I wrote this because when I had surgery, I did a lot of research and had so many questions and worries, and I thought this might help! If you read it, it’ll probably help a lot!! I had surgery yesterday, and today is day 1! I’m on my way home after taking out the drain @
Things to bring to the hospital for contouring surgery Comfortable clothes (make sure they’re easy to put on and take off!! Ones with a front zipper are nice), bucket hat, 2 extra black masks (black recommended), charger, AirPods, mirror (useful for drinking water, etc.), lip balm, a Daiso water bottle if you buy one, tissues, plastic bags.. (needed if you feel very nauseous after anesthesia), umbrella
Meals after surgery Steamed eggs, soft tofu, pumpkin porridge, anything without grains Soup, New Care, silken tofu, castella, etc.
Days 1 to 3: drink water, New Care, cold drinks; cold compresses; wear the compression band 24 hours a day; gargle with Hexamedine twice a day, and gargle with plain water every 2 hours the rest of the time. When gargling, if you puff out your cheeks, the wound area could burst, so just move your head left and right while doing it☆
From day 3 onward: soft tofu, silken tofu, pumpkin porridge without grains; warm compresses; start brushing teeth; keep gargling; wear the compression band for 2 hours, then take it off, alternating like that
At 2 weeks: remove stitches, eat a normal diet as long as it’s not hard, start mouth exercises, stop gargling! It can cause pigmentation
After 1 month: anything is possible Yoga and water parks are all after 1 month
Weight training is possible after 3 months
Surgery review] Second surgery scheduled, arrived at 9:30, registered, got the prescription in advance 10:00 consultation with the director, maybe 5 minutes? It was short + I submitted reference photos of the image I wanted After that, a 20-minute consultation with the manager? I received the surgery consent form. The notebook was a kit with things that could be used during surgery, and they explained how to use it, then I booked the next visit
10:40 to 14:00: changed clothes on the 14th floor, gargled, waited in the ward At 13:00 I went into the operating room, got ECG leads attached and a blood pressure cuff on A line was placed for surgery (thick needle), propofol was given, and as I felt the medicine going in cold, I blacked out Around 16:30 I woke up in the recovery room.. They applied 1 to 2 liters of oxygen in the recovery room. At that moment I felt like I had a nosebleed, so I tried to bring my hand to my nose to check, and the nurse got mad at me thinking I was still not fully awake and trying to pull out the drain 흑흑
Surgery time was roughly 2 hours 30 minutes + 30 minutes for the abdominal fat removal..? I’m not really sure In total, including before/after anesthesia, recovery, and the fat removal area, it took about 4 hours
Arrived at the room at 17:30
I kept burping because of the anesthesia gas. Luckily, maybe because I’m suited to general anesthesia, I didn’t feel nauseous, but everyone else seemed to be struggling with nausea and vomiting To forget the pain, I watched TV, but Na Honja Sanda was so funny that laughing made the pain worse.. After surgery, it’d probably be better to watch documentaries; variety shows make it hurt more My mouth wouldn’t open and I couldn’t speak either, so I communicated with the nurse using the memo app
After surgery, I had to take deep breaths like crazy to get the anesthesia gas out. This is important Because of the nasal intubation and surgery through the mouth, both nostrils were bleeding It hurt It was stabbing and aching overall. More than the cheekbones, my square jaw and chin hurt. I came out with one pain pump, but it still hurt so I got an extra painkiller shot.. I’m not especially sensitive to pain, but it really hurt I kept thinking, what kind of glory am I trying to enjoy that I did this I don’t think I could do it twice I’d never had to be hospitalized or have surgery before, so I didn’t know, but this made me understand patients’ pain a million times more.. You really have to be kind to people who are in pain... And everyone said their throat hurt because of the anesthesia, but the throat pain I felt was.. like when I had COVID and my throat hurt..??? It hurt, haha, but after about a day it just felt like a sore throat, the kind that hurts when you swallow, so that was tolerable My nose kept bleeding, but not bright red, more like red traces mixed into the mucus Phlegm and saliva kept coming out of my mouth I think I went through a whole box of tissues... After the 8 p.m. to 4-hour fasting period, they brought New Care, water, and paper cups, one bottle each I brought a Daiso water bottle, but I just folded the top of a paper cup and drank from that I think the water bottle will be useful when I get home
