Wow, I really went to get consultations without doing any legwork at all I went to a place people around me said was good, got a consultation, and put down a deposit that very day. I only found out after surgery that there was such a community too, but I'm so grateful I learned about it even now ㅎㅎ
Day of surgery
I'm from outside the city, and I had somewhere else I needed to stop by, so I drove there ㅠㅠ Since it was a one-day hospitalization, I decided I'd see how I felt the next day and then think about the car. I went up, washed up, and had another consultation with the doctors first, but I didn't know anything about contouring at all, ,, so I couldn't even ask anything and just told them to make me pretty ㅠㅠ They even said they'd leave a little angle behind the ear-jaw area so it wouldn't become a square jaw, so I asked whether a square jaw was a bad thing ㅎㅎ ... I regretted not looking into it beforehand and not asking around more. After the consultation with the doctor, I met the manager, then went up to the hospital room, unpacked, washed my face, talked with the nurse for a bit, and then went straight to the operating room and lay down ㅎㅎ With sleep anesthesia, there was kind of a fun feeling of deliberately keeping my eyes open and then closing them, but this time I was already scared because I'd been under general anesthesia several times, so after exchanging some hometown talk with the anesthesiologist, I just closed my eyes as soon as the injection went in and then remember nothing ㅎㅎ When they woke me up afterward, I was cold again, of course ㅠㅠ The cold is the hardest part for me when I come out of general anesthesia. My whole body shakes. It wasn't enough to just turn on the electric blanket on low, so I turned it up to the highest setting, covered myself with one more blanket, and for about 2 hours I seemed to just warm my body while drifting in and out of sleep. Once my temperature went up a bit, my chin started hurting a lot and my throat started hurting too. I slowly walked over to the locker to get my phone and looked at my face. I was surprised because I wasn't as swollen as I expected, and my cheekbones and nose didn't hurt at all. But my chin and the lower-jaw area from the intraoral incision really hurt so much. They said the painkiller drip was connected automatically with the IV, but I still suspect the painkiller pump was broken. When pain relief goes in, I usually feel nauseous and dizzy, but I didn't have those symptoms either, and the pain was so bad that after calling the nurse about three times, they gave me an analgesic ㅠ ㅠ Then after an hour or two, it hurt again really badly. When I asked for more, they said they'd give it later when I was sleeping. They said too many shots aren't good ㅠ ㅠ After I pulled myself together, I sat up and slept, waking up every 10 or 20 minutes. It hurt so much .. I wanted to beat up everyone who said bone surgery doesn't hurt. If I'd known it would hurt and be this hard, I would have regretted doing it. A few hours later, I kept spitting out blood-stained phlegm as it came up, and since the pain had gotten better to about 9 out of 10, I kept sipping water little by little and letting it go down. I was just waiting for the blood tube to be removed as soon as possible.
Day 1
In the morning they removed the blood tube from my mouth, and the gross, stinging feeling lasted at most 3 seconds. More than that, the fact that it was being removed made me happy already. The intraoral dressing was even worse ㅠㅠ ㅠ ㅠ ㅠ The disinfecting made it feel like the whole incision area was going to get torn open. I definitely couldn't drive, so I called a designated driver and my younger sibling came to pick me up. I passed out as soon as I got in the car ㅋㅋ If I'd driven myself, I'd have been done for! Then I went to the lodging, bought some rice gruel, and sipped it, but even that was hard and I had no appetite. I even tried going out for a walk, but my lips were swollen, my mouth wouldn't open, and I couldn't breathe, so I went back home after 30 minutes. That day too I spent almost the whole day sleeping and waking up every 30 minutes.
Day 2 The swelling was a bit worse than the previous day. The compression bandage was so hard to tolerate that my jaw and ears hurt, so I asked the hospital and just loosened it. The rice gruel tasted so bad that I filled up on drinking milk instead. It was still tolerable ㅎ ㅎ That evening I even went out for a 1-hour walk.
