I’m a guy. I had fat grafting. <Photo attached>

This post.. is damn long.. If you don’t feel like reading it, just look at the photos and leave. Fat grafting is generally done in pretty similar ways at most clinics. So if you’re planning to get it done, use my post as a reference. If you know how the process goes, that’s enough.. The photos are originally large, but they show up small here.. Click them to view bigger. Then I’ll get started. Huhu. First, the photo with no cheek flesh at the top is what I used to look like. Back then I was a total failure. Does anyone else have cheeks like this with no flesh at all? Probably not.. Actually, I uploaded the one that looked like it had the most flesh among my before photos, and it still looked like that. Ah, but why did I get a foil perm back then.. ㅡ.ㅡ; The photo below was taken on July 9, 2009. So it was taken yesterday. I had the fat done yesterday. I think at least some swelling has gone down because I did some cold compresses in the recovery room, but I’m also happily accepting the swelling. I went through quite a lot before getting the fat. It’s a story you can’t hear without tears. ㅡ.ㅡ; I started gaining weight a month in advance because I was planning to get fat grafting. A whopping 10 kg!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Some people say, “Why get fat grafting when you could just gain weight and your face will fill out?” ㅡ.ㅡ Absolutely not. When I gain weight, it never goes to my cheeks. It goes to my body. There are a lot of people like that. Only to the body. First, for this project^^; I spent nearly two months looking up plastic surgery information on a community, Naver cafes, and Daum cafes. I planned everything thoroughly. First I searched clinics for a long time, picked the one I liked, and then, after deciding I’d do it only at that clinic and not think about anything else, I started putting on weight in earnest. Honestly, people who don’t gain weight easily, whether male or female, have it rough. My case was like that, and to bulk up my weight in a short period of just one month, I ordered a carbohydrate supplement, a gym supplement.. from the U.S. and took it. It took only two weeks to arrive and cost 80,000 won. ㄷㄷㄷ This damn thing. I ordered three sacks of it in a row. ㅡ.ㅢ By the time you keep taking it, you feel like throwing up. Ugh. The whole time my mouth was full of some chemical smell. There were days I had diarrhea every day, and lots of times I felt nauseous. Also, I ate five bowls of rice spread out across the day, ate before bed, and lived by eating all day long. At that time I had only one hard resolve: to correct my face, which looked sick and weak.. and old. I’m not that young anymore.. In fact, starting from when I was 20, the fat in my face began disappearing, and after going on a backpacking trip abroad (you suffer like crazy when you go out of town anyway), things started getting even worse. But I worked hard to gain weight.. and the result was that I brought my weight up from 60 kg to 72 kg. The director told me that fat in the thighs has a better survival rate, so checking that area every day became a hobby for me.. And I had the fat procedure done at the clinic yesterday. From here, the review starts. I’ll tell you in advance: I did not have sedation anesthesia. The sedative used is usually propofol, and from what I felt after having it during a sleep endoscopy before, I learned it can be dangerous for people whose condition is off that day or who cough often. If your body is in normal condition, it’s fine to do it. But having experienced both, local anesthesia was better for me. I’ll explain why later. Anyway, when I first visited the clinic two weeks ago for the initial consultation, I told the director I had a bit of a cough. I said let’s do it with local anesthesia only, without sedation anesthesia. The director also said that might be better. The director said local anesthesia is better for smooth communication with the patient during the surgery. That doesn’t mean they won’t do sedation anesthesia, though. If you’re scared of the atmosphere or process of surgery, you can do sedation anesthesia.. But if you have a respiratory disease, lung disease, heart problems, are not feeling well.. or have other conditions, sedation anesthesia can block the airway and, in the worst case, your life could be... Anyway, after the consultation I also managed my condition carefully for two more weeks.. And on the day of surgery... I went to the clinic at 1 p.m.. And of course it poured. Huhu... I got soaked.. Ugh.. grumble grumble. Anyway, after meeting with the director, I changed into a patient gown in the recovery room locker and waited, then went to the operating room a little later. The operating room was compact and fine. But the operating table was scary. Any human being has a bit of fear when climbing onto an operating table... And then I lay face down.. leaving only my underwear on and opening everything below. Ah, damn. I was embarrassed in front of the nurses. One nurse was preparing things next to me.. Another nurse started disinfecting the area around my butt and thigh line... and after some time the director came in. They started injecting anesthesia into my thighs. It stings. It’s the same as getting an injection in the arm. You’ll feel the needle going in. Some others say in their reviews that it hurts like hell.. but I thought they were exaggerating. And then they started injecting something to puff up the fat. At first I thought that was for removing fat, but the main act hadn’t started yet. ㅡ.