Anyone had surgery at JW? Please post your experience here

[queenofblades]

Consultation for Nose:

So in late April 2015, I arrived at JW, full of eager
anticipation to meet with Dr Suh. I was greeted warmly by the lovely Emily. She speaks good English, so there is no need to hire your own translator. I did not go through and medical guide to book the appointment. I did it myself via email, and JW replied to my emails fast.

When I met with Dr Suh, I found that he also speaks excellent English. I explained my concerns, which were: bulbous nose, upturned nose, flat bridge. I even showed photos of noses that I liked, eg Angelababy and Go Ara. Dr Suh said Go's nose was round, as if implying why would I ask for such a nose?! I got excited when I heard this, as I thought he could give me an even sharper nose than hers, lol. He was patient in answering my questions, and spoke in clear measured tones. To address my issues, he said he would put in a silicone implant for the bridge, and to create a nose tip, he would use either septal or ear cartilage. He also assured me of the good safety record of his clinic, in that JW has extremely low rate of infections. I was relieved to hear that as I had undergone a BA before and it ended up with a horrible infection and required implant removal. At the end of the consultation, I asked him once again to give me a pretty nose, as people had called me ugly in the past.... Dr Suh laughed, and assured me he will do his best.

 

[queenofblades]

Consultation for Facelift and Lower Blepharoplasty:

After Dr Suh, I went on to meet Dr Kang about a facelift. Dr Kang does not speak English apparently , but Emily was on hand to translate. I told Dr Kang I was bothered about my nasolabial grooves casting shadows on my face, making me look old and tired. I was also concerned by how much my cheeks have dropped over the years. I emphasised i wanted a full SMAS facelift to adequately address these issues. I didn't think that a mini face lift, whereby they just pull up the skin but not the underlying issues would be enough to solve the issues. Dr Kang also agreed. I was worried, through, that I may end up with an overstretched look, but Dr Kang laughed and assured me I would not get such a result.

After addressing my facelift, he went on to advice me on doing a lower blepharoplasty as well. To be honest, the eyes were an afterthought, but since I was doing a facelift and rhino, I thought why not as well. New face, new life, yay! For my eyes, he suggested eye bag removal, repositioning the fat pouches to make the whole area smooth . I actually did it before 10 years ago, but the bags came back gradually over time. I also was bothered by the loose creepy, wrinkly skin under my eyes. It made applying concealer on my panda eye circles difficult. My makeup was always settling into the fine lines, making the wrinkles more obvious! Dr Kang assured me he will do a procedure to take out excess skin to smoothen out the wrinkles as well. This sounded good to me, and despite Dr Kang not speaking English, I somehow felt reassured by his earnestness, and sincere manner.

With that the consultation ended, and Emily took me aside to discuss the price. As my lower blepharoplasty was considered a revision case, and therefore more complicated, the price was higher than for primary lower blepharoplasty. After settling on the final price for the 3 procedures, I paid up and went back to my hotel to rest. Mr surgery was scheduled the very next day. I had already booked the surgery date one month in advance, to get the date of my choice. I had to wire a small deposit over beforehand, to secure this date.

 

[heidita]

Hi , thanks for sharing😊
Can i ask what type of nose Dr Sud gave you? Thanks

 

[queenofblades]

Day of Operation:

My first operation was the lower blepharoplasty. I was really scared because I have a phobia of needles, and I was dreading the first local anaesthetic injection, but to my surprise (and delight) they knocked me out before they stuck the LA needle into me.

I woke up in the middle of the blepharoplasty, and Dr Kang was sewing my lower lid up. I didn't feel any pain, so I remained calm. However, as time went on, the back of my head felt increasingly uncomfortable. I think I have a weirdly shaped skull lol, and was very uncomfortable on the flat operating table, so every time Dr Kang paused in whatever he was doing, I would shift my head's position! I knew I shouldn't be doing it, I mean, what if I displaced a fat pad or something under my eye, lol, and he gone through so much trouble to reposition it, but I couldn't help it. I think I also traumatised Dr Kang with my constant fidgeting, and he asked what's wrong. I told him the back of my skull hurt, and he was very kind to get the nurse to place a pillow under my head. He then continued sewing carefully, and paused now and then to check, I think for symmetry. Eventually, he finished, and then, he was going on to the facelift next. I did not remember anything else from this point on as I had drifted off to lalaland.

 

[queenofblades]

Dear Heidita, Dr Suh gave me such a natural looking nose that most of my friends and colleagues did not know I had a nose job, lol.

On hindsight, I think the swelling made my nose look like my old bulbous nose. It was only a few months later that some people noticed that my bridge was higher. And only 1 person noticed the tip after 8 months, that it was less shapeless. Also, I think most people were distracted by the amazing blepharoplasty. That one people noticed and complimented on straight away.

 

[queenofblades]

Day of Operation part 2-Nose

I woke up toward the end of the operation as Dr Suh was stitching my nose. Although I felt tugging and sewing, I felt zero pain, so I did not freak out. I noticed that the clock on the wall indicated 7ish. I remembered thinking that this must be Dr Suh' s last operation of the day, and whether he was feeling tired or not.

Finally, the operation was finished. I sat up and Dr Suh spoke to me. He told me that my case was a difficult case, that 1) my skin was very thin and couldn't stretch much, and 2) my nose cartilage was too little to use, and my ear cartilage was too soft and not suitable to be used too, so he had to use donor cartilage. I think he was trying to let me down gently, in case I had gotten my hopes too high, but at this point, i could find hot tears starting to gather in my eyes. As soon as I gotten to the recovery room, I whipped out my hand phone to check my reflection. It confirmed my worst fears. My nose looked pretty much the same. In my upset state, I did not pay much attention to the compression bandage around my head or the tape under my eyes. I could only see my nose, or what I thought was my old nose. I was upset at myself for having thin unstretchable skin and soft unusable cartilages.

