One of the procedures carried out as part of my facial feminisation surgery was an 'upper lip lift'.
Male top lips tend to be thin in appearance as they turn down and firmly meet the lower lip. I am told this comes from our hunter-gatherer past of thousands of years ago when the men would be out hunting on the plains and preserving every drop of moisture was important. Women, on the other hand, would tend to be back at the village / cave where such considerations did not apply.
The procedure involves taking away a slice of flesh from below the nose and pulling the upper lip up as this gap is filled.
The result is lovely. I now have a beautiful feminine upper lip and will not have to resort to subtefuge in future by exaggerating the upper lip line with a lip pencil when doing my make up.
All the above was expected (thank you again, Dr Bart!) but what did take me a little by surprise was the need to learn to keep my mouth closed! If a woman (and now me!) relaxes her mouth muscles, the resting position is with the lips just slightly parted. This can result in breathing through your mouth, dry mouth, and the like.
Also, with more lip area exposed, the risk of drying out and getting cfhapped lips increases. I find that if I am not wearing lipstick, I need to used a lip salve stick.
So much to learn / re-learn!
On the general recovery front the swelling around my jaw has now started to go down and my speech is becoming much more normal. This also means that my chin / jaw shape is beginning to emerge and as with everything else, I really like what I can see. My left foot is still giving me some pain and I am still on tablets for that.
Bye for now
lol
Moira
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