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If people were to guess which was the most physically and emotionally traumatic procedure out of having a breast reduction, lower face lift and a brow lift, most would not pick the last option.
But for Julia Besser, 42, who went through all three at the same time, it was this latter operation that had the largest ramification – even though It had been almost an afterthought to go through with it.
Julia had been primarily concerned and upset by the fact that one of her breasts was significantly smaller than the other, having had breast cancer surgery nine years previously.
She said: “Getting to the stage of having these cosmetic procedures was quite a long journey and goes back to the breast cancer. I was incredibly lucky in the fact that I had a lumpectomy and radiotherapy, so I was able to carry on with my life.
Julia decided she wanted a breast enlargement on her right side, a lift on her left and a lower face lift and started her research. It was during this time that she also realised she could have a long-term issue with her eyebrows sorted out.
She said: “People had no idea that I was constantly pulling a surprised expression because that’s what I had to do to look normal. If I didn’t my eyebrows would almost touch my eyelashes and there were deep furrows on my forehead and frown marks, too, so I thought, since I’m having all this done, I might as well go for it.”
After gathering all the information, looking at a few different surgeons and companies that offered cosmetic surgery, she picked a doctor called Brent Tanner at the Tunbridge Wells Bupa Hospital, Kent, and is convinced she made the right move.
She said: “He is a very bold, confident person and I warmed to him immediately. He was also extremely thorough and professional and, while all the others had been excellent also, I just felt he was the right surgeon.”
So, at the beginning of July, she went into hospital and the surgery began. Julia had already had explained to her whatwas going to happen and she says she had presumed the brow lift would be the most straightforward but found she
was mistaken.
“I was quite shocked at what the procedure was because I had assumed it was a case of lifting the skin in a similar way to the lower face lift,” she said. “But, what they actually do is separate the skin and the underlying muscle from the forehead bone and lift the entire thing up and bind it in place so the muscles reform, taking up the slack.
“When muscle then reattaches it’s that keeps it all in place, so there’s no actual stitching or pinning. Even though the thought was quite scary, I’d had enough of pulling my brow up myself, so went on with it.”
Julia had all three operations in one go and was in theatre for four and a half hours. When she came round, she could not see because of the tight binding around her eyes from the brow lift.
She said: “That was really odd and disturbing, so much so that I had to ask them to take it off because it was also painful. I kept on thinking, ‘what have I done to myself?’.
“The worst bit was when I came home to my home to my daughter. Although she tried so hard to smile, her little face just showed so much confused emotion and she was terribly upset by it all. If I could have changed one thing about the whole experience it would have been to not have her see me for the week after the operation.”
“I did look an absolute fright because of the number of stitches from the face lift and the swelling and bruising from both facial procedures. For the brow lift, they had made five incisions past my hairline and all around the top of my head the blood had curled up in my hair and, because I couldn’t brush it or wash it, it looked like I had red dreadlocks.
“Overall, I’m not sure it was the brow or face lift, the things that bothered me the most was that my eyes were really turned up at the edges, making me look different - this was still a problem up until six weeks after the op.”
Julia’s recovery from her breast augmentation was speedy. Her breasts were also even and she was immediately happy with the results.
It was the facial reconstruction that remained a problem because she felt it had significantly changed the way she looked, something she hadn’t wanted.
She said: “Because of the brow lift, I was not able to squint at the sun or show emotion because it controlled my facial expressions so much and the fact my eyes were still upturned so long after the op bothered me a great deal. I broke down one night and I was worried I wasn’t ever going to look like me again. At that stage, if you’d asked me if I would have done it again, I would have said ‘no way’.
“Ironically, the next day, I got up and looked in the mirror and something had happened. My eyes were back to normal and I can’t explain the relief. It changed my entire focus and all of a sudden I was able to start to enjoy my new look.
“And it’s just as well really because the whole thing cost a lot of money!”
The overall costs for Julia broke down as £2,850 for the brow lift, £3,800 for the lower face lift, £1,710 for her breast reduction, all of which included a 5% discount, £1,200 for the anesthetic and £2,500 for her stay in hospital – although she was not charged for staying an extra night.
This included all of her post-operative care, such as having her stitches out and check-ups where she had appointments most weeks.The next time she has to go now is in two months time and Julia is happy to get her life back to normal.
She said: “It has been quite a difficult experience emotionally as well as physically and I don’t think you’re prepared for that. They can tell you everything, show you a brochure, make it clear you will have pain, but you don’t know how you’re going to react to it until you’re actually doing it.
“Now, I’m just happy the worst bit is over and we can all get on with looking to the future. The surgeon says that I will see the optimum improvements will be apparent in about 18 months time, so I’m happy to think that, in many ways, having been through all of this, my best is yet to come.”
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