My Plastic Surgery Adventure in Seoul~

[nilesy]

koreasaurus said: ↑

Lol Nilesy, you're gonna get banned if you don't behave (;

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I'm going to beat you up on Kakao. Listen to Mom.

Disclaimer: We are friends.

 

[peach23]

koreasaurus said: ↑

4.CLINIC & CONSULTATION
So the next morning, my mom and I walked to JW for our consultation. The inside of the clinic looked very posh. My consultant was Emily who I had been talking to on Kakao prior to my arrival. She was very attentive and sweet throughout my whole trip and would definitely recommend her for anyone that’s interested in JW. Her English was great, and most importantly, she made me feel comfortable. The clinic was actually quite busy, especially for it being “low” season. From what I could tell, they were mostly Chinese clients, and a majority of them had gotten rhinoplasty based on the bandages. Anyways, it was quite busy so we were kinda running all over the place at first lol…the staff members were definitely not lounging around, but everyone was working hard from what I saw.

After getting my pictures taken, we went to go see Dr.Suh first, who is the rhinoplasty surgeon at JW. My consultation with him wasn’t that long, but he clicked with me instantly. The first thing he asked was what I disliked about my nose and I told him that I didn’t like how bulbous it looked. I’m Asian/Caucasian with a big nose and wanted it to be smaller. I specified that I do not want any implants, and he agreed. The surgeries he suggested were the same exact surgeries that I thought I needed done for my nose so I felt more confident that we were already on the same page. He drew on the pictures I took earlier of what he would do to my nose and kept asking me if I had any questions. Basically for my nose, he was going to take out excess cartilage from the bridge, slightly reduce my alars, and use the suture technique on the tip of my nose to make it less droopy. He assured me that the change will be really subtle which is exactly what I wanted. Like I said, the consultation didn’t last too long, but he kept asking me if I had any questions so it didn’t feel rushed at all. At the end of my consultation with Dr.Suh, I had complete trust in him.

Emily then took me to see Dr.Choi, who is the eye specialist at JW. He asked me what I disliked about my eyes and I told him I hate how sleepy I look. He told me my ptosis was pretty bad and drew a picture to further explain my situation. He said that I use my forehead muscles to open my eyes which can cause wrinkles (which is what happened to my mom). I showed him a picture of an eyelid crease I found attractive and he used a pokey stick thing to check my eyes/crease/muscles? I asked him about epicanthoplasty but he said the distance between my eyes is already perfect and my eyes are wide. In the end, he suggested ptosis and partial incision for my case. I asked him about fixing my eyelashes that are pointing down, and he said that he wouldn’t be able to have them pointing up like the picture I brought as a reference, but he’d be able to have them pointing straight and out of my eyes. Overall, the consultation went very well and I actually really like Dr.Choi since he seemed cheerful and didn’t recommend surgeries I didn’t need.

My mom consulted with Dr.Choi next for her eyes and I think her consultation really showed Dr.Choi’s good/honest character. Her consultation was really long, mostly because my mom kept asking him questions, and he answered each one of her questions patiently without seeming to be annoyed or irritated at all. I share the same eyes as my mom and she pretty much wanted to get rid of the fat in her eyelids since they were sinking down. Her grandma actually had really bad sagging to where she had to lift up her eyelids to see anything, so my mom wanted to fix her eyes before the same thing happened to her. Dr.Choi said that in order for him to fix her eyes, he’d first have to give her a forehead lift to make it even FIRST to make her eyes symmetrical, before doing anything else. My mom refused on having the forehead lift and said she would be okay with having asymmetrical eyes as long as he can take that fat from her eyelids out. Dr.Choi then told her that he won’t do the operation on her unless it’s done the correct way which is making her eyes symmetrical first. So yeah, my mom respected his decision in the end and seeing that he’s not just willing to do any operation just for money really stood well with us. She ended up getting lower blepharoplasty which involved taking fat from the under eyes out and lifting it. I wanted the same procedure for my under eyes but Dr.Choi said he wouldn’t do the same procedure on me since I was younger than 30. I ended up just getting a little fat removed from my under eyes by Dr.Kim at JW.

