting hair grafting with Dr. Pak at New Hair Institute
February I will probably get a second round of fat grafting for boobs or if I'm satisfied with that I will get fat transfer to my hips.
all 10 comments