How To Not F*ck Up Your Facelift Recovery

Recovery nurse truths and Amazon hacks.

Everyone obsesses over the surgeon. The suture placements, the before-and-afters, the Instagram and YouTube rabbit holes run deep when you’re researching who you want to perform your facelift.

But the biggest mistake I see people make is spending months, sometimes even years, researching surgeons...and almost no time preparing for recovery.

Which is strange, because recovery is where you'll actually spend your time. The surgery itself lasts half a day. Recovery lasts weeks. Healing lasts months. A little planning beforehand can make those first few weeks dramatically easier.

The first 7 to 10 days of facelift recovery are a complete mindf*ck.

Your surgeon will do an excellent job explaining the medical side of recovery. They'll tell you which medications to stop, when to ice, when to shower, when to come back for your follow-up appointments. The care I received from my surgeon, his team, and my recovery nurse was exceptional. But the healing journey is far from easy.

There are plenty of recovery hacks that can make your post-op experience smoother. The less you’re scrambling to order a wedge pillow, the right face wash, or a baby spoon, the more energy you have to simply rest, both mentally and physically.

Those seemingly random purchases ended up making such a difference.

And thank goodness for Valium. Seriously. Put it on the shopping list. 😂 Recovery is really about reducing stress before it even begins.

Before we get into all the things I think you should buy before a facelift, I want to spend the first part of this Substack article talking about the one purchase that never made the list because, unfortunately, Amazon doesn't sell her: a recovery nurse.

You can't Prime one to your hotel room at 2:00 a.m. after you've decided you need her. By then, the moment has passed.

Let's dig into recovery nurse economics.

Every facelift has hidden costs. This is the biggest. In my opinion, it’s the smartest place to spend money. Here's exactly what I spent, why I extended my nursing care, what I'd do differently, what Olivia DeFilippo (my nurse) recommends, and why I think there's a magic number when it comes to recovery support.

Then we'll dive into the over-researched Amazon rabbit hole I went down on your behalf. If you’ve been reading Charlotte’s Book for a while, you already know I have an unhealthy obsession with ridiculously good Amazon finds. Facelift recovery was no exception. I probably spent as much time researching recovery products as I did researching surgeons.

By the time surgery rolled around, my hotel room looked like an Amazon fulfillment center. While I do discuss several key items in this article, I also co-created a 29 things you need to make your recovery smoother guide. I had to plug it. Emily Wagner and I worked hard on it.

How Much Should You Spend On A Recovery Nurse?

Initially, I was only planning to hire a recovery nurse for the first 24 hours. Most offices, including Dr. Mark Murphy's, require about 18 hours of nursing care, so I thought, "Twenty-four hours should be plenty." I was wrong.

Expect costs to range from $100 an hour to $250 an hour. I originally booked Olivia for 24 hours at a cost of $2,400.

As surgery day got closer and my panic level steadily escalated, I increased 24 hours to 39 hours. I wanted to make sure I had coverage for two full nights. It was expected I would emerge from surgery around 4:00pm, 39 hours would get me just that.

Olivia, who was also in the operating room with me, escorted me from surgery back to my hotel. I honestly don't remember much of it. She somehow got me into bed and the next morning took me back to Dr. Murphy at 7:00am to get my bandages off.

She also became my designated photographer because I refused to open my eyes for the first three days, and then refused to look in a mirror for another five days. At my instruction, Olivia kindly documented what was going down, which is why my eyes are closed in all of these photos.