Sooo after consultation, we discussed the price.
My procedures:
Eyes- ptosis correction, partial incision eyelid surgery, under eye fat removal
Nose- removing cartilage from bridge, slight alar reduction, suture technique on nose tip
Quoted: $9000 USD

I straight up told Emily that I didn’t have enough money and showed her how much I brought. I brought $8000 USD total which $300 was stashed in my wallet for food, shopping, etc…for my trip. So I showed her the $7700 and she told me that I received one hell of a discount and accepted it lol. So yeah, I was extremely happy with the price and consultations so I didn’t bother consulting anywhere else. I felt really confident with my choice.

My mom was told that since I received a great discount, that they weren’t able to discount my mom haha. I felt bad but the total price was still under her budget so it worked out. So for lower blepharoplasty, she paid $4000 USD.

5.SURGERY
After payment, Emily set up the surgery date and I was set to have my eye surgery right after paying. Then, my rhinoplasty and my mom’s surgery was set to be done the next day. I…was scared. Everything just happened to fast. I was in the recovery room getting changed into my surgery clothes and the next thing you know I was laying on the operation table. I’ve never had surgery in my life, nor have I been under IV Sedation. The thought of the “unknown” just really freaked me out. Prior to coming to Korea, I did so much research on Anesthesia/IV Sedation, even going as far as reading the statistics on death rate and such. I was scared I’d have some rare deadly reaction to it or something. I was very much afraid, but Emily was by my side and assured me everything would be okay. She made me feel better, but obviously I was still freaking out. The time finally came and…WHOA it wasn’t bad at all. My first surgery was my upper eyelids and I was awake the whole time, but didn’t feel any pain. Dr.Choi seemed to be a perfectionist because he kept having to raise me up to check on my eyes to make sure they were symmetrical. I was told to open and close them so many times, I lost count. I believe the surgery was done under straight local anesthesia. I didn’t feel any pain at all and was able to casually speak to Dr.Choi and answer his questions. The surgery felt like it took about an hour/hour and a half.

After Dr.Choi was finished, Dr.Kim came to work on my under eyes. This time, IV sedation was used and before I knew it, I was tripping. TRIPPING HARD. I was definitely conscious and it was like going through a maze of colors and for some reason I saw gummy bears floating around. It was…a weird experience lol. It was a pleasant one though! The whole surgery felt like it took 5 minutes even though realistically, it was probably 1-1 ½ hours long. When I finally “came to,” they were stitching up my left side which actually hurt quite bad. It wasn’t long before I was done and walked to the recovery room. I was surprisingly wide awake and didn’t feel nauseous or sleepy at all. I just felt really hungry. Emily came in and gave me all the antibiotics/medicine/ointment I would need and my mom and I left the clinic. Easy as that!

So the next day finally comes and my mom’s surgery is up! I was waiting in the recovery room for her for what felt like an hour and a half and she came back in looking/feeling drowsy. She was also under IV Sedation but I guess they either put her under deep sedation or she just reacted to it differently than I did. We stayed in the recovery room for about 45 minutes and came back a couple hours later for my rhinoplasty surgery. Ah, also Emily said not to eat/drink anything I think 8 hours before surgery but I ended up not eating/drinking after midnight each night just to be safe. In return, I felt sooo hungry so I just wanted the surgery done and over with so I could go eat. I changed into my surgery clothes again and started feeling anxiety again. I was on the operation table and one of the girls started either clipping or shaving my nose hairs and it was extremely uncomfortable. No pain, just reeeally uncomfortable and after what seemed about 10 minutes of just prepping before surgery, I was out of it again under IV Sedation and tripped hard for a second time. The surgery seemed like it lasted only 5 minutes and before I knew it I was walking down to the recovery room and was once again wide awake and feeling hungry. I was told that I was singing during surgery and I 100% remember telling the medical staff that “I found all the dragonballs and we need to make a wish to Shenron,” during surgery. I swear it was the drugs!

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Koreansaurus

Lol! I had the same experience as you did tripping hard on the op table at Dream clinic 3 weeks ago. I was laughing so hard reading this post . The colorful gummy bear and bouncy castle feeling . It's like being in 3D play station game . LOL!

Glad that you are happy with the result and recovering well girl!

 

[k-couture]

Just want to say ma girl koreansaurus was very pretty to begin with and looks even more beautiful now! xxx

 

[ncred]

Thank you soooo much for posting this it was v detailed and I learned a lot from your experience hahaha. I am really between JW and Dream ugh

 

[koreasaurus]

Peach23 said: ↑

Koreansaurus

Lol! I had the same experience as you did tripping hard on the op table at Dream clinic 3 weeks ago. I was laughing so hard reading this post . The colorful gummy bear and bouncy castle feeling . It's like being in 3D play station game . LOL!

