It has been 25 days since the surgery. Because of the nature of my line of work, I don’t have much work, so I chose a time when I could rest for a long time and had the surgery. I had been thinking about it for 10 years.. It was also something I thought had its own charm, but I’d sometimes hear comments like, “Why don’t you just get jaw surgery?” and I was unconsciously stressed by it, and even in summer I couldn’t tie my hair up. (At two hospitals I actually consulted at, they said, “You must have been incredibly stressed..” I got hurt by that too큐)
I had the surgery on December 21, and once the major swelling went down, I went back to work on the 31st. (They were people I saw often, but no one asked why I was swollen or if I was in pain, and it didn’t affect working, talking, or eating together at all.)
I started meeting friends from day 7. (By day 7, there was still some swelling, so I just said I had a wisdom tooth removed, sipped coffee, wore a mask, and no one questioned it..) Since it was year-end, I feel kind of ridiculous for sneaking out when I couldn’t resist..
Maybe because it’s a type 1 procedure, pain was less severe? Waking up from anesthesia on the day of surgery was a bit hard, and since I tend to have low blood pressure, even a short doze would make my heart rate drop sharply, so the nurses in the recovery room came by my room very often.. If I nodded off without realizing it, the heart monitor would go crazy..
But after waking up from anesthesia, I went to the bathroom, which I’d really wanted to do, and apart from the discomfort from my face being swollen, there was literally no discomfort at all..? (Because I was on painkiller IV fluids? But there was one other person in the room across from me, and apparently they had had another type of surgery, because even while on IV they were in a lot of pain, kept asking for a pain-free injection, and called the nurse several times.)
Personally, I wonder if I’m just good at tolerating pain? My wounds heal slowly, but I had an impacted wisdom tooth lying sideways at 90 degrees, and I had two teeth removed, and I don’t think it hurt.. Other than that, tattoos, piercings, Botox, and fillers have never really felt especially painful to me either (it’s tolerable).
From the moment I woke up from anesthesia, I kept repeating: drinking water with a syringe, going to the bathroom, over and over.. From midnight to 10 a.m., I think I went back and forth about seven times to the bathroom. My throat felt better once I drank water, and I didn’t have anything like a sore throat, and the bloody phlegm was really only a tiny bit? I spat it out, and after that nothing came up at all..!
On the day I was discharged, I went home and ate pumpkin porridge (the tube-shaped squeeze kind), and then, just like on the day I was admitted, I kept alternating between watching YouTube and sleeping. By evening I felt okay again, so I went for a 45-minute walk. After that I kept repeating: watch YouTube and Netflix, eat pumpkin porridge, brush my teeth, sleep..
My lips were extremely swollen, especially around days 3-4.. I also have a small mouth.. so there had been a bit of tearing, or maybe chafing, during surgery, and I diligently applied Vaseline for a few days..
Around day 7, the swelling had gone down to about the level of wisdom tooth swelling.. (in the morning it was much puffier) I had work due by the 31st, so I did a bit of remote work at home (taking calls with vendors and such was totally fine), came back after care, lounged around at the hospital, then met a friend, had a cup of coffee, and so on..
A recommendation for those getting contouring.. Please prepare these in advance: Listerine / a children’s toothbrush / an XL mask (they sell it on Coupang, and it really seems like a god-tier item..!) I ordered them one by one later, but I thought, I wish I had known in advance!
After that, the right side of my chin muscles moved better than the left, sensation was also less on the left, and my lips looked crooked, so I talked to the surgeon. He said that can happen temporarily, and if it’s still like that for two months, come back to the hospital again. Then I took a photo and checked, and my lips weren’t crooked at all, so I felt awkward.. (He said that anxious patients can keep worrying so much that it seems that way, and told me to wait a little and give it time..) I also had a CT scan checked. Because of the shaving, the CT was still blurry (right now I can feel it gradually coming back, so I’m not worrying about it much). I had been worrying by myself that the bone might have been cut asymmetrically, but it was cut properly, so I felt awkward again.. I think that’s why he said at the time, “It’s only been a little over a week..”
The stitches inside my mouth only hurt a little in the exact center when they were removed (it’s tolerable). After the stitches came out, I was a little disappointed that the foods I could eat became more unrestricted (I was basically dieting automatically..). I wondered, does the internal scar tissue really disappear?? but it’s gradually getting softer and smaller. As people usually say, I think it will get much smaller or disappear over 3-6 months.
