It was pretty good all in all. There’s no way I would have stepped out of the house for a few days, and then after that only in baseball cap sunglasses.
I’ve had a breast lift in the past so I know that swelling can be bad outside of the immediate area, as the white blood cells flood the surrounding area to increase healing (or something like that) - my whole mid and lower face had some swelling, not an issue in front of strangers but it was an added consideration re going outside. I had an antibiotic ointment to squeeze over the incisions on my lids. It’s good for it to go over the eye and under the lid as well but it contains paraffin so I couldn’t see a damn thing most of the time. You’re not meant to but I did try and watch my laptop but I couldn’t see very much.
I really didn’t move much for a few days, although was so much better I started a very, very slow jog on Day 8 and continued with short runs in the following days.
I had lots of bad swelling around the eyes for several days, upper lid obviously, and I still have some now. The lower eye areas puffed up like two big slugs. I had bruising there but not as bad as I thought (mind you I was popping arnica pills like smarties, not sure if they helped!). Pain was manageable- I had some paracetamol before bed the first night because I needed to, I had them the second night because I didn’t know how well I would sleep, but I didn’t really need them. I think for me the swelling is the worst thing in terms of people seeing you. I was looking a lot better by day 10 and now I still have obvious pink lids but it doesn’t bother me.
I slept upright on a mountain of pillows for about 5 nights, I was paranoid I would touch my eyes but never did. The only thing I didn’t do which I think I should have, maybe, is iced my lids but I was worried about anything touching them and making the incisions infected.