Glad that you are happy with the result and recovering well girl!

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Haha, it was an interesting experience. Before all of this I was so scared what it would be like, but it turned out I was worried over nothing. Not that I'd like to go through all of that again, but it was a pleasant!

K Couture said: ↑

Just want to say ma girl koreansaurus was very pretty to begin with and looks even more beautiful now! xxx

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Thanks K! You have helped me out from the very beginning and I can't thank you enough!

ncred said: ↑

Thank you soooo much for posting this it was v detailed and I learned a lot from your experience hahaha. I am really between JW and Dream ugh

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Yup yup, I was stuck between the two as well! From what i've read, I believe Dream is a very reputable clinic as well.

 

[peach23]

koreasaurus said: ↑

Haha, it was an interesting experience. Before all of this I was so scared what it would be like, but it turned out I was worried over nothing. Not that I'd like to go through all of that again, but it was a pleasant!







Thanks K! You have helped me out from the very beginning and I can't thank you enough!







Yup yup, I was stuck between the two as well! From what i've read, I believe Dream is a very reputable clinic as well.

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If you don't mind me asking , what technique did Dr Choi use for your tip plasty ? You mention the suture method . Could you elaborate a bit more ? I had mind done with septal Extention on the columellar and cap graft on the tip for extra projection , quite happy. But I would like to learn further from othwr forumers' experiences . Thanks ! Xoxo

 

[koreasaurus]

Peach23 said: ↑

If you don't mind me asking , what technique did Dr Choi use for your tip plasty ? You mention the suture method . Could you elaborate a bit more ? I had mind done with septal Extention on the columellar and cap graft on the tip for extra projection , quite happy. But I would like to learn further from othwr forumers' experiences . Thanks ! Xoxo

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Dr.Choi is the eye surgeon at JW so he didn't touch my nose lol. Dr. Suh is the rhinoplasty specialist at JW. This is the suture technique I was refering to:

scielo.br/img/revistas/iao/v16n3/en_a15fig07_12.jpg

By doing that, it made me nose appear less bulbous and fixed the droopiness.

 

[skylight]

Are there English translators at both the JW clinic and Dream clinic? Who is the nose doctor at the Dream clinic? Do either of the clinics have experience with rib grafts?

 

[koreasaurus]

skylight said: ↑

Are there English translators at both the JW clinic and Dream clinic? Who is the nose doctor at the Dream clinic? Do either of the clinics have experience with rib grafts?

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JW has an English translator, but I only needed him to tell me what prescription my mom needed to get at the pharmacy. Other than that, the surgeons spoke enough English.

I think there are two nose doctors at Dream, but I could be wrong. The one that seems to be popular on here and known to do closed rhino is Dr.Park.

I wouldn't know anything about rib grafts, sorry!

 

[skylight]

koreasaurus said: ↑

JW has an English translator, but I only needed him to tell me what prescription my mom needed to get at the pharmacy. Other than that, the surgeons spoke enough English.

I think there are two nose doctors at Dream, but I could be wrong. The one that seems to be popular on here and known to do closed rhino is Dr.Park.

I wouldn't know anything about rib grafts, sorry!

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What is the website address for JW and Dream? Is it in English? Also, could you place links to nose revision photos since I am unable to read Korean to navigate the website.

 

[koreasaurus]

skylight said: ↑

What is the website address for JW and Dream? Is it in English? Also, could you place links to nose revision photos since I am unable to read Korean to navigate the website.

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JW:
http://www.jwbeauty.com/eng/index.jsp

Dream:
http://en.e-dream.co.kr/

The websites are in English so you should be able to navigate yourself.

 

[beautyperfect]

koreasaurus said: ↑

6. RECOVERY
My mom and I were both told our surgeries were successful so we just enjoyed the rest of the trip and passed time by going on tours, shopping, etc. During my stay in Korea, I went to sooo many places but didn’t see a single person that had bandages or a mask on outside the clinic lol. Okay, so maybe I saw like 2-3 people with a mask on, but that’s out of thousands of people I saw every day. Even so, I never got stared out or pointed out (that I know of). I didn’t feel embarrassed or strange wearing a mask even though it was obvious I had surgery done.