Even if a mosquito bites me, my wounds take months to disappear.. so I’m just taking it as it is.. I didn’t have double eyelid surgery, only inner corner surgery, and even then, by six months, what looked like scar tissue had disappeared.. The puncture marks from the IV I got during surgery still haven’t disappeared either.. (Can you get a sense of how slowly things heal?) The major swelling seems to have mostly gone down after about ten days, and now it’s what they call candy swelling, right? I’m spending time at my parents’ house while going for walks and doing overtime to manage the smaller swelling.
The really funny-sad part is..? My family at home didn’t even realize I had had square jaw surgery (I’m going there while living independently). I’m also intentionally keeping my hair down and not tying it up..
That said, it’s not like they shaved off just a little as if I hadn’t had jaw surgery.. It was that severe to begin with.. The surgeon said the amount shaved would be fairly large. When I asked, wouldn’t that make it sag? he said I don’t have a particularly high amount of facial fat, and my jawline before surgery was already defined, with almost no double chin, so in terms of skin quality itself, it probably wouldn’t sag much.. Since this is a surgery I decided on after a long time of deliberation, I just thought, live the rest of my youth beautifully, and let’s save up in preparation for sagging... I asked them to leave a natural angle near the ear, enough that it wouldn’t look awkward, and to make it fit my current face shape. Honestly, I do feel a bit disappointed because it seems like it was shaved a little sleeker than I expected (I prefer faces with a bit of an angle near the ear, like actress Kim Tae-ri).
+There was no overtreatment. Before the consultation with the surgeon, the coordinator had talked about doing the cheekbones too, and I had never felt stress about my cheekbones.. One place I consulted earlier also said I should think about it, but the surgeon really said I only needed the square jaw done. (Looking at my face as a whole, there was no need to touch the cheekbones, and my chin tip was also sharp, plus I wanted to minimize the amount of cutting as much as possible.)
Lately I’ve also been browsing for my mom’s ptosis and double-eyelid surgery.. and I ended up browsing for myself too because I started feeling tempted to touch other parts.. I’m trying to snap out of it and just look into surgery for my mom.. (It really seems like once you fix one thing, you want to do another.. It should be enough to fix the complexes, but..)
I’m not planning to share the hospital. I also left a few comments on other posts asking about contouring, but because every person getting surgery and every hospital has a different style and different strengths, and different things they want.. I said you should definitely visit many clinics in person. And the hospital I went to was sort of a small large hospital, or a large medium hospital(?) kind of feeling, so I was a bit unhappy because there was a wait every time I went. There was a wait for the consultation, surgery, and follow-up too Until the day of surgery, it was way too much..
And because the coordinator didn’t reply to my KakaoTalk messages at the end of the year.. (She did reply well before surgery.. heh) I had to get answers through another number, and that bothered me too.. I didn’t really have complaints about the surgeon.. Maybe because it was a type 1 surgery, the consultation felt a bit not very detailed(?) The surgeon was just so busy.. About two surgeries a day, plus consultations.. There were also days when he only did consultations and follow-ups without surgeries. Still, even if the surgeon was busy, the hospital had CCTV and was a place where full viewing was possible, so I went ahead with the surgery..
Then, while posting before-and-after photos.. Both photos are with no app effects! (What’s a bit sad is.. I always took photos with apps, so when I tried to find unfiltered photos, I had to go all the way back to photos taken by my ex-boyfriend two years ago, which felt a little sad..)
I hope this helps those who wanted to get some small bits of information or reviews about square jaw or contouring surgery.. and I’ll wrap up the post here.
If you ask whether I recommend the surgery, I’d say it hasn’t even been a month yet, so the swelling hasn’t gone down, and I haven’t yet experienced whether sagging will come or not, but just as I think all cosmetic surgeries should be considered carefully, if it’s not for functional problems or a serious complex and is purely for cosmetic reasons, I want to say think about it a bit more.
Because I don’t know whether sagging or things like that will come.. (I also think I’ll be living while worrying about that from now on) +Also, after doing it myself, I felt that surgery is really the kind of thing where once you do one, you want to do something else too.. which is a problem.. (though it may be different for each person)
I wrote down the things that suddenly came to mind while lying around doing nothing..! Thank you for reading such a long post.
+If any of my acquaintances recognize me, please pretend you don’t know me 큐
*** +Please recommend a hospital for ptosis surgery for my mother in her 50s I’m searching on my own.. There are really not many cases for older adults, so I’m crying so hard.. I’ve made a few lists, but there aren’t that many..