26 September 2015

Getting coated

In spite of not having dressed or been out in about 10 months, I've still been looking for a red wool coat, as it's something that I'd been looking for, for some time. Up until a few days ago, I was looking for a new coat in a vintage style.

(C) Circa Vintage
Then I found a genuine 1950s wool/mohair coat at Circa Vintage, in my size, cheaper than most of the reproductions that I've been looking at! It was on sale at $55. With postage, it came to $70.

I was going to include a link to the listing for the coat on the web site, but the listing was removed once the sale was processed. Until the coat arrives (probably Monday or Tuesday), I only have this one photo from the web site, scrounged from my web browser's cache. From the measurements given on the web site, the coat should be just about the perfect size for me, and the woman shown wearing it is probably a couple of sizes smaller and considerably shorter than me. From the measurements, the sleeve length should be just about perfect for me, and the (raised) hem should be a little above my knees. There is the option of letting the hem down if I so desire.

24 September 2015

Bilateral Blepharoplasty

I had bilateral blepharoplasty surgery done in early July.

In simple terms, bilateral means both sides, a blepharoplasty is removal of excess skin from an eyelid. It's done by taking a piece like a crescent moon out of the lid then stitching it up, so that the scar ends up mostly hidden in the lid fold.

I took quite a few photos over the first ten days, and decided that they were too gross to share. Then life got busy and this post sat unfinished, because I hadn't added photos.

I kept telling myself that I'd do makeup and take photos showing how much better my eyeliner will look, but that hasn't happened either. The before and after photos at right are from the last time I went out en femme (November last year) and tonight without makeup. Those really are the same eyes!

I was told by someone who had the same procedure years ago, that if the lids were drooping onto the lashes, I might be eligible for a Medicare rebate because the drooping lids could be contributing to headaches, meaning that there is a legitimate medical reason to have it done. I've had ongoing headache problems for years, and I didn't think that this would really make a difference but I was interested in getting the procedure at least partly paid for.

Of the $1200 that the procedure cost, I got rebates from Medicare and my private health insurance totalling about $350.

To top it all off, the prediction that I had ignored, that it would help to reduce headaches, was also correct. I haven't had headaches as often since the surgery, and those that I have had have not been as bad as that headaches that I got before. :-)