Hematoma

About one and a half week after my facelift, I got a complication called hematoma.

Hematoma is a bleeding under your skin; blood is leaking into a "pocket" under your skin. If there is a complication after a facelift, it's likely to be a hematoma. The surgeon cannot (and either can anyone else) anticipate it, and not prevent it.

The phenomenon was totally new to me, I didn't know that hematomas exist. After the operation, I did follow the advices of the surgeon very carefully: I slept with my head raised, I kept the bandage according to instructions and so on. In other respects I guess I did exactly all mistakes that it's possible to do:

• Immediately the day after the surgery, I began to eat omega capsules that contained E-vitamin - both E-vitamin and omega thin your blood. 
• It was summer. I worked in the garden with my head forward. 
• I painted the terrace - with my head almost down. 
• I was on vacation. Every now and then I drank wine to the dinner - alcohol increases blood circulation. 

My advice: don't do the mistakes listed above. Raise your head. Use bandage for several days. Don't eat or drink anything that effectivates your blood circulation.

Hematoma 

When I began to recognize the lump on my right cheek, I contacted the surgeon. He answered my e-mail immediately, telling me what it was. He told me to use Hirudoid twice a day, and to do nothing else so far. 

I bought Hirudoidgel from the pharmacy. During the first one or one and a half week, the hematoma kept growing, after that it did not really grow anymore.

I checked from Google, and found out that some doctors recommend to remove the blood and the liquid with a needle. So I went to a doctor, who told me that my hematoma wasn't soft enough to drain. Gradually the hematoma began shrinking, although rather slowly.

I read about Hirudoid from the website of the pharmacy, and found a tip: when you use Hirudoid cream, you can put a bandage on it, which keeps the cream moist. This makes the the cream absorb into the skin more effectively. So I began to use cream instead of gel. I first rubed the Hirudoid cream to the skin, and then covered it with ordinary plastic wrap. I warmed up a wheat pillow, which I kept on the hematoma for 10-15 minutes. This I did a couple of times a day. Maybe it was just my imagination, but it felt like it made the hematoma shrink a little bit faster.

Another tip, which I found from Realself's website, was ultrasound therapy. I went to this therapy four times, and I think it helped a little. Ultrasound therapy is offered by some physical health institutions.

Some of the doctors at Realself recommended to rub the hematoma and I tried to do it, but it didn't really feel very good.

Abuot one and a half month from when I noticed the hematoma, it was so small that it didn't disturb me anymore. When I write this (two and a half month), it's still there, but I think I am the only one who notice it.