Before surgery / Width 13.5 cm, height 18.5 cm (I was told Go Ara is 13.1 cm by 18.1 cm. My face was not especially large to begin with.)
Days 2 to 5 after surgery (swelling at its peak) / Width 16 cm, height 18.5 cm
Day 6 after surgery (swelling visibly going down) / Width 15 cm, height 18.5 cm
I lost 1 cm of swelling in one day. I wrote the tip below.
The swelling gradually moved down toward my chin, and the skin on my chin felt numb and painful, and my face turned into toast. Until yesterday it was a puffy salt bread, with the middle part the biggest.
Reason for surgery / 45-degree zygoma, not a large front zygoma, and a small chin. But the back zygoma and temples were taking up an unusually large share, so I wanted to fix that and have a smaller face.
Places I consulted / ㅊㅁ, ㄹㅂㅇ, ㅅㅇㅅ, ㅂ
Hospital where I had surgery / I had surgery at one of the four places above that said they would address the back zygoma.
Surgical method and result / For the 45-degree area, a partial osteotomy was done, and for the back zygoma, a complete osteotomy was done and part of it was removed, with the pins placed in the back zygoma just in front of the ears. There was also asymmetry between the left and right 45-degree zygoma, so they said they would shave only the left side. I was worried because of the dissection, but correcting the asymmetry came first, so I agreed. The temple fat pad removal was provided as a service. I said that was something I was worried about, and the doctor said they would just do it. The manager shook their head when they heard that.. haha, annoying haha The doctor was really great, but the manager was really terrible. I’ll write the reason later if I have time. In the end, they said they reduced each side by 1 cm. The swelling is so severe that I can’t tell what it will look like right now, but even with the swelling, the 45-degree side profile on the left side, which had been more prominent, can be seen to have improved a lot.
Swelling and bruising / The swelling made it hard to open my eyes, my face was hot and painful, really.. As noted above, my left zygoma had been more forward, but the right side swelled up twice as much, was harder, and bruised much more severely. The entire white of my right eye was filled with blood and turned red, so the white part could not be seen. Around the eye, it was a bruise darker than a deep violet color.. By contrast, the left side had smaller bruising and a smaller blood clot in the eye... Especially for the left 45-degree zygoma, which I could feel they were shaving, there was no sense of pain when I touched the left side, but the right side had no sensation... At that point, could the doctor have confused left and right? Seriously? I’ve already told the hospital. The responses were all like it was no big deal. They said bruising can be worse even in places where bone wasn’t removed, so I thought it might vary depending on the muscle, and for now I decided to endure it until the CT scan in two weeks.
Day of surgery - it hurt so much, so I got extra painkillers. It wasn’t another painkiller, just Tylenol ER? I think. Still, if I took one, at least I could breathe a little more comfortably... It hurt so much that my heart was racing and I couldn’t even sit still, so I kept stamping my feet and icing it, just hoping time would pass. I took my medicine and water well. Because of the general anesthesia, my throat hurt like it had been torn, and I kept producing so much phlegm so often that the pain felt twice as bad.
Day 1 after surgery - the pain was the same as yesterday. No, maybe worse? But the swelling and bruising got worse too, so my face looked like a puffed-up loaf of bread... I could barely open my eyes on days 1 and 2.. My eyes are really big, but at that time I had to look through slits. Wherever I looked, my eye bags were so swollen they were in my field of vision. I wondered if this amount of swelling was normal, so I searched like crazy, but nowhere did I see anyone as swollen as me. I saw one person on YouTube, but it was a one-second cut, so I felt a little relieved and decided to endure it. I was doing cold compresses almost the entire time I was awake because it hurt so much... just trying to reduce the pain a little. The phlegm kept coming up and my throat kept hurting. I normally don’t even produce phlegm, so it was irritating that it kept coming up.
Day 2 after surgery - the bruising and swelling got even deeper, and there was still no sign of going down. It hurt as much as yesterday. I had saved the three ER pills I got from the hospital and took one at a time until that day. By evening, it seemed like it hurt a little less.. but when will the swelling go down..? My face really became twice as big. Not just figuratively, really, really in terms of area. If you divide my original face into four parts, the area became as large as half of that. I left out the talk about the compression band. I had the compression band on for 24 hours until day 2. Ah, I also left out the eating part.. Maybe my will to eat was strong, because I diligently ate little by little from the first day. Still, I couldn’t eat much. Actually, I’m not someone who eats a lot even normally. Because of the compression band, every time I removed it for a moment, there was no swelling at the edges, and all the swelling gathered in the front around the eyes, nose, and mouth. + And when I slept, the position of the compression band changed, so my jaw felt twisted. It felt like my teeth weren’t aligned? So from day 3 onward, I removed it when sleeping and only used it while awake.
