I had contour trio surgery + cortical shaving and muscle reduction surgery at Noh Jong-hoon Plastic Surgery Clinic on March 24.
About a week before surgery, I suddenly started coughing. I only had a cough, with no fever or other symptoms, but I was worried and told the manager, who asked me to send the result of a COVID home test. I did that, and I was told that general anesthesia for contour surgery is an anesthetic that goes through the lungs, so having a lot of coughing is not ideal. Fortunately, by the day before surgery the coughing had eased up a lot, so the operation went ahead as planned. The hospital also called me the day before surgery to ask again about cold symptoms and check on my overall condition, which was reassuring. Also, my period started three days before surgery but I was still able to have the operation while wearing an overnight pad! I do not usually smoke, and although it was not intentional, I also had not been drinking for about a month. I used to take vitamins regularly, but I stopped taking them one week before surgery. (I liked that they gave me a paper that organized which things I could or could not take because of anesthesia.) The day before surgery, I ate bossam one last time, and starting at midnight, which was the start of surgery day, I fasted, including water.
On the day of surgery, my operation was scheduled for 11 a.m., so I arrived by 9:30 a.m., left my luggage in the hospital room (a private room!), changed into a patient gown, and had facial photos taken. After that, the manager explained how to wear the compression band and what to be careful about after surgery, and honestly I was so focused on the surgery itself that I could not pay attention at all, but she said not to worry because she would explain it again after surgery Then the doctor drew on my face and finalized the design. When I went in for consultation earlier, the manager had said that after the consultation the doctor would carefully plan how the surgery would be done, and at the final design stage I could confirm that he had already decided exactly where to add and where to shave by how many millimeters. At this point, since it was the last design right before surgery, they spent a really long time on it, and in my view it was handled even more carefully than during the consultation. Finally, they asked whether I had any questions or anything I wanted emphasized, so I said I wanted the cheekbones to be done in a straight line and for the front view effect to be clearly visible. The doctor said he understood and that the square jaw would be shaved down as much as possible within safe limits. (What the doctor meant by as much as possible was not to the point of looking unnaturally jaw-like or causing nerve damage, but naturally without looking odd cosmetically!)
I waited a little until surgery time, then when it was time I gargled and went into the operating room. As soon as I lay down on the operating table, the anesthesiologist and nurses connected various IV lines and devices...? As I had heard earlier, because they cannot immediately perform endotracheal intubation for general anesthesia while the patient is awake, the anesthesiologist gave me gas for sleep anesthesia and told me to breathe in and out slowly. I had never had general anesthesia, or even sleep anesthesia, so I was worried whether I would fall asleep properly, but as soon as I started breathing in the gas, I could feel myself getting hazy, and I think I fell asleep after only 3 or 4 breaths... Everything happened so quickly and smoothly that I think I fell asleep in less than five minutes after entering the operating room, and perhaps because I was nervous or because the room was cold, my whole body trembled while I was lying on the table. Also, because I was worried about the possibility of a substitute surgery, I asked before falling asleep, "Am I going to fall asleep without seeing the doctor?" and they told me I would only see the anesthesiology doctor and that the surgeon would come in shortly. Since my mother said she would keep watching from outside the operating room the whole time, I was able to fall asleep with peace of mind.
The expected surgery time was about four hours, so I had originally thought it would end around 3 p.m., but I do not remember it myself; my mother said that around 4:30 p.m. the surgery ended and the nurses were waking me up. I also heard later that the doctor greeted my mother before going into the operating room, so she saw him enter the OR, and after the surgery he told her not to worry because it ended well, saying that my bones were thicker than expected~ I do not remember how I got back to the hospital room, but the nurse said I woke up from anesthesia fairly quickly and well, and from my perspective it felt like I had only been asleep for a few minutes. To help remove the general anesthesia gas from my body, I kept consciously breathing in through my nose and out through my mouth, and I do not think I felt much dizziness or nausea. Because I was continuously receiving painkillers, I had absolutely no pain at the surgical site. More than that, I was the type who could not tolerate sleepiness to begin with, so trying not to fall asleep for several hours in order to wake up from anesthesia was extremely hard, and my mother and the nurses had to wake me up every few minutes. Since I had been intubated and my throat was swollen, and I also still had cold symptoms, it was hard to breathe because of the occasional coughing, runny nose, and phlegm. (These symptoms can happen after general anesthesia anyway, but I think my pre-existing cold made them worse.) I could hardly swallow saliva either, so during the one-day hospitalization I used more than a box of tissues... I do not remember clearly, but after a few hours following surgery I was allowed to drink water, and the nurses brought some to me. However, I did not drink it because I had no strength, and after a few more hours I had to fast again, including water, so in the end I did not eat anything for about 38 hours until 2 p.m. the next day. But because I was 계속 on IV fluids, I did not really feel hungry! Also, I have vasovagal syncope, so even during consultation I had mentioned that I was worried about general anesthesia. I had thought it would not interfere with anesthesia, which was a relief, but after surgery while I was hospitalized, I went to the bathroom and this symptom appeared and I fainted The bathroom was close to the inpatient room inside the hospital, but I think it happened because I suddenly walked and moved while I had no energy. Fortunately, my mother and the nurses held me well, so I got through it safely without any major accident like hitting my face. I do not know how it is now, but when I had surgery, because of COVID, at night only the patient could stay in the room, so my mother had to go home. She was worried that something else might happen, so the nurses comforted her and sent her off, and when I started feeling a little better in the early morning, they told me that my mother was worrying a lot and suggested I send her a text saying I was okay After surgery, the nurses kept coming every 1 to 2 hours to check my blood pressure, empty and replace the blood from the drain, and give me cold compresses from time to time. I spent the night and early morning of surgery day dozing in and out while leaning back the whole time. And since I thought I would be bored during the hospital stay, I brought my iPad planning to binge the Marvel series... but I had no energy, so I never even took the iPad out, and I only briefly looked at my phone on and off until the early morning
Then the morning after surgery came, I met the doctor, and the facial bandages and drain were removed. I was worried it would hurt when the drain was removed, but I only felt a pressing sensation, and there was no pulling sensation or pain at all! Even then, the doctor said the surgery had gone well. My mother got the necessary prescriptions, and after putting on the compression band, I was discharged. When I left the hospital, they gave me the compression band, ice packs, pumpkin juice, and a sheet with post-op precautions written on it! From reading reviews, I have seen some people say they went home alone on public transportation after contour surgery... but I thought that would be impossible for me, so I took a taxi home with my mother. After I got home, once fasting was lifted at 2 p.m., I ate beef and vegetable porridge from Bonjuk, diluted very thin, with a baby spoon, and I also had liquid foods like Newcare. The swelling on the surgery day and the next day was not too severe, and I will try to write a 2-week follow-up soon as well.'^'!!