lemontea1234

Im more of a conservative person in regards to vline. Didn't want anything too dramatic. And thank you. Its not very obvious to some people, but to me its made a lot difference for myself.

Namu is smaller then view. I cannot say anything about view's aftercare. But for a smaller clinic, i felt everyone works hard and there wasn't a time where i felt unwelcomed when i went to the clinic. I also heard that the rhino doctor used to be from bano. One of the other pf users went to him when he started to work for namu. She was happy with her results.

 

Hi mew.

I didnt do rhino at all. My nose is all natural. I only did vline and des. Sorry! Im not helpful in the rhino department.

In general though, namu has been good to me. Small hiccup such as swelling on my end, and also bruising, they all tried their best to fix it for me. Even gave me some cream for the bruising. They also dropped me off post op, and also to airport. Even though I didnt put an initial deposit down. The consultant always encouraged me to ask questions. They even answered it even though it was chuseok in korea, and they were meant to spend it with family.

There is kk group chat that maybe more helpful in regards to rhino? Im really sorry i can't help you in that department.

 

Its not your call to make. She never did vline. Only acculift. Stop taking those photos and leave us be.

You obviously have too much time in your hands to attack namu specifically.

 

Please do not post my photos without permission. Plus i am only 2 months post op.

 

Its a shill account. The person whos posting those photos are using my photo without my consent. And the girl in the photo is only couple of weeks post op.

 

Hi.

Please do not use my photos. Its a bit rude psfailure account. You can keep deleting. But you keep making new accounts. Im only 2 months post op.

Thanks.

 

Im not saying her result is perfect. But you're account is new. Literally made today.

You're not even thinking about how a body heals. You've never even gotten broken bones? Etc? Or punched in the face before? Healing takes time.

 

You work for a clinic don't you? A shill? You seem to be targeting namu, and taking a patient's photos without permosion.

 

If my head was down. You would be able to see more of my hair. If my head was down, my nose wouldnt be what it looks like.

You can believe what you want. I'm not saying you have to go to namu. Im just simply sharing my experiences. Im only 2 months post op. It takes 6 months for results to fully show.

Of course, you're such an expert. You should know how recovery goes.

 

Hi. Im still swollen at the moment. Its normal to be asymmetrical at this point as everyones recovery process is different.

 

Sorry. That photo wasnt the best.

But this was one of my befores:


Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

 

So in regards to my vline surgery.
This is my before:


My after (1month post op. I will say I am wearing makeup but minimal. No filter on photo either)


It doesn't look like much. But i requested for a natural subtle change. Im more swollen on my right side, but its getting day by day better.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

 

Hi archonei,

With xray I was allowed to get a copy. But I received it when i got back. I did xrays when i consultated with another clinic for vline.

I went to EU to consult. I had short listed for vline:
-Eu dental
-TFD
-EverM

Revision DES:
-Ive

In the end, I decided to stay with one Namu since they offered me good after care, the dr knew what he was saying, he gave me realistic possible downsides. Also, since I wanted to do 2 procedures, I decided to stay with one place so they can do aftercare all together. Rather then runnning to different appointments.

It was a good thing, as due to stress my glandular fever flared up. I'm better now, but would have definitely tired me out more running to different clinics for appointments.

 

For some reason wont let me post the other photos. :/so heres some recovery period eyes.

 

Recovery period
I was very swollen for approx 5 days. There were days when I wondered why I went through all of this. There was minimal pain, the pain medication they gave me was enough. Only thing was, when i went to sleep and in the middle of the night it will ache a little. When it aches a little, I took my own supply of paracetamol. I knew this was ok due to asking them what medication was in their medicine pack. They gave me pumpkin juice and nutritional drinks. And tried to drink heaps of water. They were strict on mouth care, so after every meal I would need to rinse my mouth out after eatting or drinking anything other then water.

I went back to the clinic almost every 2nd day for treatment. First 3 treatments were deswelling LED treatments with deswelling injection. After the first 3, they then changed to warm massage to help with the facial swelling and also had facial treatments until I flew back.

The consultants Linda and Claire was so very nice. They organised all my apppointments, and when I voiced concerns they tried to fix it. When I still had a black eye, they gave me cream for it. Claire also taught me eye excerises to strengthen my eye muscles. While Linda reassured me about a small bump I had, that it was swelling and would go down.

