Do you feel like your eyelids are sagging so much that your self-confidence is affected? Are you experiencing vision loss due to extensive upper eyelid drooping? Do you feel like you look heavier than you are due to undereye bags? If so, you may be a good candidate for blepharoplasty at The Mack Cosmetic Center in Tampa, FL. Here’s what you need to know about the recovery timeline following this procedure.
How Long Is Recovery After Blepharoplasty?
Your blepharoplasty recovery timeline depends on numerous factors, not the least of which is the scope of your procedure. Despite individual recovery timelines varying, you will recover faster from a lower eyelid correction than from an upper eyelid correction. This is because upper eyelid correction is much more extensive than lower eyelid correction.
As a general rule of thumb, you can expect your lower eyelid correction recovery to take around 10 to 14 days. However, you may only need to take a few days off from work to recover, especially if your job doesn’t require you to stare at a screen all day. If you opt for upper eyelid correction, your recovery may take a few months, and you may have to take a week or two off from work to recover.
What Can I Do To Shorten My Recovery Timeline?
Get Fruits and Veggies in Every Meal
One of the most important things you can do to speed up your blepharoplasty recovery is to get all of the vitamins and minerals in your diet that you need every day. To accomplish this goal, it is highly advisable to eat three meals per day and ensure that each contains at least one serving of fruits and one serving of vegetables. Before you come in for your procedure, you may want to meal plan and calculate the nutrition in each meal.
If you find that your planned diet is not providing you the RDA of micronutrients, consider drinking a fruit- and veggie-packed smoothie every day. It is possible to supplement your diet with a nutritional supplement. However, it is best to avoid this if at all possible because vitamins and minerals from natural sources are far more bioavailable than micronutrients from dietary supplements.
Get Protein With Every Meal
You should also ensure that there is plenty of protein in every meal following your procedure. It is not just important that you watch your micronutrient intake. You also need to watch your macronutrient intake to heal as quickly as possible. Specifically, you should aim to eat around 25 to 30 grams of protein per meal if you plan to eat three meals per day.
Since there are four calories in each gram of protein, you should get no fewer than 100 to 120 calories from protein in every meal that you consume. If you only plan to eat two meals per day, you should be getting around 165 calories from protein at every meal. How you split up your remaining macros is up to you. However, you should keep in mind that you need to hit both your micronutrient and macronutrient goals every day.
Drink Enough Water
You will also ensure that your recovery period goes as quickly as possible. If your urine is pale, you’re in the clear. You don’t need to worry about drinking any more water. Just keep doing what you’re doing, whether that’s sipping water throughout the day or drinking eight to 16 ounces an hour, relatively all at once. If your urine is dark, you need to make a point to drink more hydrating fluids than you have been.
For instance, if you have been drinking eight ounces of water per hour, make a point to drink 10 or 12 ounces of water per hour. If this is not enough to make your urine pale, try snacking on fruits or veggies that are high in water. Alternatively, you can make a broth-based soup packed with water-dense, protein-packed veggies.
Get Enough Sleep
Your body is healing itself all the time. However, it heals itself most efficiently during the final sleep cycle phase. Sleep cycle lengths vary from person to person and even change on an individual level as you age. As a good rule of thumb, sleep cycles take 90 minutes to complete, so you should aim to sleep in 90-minute increments. For instance, if you go to bed late and have an early morning obligation, aim to sleep for six hours.
If you have all the time in the world to sleep, do your best to get nine hours of consecutive sleep. It is imperative to try to sleep through the night because every time you fall back asleep after waking up, you start over at the first phase of the sleep cycle. If you have trouble sleeping through the night, consider why. Then, look for solutions. For example, you may need to:
- Turn your air conditioning down before bed
- Turn your heat up before bed
- Invest in a thicker comforter
- Upgrade your pillows
- Buy a mattress pad to increase the firmness
- Wear ear plugs
- Install dark shades on your windows
- Tell your partner to feed the dog early in the morning
- Tell your kids not to wake you up
- Stop drinking close to bedtime
- Minimize blue light exposure before bed
- Spray lavender essential oil on your pillow
Get Enough Exercise
You also need to make sure that you’re getting enough exercise if you are anxious to recover from your eyelid surgery as quickly as possible. It’s great if you’re getting enough nutrients that your skin can produce a sufficient amount of healing protein. However, the poorer your circulation is, the longer it will take your eyelids to get the nutrients they require to make collagen and heal from their incisions.
To support your cardiovascular system as much as possible, try to get no fewer than 30 minutes of moderate exercise daily every week, taking off only two days per week to rest. In other words, you need to get 2.5 hours of moderate exercise per week or more, ideally split over the course of five days. Great moderate exercises to do include walking at a moderate pace, indoor cycling, and indoor rowing.
Minimize Screen Time
If you’re like most people, you’re used to coming home and watching TV while scrolling through your phone. However, to heal as quickly as possible following your procedure, you need to minimize the amount of time looking at screens, including computer monitors, television monitors, tablet screens, laptop screens, and phone screens.
You can still watch an episode of a TV show or a short movie every once in a while. However, most of the time, you should entertain yourself with books, puzzles, or playing with your pets. The more you play video games, watch TV, or read books on your phone, the more strained your eyes will be. The more strained your eyes are, the longer it will take your eyelids to heal post-op.
What Else Should I Avoid During My Eyelid Surgery Recovery?
In addition to avoiding excessive amounts of screen time, there are many things you will need to avoid. For example, you will need to avoid alcohol consumption, tobacco consumption, and strenuous activity.
Strenuous Activity
It is crucial that you avoid strenuous activity during the first 21 days following your treatment. In the first few weeks post-op, your blood pressure should not get too high. Too much circulation to your eyes can be bad. Therefore, you will need to refrain from lifting heavy weights, participating in HIIT, or playing sports. Also, make sure you lift as little weight as possible above your head.
Alcohol Consumption
It is so important that you do not consume alcohol for a couple of weeks post-op because alcohol will slow your recovery to a crawl. You’re probably aware that alcohol dehydrates you. A lesser-known fact about alcohol is that it results in crucial vitamins and minerals being flushed out of the body.
Schedule Your Initial Consultation Today
Do you think an eyelid lift would improve your self-confidence? If so, blepharoplasty may be right for you. Are you interested in learning more about this procedure, including how long your recovery process will likely be? If so, drop us a line at The Mack Cosmetic Center in Tampa, FL to schedule your initial eyelid surgery consultation. We’ll let you know whether you should expect your recovery to take several weeks or several months.