Before <before surgery> Before <before surgery> After <after surgery> After <after surgery> Since I was young, I had been concerned about my protruding cheekbones, slightly prominent square jaw, and chin. I always covered them with my side hair. It was a complex of mine, but bone surgery felt like such a major surgery to me that I never really thought, "I should get surgery." It had bothered me since I was young, but now that I am in my 40s, I thought I should just live with it. Then I ended up taking a few months off work for another reason, and I felt that if I did not do it then, I would never be able to, so I had the surgery.
After consultations at several places, I had a consultation at Y Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery. Although I had surgery and was discharged alone without a guardian, I decided on this place because if you have a guardian, they can watch the surgery in real time; it is a one-doctor clinic; they do one surgery per day; and the director has a lot of experience. For me, bone surgery was such a major surgery, so safety was the most important thing.
<Day of surgery> I arrived at the hospital at 9:30 a.m., changed into patient clothes in the hospital room, met the director, waited a little, and then went into the operating room. Once I was actually lying in the operating room waiting for anesthesia, I wanted to stop everything and go home. I was so scared and kept thinking, "What if the anesthesia does not work? I want to run away," and when I woke up, the surgery was over and I was in the hospital room. I felt relieved that I was alive, and the first thing was that my throat hurt so much. Actually, I barely had any facial pain. When I looked in the mirror, my face was so swollen I could not recognize it, but after surgery the director came in and said one thing: "Your face has become slimmer." That one sentence gave me some kind of reassurance. I had no facial pain at all, but even though I had never smoked even once, I kept having so much phlegm that it was hard. From right after surgery until discharge the next day, the nurses changed my ice packs all through the early morning, gave me injections, helped me go to the bathroom, and were so, so kind.
<Day 3 after surgery> I expected that I would swell a lot because bone had been shaved, but I was truly swollen to an all-time extreme, and it was hard. I had no facial pain, but I was so swollen it felt like my face would burst, and that tight, taut feeling was so uncomfortable. When I watched facial contouring vlogs on YouTube, everyone seemed to have so little swelling, so I thought I would be like that too, but reality was completely different. With the swelling plus bruising around my eyes, it did not look like a human face. Even though I knew the swelling would eventually go down, I was so stressed and had a hard time worrying, "What if it does not go down? What if I stay with this face?"
<Day 17 after surgery> Because of the swelling, even looking in the mirror and eating were so distressing, but from one week after surgery, it became bearable. I wore a mask, went for walks, and gradually adjusted. From one week after surgery, the swelling started to go down little by little, and by day 17, the bruising was almost gone and the swelling had gone down somewhat. On day 17, I finally had the stitches inside my mouth removed, and I felt like I could fly. Once the intraoral stitches were removed, my mouth became really comfortable. Getting the stitches removed hurt a lot. But it was truly over in a flash. There is still a long way to go before all the swelling is gone, but I feel like my face shape has been refined, so I am satisfied. Sensation has also come back a lot except around my jaw. Above all, it is so amazing that my cheekbones are gone. Right now the swelling has moved downward, so the area around my jaw is very swollen, and I am really, really looking forward to how it will look once that goes down.
<Week 4 after surgery> At week 4, I went in for a checkup. I had another CT and X-ray taken and saw the doctor. I felt reassured because after surgery, I could periodically take bone images and have them checked. By week 4, eating and daily life had definitely become much more comfortable. The cheekbone area has softened, but I am the type whose swelling does not go down easily, so they told me it would likely change a lot around 3 months, and I am waiting with a relaxed mind. Because it is bone surgery, I had only thought of it as huge and scary, but if I had known it would be like this, I regret not doing it earlier, even in my 20s or at least my 30s. There was less pain than I expected, and if you endure the first week well, I think it is manageable. I am really looking forward to months 2 and 3.