Before I flew out, Dr Kirk checked for me again. And they took another xray on my request. And organised my ride to the airport.

Overall, the consultants were very attentive and helped me with all of my issues throughout my stay and when I came back overseas. At the moment my jaw is still swollen and look uneven, but I know it will get better. I'm currently 1 month post op.

Currently my eyes are like:


Everyday it gets better. My epi was red and bit bumpy at the moment. But I've been applying ointment and been working well to help with scarring.

 

Health check
Preoperative check was conducted at a local general practitioner clinic. Linda this time accompanied me to the doctors. They did a full 12 lead ECG as well as a chest XRay. I was then had to wait, and saw the clinics doctor. He told me everything looked fine and I was cleared for surgery.

Linda then gave me information sheet on fasting requirements and explanation of pre operative preparation which I was happy with. I was instructed to fast from midnight, in preparation for surgery at 9.30am the next day.

Surgery Day:
Arrived at the clinic at 9.30am. I was taken up to level 5 by Claire. I was led to a single room, I was asked to change into their clothes. Then they checked my baseline observations. Photos were taken again. The anaethetist came and talked to me, going through my medical history with me. She also asked about my Asthma and my allergy to an antibotics. After she was done, Dr Kirk came and we confirmed what I wanted to do. He marked where he needed to do the operation. Claire then came and went through the consent form and explained everything to me in detail.

Then Claire led me to wash my face and gargle my mouth with a betadine mouthwash. I was then led to the operation room, and told to lay down. Claire was with me the whole time. She explained to me she would be in the room with me so that Dr Kirk and her will be able to confer what I would like. I didnt remember anything after a while as I was knocked out by the GA

Initial Recovery:
I remember my name being called out, I dont remember them shaking me or anything. It was all kind of a blur, first thing that registered with me was the pain. It was aching bone pain, it was sort of tolerable, but started to increase in intensity. I asked for pain medication as they wheeled me back in the room. They made me comfortable in the bed and gave me something for pain. I pinched my cheeks, chin and lips to check if my sensation was intact and found i could open to 3 fingers.

After a while (time just was a blur, I really had no idea how much time went past), i started to feel nauseous. I asked for something to vomit into, the nurse gave it to me and said they gave me antimetic just before I came out. I said I would wait a bit and see what will happen. My eyes was also bit dry, so it was painful to open or close them. Linda came in then, and she immediately got me ointment for my eyes. That helped alot. Then the nausea came back even worse, I asked the nurse for antimetic. She said she will get the anaethetist, after she got the Dr. She stayed with me, holding the bag for me as I dry retched. The Dr came and gave me the medication, and i asked her what pain medication she gave me. I knew from work, there's one pain medication that have higher risk of nausea and vomitting. When she confirmed what I knew. I asked her to change it to something else, as the nausea was quite bad. She was hesitiant due to my asthma. But I explained to her I've taken the same group of medications with nil issues in the past.

The next couple of hours was the thirst. All I wanted was water. Nurse came and checked up on me every 15min or so. I had a blood drainage tube in my mouth and bandage on my face. I was so glad they gave me the drainage. Otherwise managing my own secretion load with blood would been unbearable for me. When I finay got water it was such bliss. Linda came up with Dr Kirk to check up on me. Dr kirk explained in the end they only removed 6.3cm of muscle and bone was a bit less then planned. No pins or plates were used and everything went well.

I didnt sleep all night (GA has that effect on me) I would make an effort to walk every hour and drink more water every hour. Even though i had an IV drip. I saw that their anaethetist stayed in clinic for the night. The nurse came and checked on me often and gave me meds when I was either due for them or asked for pain medication.

Bandage was changed to compression sometime during the night.

After a final check up the next day, i was allowed to go home. Namu called their driver to drive me home and gave me 2 bags, with my medication and english post op instructions. Appointments were made for deswelling and aftercare.

 

I had planned for 2.5 weeks stay in Korea. And joined the various kaokao chat groups that were catered to plastic surgery in Korea. I arrived on a Saturday and my inital first consultation was going to be with MVP. But since the news of patient's death there, I was hesitant and decided to cancel. Which meant I went to consult with Namu.

Saturday clinics close earlier around 4pm. So thats why i only had 2 clinics originally booked then.

