(Long post ahead...!!!) I also remember the time when I was here, worrying about surgery, reading many posts, and looking up information. I’m leaving this review in the hope that it helps someone. Wherever you go, there seem to be brokers, and in the end I think it’s right that you do a lot of research, study up, and go in person to make your own judgment. This is absolutely not a simple surgery, so you really need to be cautious, think it over carefully, and make the decision only after plenty of consideration. For reference, I am absolutely not a broker. So I won’t answer questions about the hospital.. haha Rather than hospital information, please take this as just one case among many, focusing on what I actually felt during surgery, since results really vary from case to case.
I started going to clinics for consultations about two months ago and decided after consulting at four places in total. As you’d know if you’ve been to consultations, they really vary a lot. I went expecting a lot because it was where an acquaintance had surgery, but the consultation was the shortest, and the same-day booking push was intense, so I passed. The first place I went to felt good, so I put down a deposit without knowing anything, but the more places I visited, the more I felt it wasn’t right, so I passed. It was a place with an excellent reputation, so I went with high expectations, but for some reason it didn’t feel like the right fit for me.. passed. I was exhausted from consultations and almost didn’t go to this last place, but I did, and surprisingly it was the one that consulted the most thoroughly. They were the only ones who considered my job-related characteristics, and they gave the most honest consultation. Rather than saying things like there would definitely be no such side effects, they explained the possible side effects. So I wanted to go with this place, but even then I spent a month thinking it over before deciding. Do I really want this surgery, can I accept the problems that may arise later, can I handle the cost burden, and so on. That’s what I considered before deciding. For reference, I work in healthcare, so I know very well that even for the same surgery, doctors explain things very differently to patients. Of course I know that every surgery carries the possibility of side effects, that this varies according to the patient’s physical characteristics, and that it also depends on how well the patient manages recovery. Even if the surgery goes well, there are definitely doctors who do not explain things well, and I heard that one of my acquaintances never even saw the doctor’s face once after surgery. Anyway, what you should look at here is whether they answer questions sincerely. You should consider whether they explain things with the patient in mind, instead of just saying the surgery will definitely go well, and so on. In the end, a doctor with that kind of attitude will also continue to take good care of the person they operated on after surgery. Since I’m someone who thinks a doctor’s character matters too.. haha
* Surgery day I worked until late the night before and only got a few hours of sleep before heading to the hospital. I was told to manage my condition well before coming, but I could only take a week off, so I had no choice but to go while tired. Before surgery, I talked with the doctor again about how the surgery would be done and mentioned the things I was worried about. Again, I felt that they really were consulting very diligently. They said they would match the image each of us wanted again and would do their best with the surgery. After getting an IV and waiting, I was given a sedative first, then went to the bathroom and lay down on the operating table. After that I must have been anesthetized, but I already lost consciousness the moment I lay down on the table... It felt like I dreamed something, and when I opened my eyes I was in the room. The doctor and nurse kept coming by the room frequently to check my condition. They pinched my lip and told me to make an “oo uh” sound, so I did. Fortunately, I still had sensation; being pinched hurt a lot. They kept telling me to do cold compresses diligently, but I was so tired from not sleeping the night before I kept dozing off without realizing it. I also read many posts saying either that they felt no pain at all or that it hurt terribly, extremes on both sides. Some people said that saying it didn’t hurt was a lie... but it really didn’t hurt for me.... Even later, touching or pressing the surgical area only hurt a little; when I was just resting, it didn’t hurt at all... Anyway, in the middle they gave me porridge at the hospital, told me to gargle diligently, and the doctor kept checking on me before leaving work... Once again, I felt that they were a good person. But if you had a major surgery yourself, this is the kind of care you’d expect. Since these kinds of doctors are so hard to find these days, they’re doing something that should be normal, but I still felt they were a good person... Also, more than pain at the surgical site, my throat hurt a lot because of the general anesthesia. It wasn’t like it hurt so much I wanted to die, but it was very uncomfortable. In the afternoon I recovered a bit and kept sipping water. But at night the throat pain got worse, so on the first day I thought, “This is okay, better than I expected?” and then I couldn’t sleep well because of my throat. I think that discomfort lasted about five days... It seems the only thing you can do is drink lots of water.
* Day 2 They removed the bandage-like dressing, kept only the taping, taught me how to do the pulling support, gave me my medication and gargle solution, and I took a taxi home and was discharged. I think I could have taken public transportation, but I just didn’t want people staring at me.. After the surgery, it still didn’t feel real that I had actually done this.
Recovery routine after that Morning, lunch, evening: bromelain before meals, two pumpkin juice packs, detox juice (not sure if it works), and porridge. Walks in between, meeting friends and chatting, going shopping.. soaking my feet while reading books, and riding an indoor bike at home. Cold compresses until day 3, then warm compresses after that. I drank lots of hibiscus water. I was already drinking hibiscus water, but since I heard it was good for swelling too, I kept drinking it. They say red bean water and corn silk tea are also good. For about three days I couldn’t open my mouth, so I couldn’t brush my teeth, and I used the gargle solution the hospital gave me diligently; after that I could open my mouth a little, so I brushed very gently with a children’s toothbrush and children’s toothpaste. I also thought about buying medicine that was supposed to help swelling, but honestly the cost was burdensome, so I replaced it with bromelain supplements? Pumpkin juice seemed fine at about three packs a day, but I saw a post saying someone drank two packs each for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, so I did that hoping the swelling would go down faster.. haha But honestly, I’m not sure whether all these things really work.. I don’t really know whether my constitution would have reduced the swelling like this anyway or whether these things helped, but I thought it would be better than not taking anything, so I took them diligently. Also, walking and exercising are good, but for me meeting friends, chatting, and going shopping felt like they reduced the swelling more.. haha Just exercising isn’t fun And the doctor said to talk a lot too, so I chatted a lot with friends, and while soaking my feet I even read aloud from books.. haha Ah, I’m not sure whether foot baths really help either.... And I don’t think paper cups or those squeeze bottles for soy sauce and things are necessary.. if you open your mouth a little, you can drink water. When sleeping, I stacked three pillows and slept at about a 45-degree angle.
