Thoughts on swelling after double-eyelid surgery

I learned from my own experience that in the early period, even if the swelling is too much or even relatively light, prolonged swelling can still happen. Personally, for the buried-suture method, I think the usual course is: major swelling for about one month, residual swelling for two to three months, and then a natural settling process after that (more like my eyes adapting than the line actively dropping). Depending on the person and the surgery, major swelling can be as short as one week or last two to three months. So when someone asks in a post, "I'm only a few days post-op, is this a sausage-like swelling? Will it become inner double-eyelid?" nobody can know for sure. At least the surgeon who operated should know; if worried, ask the hospital (except for a hospital known for this swelling pattern). Less swelling: either the line is naturally low or there is truly little swelling; I think this can be roughly judged by looking while eyes are closed. At week one, if it looks good to me but I wonder if it will get lower, it may get slightly lower as swelling resolves, or it may move into an inner double-fold tendency. If it is already low at week one, that does not automatically mean inner double will happen later. That is absolutely not true. Even when I had prolonged swelling, I compared photos and reviews a lot, and among people with only swelling and bruising, I did not see anyone become clearly much lower. It does not mean it never lowers. It does not mean it drops by half either; many people keep the same height while only swelling goes down. If there is no plump swelling, remaining swelling seems to be small. Cases that become inner double often look, at week one, like there is almost no surgical trace at all. In contrast, when swelling is large: it is either a high line or truly significant swelling. As a fact, the higher the line is, the more swelling there is, especially when the anterior line near the lash line is high. And when swelling is large, the line appears higher, so impression change feels bigger, but this also seems to settle by 2–3 months. In buried cases, when the crease does not settle to an acceptable level by 2–3 months or the impression change feels still large, I have often seen these as incorrect surgeries. (For me, during my first surgery I was out in public before one month without a hat, but during the revision I still could not go out without a hat or mask even after a month and a half, so I ended up having another surgery.) If by month 6 it still feels like that swollen "sausage" state, it may be better to lower the line, or to give it to time. The line can still become acceptable eventually. Even with the same line, swelling differs between a line where the front edge is tucked in and a line where the front edge is visible. The distance between the eye and brow does not become wider when swelling goes down; it stays the same as on day one. So if the distance was already closer than before on day one, and it looks like a narrow "Arab-style" shape, the chance of a high line is about 99%. Finally, swelling seems to reduce to about one-third or half of what it was on day one. So if you wonder whether the line is high, you can estimate it by thinking it may drop by at most half. For buried methods, when someone says swelling is gone after six months, I honestly think that is not just swelling anymore, but just line descent over time. So I usually wait up to six months and only then decide; if still unsatisfied, revision surgery is not a bad option. Incisional methods have too many variables, so I’m skipping comments on those. I hope this helps people in this community who are dealing with prolonged swelling.