PATIENT FEEDBACK
Success at Belladerma Medical Center, Inc. is a happy patient, and we never tire of receiving positive feedback. After all, our patients are our best referral source. Here you will find a few of the comments we have received.
PERSONAL REJUVENATION STORY
As the years advanced, my face gradually fell victim to gravity. What felt to me like a pleasant expression, bounced back from store windows as more of a glower. When I smiled in a friendly but impersonal way at passers-by, they no longer smiled back. A check in the mirror revealed that what felt like a smile to me on the inside, looked like something far less from the outside. I thought the corners of my mouth were going up. They weren’t. What was happening? I practiced lifting the corners of my mouth so that they rose above the thin line of my lips. Then I raised my eyebrows allowing my eyes to show beneath their lids.Everyday I consciously arranged my face in this gargoyle-like manner and went out to face the world. It felt phony but better than coming across as grim or mean. Whenever a camera pointed in my direction, I smiled and lifted so hard that many of the photos were ghastly, like Joan Crawford in her “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?” years.However, when I found out I had a grandchild on the way, my feelings of keeping up the pretense changed. I knew I wasn’t really kidding anyone. I couldn’t smile ALL the time, and when I wasn’t smiling I looked like a witch. I didn’t want my grandchild to have a mean-looking grandmother, so a face lift was definitely in order.I read about different doctors and even went to see a few. I didn’t want to look 18 and I didn’t want to have that pulled look. My wish was to look like an attractive woman of an indeterminate age. When I met Dr. Bucko, he seemed to understand exactly what I wanted. He even said, “I am conservative, but if it’s too conservative, I can always go back and take a bit more out.” I was fascinated by his solution for smoothing out the furrows in my forehead-especially the deep lines between my eyebrows. “I’ll remove the muscle that causes the frown lines,” he said. “The lines will be gone and they won’t come back.” In all my reading and interviewing, I had never heard about this procedure. It was the deciding factor for me. Besides, I liked Dr. Bucko and the people who work with him. The offices were particularly welcoming and lovely. And after attending a couple of programs at the Beauty Within, I selected a date for my surgery.
The surgery itself was painless and I felt very supported throughout. An overnight stay at Shalimar was a good choice, then home to begin the recovery. In some ways, it was like a mini vacation at home. Of course, the laser peel required attention every few hours and it was a painful process, but that only lasted for a week or two. The emerging results made it all worthwhile. There was some itching and other minor discomforts, but nothing unbearable. Sleeping in an upright position was not easy for me, but once I understood the importance of it, I willingly complied.
It surprised me that the healing was uneven and haphazard. It actually scared me. For example, my skin was blotchy here and there and one eye seemed bigger than the other. I was afraid I would be like that forever, but Dr. Bucko reassured me that this was not unusual and that I must be patient. But gradually everything smoothed out, leaving me with beautiful skin and exactly the results I wanted. I look younger, but not too young. No longer do I have to hold my face in some unnatural position. Without trying I look pleasant and approachable and I don’t scare my grandson. I love going out into the world!
Everyone who knows me notices that there’s something different and they tell me how great I look. I’m so excited about it, I usually just blurt out that I’ve had a face lift. Now everyone wants to know the name of my doctor.
Lee Jackson 67 years young