I used NaverMaps to help me find direction to where Namu was. Theyre situated near exit 9, above the Starbucks cafe and opposite the gangnam tourist kiosk. The building was small but looked clean and well maintained. They had 3 levels, level 3 for dermatology, level 4 was reception and consultations and minor treatment room. Level 5 was for operations and recovery rooms.

My first impression of the clinic was good. The receptionists greeted me, and understood that I was there to see Linda, the inhouse translator and consultant. She informed to sit in the waiting room, and gave me a form that was a mix of korean and english. With the korean words, the receptionist lady helped me translate and told me which parts were which.

After waiting for a bit and filled out a general consultation form with a medical questionnaire (this was all in english) as well. Claire was introduced to me instead. At first like other people, I was a bit surprised and miffed that it wasn't Linda that I met. But, she quickly explained the situation and stated that Linda had the say off. I realised she was the 3rd person in the kaokao chat I had with Linda.

There was a consultation fee of 10,000 won for Xrays which I was prepared for. Claire led me to get my photos taken and got my xray done in preparation for the Doctor to see me.

I was lead into a consultation room where, claire asked me what I would like to achieve. I explained my qualms and she almost immediately understood what I was after for DES. I also her different photos of what I would like for Vline as well.

Then Dr Kirk was introduced to me. My initial impression of him was that he was slightly eccentric but he was soft spoken. I had also noticed he had been at John Hopskins Hospital before. Dr Kirk can speak english, but claire will help to translate where hes more comfortable to speak in korean. He explained to me I didnt need genio or zygoma reduction. I simply had too much mandible muscle. My skull was small already, so to achieve a smaller face I had to cut mandible muscle as well. He also listened to my DES revision requests. Throughout the whole entire process claire encouraged me to ask questions. And Dr kirk will often ask me himself whether I didn't understand anything or not.

The whole consultation took approx an 1hour 15min. In my gut, I knew Dr Kirk would be the one that be able to achieve what I would like to achieve.

At the end of consultation we came to the agreement of:
DES
-Partial incision (Dr will use the initial crease from my full incision)
-epicanthoplasty (he did warn me, my epi may revert back to Mongolian fold due to the intial muscle strength there)
-ptosis correction

VLine
-Mandible bone reduction (approx 3.8cm reduction)
-Mandible muscle reduction (approx 50% was the initial agreement, which is approx 11.4cm)

He did say things may change intraoperatively. Depending on what happen in surgery. Afterwards, I paid my deposit. Claire explained exactly what aftercare they offered as well as airport drop off for free. Surgery was scheduled for 3 days later as they were booked out for Monday. I had my bloods done on that day by a nurse at Namu. But would need to come back on Monday for health check.

 

Hi everyone,

I went to Seoul in October for revision double eyelid surgery (DES) and vline. I had been researching for approx 6 months and had been contacting various clinics via kaokao chat or wechat. I was set on doing revision DES but still a bit on the fence in regards to vline.

Background:
My first DES was approx 5 years ago. I had it done in Australia, it was full incisional DES but the surgeon didnt anything else other then the DES. No ptosis correction etc. The results were good for a year, but approx after 1.5year, my left eye became undone, and the right double lid line became hooded. Original line was tapered so known as in and out fold. I wanted it to be parrellel. Original surgeon had said it would make me look too cat like if I did epi as well. But now looking back at it, I dont think it was true.

For reference this was what it looked like within a year of the first DES.



This was my eyes post first DES 5 years down the track:


In the end I had short listed a few clinics I was interested in. But I didnt go to all of the consultation I had originally planned.

I had also organised a translation service from Gangnam medical center for one of the clinics. But decided to cancel their service due to not going to one the consultation originally planned. They provide their translation services for 60,000won for 2 hours and they're a government service.

I will write about namu in my next post and why I had decided to go with them.

 

The importance of following preoperative instructions

For those who are new to surgery. You may be given a set of instructions to follow in order to prepare yourself for surgery. But! I bet you have questions on why it is important to follow them. 

Most important rule is DISCLOSE any medication and medical history that you may have. EVEN if you do think its relevant. 

Sometimes something small that happened a long time ago, may be important when you do surgery. When you're being operated on, your body will be under stress. And some old medical conditions can flare up under body stress. So please be mindful of this!