* Day 3 I saw many posts saying swelling peaks around day 3, but for me the swelling stayed about the same from the first day of surgery to around day 5.. it didn’t really seem to go down, but it also wasn’t swollen to the point of bursting from the start. It was more like, “Ah, I’m swollen...” 정도? For reference, I’m not someone who swells easily in general. I do bruise easily, though, so I had a slight blue bruise under one cheek and a few small bruises around the lower jaw area. Ah, I asked a pharmacy for an ointment to apply to bruises and used that. Maybe it helped a little?
* Day 4 Still basically the same. I took seven days off, and now I’m starting to worry whether I’ll really be able to go back to work after seven days. And between eating, walking, and taking care of various things, the day goes by very quickly... It’s been a while since I had vacation, so I wanted to rest a bit, but there’s surprisingly no time to relax...
* Day 5 Still about the same.... I went to the hospital once for disinfection and received swelling laser treatment? I’m not sure whether that helped either, but I received it diligently and started taking public transportation back and forth a lot so the swelling would go down. The doctor saw me and checked my condition.
* Day 6 They removed the taping from my face. From around this time, I felt like the swelling started going down a little? I got swelling laser treatment and some kind of mask treatment. And after eating porridge for several days, I was so sick of it... I bought a lot of pumpkin porridge, but I really didn’t want to eat it In between, I cooked ramen and ate it... so delicious.. But the doctor said I had to eat well to recover well, so I ate diligently. I also cooked salmon and ate it, cooked jajangmyeon and ate it too.. I rotated through yogurt, soft tofu, and other foods to keep things varied..
* Day 7 I think the swelling went down a little more than the day before. Brushing my teeth also became slightly more comfortable.
* Day 8 I had to go to work in the evening... I went to the hospital and had the stitches removed. I was worried, but it was bearable. Just a slight sting? Removing the stitches and being wiped with disinfectant hurt more.. As expected, the doctor kindly consulted with me and kept coming by to check my condition. Oh, I also had another CT scan. They explained it while looking at it and told me what to be careful about going forward. There was still a little bruising, and my cheeks were puffy and my lower jaw was puffy too. But because of my job, I work while wearing a mask, so I just went to work with a mask on. The swelling was almost nonexistent in the upper area and all of it was concentrated below, so I covered it with the mask and worked hard.. At this point, I could open my mouth enough to fit about two fingers, and my pronunciation was hardly slurred when I spoke. Still, when I touched my face there was some pain, so I was worried about putting on makeup for the first time in a while, but after a week I had become a real flake factory, so my makeup caked up and pilled... The next day I had a hard time removing the dead skin. I washed my face and applied makeup very gently..
* Day 9 As expected, going to work with a mask on meant nobody paid attention. My speech became more comfortable, and I had almost returned to my normal way of talking. I was very busy at work, so after working hard and coming home, I felt the swelling had gone down a bit more... But anyway, if I don’t wear a mask, honestly it’s obvious to anyone, but if I wear one and go around, it’s almost impossible to tell.. So I could only take seven days off, but if you have a job where you can’t work while wearing a mask or something like that, you need to keep in mind that with only seven days, it absolutely may not be possible to hide it. And for me, recovery seems to take about seven days. In fact, I think getting back to work sooner might even help the swelling go down? That’s what I think. But when things got really insanely busy now and then, I did feel a very slight pulling sensation in both cheekbones. It got better if I rested a bit. Right now, opening my mouth is also becoming more comfortable little by little, and I can eat well except for tough or hard foods. The pain when touching my face has also improved a lot, so washing my face and applying skincare is more comfortable than before. However, after lower jaw surgery, because of my original body fat.. I think I need to lose a bit more weight in case I end up with a double chin.. At this point, I think it’s too early to judge whether the surgery went well just based on the swelling. For now, I’m just thankful that the surgery and recovery are proceeding safely, and I’ll have to keep managing carefully and evaluate again after a few months. My face has become slimmer than before, but I don’t know when all this swelling will completely go down.. Because I know swelling doesn’t disappear overnight, I plan to take it easy and focus on recovery. But although it’s fine to cover it with a mask at work, if I have to meet someone without a mask, I’m a little worried.. I went into this surgery thinking it would just subtly correct my complex, but even so my image has changed compared to before. So I’m worried, but this too will pass.. Also, sensation is only a bit dull and reduced around the lower front teeth; almost everywhere else still has sensation. I’m planning to observe that slowly over time for now.
And while working in the medical field, I’ve seen many people who became quadriplegic or comatose after cosmetic surgery gone wrong. That’s how thoroughly you need to consider safety when having surgery. It’s important not only that the surgery looks good aesthetically, but also that you remember no one knows how a person’s life will turn out.. Please make sure to check whether the hospital is well prepared regarding anesthesia, and whether it has proper protocols in place in case of an accident.. I ended up writing a lot.. Since I could only take seven days off, I had always been curious about what about the first seven days after surgery would be like.. haha I hope this helps those who were curious about the same thing as I was. Wishing everyone good luck....