Day 3 after surgery - I kept taking the compression band on and off. I also kept doing cold compresses, but the pain seemed to have decreased. The swelling was still there. I can’t remember what my face looked like. By then, it had become so familiar that I started to wonder whether this swollen panda face, with its area doubled, was actually my face.. Oh, and because of my previous cosmetic procedures, I knew that when a face swells up and then shrinks, dead skin starts to peel, so I kept doing face masks in between, and I even slathered on a ton of Nivea cream I had bought but never used before, and slept like that. That day I also used a sebum-softening product to help dissolve the dead skin, and since I had nothing to do at home all day, I focused on skin care every day. Oh, and I exercised for an hour every day too lol Since I’m someone who normally exercises hard, I couldn’t stand not doing it... I did a 40-minute full-body home workout and strength training at home. I didn’t do any exercises that required lying face down.
Day 4 after surgery - hmm, as expected, I got used to my face. The constant pain has gone down a lot now, but when I move my face, it feels so hard and clumped together, like a stiff movement caused by the muscles being injured and going through the process of adhesion? That kind of feeling is so uncomfortable, tight, and painful. The bone area is numb and tingly, and as expected, the 45-degree area really has no sensation. Oh right, and my lips.. my upper lip was very swollen, and that numb feeling extends to the skin around the upper gums and the upper lip. You know that zinging numb feeling? Like when you get anesthesia at the dentist. It feels even stronger if you touch it.
Day 5 after surgery - finally going to get the stitches removed. I had incisions near the sideburns and inside my mouth. Ah, since I’m talking about the incision inside the mouth, I’ll also talk about brushing my teeth. Even though I could barely open my jaw, I chopped up all my food with scissors and ate it properly... so I think my jaw rehab went well lol Even now on day 7, moving my jaw is fine, and because I ate so well, I really brushed my teeth diligently. I knew bacteria multiply if you don’t brush within 3 minutes after eating, so I did it right away after meals. I only used mouthwash in the morning, at night, after waking up, and before sleeping. There were posts saying it affects your sense of taste, and I think that’s true lol The mouthwash seemed too strong, so from day 4 I reduced it to once and switched to the fluoride mouthwash I usually use. Anyway, I went to the hospital, had the stitches removed, and they said they would give me a swelling shot, but I said no because it was a steroid, and came home. It took 3 hours.
+ When I got home, the high-frequency device I rented had arrived. That day I also did a mask pack and carefully used the high-frequency treatment on the left and right sides for 20 minutes each at the gentlest level. I have experience with liposuction, so I know from experience how good high-frequency treatment is for swelling and how important it is for recovery after surgery. I learned about the rental by chance while searching and tried it for the first time. If I had known about it earlier, I would have used it sooner Anyway, my face is precious, so I plan to massage it diligently.
Day 6 after surgery - I’m a pretty sensitive person normally. The reason I’m saying this is because I did high-frequency care yesterday, right? When I looked at my urine first thing after waking up, it had a smell like medication that I normally don’t notice. I had smelled this same odor the day after I got high-frequency treatment following liposuction. The urine color is also slightly more orange than usual. Oh, and the thing I noticed right before going to the bathroom was that my face ID, which absolutely wouldn’t work before, finally worked The fact that it worked from bed as soon as I woke up made me think, oh? Maybe the swelling has gone down? Honestly, with swelling like this, I think it would really take 3 months, so high-frequency treatment is the best... Anyway, I got excited and after lunch I did high-frequency care again. And when I took photos, the bruising near the inner corners of both eyes had decreased a lot. Still, the bruising on the right side is still a very dark purple.. 18. Oh, and the tooth pain I hadn’t noticed until yesterday keeps going. Originally, when the anesthesia wore off and I was in recovery on the day of surgery, I had that scary feeling like the right tooth was loosening???.. I still have something like toothache on the right Oh, and.. this may be gross, but since these are things that happened after cosmetic surgery, I’ll write them all? I normally have very regular bowel movements. But I had green stool, so I searched it and it said that when you take antibiotics, the beneficial bacteria all die, and that’s why.. Seeing that made me want to stop taking them now, but I still have 4 days left
I’m planning to finish writing this and do a full-body home workout. Sagging can’t be completely avoided, but I’m going to try to prevent it with exercise and high-frequency care.
That ends my day 6 record.