A Plastic Surgery Recovery

Divorce is an unsettling experience for everyone involved, and represents a time of unwanted and maybe even unexpected change. Divorce is often cited as the second major stressor in life, second only to the death of a loved one.  Divorce can be a crushing experience,  and can easily produce feelings of failure.

As a way to feel better about themselves again, or searching for a fresh start in a newly single world, opting for plastic surgery after divorce occurs more and more frequently. The benefits of plastic surgery after divorce are far greater than what occurs on the outside. It can have a profound emotional and psychological uplifting effect. From my perspective as a plastic surgeon, I believe this is its most significant benefit. Patients can feel almost reborn after surgery, generating a fresh start to another chapter in their personal life.

Many patients, particularly women, have spent a significant part of their adult lives  looking after others. Whether it’s for their children, husband or their own parents, their needs are often subrogated to everyone else around them. As a result, their own self-value and worth may have become diminished. Combined that with the effects of time on the face, and the stress of childbirth on the body, it’s not hard to understand why the self-esteem suffers. It can reach rock bottom when presented with the prospect of divorce.

The impact of childbirth on the female body is well recognized. When those changes occur in the company of the man who helped create these kiddos, sagging breasts and loose belly skin are just part of the child-rearing experience. But when it comes to having a new set of eyes view those changes, it is perfectly normal to be apprehensive that forgiveness and understanding may not be part of the equation. This makes some of the most popular and effective procedures women undergo is from the collection of Mommy Makeover options. These include breast implants and lifts, tummy tucks and thigh liposuction or some combinations thereof to get back to that once smaller and more firm body that existed before childbirth. For some women, their bodies actually end up looking better and more shapely than they ever were.

While the body can be disguised by clothing, the face can not be so obscure. Lines, wrinkles, and sagging jowl and neck lines are the hard-earned result of life’s experiences, but a refreshed countenance can go far toward turning back the proverbial clock. Some women test the plastic surgery waters with in-office Botox, injectable fillers and skin resurfacing procedures. Others go for more significant rejuvenation through eyelid tucks and lifestyle versions of face and necklifts which produce change without a lot of recovery.
 
While plastic surgery can drastically boost self-image and confidence, it is not a fix for most of life’s problems. When done for the wrong reasons of expectation for some secondary gain, short-term euphoria can soon be met with disappointment. It can’t make someone else like you better or get you a better job or promotion. It is really about making you feel better…about you.
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One of the benefits of a more firm face and body is that it can be combined with the wisdom of life’s experiences and lessons. That combination can only bode well for moving on to new opportunities and challenges.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana