Hi, I had zygoma reduction + fat grafting + nose revision surgery this time. I’d also been lurking and reading a lot, and I’m leaving this as a record of my surgery as well as to hopefully help everyone here.
My face shape had fairly prominent cheekbones, so it looked really uneven? Skeleton-like. So about 8 years ago, I had full-face fat grafting + nose surgery + double eyelid surgery on that skeleton-like area, and I lived through my 20s with that face and even got told I was pretty, but as I got older I started to feel blah about my face and realized this facial fat doesn’t come off with dieting, so I started going around to clinics for consultations right away.
The reason for the nose revision was that the bridge was crooked. When I took photos of my face with the basic camera and lighting, the bridge came out like this: / That was so stressful, but since I was already doing cheekbone surgery + fat removal, I decided to have it done at the same time and got a consultation. They said my original nasal bone shape was crooked, so the silicone had probably bent that way too, and that it should be designed to match the nasal bone. Anyway, the bend wasn’t especially obvious, so it was a nose that didn’t really need revision, but I just did it.
<Surgery day D-day> I was so worried the night before that I didn’t sleep at all..ㅠ And then my period started... I went to the hospital in the worst possible condition in the morning, took some required photos, got an explanation from the coordinator, and signed the consent forms. I signed a surgery consent form saying death was also possible... and since I got a discounted price on the condition of partial disclosure, I was made to sign that I’d only leave good reviews on plastic surgery apps like Baritalk and Gangnam Unni and not write anything bad. Hehe. ---> So I don’t think I can give you the hospital information here, so please don’t ask!!! Then I met the two doctors. 1) Nose doctor - made a meaningful comment like, “Her face is more asymmetrical than I expected.. can we really match this?” and quietly designed it; 2) Facial contouring doctor - drew a few lines with a pen and said, “Don’t worry, the plan is perfectly set,” and finished the design in under a minute; Both meetings were so short that ㅠ I had literally just had a CT scan, and I thought we’d look at it together and talk about things, but I was a little startled that they didn’t really explain the surgical plan and didn’t seem to pay attention to the photos I brought. Heh. I was like, “How is this even going to go..?” and went onto the operating table a little after 12, and after three big sighs while getting ready for surgery and breathing in the anesthesia gas, I fell asleep and woke up to find it was around 5 o’clock? The surgery was over.
After it was done, it was really, really hard... I couldn’t breathe well, my face was swollen, the anesthesia hadn’t fully worn off, and I was cold. I originally planned to go home alone without a guardian, but luckily the day before surgery I was told a guardian would come, so I came back in a guardian’s car? There is absolutely no way I could have gone home alone. You definitely need a guardian. For about an hour or two after surgery while I was recovering, the guardian got my medication for me and listened to the explanations, and there was one funny thingㅋㅋ A male staff member said, “You requested CCTV, right? I kept watching. But you don’t really understand, do you? Gowning means putting on the gown, no one else went in, I saw both doctors doing it, and there was no proxy surgery.” He said all that????? Actually, both my guardian and I are medical professionals, so we had requested it because we were curious about the surgical process, butㅋㅋ him saying, “You don’t really understand,” about gowning, which just means putting on a gown, was funnyㅎㅎ....
Anyway, because I had cheekbone surgery and nose surgery together, my nose was completely packed with cotton and I had to breathe only through my mouth. Maybe the anesthesia gas hadn’t fully cleared, because I was dizzy and felt like vomiting, and my throat hurt so, so, so badly. I didn’t know intubation, meaning airway intubation, would be that hard. When I finally got home and tried to rest and sleep, remember I said I hadn’t slept and I was in bad condition? My heart was pounding like crazy, and from the back of the top of my head it felt like someone was tapping very fast with their fingers: tap tap tap tap tap. I had such a nasty tachycardia feeling, and the heart pounding, peripheral artery pounding, and other arrhythmia-like symptoms plus shortness of breath were so severe. This really is not an ordinary hard surgery, everyone... At that moment I thought I might die. I’ve seen a lot of people die, and just before someone dies, their heart trembles. I wondered if I was in that situation, and I suffered alone and barely slept at all. My nose kept bleeding through the blocked nose, my heart was beating insanely and irregularly, and my throat was so, so dry and painful that I think I spent the night drinking water about every 30 minutes. And because the airway intubation had lasted 4-5 hours, I also had severe phlegm and coughing. But I had also had nose surgery with autologous costal cartilage, so the autologous rib area hurt so, so, so muchㅠ It was truly a hellish first day...
<Surgery + Day 1> Couldn’t recover. Barely managed to eat rice gruel. Heart pounding didn’t settle. Nosebleeds continued. Took a taxi to the hospital and got an IV infusion. I felt like vomiting in the car, so I took the subway on the way home; I couldn’t even wash, and breathing was so hard. My face was puffed up~ I don’t even know how the day passed, but I was nauseous, coughing, burying my face in the humidifier, and basically dead all day. Sleep time 3-4 hours, 2,400 steps. I couldn’t brush my teeth for a week, so I had to gargle every 2 hours. I had to wear the compression bandage for 24 hours a day for 3 days, so my face felt extremely tight and my head hurt.