 

[queenofblades]

Recovery Phase:

I spent the first night in JW, and was well taken care off. I had drains attached to my head for my facelift. The next morning, Dr Kang came to check on me, and was pleased that I was not as swollen as expected. I felt touched that he bothered to check on me. I did not feel any pain, just a little discomfort from the compression bandages, and the gauze packing in my nostrils.

I was discharged and went back to my hotel room to rest. I remembered I sneezed a few times on that day and wondering if I would further ruin the result of the rhinoplasty.

Over the next few days, I started swelling up, more so on my right side. My head was like a watermelon, and my lips looked like this character on the Muppet Show. I was all Lips. It made eating difficult. Eventually, tthe swelling got so bad that Dr Kang diagnosed I must have a haematoma somewhere, and wheeled me back into the operation theatre to drain it. I remembered crying in the OT because I was afraid that it would end up like my previous boob job, whereby I also had a haematoma drained, but subsequently led to an infection. However, before I was knocked out, Jay the other English translator comforted me and held my hand.

I woke up to find myself attached to drains and an IV again. Dr Kang said he removed the haematoma, but wanted me to stay the night once more. Again I was well taken care off throughout the night. The nurses came every hour to change ice pack, check the IV and measure my blood pressure. The next morning, Dr Kang checked on me again and said everything was fine. I was able to discharge later in the day.

 

[queenofblades]

Recovery Phase part 2:

Other than the haematoma, my recovery was smooth. The days passed by in a haze of almost daily visits to JW to change dressings and remove stitches. I remembered gazing jealously at other rhinoplasty patients each time. I could see their nose tips peeking out from under their bandages and splints, but my nose was so short that it was totally covered by the splint. Talk about nose envy, lol. When I finally got my splint removed, no more surprises there, but it was a little bit higher due to the addition of the bridge. And my nose tip was also a bit longer than my old nose.

As for Facelift, I could stop wearing the uncomfortable compression bandages after 10 days. I did notice some rope-like swellings on my face under my skin. I did some research, and apparently, they are due to the presence of surgical glue used. They were supposed to go away by itself after a period of time. Dr Kang also assured me that they were nothing to worry about. He also removed the staples on my head personally, and checked on me almost every visit. I am very grateful to Dr Kang for his care.

On my last visit to JW, Dr Suh came to check on my nose and said everything was fine and healing well. I then asked him when was the earliest time I could have a revision, and he was surprised and asked me if I did not like my nose. Truthfully, it is better than my old nose, but I guess I was hoping for a bigger or more drastic improvement. I was afraid that I might have offended him by asking when I could do revision, but I just had to ask. Anyway, he said I have to give it a year to stretch the skin. I decided to be patient and give the nose a chance to deswell over the next 12 months. And also for my skin to stretch. And then I will decide whether I am satisfied with the result or not.

 

[queenofblades]

3 weeks Post Op:

I was still swollen, but I have to say, the facelift and blepharoplasty made me look really young, almost scarily so. I was 42 when i did the procedures, but they took about 10-15 years off my face. I work in a retail shop, and every day, my regular customers who knew my old face was amazed and all wanted the contact of JW clinic and Dr Kang. Dr Kang removed my eye bags through an incision along the lower eye lid, but his sewing was so fine, and right along the lid, that the scars were minimal, and entirely hidden by the eye lashes. In fact, he did such an amazing job that no one noticed i did my nose as well. Actually, Dr Suh also did a good job in ensuring symmetry and a natural result. I could only blame my own tissues for not being able to stretch.

 

[queenofblades]

1 Year Post Op - rhinoplasty:

My nose tip did get more defined over the course of the past year. It started looking good at the 6 month mark, I know I shouldn't have gotten my hopes too high up before surgery, but because I watched some bloggers' YouTube videos ( eg Cyndi Soh, Agri Velt, Reei Kok), I thought I could expect a similar result. On hindsight, it's because these bloggers were already beautiful to begin with, whereas my nose was not good in the first place.

So here I am, back in Seoul, for consultations for a revision. I will post my outcome on another thread.

 

[jtmc]

Hi QueenOfBlades, may I know the mode of payment you made at JW? Reason for asking is they don't advise wire transfer and mentioned that they will keep my passport if I choose wire transfer.

 

[heidita]

Hi, thank you so much for sharing in such details! Iam have similar problem. But i didnt get it done at JW, iam considering dr suh for my revision... Are you going back dr suh for your nose revision?? Thanks

 

[heidita]

Hi QueenofBlades, thank you so much for sharing in sucb details!!! I had my nose done before and wasnt happy with the results. I got it done somewhere else and considering dr suh for my nose revision . Are you going back to dr suh for your nose revision? Thanks

 

[queenofblades]

Dear Heidita, Dr Suh was one of my considerations for my revision, but in the end, I picked Dr Kim Jae Hoon who practices at April 31. I needed to find a surgeon who specialises in correcting upturned noses, and Dr Kim is one of them.

I have posted my revision experience on another thread if you want to read about it. I am now 12 days post op.

However, you may definitely consider Dr Suh if you want a natural result. If you want to achieve a particular look, do ask him whether it's achievable or not, so as to manage your expectations.

 

[jasthine]

Would be nice to know if how much you paid for the whole procedure Thanks in advance! 😊