Karen - Facetite - Kouris MD - Hinsdale, IL

Hi. My name is Karen, and I am a very happy recipient of services from Midwest Plastic Surgery. I started this journey approximately six months ago. I had come to a point in my life where I was feeling, when I looked in the mirror, that I was seeing an older person than what I felt inside. I decided it was time for me to go get a grandma makeover. So I reached out to Dr. Kouris' office, and when I had an opportunity to meet with Dr. Kouris and Jocelyn, they told me about new procedures that were available. One is BodyTite, and one is FaceTite. I got very excited because my biggest concern was at my age, whether or not if I did any plastic surgery, if I would end up with loose skin. If it would end up maybe fixing the problem I felt I had, but creating another one in its place.

So after I heard more about the FaceTite, we decided as a team, which I love that we were a team in this, that it was best to start with the FaceTite. I literally had a little liposuction in the neck area, and then a tightening of that neck, and then my upper cheek and jaw. I'd love for you to be able to see the before and after pictures because there was a drooping beforehand. I feel like I look like a person who has a leisure life, and I really don't. But I look as if I'm well rested. I feel like my appearance resembles what I looked like a good five years ago. I wasn't looking for a miracle drug, but I kind of feel like I fell into the rabbit hole and found a miracle procedure with this.

Every day I wake up and I see a little bit more movement, a little bit more tightening of the skin, a little bit more definition in my jaw line, and it's very exciting. As a matter of fact, as recent as yesterday, my husband stopped me in the kitchen, and I've been married 32 years. Anyone who's been married this length of time knows your spouse and you do a lot of interaction, but you don't really stop and look at each other because you've seen it all. You know it all. But yesterday he stopped me in the kitchen, and he looked and he said, "Did you go put some makeup on or something?"

It was kind of funny because I'm wearing the exact level of makeup that I've always worn, but I think what he was picking up on is that there's this subtle difference. Nobody's saying, "Oh my goodness. You've done a lot of work," which of course is what I did not want to happen. But people are saying, "Wow. You look rested." A lot of people have actually asked, "Have you lost weight?" Because I did want my neck to be a little bit thinner, and so just the appearance of my face being a little bit more tight, and my neck being thinner, people are assuming I've lost weight, which I'm still working on.

The team then got together and decided what would be the next steps of procedures for my body type work. When I originally came in, my interest was doing something with my face. I said "facelift" but I really didn't want anything that aggressive, and I said I was really concerned with my upper arm second wave. If you're a woman, you know the second wave. It's the flab underneath the arm that just kind of waves at the people you're saying "hi" to as well. So I was concerned about that area, and then I was concerned about my thigh area.

I was preparing for the summer. My husband and I are putting in a swimming pool, and I figured I'd be having pool parties. There's a difference in going away out of town, and people seeing you in a bathing suit, and then the people that you know on a day-to-day basis seeing you in a bathing suit. So my thigh area was of great concern to me. As we continued to talk, I started talking about, "In a perfect world, the bra strap area would be smaller too. I've noticed that there's always a tugging in my shirts in the first two buttons," and so I felt like if I could reduce the circumference of the bra strap area, that that would also help in thinning me out.

Through that conversation, Dr. Kouris also suggested that if I wanted to regain my hourglass figure, which was music to my ears, that I might think about doing, again, some BodyTite work on my middle, on the sides of my stomach. So the plan was to do the face, and then move to the bra strap area, and then do the sides of my body, and then move to my arms, and then finish with my thighs. So far I've done the face, I've done the bra strap area, and I've done my sides. I have to say it's been an amazing journey, and I can't wait for the next two adventures, if you will, which will be my arms and my thighs.

I feel different. I know I hold myself different. I'm feeling as confident as I did, as I said, five years ago. I had come to a place in my life where I wasn't as eager to go out, to have groups of people over, or to just find myself in social settings. I felt like I didn't look like I had in my late 40s, and so there was that uncomfortableness of other people seeing what I saw. I have to admit, I've been planning parties, and I've been going out, and I've been enjoying the new me, the real me, but the new me.