<Surgery + Day 2> My heart has now returned to a normal pulse. The nosebleeding had gotten much lighter, but stuff was still coming out so I kept cotton there. My face was even more swollen. I went to the hospital and had the cotton removed from my nose. I felt much more alive than the day before, but it was still miserable. The coughing and phlegm got worse. I had to hold my autologous rib area while moving and cough while enduring the pain. The nose was still bleeding too, but I couldn’t breathe through my nose, so I just let it flow or swallowed it, which made my nose feel blocked and the coughing/phlegm got worse again. I ranted to my friends that this was a really dangerous surgery and that if I had known, I would never have done it. It took 40 minutes to eat one bowl of rice gruel. My lips were so swollen that I got everything on them while eating. Breathing was still difficult. The surgical sites hurt. I could sit for a little while, but it felt like I spent the whole day in bed. Sleep time 4-5 hours, about 4,000 steps.
<Surgery + Day 3> I guess I was breathing through my nose in my sleep without realizing it, because I slept more than 5 hours. But sleeping at a 45-degree angle made my lower back hurt a lot ㅠㅠ I learned that light walking is important from days 3-4 onward, so since it was raining I walked for 30 minutes in the apartment underground parking lot. Then I really wanted to wash, so I put waterproof tape over the autologous rib area and took a shower, carefully washing my hair too. It felt so refreshing, but maybe I hadn’t sealed the tape well, because it got wet everywhere, so I went to the pharmacy and then disinfected the autologous rib area myself ㅠ I was surprised by how big the wound was... It seems to be about 5 cm ㅠ I’m also so worried about when the scar under my chest will disappear... I need to get married... I searched endlessly for ways to help autologous rib scar recovery. In the afternoon I felt a bit better, so I watched Netflix while eating cream-filled castella and milk. 8,400 steps.
<Surgery + Day 4> I walked in the evening yesterday, so I thought maybe the swelling had gone down a little? But no, in the morning I was a puffed-up pancake again. I had kept wearing the compression bandage, but now I was told to wear it only 2 hours a day, so I wore it and went for a 1-hour walk (10,000 steps), and it was so hot that I gently showered again. I did a bit of housework for daily life recovery, and finally got my senses together and read all the post-op instructions carefully. It’s only been 4 days, but apparently I need to manage it for the next 3 months... and especially no smoking/drinking for 6 months, which is so critical;ㅠ I tried regular porridge instead of rice gruel, but I couldn’t chew chunks like beef or mushrooms, so I just went back to grinding it into rice gruel. I let bread dissolve on my tongue and ate it with iced Americano. What on earth are people doing when they eat normal meals on days 3-4..? Impossible... The cheekbone pain has eased a bit, but my face feels swollen and uncomfortable. My nose has no sensation. The autologous rib hurts. The coughing/phlegm is still there. I finally yawned for the first time, very carefully.
<Surgery + Day 5> On day 5, after sitting up to sleep with 7 cushions, my back hurt so much. I slept for about 6 hours breathing through my nose. I went to the hospital and got swelling management. They removed the tape that had been on my face because of the contouring, and took a follow-up CT. My nose is still the same, so tape and gauze are still on it and I’m mostly breathing through my mouth. My face is still swollen, but it feels like it’s starting to go down now. I can see the double eyelid line a little now. I have severe yellow bruising under my eyes and on my neck. As expected, meals with chunks are impossible, so I kept eating rice gruel + pumpkin juice. But I did eat chocolate roll bread + iced Americano as a snack. I did the compression bandage 1 hour in the morning and 1 hour in the afternoon and got things done. I did warm compresses twice. The autologous rib is still uncomfortable.ㅠㅠ The coughing/phlegm is still there too. Still, I cleaned the house, went out for a 1-hour walk, and reached 10,000 steps. (But if it’s hard, they said absolutely not to overdo it.) I forced down a banana and tried to eat it by letting it dissolve in one bite, but it was hard, so I blended banana + honey + chocolate + ice + milk into the sweetest drink imaginable and felt happy. I want regular food fast. I yawned three times and my cheekbones hurt a little. I think I need to be careful until the one-week mark.
<Surgery + Day 6> I’ve adapted somewhat, but my back hurts so much that it takes a long time to fall asleep. The coughing/phlegm has decreased, but it’s still there. (If I sit, tilt my head up to the sky, and sleep breathing through my mouth, my nose keeps sliding down, causing phlegm and making it hard.) Sleep time 7 hours, 8,000-step walk. I got back to work while drinking brewed coffee. Compression bandage 2 hours, one cold compress in the morning, three warm compresses in the afternoon, and the bruises are a bright yellow. I’ve been endlessly searching about pin removal surgery.. I’m trembling with fear because I’ll need surgery again later. The swelling is about the same, but my eyes look like they’re being pulled into a hooked shape again, and because of ptosis they’re pulled tight, which is stressful.. Seeing myself thinking that while getting the pins removed I’d also want inner corner revision + forehead lift + double eyelid revision surgery makes me shudder. ---> Is there a decent clinic..? Please tell me..