Fasting:

Fasting means to be nil by mouth. This means no water, no food, nothing that can stimulate saliva production in mouth to stomach. The only things you can take orally is your medications. ANY medication that is used to treat medical conditions can be taken, with as minimal water as possible. 

Ideal fasting times are:

if your surgery is in the first thing in the morning. Try to have a small meal at midnight, and then nothing from 12 o'clock midnight onwards. 

If your surgery is in the afternoon, (after 1pm). You can have a light breakfast at  5am in the morning then its nothing from then onwards. 

•Why fasting is important?

In the evident that you may involuntarily vomit, you would want no chance that whatever you vomit may end up in your lungs. The chances of this happening under GA is low, as your airway is protected. BUT, after the removal of your artifical airway. You may vomit and may be too groggy to protect your airway. If any solids or fluids that are foreign end up in your lungs. You may end up with a condition known as aspiration pneumonia. Treating it is much harder, and often mortality rate is high if you aquire this. 

Medications:

Some people take supplements to add to their diets. Please still always seek medical advice before stopping some of your medications. ALWAYS disclose whatever medication you take as it can effect how your recovery and anaethestics are metabolized. 

Importance of declaring allergies:

Allergies are vital to be declared to treating doctors and anaethestists. Did you know some medical products contain same protein as foods? Parts of latex gloves have the same protein as kiwifruit. So please tell your doctors and explain your symptoms of allergies when you go for surgery. Even if you think its just minor, please let them know! 

Disclaimer: This is a general guide to anaethestics and what is generally used. I'm not a doctor, please seek profressional advics in regards to your own health and suitability to under any anaethestics of any kind. I simply work in field that gives me this knowledge.

TABLE OF CONTENT:

I will link to different posts when they become relevant so people dont get lost seeking specific information.

1. POST ONE: Types of Anaethestics

2. POST TWO: The importance of following pre operation instructions. 

Anaesthetics 101:

What exactly is Anaethetics?

According to webdictonary Anaethetics is 'a substance that induces insensitivity to pain.' Its a pharmaceutical substance in which is directly injected into your veins or inhaled. This thread hopefully can impart some knowledge of anaethestics and the importance of pre-operative, post operative care.

Types of Anaethestics:

•Gas:

The simplest form of inhaled sedation drug. Commonly known as sevo gas or nitric oxide. Simply known to most as laughing gas to most. It is used for induction of surgery. The half life of those gases are only 15seconds. It wont take away your pain, but distracts you and relaxes you so that they can insert a cannula. Gas form of anesthesia isnt common for the duration of the surgery as its too unpredictable. Rather it is used to help calm the patient and allow them to feel relaxed.

It leaves the body when you exhale.

•Twilight sedation or Sedation

Twilight sedation is simply sedation. It is used so the patient can be conscious but also like a trance. Its a state where you're awake but not aware. Most common sedation medication is known as Midazolam. Half life of midazolam is approx 1.5hours to 2.5hours. The common side effect of such drugs is grogginess, headaches, dizziness and memory loss in the period that the medication is used. 

If twilight sedation is used, the patient should be breathing on their own and can protect their own airway. Thus reducing the need to be 'intubated' or having a breathing tube down.

•Blocks or Local Anaesthetic 

Another form of anaethestic is just using a nerve block or spinal block for the surgery.

It means the patient will be fully concious and aware of their surroundings during surgery. The medication is injected directly into the nerve and should completely numb the area. This is not often foolproof and upon wearing off. Can cause pins and needles sensation. Spinal blocks are commonly used to paralyse the patient from the waist down in order for surgeons to perform surgery. However, it can cause cause permanent paralysis if not correctly administered. 

There's also simple local anaesthetic that surgeons use intraoperative by directly injecting to operative site. Some of them contain adrenaline which in small doses in healthy adults be no problem. But those with underlying heart conditions should be mindful of.

•General Anaesthetic:

Often associated with what Michael Jackson got for sleep. Medication of choice is generally propofol. Half life is 2 to 24hours. However actual pharmacological effect peaks at 2min mark, and effective for only 5 to 10minutes. It puts you to complete sleep, and makes you unconscious.

