Ever since I posted that I’d booked surgery at Fladen, I got so many DMs T_T so I’m leaving a review quickly! I hope this helps those of you who sent me messages with your decision-making! I had surgery on Monday at 2 p.m., and I’ll write as much of the review as I can remember in detail.
Before surgery I went to the hospital 7 days before surgery for the pre-op checkup. I also got an injection to dissolve the filler in my chin. At the hospital they drew blood, I paid 100,000 won for the blood test and a 200,000 won surgery deposit, and I went to a nearby hospital for a chest X-ray and an ECG. That cost was 20,000? 30,000? won. From that day, I stopped taking vitamins, probiotics, and anything else I normally take.
On the day of surgery You have to fast for 8 hours, but since the surgery was in the early afternoon, it wasn’t that hard because I only had to avoid drinking water in the morning. Still, I stopped eating salty food from 3 days before surgery so I’d swell as little as possible. I went there feeling slightly hungry, but I was so nervous I could barely even tell I was hungry Before surgery, I first went to the recovery room, unpacked my things, and changed into the patient gown. The recovery room was a private room, and it had a closet, a fridge, and a TV. It was even IPTV, so I thought, “If I get bored, I’ll just watch TV” (did I, though?) Surgery was scheduled for 2:00, but after changing clothes, taking photos, gargling, washing my face, and going back to the room to rest, it was delayed. I remember going into surgery around 2:30. When they put the needle into my vein, my low blood pressure + 8-hour fasting + nerves combo made it hard to find the vein In the end, it took three tries to place the anesthesia line, and I was so scared I cried a little I felt so sorry that if I cried, the nurses might get upset too, but they hugged me tightly and wiped my tears When I said sorry for crying they said it was okay, everyone is like that, and told me not to be too tense while holding me close. My legs were trembling before I knew it, but they gently patted me until the very moment the anesthesia started. The director also came in and designed my face, and while telling me not to cry he gently patted my shoulder, which really eased my nerves. Because I had filler in my chin, I got an injection to dissolve it a week before surgery, and on the day itself we decided whether to lengthen the chin or only reduce the width after looking at the shape of the filler-free chin. The director said it looked like I didn’t need the chin length extended. But because plastic surgery is highly dependent on personal preference, he said he could do a T osteotomy if I wanted. Since I’m uncomfortable with the idea of living with metal plates in my body, I didn’t want the T osteotomy, so I decided to just reduce the width. The anesthesiologist came in, put a mask on my face, and told me to breathe in... breathe out... and then the surgery was over! The nurses supported me and took me straight to the recovery room in front.
After surgery it was really... seriously, I felt like I was dying, it hurt so much, who said it doesn’t hurt... My throat hurt, my nose was blocked so I could only breathe through my mouth, and my mouth was drying out fast, plus I wasn’t allowed to drink water for 4 hours The manager came and asked, “Feeling a bit better?” but without realizing it I said, “No, I’m dying...” It hurt so much that in my head I kept thinking, “Am I crazy? If I’m just going to live, why am I having my bones shaved?” After the general anesthesia wore off, the throat pain was bad enough, but I also felt incredibly nauseous, which made it miserable... They gave me medication for nausea, but said it would take about 30 minutes to kick in It was really unbearable. They brought a stainless steel basin and said to throw up there if I had to, and I was like, wow, I’m really going to show them something awful, I’m sorry!! while making retching sounds, but because I hadn’t eaten anything, not a single drop came out... I walked out of the operating room on my own around 7 p.m., and around 8 p.m. the nurses who had come into surgery with me had finished their shifts, and the nurse who was taking care of me overnight had come on duty. But from listening to the handover for me they said if I kept feeling nauseous, they should even stop me from drinking water at the time I was normally allowed to drink it That was absolutely not acceptable To try to recover somehow, I kept blowing out the anesthetic gas through my mouth with a whooshing sound. But overnight they gave me two injections through the IV, and they said they were antibiotics, a swelling shot, and painkillers. Every time they gave me one, I kept feeling nauseous In the end, around 4 a.m., I vomited stomach acid I slept for 30 minutes, woke up, slept for an hour, woke up, slept another 30 minutes, woke up, stayed up for 2 hours, slept 30 minutes... I kept not being able to sleep, and then I went through discharge treatment early in the morning. They removed the blood drain and the hose, and I was relieved that I was not as swollen as I’d expected. Right before discharge, the director checked my progress and said the surgery had gone as planned and that I looked prettier already, so we should keep checking the recovery progress
Day 2 I just had no energy at all all day... I had no strength in my body at all and I thought the prescribed medicine would be strong, but even if I wanted to eat something to take it, I had no energy whatsoever... I drank the New Care they gave me at discharge from the hospital and took my medicine with it. To help reduce the swelling in my throat, I ordered gelato delivery and ate that. Since I was only eating liquids anyway, I got hungry quickly, so I ate a little porridge and a little soup too. I took my medicine properly and gargled, but surprisingly there was almost no blood from my mouth or throat... I thought, wow, the director really did a clean job so that’s why I’m not swelling much. In the evening I also went on a light walk, and when I tried to sleep at night, I just couldn’t fall asleep My nose was blocked so I had to breathe through my mouth, but because my mouth was dry and swollen, even breathing through my mouth was painful I tried running a humidifier, taking propolis, and every trick I could think of, but my nose was still blocked and I couldn’t sleep... In the end I held my nose bridge and slept, and as I slept my nose opened up, so I got pretty good sleep after all. I slept from 2 to 4, stayed awake for about one or two hours, and then fell asleep again. After getting some solid sleep, I definitely felt better.
Day 3 Day 3 is supposed to be the day when swelling is the worst!!! But honestly??? It wasn’t nearly as monstrous as I expected. Maybe because they didn’t touch my cheekbones, the swelling was only below my nose, so with a mask on it was surprisingly hard to tell. My upper lip was barely swollen, but my lower lip looked like salted pollock roe... very plump, expensive department-store pollock roe,,,, It seems like the stuffiness is improving a lot The compression strap pulls downward, and wearing a humidifying mask seems to help a little too. I really want to take the tape off soon
*** Surgery day tips!!**** Make sure to bring a donut cushion and a neck pillow!! Since you have to sit up to sleep, your butt hurts and you need a cushion, but once you put the cushion down, the backrest angle and neck angle don’t line up, so you have to keep yourself up using neck strength while lying back. So a neck pillow is really, absolutely necessary!! I brought AirPods and a phone stand too (to watch YouTube if I got bored), but you don’t need them. Honestly, you won’t have the mental capacity to watch that stuff. Other recommended items are Vaseline, lip balm, and propolis. Once you’re allowed to drink water, taking propolis diligently helps throat pain go down relatively quickly. You should apply lip balm because your lips swell up so much so they don’t crack! They place the drain at the corner of the mouth, and because it keeps pulling on the skin, the corners of the mouth can tear Bring cotton swabs and Vaseline and apply a generous amount to the corners of the mouth. I’m not sure whether the portable humidifier helped that much, but I still think it’s better than having none!!