Day 3 I also had nose surgery, so I came in to disinfect inside my nose and loosen the compression bandage. Wow .. when they loosened it .. I honestly looked like I had special-effects makeup on. Drinking those swelling-reduction drinks didn't seem to do anything. The day before, I joined the community and found out about Elast A, so when I was discharged that day, I bought Elast A and a face liner too. Honestly, it felt half forced ㅎ I could relate to saying, how am I supposed to live if my face hardens like this. People said that just by looking at my face, it seemed like I'd gained about 30 kg. My appetite was slowly coming back too; milk alone no longer filled me up ㅠㅠ I went out wearing a mask, stopped by a PC room briefly, and on the way back they said they would mince all the porridge, so I ordered 2 portions and walked another thirty minutes. I also bought some tofu and ate it. The tofu was good that day too. The porridge was beef porridge and tuna-vegetable porridge, but after they blended it, it tasted like trash. If I'm going to blend porridge and eat it, I'd rather eat rice gruel again ㅎ They said I only had to wear the compression bandage for 8 hours starting that day, so I decided to wear it while sleeping, and I was so happy.
Day 4
Sleeping with the compression bandage on was uncomfortable again, and my throat was swollen, so I kept having a hard time ㅠ ㅠ And sleeping while sitting up made my butt muscles tense up, so I kept waking up. My eyes were swollen too, and I don't normally sleep with them fully closed anyway, so it was almost like I was sleeping with my eyes open. I didn't need Tylenol anymore starting yesterday, but that day it felt less like pain and more like throbbing, stinging, tingling ??? tolerable. And I was a little less like a pig than yesterday; the swelling had gone down just a tiny bit. I felt better, so I went out for another 30-minute walk during the day and came back. The porridge shop had crab porridge on top and it looked so delicious that I bought it and ate it. It was chewable, but my jaw got a bit tired. Still, I had to take the medicine, so I ate it. My sibling ordered fried chicken and it looked so good that I tried eating a tiny bit. The meat was still dark, so I spit it out again, and just chewed the skin a little and let it dissolve in my mouth. It was heaven ... like the feeling of a newborn baby experiencing sweetness for the first time in the world.. A little cold compress .. a little compression bandage, and then when I looked at the community, I saw another post saying not to wear the compression bandage while sleeping. I felt like it didn't really seem necessary, so I took it off and slept.
Day 5
I usually swell easily and I swell a lot in the morning, too, but when I woke up, it seemed like the swelling had gone down a little compared with yesterday, though it was hard to tell. I thought maybe I was being too greedy already, so I gave up on expecting too much, went out and bought castella cake and ate it with milk. It was greasy ㅜ not tasty ㅜㅠ Then I went to the hospital. At the hospital, when I looked in the mirror, the swelling had gone down quite a bit again. You can't tell with a mask on. Today was the day I met both the nose and contouring doctors again. I had the nose stickers put back on and had the cheek stitches removed. I had a lot of questions about contouring, so I had written down about 8 questions. ㅋㅋㅋㅋ They were all such basic things that both of them burst out laughing while I asked. They told me I should have asked before surgery, asking why I was asking these things only now ㅠㅠ I don't plan to have any other cosmetic procedures now, but next time I definitely plan to do all the online and in-person research properly. Anyway, this time it's too early to talk about side effects or aftercare, but in my own way I think I chose a good hospital and the surgery went well (I don't know if it's pretty) ... The doctor said my swelling recovery is on the faster side. When I went in wearing a mask, they were surprised and asked why I wasn't swollen at all. When I took it off, they were surprised, though ㅎ The bruise under my eyes is a yellow bruise .. since it's in the dark-circle area, it looks pretty painful. As for swelling, today I look more like a beaver than a pig ㅎ The left and right sides are uneven, so it's annoying, but my face was originally somewhat asymmetrical, so the amount of surgery must have been different, so I think it's natural that the swelling is uneven too. And now they said I can sleep lying down, and it's okay to lie a little on my side too. And when I asked if I could eat, they said meals were okay ㅎ I can open my mouth wider too. They said not to believe all those posts saying not to chew hard things; it doesn't matter. They said not to worry at all about cheek adhesion or things like that; they said it can never happen. I still don't know a lot, so when they answered so confidently like that, I just said okay and left ㅎㄹ I thought they were starting swelling management right away today, but I still haven't had the nose stitches removed, so today I only got some kind of laser treatment for about 20 minutes and left. After the hospital, I ate white sundubu stew and rice soaked slightly in water, and it made me so happy ... From now on, I'll trust the doctor's advice and start eating regular meals .... I'll try posting photos once more on day 7 later!