A side effect of this, is it causes respiratory depression. In which you don't breathe enough or deep enough to maintain optimal oxygen level in your body. Thus, patients undergoing GA usually will have a breathing tube, and will be connected up to a ventilator (machine that gives calculated breaths). 

However, you may still move some of your muscles in your chemically induced sleep. Much like natural sleep. Common side effects are dizziness, nausea, grogginess, headaches etc. Some are known to 'shiver' post anaesthestics, as their bodies try to get rid of the medication from your system.

These are the most common form of anaethestics. There are some that used combination of GA with local infiltration by surgeon or can give twilight sedation to start off. But then put into deeper sleep by general anaesthetics.

Hello

I'm lemontea also Hana on the kkt chats. 

I had double eyelid 5 years back, but going to seoul this october for des revision and vline surgery.

Nice to meet you alll

Haha. We do. We have 200 staff in our unit. So do sims on a bi weekly basis. So by end of the quarter at least most if not all has experiences in an sim environment. And we take it in turns. We grumble about them. But see the benefit of it. It really helps to see what needs to be improved on so its a good thing.

 

I'm saying its just a possibility. Its like if you never come across something, most peoples reaction would be scared or wary right? So if a clinic doesnt train their staff to be well versed in emergency, their reaction can be one of panic. I'm not excusing their behaviour, but suggesting a possible reason why they behaved that way. Some people when they get nervous or panicky, they laugh. Its just a personality trait that some people have.

Like missorange said, some of them are nurses assistants not even RN. Therefore some of them may not even be hospital trained. Therefore, they may not have been exposed to medical emergencies and do not know to conduct themselves. I dont know the standard of training in korea compared to here. But even here as registered nurses, we run through sim scenerios every 2nd week, so we know how to deal with different situations.

Hence why I stated, if they were well trained and KNOW what to do in emergencies. Then this would have been a different story.

Thats just my point of view. Take it as such.

 

Oh boy. I think you need to calm down first

1. There is such a thing as undiagonsed heart condition. Like missorange said, if it was a leaky valve there will be no symptoms as per say. Mitral/aortic valve regurgitation often doesnt have many noticeable symptoms.
Heck, there was a case that was shown on TV where a woman had her aorta randomly ruptured. She did not even know she had this condition. Sometimes people dont even think much and put it down as been working too hard. And they dont want to persue it further. Also sometimes, something may be mild that its not even noticable. It can progress if no one knew about it.

2. Standard blood tests are ordered because it is fast to run and have a quick turn over to give you a person's general health. But for cardiac specific testing such as myocarditis or cardiac myopathy is extremely expensive and takes time. To run as a general standard set will cost you heaps. If there is no reason for those tests, why take up more hospital resources and put more pressure on a pathology lab? There are more pressing and critical tests for sicker patients that needs to be run. Also what you want is assuming in ideal world. Everything that is run as diagnostic are often interpreted by a human being. So even then theres a chance something can be missed.

3. Have you ever been in a medical emergency?no? You sound extremely young.
In a medical emergency, if you do you dont experience it every day. Your body panics and you don't know how to manage the situation at hand. Look, its an unfortunate event, and i feel bad for the the patient's family. Do you think a loss does not weigh a lot on a person's mind? Even for me, if we lose a patient it effects all of the people involved. How often when you're in a stressful situation, do you just panic and your brain doesnt function?

All i am saying is, training is key. And implementing policy and procedures in place. As humans we learn better from experience. If we train more, and learn from this event. We reduce the swiss cheese effect.

Im not saying this should be taken lightly. Yes, we all have the right to be mad at loss of a human life. Instead of focusing all of your negative energy being angry at the dr and the team. It should be what can we learn from this incident and improve? Being angry isn't helpful. It just clouds your judgement further.

Eh thats my two cents.

 

Actually. You can have undiagonsed cardiac conditions. It happens. Only way you can truly detect is through cardio echocardiogram or even angiogram. Its not unheard of for someone fit and healthy, just suddenly go into cardiac arrest with no warning.

Also sometimes your usual blood test will not look for specifically heart muscle functionality. You need specific tests that are a) expensive to run and take ages to run b) are so rare that its not considered worth running as a standard set of tests unless otherwise indicated.

How the medical staff conduct themselves is appalling. To be honest, i hope they do learn from it and improve greater patient safety in general.