It has finally been exactly 2 months since my contour surgery. The first 2 weeks felt like time was not moving at all, but the 2 months went by surprisingly fast.. By the 1-month mark I had said everything I wanted to say, so now I don’t really have much left to add.
<Food> They told me not to eat chewy things like rice cakes or meat for 4 months. Up to 1 month, I was still unsure, but around the 2-month mark I started to be able to roughly tell by instinct what I could chew and what I couldn’t. I still can’t open my mouth very wide, so I have to cut large pieces into smaller ones, and if something feels borderline in terms of whether I can chew it, I put it in my mouth, try chewing, and if it feels like it won’t work, I spit it out. Rice dishes and noodle dishes are fine as long as they’re not especially chewy or the scorched rice isn’t hard. Snacks are also fine except for hard ones. Bread is also fine except for chewy or hard kinds. For example, if I were going out to eat and ordered a rice bowl with shrimp and salmon roe at a Japanese restaurant, I could cut the salmon and shrimp with scissors and chew them well enough.
<Sleep> Up to the 2-month mark, I was told to sleep on my back. It’s getting hotter, so I think I’m starting to toss and turn, but when I half-asleep end up sleeping on one side, the cheekbone area feels a bit stiff, so I’m planning to keep using the neck pillow until the 4-month mark. Sleeping with my mouth open has also decreased compared to the 1-month mark, so I end up sleeping with my mouth open about half the time. (The neck pillow probably isn’t unrelated, but I used to sleep with my mouth closed.)
<Swelling> The speed of the swelling going down has slowed, but if I compare over time, it’s still gone down quite a lot. Some people say they only saw the result after 6 months, so I guess I just need to wait! In particular, up to the 1-month mark, I felt the swelling moved downward and made the double chin stand out more, but that is also gradually getting better as the swelling goes down.
<Scars> I kept applying the hospital-prescribed adhesive bandage, but as my sideburns grew out, it really stopped sticking well. I asked the hospital about scar ointment because I wondered if the scar was calming down more slowly than expected, and they told me the ointment itself isn’t that meaningful and that I could just buy a Dermatix-type product at the pharmacy and use that. But maybe time really is the best medicine, because by the 2-month mark the raised part had almost gone down. My friends also say they can’t see it unless they look very closely.
<Facial movement> Up to the 1-month mark, my expressions didn’t really move, like someone who had just gotten a strong dermatology procedure, but now I do have facial expressions again, even though it still feels awkward and uncomfortable. Smiles and :( sad faces move much more than before.
<Sensory changes> At 1 month I wrote that the sensation in my gums seemed to have fully returned, but that wasn’t true! It’s still gradually coming back now.. The cheekbone and jawline are also slowly regaining sensation. It feels ticklish. I keep lightly scratching it. When I was more swollen before, I had no sensation at all, so I couldn’t tell, but as the sensation comes back, I really feel how swollen my face had been. Up to the 2-month mark, a few times a day my cheek area would sometimes tingle, or I’d get occasional migraines, but as I approached 2 months, it gradually decreased. Now it’s down to about 1-2 times a week. (They said this was a normal reaction.)
<Satisfaction> For now, I’m still highly satisfied! (Of course I know people always say you only really know after time passes, and I knew that before surgery too..) Before, when someone else took my photo, I had to put on heavy makeup and hide my cheekbones and jaw with my hair, and make sure the angle was right, so only once in a while could I hide my angular face. But now I can just tie my hair back, go for a walk with no makeup, and even if I take a quick photo while lifting my chin, what stands out is my eyes and facial features rather than my face shape. Since my face got smaller, everyone says my proportions look better and I seem taller. Not only my angular face but also my features were kind of fierce.. T_T, but my friends say I look softer now.
<Other> I looked for home-care devices because I wanted to reduce the swelling faster. When I asked the hospital, they said home-care devices were okay to use from now on, so I bought an Nmode Pro. But the manual says not to use it if you have metal implants. There are pins in my face, and I also have crowns on my teeth.... I’m still scared to try it. If anyone has tried it after contour surgery, please share your review... T_T I’ll come back with a 3-month review!!