ㅡ Then after some time.. I somehow felt the back of my thigh swell a little.. This might just be my own illusion.. but that’s how it felt. And a few minutes later.. they started the actual fat extraction. From the beginning I decided not to look at the surgical tools at all.. I thought seeing them would make me even more anxious, so I tried not to look. But lying face down, my eyes automatically went to the nurse. I could see a syringe with an incredibly long metal stick attached to it. But since I couldn’t see the procedure itself... it was less scary. Because of the anesthesia, I didn’t strongly feel the metal stick stabbing into my thigh. Though every now and then I did get a tingling sensation. It wasn’t at all unbearable. I could see the extracted fat in the syringe. I asked the director, “Do you just put this in as is?” and they said they purify it and put it through a centrifuge to filter out only the pure fat before injecting it. Yes, of course I knew that, but I asked again. ^^; The director was so kind.. that no matter what I asked, they answered everything patiently and nicely. At first, when the needle went in for the very first time, I started by talking about the weather.. I said, “Doctor, it’s really raining today. Since yesterday too..” Then the doctor said, “Yes. There’s been localized heavy rain lately.” I think conversations like that are important. Light communication seems to put patients into a calmer state. My tension went down a lot.. And the syringe kept poking around in my thigh. It felt like it was going here and there. And after several dozen minutes. Huh? Is it over? They said it was over. They said all the fat was out. They thanked me for enduring it well and said the fat came out well too. Then they quickly stitched up the thigh, disinfected it, and wrapped it tightly in bandages. Ah.. I don’t remember the procedure completely, but that’s the order it went in. During that time, the director went back to the office for a bit and consulted with another patient. There was nothing else to do while the pure fat was being filtered. ^^; And after 10 minutes or so.. the doctor came back in. Then the upper part of the operating table was raised. I sat up. And while showing me a mirror, they said they’d start marking with a pen. I held the mirror, and the doctor marked dots all over. I wasn’t doing my temples or forehead, so everything except those areas got marked. I lay back down again. And now I’ll tell you the important parts. When they inject anesthesia into the face, honestly, it will hurt a bit. It can’t be helped. Who has a needle go in without it hurting? But while others are acting like they’re about to die, I didn’t make a peep. Still, it definitely hurts a bit when they numb you. Because they inject anesthesia in several places on the face. Honestly, if you count the number of times, it seems to go over 10. Once the anesthesia kicks in.. what happens is.. my teeth feel like they’re not my teeth anymore. The area around the nose also goes numb. Of course, breathing is not a problem. It just feels like my whole face is being stung by bees and swelling up. Of course, once the anesthesia takes effect it doesn’t hurt, but you can definitely feel a thick swelling sensation. And then they start putting the pure-fat syringe into my face. Needle in, needle out, needle in, needle out... they repeat that. Even in the middle of that, I joked with the doctor, and the doctor answered what I was curious about.. the communication was really good. The syringe.. hmm.. you can definitely feel something whooshing out from inside it. It’s a strange feeling. It didn’t hurt. Just a little sting and tingle. And if it hurts while you’re doing it, so what? They’re saying my face will look better. And after several dozen minutes (not an extremely long several dozen minutes), they raised the top part of the operating table again. I sat up, and the doctor looked for the parts that needed touch-up. Then I lay back down and they did touch-up work in a few spots. Surgery done! Good job holding out! That’s what I heard the director say. I also opened my eyes wide and said, “Doctor, you worked hard too.” It seemed to end in a really good atmosphere. ^^ Then I went to the recovery room, lay down, cold-compressed my face, got a big shot of an anti-inflammation? injection in my upper arm (oddly enough, that hurt more than the surgery for me. I thought I was going to die), and then headed straight to the office! I thanked the doctor for treating me so well. The doctor also said it came out very well and looked really good. I was genuinely satisfied. I really thought, wow, I’m lucky in life.. But the doctor said my skin is also thicker than that of ordinary men, so I need to pay attention to inflammation, take my medicine properly, and come in immediately if any problem arises. Phew~ That’s the end of the long, long surgery process. I got three days’ worth of medicine from the pharmacy. How did I get home? I just took the subway home without a mask, without a hat, with a bandage under my eyes. It takes about 20 minutes to get home. What’s there to hide? If I act confident, people don’t think I had surgery. There weren’t many people staring either. And my face is already pretty thick anyway. Wearing a mask felt like it would make me stand out more, so I just went like that. The bandage on my thigh keeps coming loose. I keep rewrapping it and stuff even now. My thigh is super swollen right now. It doesn’t hurt though. Lastly, I was grateful to the director, manager, and nurses for treating me kindly until the end... AAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That was my surgery process up to here. Long, right? Ugh, I’m hungry. I hope everyone else has good cosmetic surgery and turns over a new leaf. Then.