It’s exactly 3 months on the 21st. If I honestly describe how things are now, 3 months later... the surgical result is satisfying for now, and the postoperative condition is also very good. I was told that when it had been 3 months, I should come in and get an X-ray to check the bone (you know, after taking an X-ray... they did it right after surgery too...) They said that once 3 months had passed, the bone should have fused, so they wanted to check the union of the bone. But even without looking, it seems like the fusion went well... so let’s go during winter break, or when I have business in Seoul... That’s how it turned out. I have never once heard any strange sound from the zygoma area or near my ears, and there is no step-like contour, no swelling that is still puffed up, no sagging cheek flesh, no sunken marks... None of that at all. If any of the people who had surgery have even one of the above symptoms, I understand that they should suspect a complication (I’m saying suspect... suspect... I’m not a doctor, so I can’t say for sure that it’s a complication!). First of all, they said the zygomatic bone definitely has to be fixed. If you hear a cracking sound, then it means it wasn’t properly fixed. If there is a step-like contour or a sunken area, I understand that it means the bone was cut incorrectly. The scalp-incision procedure I chose is not a surgery that cuts the zygomatic bone, but one that moves its position, so symptoms like these would not happen at all. And the swelling from the zygoma surgery was almost nonexistent from the start. Because of the square jaw swelling, the area below the cheeks down to the jaw was puffed up.. And I heard that the major swelling from surgery, not the minor swelling, should not last more than 2 months. In general, people who are unsure whether it is a complication or not seem to go to the hospital anxiously and come back after hearing, ‘It’s swelling... please wait.’ Swelling that lasts too long does not seem like a good sign either. And... feeling like the cheeks have sagged... that feeling itself should not even be there!! That’s an annoying complication. The point of zygoma surgery is to look younger, so the cheeks sagging is just... Anyway... right now, I do not feel at all that the money I spent on surgery was wasted~~ When I read posts from people worrying about their surgical results and posts from people deciding on revision surgery... ah, heaven really helped me... If you have revision surgery, you’ll probably end up spending at least twice as much as I originally spent. I really hope you choose the hospital and doctor carefully. These days I even forget completely that I had surgery. Of course, I’m not completely back to how I was before. Even after three months, I’m still recovering. As for the hair-loss area... the hairdresser noticed it when I went to the salon (I went twice. I only wanted to trim the length. I’m not doing dyeing or perming yet because the chemicals are harsh.) I think people with a lot of hair probably wouldn’t notice, so even this may not be something to worry about. But my hair has always been very fine and sparse. The crown area was sparse to begin with... so even though there is some hair-loss tendency in the crown area, cute little hairs are growing in now... if I smooth my hair down, most people won’t notice. On the sides, there are places where even if I touch them with my hand, I can feel smooth skin. It’s not enough to be worrying about, and I’m thinking it will grow back with time. The surgical scar... is a line, but only the depth is slightly noticeable; it hasn’t opened wide, so even the hairdresser asked, ‘Do you have hair loss?’ but did not ask, ‘Did you have surgery?’ And... every so often... there is a ‘tingling’ sensation now and then. That’s nothing... it’s cute, really.. It’s not painful enough to make me frown or anything.. And... there are still some areas where scalp sensation is dull, with some remaining numbness around the crown, and around the zygoma area there is a dull feeling about the size of a round egg (you know the thing used to make egg shapes...? about that size?) As expected, major surgery was major surgery.. It is slowly... very slowly improving. And... what else was there.... Ah! The square jaw area still has wounds inside the mouth, so rice grains still get stuck a bit. (I can just brush my teeth and rinse with water, so I’m skipping this too~~) Other than that, everything else is the result of upgrading my life. You didn’t think about undergoing such a major surgery without being prepared for this much waiting and inconvenience, did you? I’m actually grateful because it’s been easier than I expected. If there had been any sound from my face, a sunken area, or something painful... how hellish would every day have been? Just imagining it is dreadful. When I first came in April for the blood test and other checks for surgery, the director smiled and said, ‘I guess I need to charge more...’ and I stupidly thought, ‘Is my face shape unusually difficult for surgery?’ ‘Why is that?’ and asked, ‘Why?’...but after the surgery and seeing the results, I also thought that even if he had said he needed to charge more, I should have paid it and gone ahead with the surgery. It feels really, really good. As expected, the expert really is an expert. After the X-ray, he explained what kind of surgery would be done, in what direction the bone would be moved, and how it would change... then he looked at the picture and said my head shape is pretty... but my head is completely flat.. so I always puff it up with permed hair... So inside I thought, ‘No way... he hasn’t even touched my head shape and he’s saying that from an X-ray?’ But after the surgery, once some swelling went down, while looking in the mirror and washing my hair, I realized that my head shape is small and pretty... and I was surprised again.. that he could tell just from the X-ray.. What the doctor meant by head shape was the head shape that would suit the face after the zygoma became smaller and prettier after surgery, that is, the front-view head shape when the hair is slicked back. The back may be flat, but when I pull my hair back, the head shape is not too wide horizontally and is round, so it’s pretty in its own way... I even wear ponytails (only at home). (If I tie it as high as possible right now, the crown area gets pulled and I’m worried the hair might fall out, so I can’t keep it up for long.... Ah.. there is no pain at the surgery site at all since right after surgery.. If I tie my hair tightly, it’s more like, ah, I had surgery, I should undo this...) You know how it hurts if you keep your hair tied too tightly for a long time? It’s about that level, and even when I loosen it, there’s no pain. Pain is zero, I mean~) And... when I took photos, I could tell there is still some minor swelling. I like the jawline because it is sharp, but the cheek area is a little asymmetric because of swelling. I also can’t really tell when just looking normally, but I could see it in photos. As expected, photos are honest... But the director had already warned me about that. He said, ‘Because your skin is on the thicker side, the swelling will go down more slowly than for others.’ ㅡㅡ; Maybe because of that, the swelling is still going down as we speak. The hospital website also said 3 months is good, 6 months is better, and 1 year is best, so I’m just enjoying the process of getting prettier day by day. I still think to myself, I’m still far from being pretty~~ Straight hair that lies flat suits me well, headbands suit me well, hats suit me well, feminine clothes suit me well too (before, with my developed zygoma and square jaw, very chic clothes suited me, and feminine or cute clothes felt somehow unnatural. But now I can finally wear whatever I want, especially turtlenecks.. sigh..) They even say I have an announcer-like image (I guess this is what it means for facial lines to become refined.) I can’t really put it into words. I suddenly thought about this: if I have a daughter, she might look like me, and if she had a face that needed zygoma and square-jaw surgery... well, I could just have it done for her, but would the doctor still be doing the surgery by then? I really think I should hope he stays healthy, or that he trains the next generation. The conclusion of my post is... I had a safe surgery, so I can live well without worrying at all, and I’m grateful for that, but even after 3 months, the inconvenient parts from surgery are still ongoing. So I want to say: choose your hospital carefully, and after that, just enjoy the long waiting period while you wait. For everyone preparing for surgery, fighting~~~ And if you’re going to do it, do it soon~~ you’ll get to meet a different life.~~ Additional post!!! Someone sent me a message, and while I was writing a general post, I couldn’t think of these things, but when I got questions and wrote replies, things came back to me. So I’m pasting in the replies. I think everyone will be curious too... <Answers to questions from someone who only wanted zygoma surgery~> From reading review posts, I saw that people who only had zygoma surgery said they felt fine even right after the surgery. Still, everyone is different, so it doesn’t seem like a surgery you should rush into with a tight schedule. It really is major surgery.. I looked up a famous doctor and saw that brain surgery is also done like this. The difference is that brain surgery is not cosmetic surgery, so they shave the hair off completely. ㅡㅡ 1. Hair loss It seems to differ depending on the person. I have a little bit, in the crown and side areas. But it seems to be growing back. haha The little spikes are cute. So there can be temporary hair loss, but that means it recovers, right? 2. Whether there is cheek sagging~ None at all~~ absolutely~~ never~~ none. I’m hearing that I look younger. 3. Since it’s major surgery, are there any problems with the forehead or nerve sensation? This too is completely nonexistent~~~ If there had been something like that, with my sensitive personality I wouldn’t have stayed quiet. There isn’t any nerve problem, but right after the surgery, one side of my forehead (they peeled the forehead skin too and then put it back, so I guess this is natural) didn’t move the eyebrow well, and when I tried to look upward from below, my left eye felt a bit strange. But by 3 months, this also got better. There is still a slight bit left that even I can’t really notice, but the doctor said this too from the start: the forehead sensation could be temporarily like that, but it would recover within 3 to 6 months.. 4. If you tend to swell easily, would there be a problem with going out in public at 2 months? I had no problem going out publicly starting around day 10. There may be inconveniences, but how could I live shut away like that? They said moving around a lot helps reduce swelling, so I just went around a lot. ^^ 5. This is something I could ask in consultation too, but after surgery, did you stay in the hospital or live in a shared accommodation? One reason I recommend 000 is that they perform surgery with almost no bleeding (I really can only say it’s a gift from God. Right after surgery, they showed me photos taken during the operation, and although I was scared so I looked from a distance... there was no blood. Just a little wiping with gauze?) There’s no need for hospitalization. I was discharged right in the evening and went to the accommodation I had reserved (this also wouldn’t be necessary if your home is in Seoul... I was having the surgery secretly, and since my home is in the provinces, I had no choice but to stay in a motel for 10 days) I’m curious^^ Also, can you feel that your face got smaller??? I think it has gotten smaller... but people don’t immediately say, ‘Your face got smaller!’ That’s probably something people who know I had surgery would say. More like... ‘You look prettier... you look younger...’? Because I was wearing a hairstyle I had never even imagined before, some people thought that’s why I looked prettier. They said, ‘That hairstyle makes you look younger~~’ If I had worn this hairstyle with my old face, my face would have looked huge, right... no, the fact that my face was big would have been fully exposed, right.. I should have written that in the post too... I need to go back and edit it~~
I’ll paste this here as-is.. too lazy... If you have more questions, send me a message~~