Hi, I’m Tanya Justice. I’m fifty-five years old. I’m a client of Dr. O’Daniel’s. I came probably three months ago for a consult for a lower face lift, and not sure if that’s what I wanted to do or just fillers or botox, or whatever, but he told me what he could do with surgery and without, and spent so much time to make sure that all my questions were answered. I had done a lot of research beforehand to make sure that he was the doctor I wanted to go with, but after meeting him, there was no question. He understood exactly what I wanted. I didn’t want to look like that typical face lift person that looked like you were in a wind tunnel. I told him, I said, “I just want to better myself and be my personal best,” and we were on board, and we went from there.

Okay. As far as my pre-op and what I needed to do before I actually had the surgery, he wanted to see pictures when I was in my 20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s, which I had never had asked before by any other doctor and I thought was genius, to see how my face had changed over the years. Not just that, just to mentally prepare myself too for what I was going to do, and go into it with the right attitude that I was doing this for me, no one else, and shared it with … I’m a personal trainer, so I was sharing this with all my clients from the day 1. It wasn’t something that I was secretive about because I was not ashamed of it, and he made it so easy. That was pretty much what I did pre-op.

I’m 2 hours away from Dr. O’Daniels. I actually came in the night before my surgery, had my pre-op done like 4:00 in the afternoon, and checked into a hotel. He made that so accommodating. He got me all of the information for the hotel. He wanted to make sure that I understood where I was going to be staying, where the facility was located. He made it so simple. I actually came by myself, stayed the night before, and was ready for surgery the next morning.
The length of the surgery, he told me to be prepared for 3 1/2 hours. It took right around then. Because I was by myself, they had figured out some little nice nurse that offered to transport me back to my room. She actually sat with me for an hour and a half until my friend came to the hotel to stay with me, which was unheard of. Again, every experience, from the nurses that treated me post-op in the hospital to the little nurse that took me actually to the hotel, I felt like I was a queen. It could not have been a more pleasurable experience. They told me what to expect as far as the anesthesia. I was not sick. I felt amazing. I had absolutely no bruising. It was phenomenal. I don’t know if that was the norm, but I could not have been happier.

My recovery, what I experienced was a lot better than what I expected. The pain was very minimal, but again, I’m a mother of seven and had natural childbirth, so I probably can handle a lot more pain than maybe most. The pain was a lot less than what I would have ever expected. Took, like I said, two days’ worth of pain meds and went back to work right away. No one even knew that I even had it, except they were like, “You look so refreshed. Have you been on a vacation? What have you had done? You look amazing.” They couldn’t put their finger on it. That in itself was refreshing because I think probably the people that we know that have had facelifts are the bad ones. I just look like I had had a great facial or an amazing vacation.
My recovery could not have been better. The scar where I have my sutures, and I went in a week after to get the rest of my staples out, there was nothing to that. I felt it was very easy done. They had me in and out of their office quickly. It was ridiculous how well the staff, his staff, treats you. They could not be more accommodating. I felt like I was part of the family.

Also, I wanted to touch a little bit about my post-op and what I experienced. Upon waking up, I felt great. Before surgery, two weeks before in fact, he had sent a package of vitamins to my home and said, “Make sure you take these. It will help with the swelling and bruising” which it did. I have pictures and I’m sure they’ll be posted, but post-op I had absolutely no bruising. I’m sure that some people do, but I didn’t, very fortunately. Very little swelling. I work at my home. I have clients that come in. I had surgery on a Friday. I worked on Monday. With drains and drove myself back to Louisville Monday to get my drains out. Felt amazing. I only pain meds for two nights, so it was awesome.

I wanted to say why I picked Dr. O’Daniels in the first place, and I kind of touched on that but I live, like I said, two hours away. Lot’s of plastic surgeons in my area. I did a lot of research, asked a lot of people. For four years I’ve been thinking about doing this, but when I met him he was so personable and so wanting to know what I expected from the surgery, why I was doing the surgery, making sure I understood everything about it. Even that being honest as far as if I was a candidate, and I never felt that this was about money or anything else.
I felt that he genuinely wanted to empower me to be the personal best, and to feel good about who I am. From the pre-op to the post-op, to my visits thereafter I will keep coming back to him for all of my skin care. He’s just an amazing doctor, but first and foremost he’s an amazing person. He sent me a book, I mean we really connected. He’s just, I’ve heard about his family, he’s just an amazing man that has a big heart and he really wants to do best for everyone.