Recovery is the question people are most reluctant to ask directly and most anxious about privately. The honest answer is more specific than “a couple of weeks”, and knowing the specifics in advance makes the whole thing easier.
The first two weeks
Day one is your first post-operative visit. The compression wrap comes off, incisions and bruising are checked, the drain is emptied, and you go into a compression garment. Head elevated at 45 degrees. Pain medication on a schedule. Not when the pain arrives.
Day three is when bruising peaks, and it is the day patients call convinced something has gone wrong. Nothing has gone wrong. That is the schedule.
Sutures come out around day ten. By day fourteen most of what a stranger would notice is gone, and concealer handles the rest.
Weeks three to six
The major swelling drops around week three and the new face starts to emerge. Light exercise is fine and most patients are back at office work.
At six weeks we take your formal photographs. You are comfortable on camera without makeup, full exercise is cleared, and you have roughly ninety percent of your result.
The last ten percent
The remainder settles over about four more months, and scars mature from pink toward flesh tone across months three to six.
The three mistakes that cost people the most are rushing back to work, skipping head elevation, and sun exposure too early. The last one is the only one you cannot undo. Even ten minutes on a healing scar can leave a permanently darker mark.