Anyway, right after the surgery they helped me go to the bathroom There’s a speed bump-like threshold at the bathroom, so every time the nurses came they asked whether I’d gone to the bathroom. If I did, they had to help because of the IV pole.. Still, even though it was a single room, the bathroom was shared. There was one toilet, but it was clean and had a bidet I got two IV fluids: Hartmann’s solution and Hotdex, 1 L each I got antibiotics once at dawn, and after that they gave medicine to reduce phlegm, medicine to reduce swelling, etc. I was asleep so I don’t know exactly what it was. They came every 2 hours to empty the drain and replace the ice pack. Replacing the ice pack made it hurt less.. I’m grateful to the nurse.. The director in charge came by briefly at night too, around 10 to 11 p.m.? It seemed like they make a round to check on patients after surgery
At 8 a.m. the next day, around 15 minutes, they removed the drain. They don’t stitch the removal site separately, and after removal you shouldn’t eat anything for 30 minutes. When they removed it, there was pain from touching the surgical area + throbbing + stiffness + it didn’t come out all at once, but was pulled out in three stages It was a dull, stiff pain, so I didn’t like that.. It wasn’t unbearable.. They changed the beige compression band to a black one with Velcro, and explained how to wear it
At 9 a.m. the nurse on morning shift came and explained things once more briefly
From 9:30, they washed my hair and did simple swelling care? They did one more CT scan and I had a consultation with the director. Done!!!!
The notebook pocket had a tongue cleaner, baby toothbrush, cotton swabs, gauze, and ice packs, so I didn’t buy a baby toothbrush separately From the day of surgery, they send care-method videos by text They also send the director’s precautions by text on day 0, day 1, day 3, day 7, and at 2 weeks, which was really helpful (I had already looked them up in advance and watched everything haha)
Also, after surgery, nosebleeds happen often, and in my case, especially when going to the bathroom or moving around, they bled quite a bit. I packed 2 white masks and 2 black masks, and since I had to take public transportation for about 2 hours, black was better than white. The compression band is black too, and if you get a nosebleed, white shows everything Just in case, bring black masks too!!
I wrote a lot of rambling stuff, but I hope it helps!! I also had so many questions and things I didn’t know before surgery because I kept researching and visiting clinics I still have a lot.. If you have any questions, leave a comment and I’ll reply!! I just have to go home on public transportation with my face all puffy That’s the biggest worry lol
When going home, the pharmacy said it was expensive because it’s a plastic surgery clinic and insurance doesn’t apply. The price was in the 40,000-won range! From what I found, some places charge 100,000 won and some charge 30,000 to 50,000 won. I guess it depends on the prescription.. Some places apparently prescribed 4 bottles of Hexamedine.. I thought 1 bottle would be enough... Ah, the clinic prescribed 1 bottle! One bottle is pretty big, so I think it’ll be enough for 2 weeks!! Gargle with water every 2 hours, and use Hexamedine twice a day. It may cause tooth discoloration, so from the second week onward, brush with toothpaste and a toothbrush. For the first week, don’t use toothpaste when brushing; brush mainly the teeth with Hexamedine on the brush. They said toothpaste isn’t good because of the stitches.
Wear the compression band for the first 3 days, then after that you can take it off and put it back on if it’s uncomfortable
From day 1 to day 3 after surgery, I was so swollen I couldn’t even speak Especially my lips felt like they’d burst, and I kept getting nosebleeds, so I used a box of tissues a day I tried sleeping sitting up, but because of the pain and discomfort I couldn’t sleep at all Now, around day 4, I can sleep sitting up without waking and sleep well Still, maybe because my swelling lasts a long time, it stayed really puffy and didn’t seem to go down. They said I could eat porridge or rice gruel on day 3, but my mouth wouldn’t open, so I had no choice but to keep drinking New Care. But I’m not losing much weight, surprisinglyㅡㅡㅠ
I was thinking maybe I should crush the pills into powder since I couldn’t open my mouth, but I ended up pushing them one by one between my teeth and swallowing them with water. After about 2 days, swallowing pills got easier.