The first two nights after I had rhinoplasty were the absolute WORST. I’ve never felt so much discomfort in my life, especially at night when I would go to sleep because of the packing inside my nose. I literally didn’t sleep for two days, not because I didn’t want to, but because I couldn’t. I have had a stuffy and congested nose before, but packing is on a WHOLE different level. I was exhausted and jet lagged but every time I would doze off, it felt like I was being choked by the packing. I hate to be dramatic but IT FELT LIKE I WAS GOING TO DIE lol. So yeah, let’s have a moment of silence for those that had to have packing in both nostrils because it was no joke. I don’t mean to scare anyone about the packing, but ohhh you should be scared lol. But if I was able to survive it, so can you!

I was counting down the days, hours, minutes, seconds until I was scheduled to go back to JW to have the packing out. Ohhh and when that packing came out, it felt sooo good. It was like I was able to breathe better than ever before. I’ve never slept sooooo good like I did that night, either. Anyways, when the cast came off with the packing, my nose looked really swollen/bulbous from front view but I was in love with my profile/45 angle view. The day after packing/cast was taken off, my whole face started to swell up. My small face shape now became a big square blob, and it stayed that way for a good 6-7 days, just gradually getting back to normal every day. I was hideous haha. Luckily my mom didn’t have the same problem but I assume it’s because she only got her eyes done and not her nose. The only swelling she got was around her cheeks, and that was easily hidden by her glasses.

Every 1-2 days we visited JW to get our hair washed, LED deswelling treatment, and then eventually our stitches taken out and our last visit with our surgeons. I mentioned before that JW was quite busy when I was there so it was about an hour wait to get out hair washed/deswelling treatment. The receptionists that work at JW don’t really speak much English, but it wasn’t bad enough to where it caused a problem. If I ever had a question I would just talk to Emily either through kakao or in person and she would always respond immediately despite how busy she was.

The day my mom and I were going to leave, we saw the surgeons one last time and was given a couple packages of pumpkin juice from Emily. It tasted nasty, but each package only contained a small amount so it was drinkable. My mom was given a prescription to get artificial tears at a pharmacy right around the corner of JW so make sure to have some money left over in case you need a prescription for something! My mom and I said our goodbyes, and JW had a pick-up service take us back to the airport.

7. BACK HOME & THOUGHTS
I came back home a couple days ago and all my face swelling seems to be gone (I was told my face looks skinnier for some reason haha). My eyes have been looking better and better every day. In the morning it swells worse and at night it looks the best. It was a bit consistent today though and looked good all day. The crease is still high, but every day it has been looking more natural. I’m less than 2 weeks post-op, but my family members can’t even tell I’m swelling anymore. My nose has been looking less bulbous every day and I’m starting to like the front view now! It’s definitely still my nose, just a little bit more narrow. It’s deeefinitely a very subtle change which is exactly what I wanted. My under eyes look a little better than before, but I still feel “tightness” underneath my left eye. It’s been getting better though, and was told the tight feeling should go away in a month or so. My alar scars are still visible so I’ve been putting ointment on it 3 times a day. It’s easy to cover up with makeup though, so I don’t mind if it takes a while to fully disappear. Overall, I’m very happy with everything! JW had excellent service, great surgeons, and I can’t thank Emily enough. I’m really loving my results every day, and can’t wait to see the final results!

My mom is definitely swelling more than me now, mostly in her cheek area. She was told it’ll take a couple months for the swelling to go away so she’s patiently waiting. She is unhappy that she can’t play sports for a couple weeks, but she too agrees that JW treated us well.

Anyways, yeah…that was my journey! I’m still early in the recovery process, but I wanted to share my little story with everyone! I’ll be happy to share information or pictures through kakao so you can PM me for my kakao ID!

I wish everyone a great surgery and a speedy recovery and thanks to everyone that has helped contribute to the plastic surgery section of Purseforums !

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Koreasaurus, I'm happy for you that your ps is successful. I wanted to correct my droopy eyes and get rhino too. Will you add me on kakaotalk, it's beautyperfect. I can't do direct messages since I'm new here.

 

[blasian]

Thank you for this post!

 

[koreasaurus]

Beautyperfect said: ↑

Koreasaurus, I'm happy for you that your ps is successful. I wanted to correct my droopy eyes and get rhino too. Will you add me on kakaotalk, it's beautyperfect. I can't do direct messages since I'm new here.

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Thanks!
I'll send you a message on kakao (:

Edit: I tried looking up your ID but nothing came up...

 

[koreasaurus]

blasian said: ↑

Thank you for this post!

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No problem!