When day 7 comes and you remove the tape on your chin, that’s when the lip swelling starts to go down. At that point, even wearing a mask doesn’t make it look like you had surgery, so from then on I wore a mask and went for walks hard.
After removing the chin tape, around day 9 or 10, it became a bit more manageable, so I’ve been cutting food into small pieces and eating it Some reviews say they went back to work after one week.. With a mask on, you could probably go to work, but talking to coworkers, and especially eating together in a restaurant, is absolutely impossible..... For people who work, I really think taking about 2 weeks off is best Until day 8, my lips were so swollen my pronunciation was slurred and air leaked out, so even when I just called my friends, they asked why I was speaking like that, if I was calling them with a sheet mask on over my face....
At the 2-week mark, they removed the stitches in my mouth and around my chin. They removed them from 5 places: both sides below the jaw and both sides of the cheeks, like that. Removing them hurt everywhere, but the front of the chin really, really hurt Depending on who removes them, it may differ, but the nurse who removed mine was..... it felt like she was cutting raw flesh, not just stitches It bled a lot too.... And above all, she wasn’t kind, so I really disliked that... After removal, when I gargled with water, some blood and a few clumps came out....
Overall, the ward and hospital atmosphere was A clean single room, on a high floor, with a decent city view (I couldn’t really enjoy it because it hurt), like staying one night in an officetel
Inside the room there was tissue, a trash can, a TV, a locker, and a small desk Personally, if you bring a water cup, wet tissues, and tissues, it’d be good. In the morning I used wet tissues to wipe my face and the eye gunk Tissues are a must because if you get a nosebleed on the way home, you’ll need them
Q&A - the things I was personally curious about 1. Do they insert a urinary catheter? > It depends on the hospital, but usually they don’t, and if they think the surgery time will be long during surgery, they insert one
2. Can you have surgery while on your period? > Yes, you can. If you tell the nurse during surgery, they’ll give you disposable underwear and sanitary pads. But from what I found, if you have surgery during your period, you swell a bit more
3. Are there stitches in the fat removal area too? > There are two areas, the cheeks and double chin. In my case, I only had the cheeks, so there was about one stitch behind each ear, and they said those would be removed together with the cheekbone stitches on day 7
Why I chose this clinic!! There are so many famous hospitals with great skills that I was also deliberation a lot at first, but I chose based on aftercare + the director + the line. Through research, I narrowed it down to three clinics. One was safe and clean, but it felt too doll-like, so I dropped it. Another had the longest director experience at 25 years and was very clean, so I was going to choose it, but the post-op reviews made the face shape look too natural? That was the impression For me, this clinic felt moderately natural, the director’s experience wasn’t bad either, about 20 years..?? or maybe 10-something years..? Anyway, during the consultation they were blunt but explained everything in detail, and that was the biggest reason I decided after the consultation!! If you go for a consultation here, definitely bring a list of questions!!! They explain some things, but because there are many people consulting, you should bring a list of what you don’t know as much as possible so you can clear up your questions properly And the aftercare is good: a CT scan the day after surgery, hair washing, and then visits at 1 week, 2 weeks, 4 weeks, 3 months, and 6 months for CT scans and consultations with the director. Swelling care and radiofrequency treatment are given a total of 3 times up to weeks 1, 2, and 4, and the text messages with videos are also really helpful ---->I wrote it like this, but here’s the correction: the CT scans are the day after surgery, at 1 month, 3 months, and 6 months. Also, CT scans are said to be bad for the body if done too often, so there’s no need to do them every week