koreasaurus Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 Heeey guys! So I came back from Korea a couple days ago and felt like leaving a review of my experience! First off, I wanted to thank everyone that has helped throughout this whole process. Very special thanks to K Couture and everyone in my March Kakao chatroom (you know who you guys are!) Ive been wanting to get plastic surgery for years now, and now that I finally got it done it still seems surreal haha. Honestly, the whole time just felt surreal. I JUST WENT TO SOUTH KOREA AND HAD PLASTIC SURGERY GUYS. Yeah still doesnt seem to click with me yet. So this might be a little long, but I promise Ill try not to drag on about everything! Ill try to organize MY BOOK the best I can, so bare with me!1. INTRODUCTION Soo a little about me! Im in my mid 20s and have been wanting surgery since I was about 18. I disliked my large nose and sleepy eyes. I discovered Purseforums a couple years ago but didnt really research until about a 1-2 years ago. I literally went through every single thread and read every post regardless of what surgery it was for. I finally narrowed my clinics down to Dream and JW and ultimately decided on JW when I consulted with them (Ill go into more details later!) Coming with me on my trip was my mom. My dad sent her to go with me since he didnt want me to go to South Korea alone, nor did he want to go either lol. She wanted to get the top and bottom of her eyes done like me. I have to admit that this trip wouldnt have been the same if my mom wasnt there. Having company around, especially in a foreign country to have surgery really lightened things up. If youre not able to find someone to travel with you, being in a Kakao group helps a lot as well!2. PREPARATION I did my research in and out of Purseforums. I contacted as many former patients from Dream/JW that I could and asked them about their experience. I wanted both my nose and eyes done so I did research on the nose specialist, eye specialist, and anesthesiologists that worked at each clinic. After narrowing down my clinics, I pretty much booked my flight and hotel and played the waiting game. I booked 3 months in advance, and boy was that a long wait! 2 weeks before surgery was probably the healthiest Ive ever eaten haha. Its not about just preparing your mind, but your body too! There are lists you can find that tell you what medications/foods to avoid before and after surgery. Id strongly suggest following them; you dont want to take any chances, right? The most helpful item I brought with me were 100% Q-tips. You CANNOT pack enough of these!! I underestimated the amount I needed to bring and ended up having to go out and buy more after surgery. I used Q-tips for both my eyes and nose multiple times a day and suggest you carry a spare pack just in case! 3. ARRIVAL & HOTEL So after an 18 hour flight with barely any sleep, I landed in Korea! I was quite excited so I didnt feel tired at all. I only had 9 days in Korea so my schedule was extremely tight. So we arrived at our hotel (Hotel Sunshine) which was quite a decent hotel which was in an absolutely perfect location. If you know where youre going to have surgery, I would highly suggest getting a place to stay as close to the clinic as possible. JW was literally a 3 minute walk from Hotel Sunshine and Dream was about a 5 minute walk. Also, there are soooo many plastic surgery clinics down this road. SO MANY. The hotel itself was okay, the biggest gripe I had with it was how hot it was, especially at night. I woke up sweaty at night a couple times, but my body eventually got used to it after the first couple of nights. Also, keep in mind that I am a spoiled American that has their AC on blast at all times like a meat locker, so that probably had something to do with it Every time I would go back to my hotel room, I would just leave the window open. Thank goodness it was quite chilly in Korea, too! I cant imagine staying here during the hot summer. Also, there is a club right next to Hotel Sunshine that was open a couple nights during the week. I think during my short stay, the club was open 3 nights in a row. There was only 1 night out of the 3 where I could literally hear people from the club/street talking from midnight to 5AM lol. I was also on the 7th floor (Highest floor) and if I understood Korean I would have been able to make out what each person was saying. It was THAT loud. If I wasnt so tired from my trip, I probably wouldnt have been able to sleep through it. Youll also hear cars honking occasionally Im not sure if its just drivers in Gangnam, but they are so bad. Like, SO bad. Make sure to pay 100% attention when youre walking on the street and crossing the road. The room also offered no safe or microwave, but they had a tiny fridge you could store food/drinks in. The night after I had rhinoplasty, I ordered room service food and although it was a bit pricy (to be expected), the food was delicious! The service/staff itself was wonderful and the front desk spoke decent English and were willing to help. Our room was always clean when my mom and I got back to the hotel, and even with the gripes that I mentioned, I would still definitely recommend this hotel if your clinic is near it. OH YEAH, also, there is a convenience store right infront of Hotel Sunshine thats open 24/7 so that was very convenient as well. The staff at the convenience store was also very helpful at teaching us how to microwave our food. Dont be shy to ask for help! Everyone Ive encountered was friendly and happy to help! The hotel also offered a buffet in the morning for a decent price, but there are plenty of restaurants in Gangnam, so youll have a lot of choices! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
koreasaurus Posted April 6, 2015 Author Share Posted April 6, 2015 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! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
koreasaurus Posted April 6, 2015 Author Share Posted April 6, 2015 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 ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenna56 Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 I'm so happy for you!! I've been considering JW a lot and this is definitely putting it at the top of my list. Everyone says the nose packing is terrible, but when I got my first rhinoplasty I didn't even know it was in my nose, lol! Then they pulled it out and I was able to breathe through my nose for the first time in my life, it was like my world had changed completely. I guess it wasn't as bad for me because I never knew what it was like to be able to breathe through your nose, but now that I sort of can I'm dreading having to go through that again. I was throwing up blood when I got it done, I don't think it gets worse than that at least T_T Were you asleep for the rhino, or just kind of loopy like the other procedures? Also, were the treatments after surgery included in the cost or did you pay for them? Ahhh again I'm so happy for you! I love reading these stories. It must feel really awesome to have such great results and such a successful trip! x Jenna Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
koreasaurus Posted April 6, 2015 Author Share Posted April 6, 2015 Thanks Jenna!! Lucky that you didn't have as bad as an experience with nose packing like I did! Err throwing up blood sounds kinda scary though! For the rhino, I was under deep IV Sedation but I wasn't asleep. I was just really "high" and it felt like the procedure was only 5 minutes, similar to the under eye bag procedure. After the surgery, I received like a little goody bag that had medication. Those were for free. The only thing that we had to pay out of pocket was for my mom's artificial tear drop prescription after her lower blepharoplasty. Thanks so much, goodluck on your journey !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skinnypig Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 Thanks so much for the detailed post! This is really helpful and I appreciate it I'm so glad that you had a safe surgery and seem to be pleased with your choice and result! There have been so many great reviews about JW, so I'll be considering them. It is a shame you didn't get to consult Dream though! I'll PM you my kakao id shortly. I remember you describing your nose and that we both had the same-ish nose / wanted to get the same procedures done to our nose. So I'm really interested in seeing how your new nose looks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
koreasaurus Posted April 6, 2015 Author Share Posted April 6, 2015 Thank you! My anxiety was really off the charts while I was flying to Korea, but I'm glad the surgery went well too and all I need to do is heal now~ I was actually strongly considering Dream, especially since a member from my March Kakao group had lovely results with them a week or two before my departure haha. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dream17 Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 Thank you for such a detailed & long post! Congrats to you that you finally gather the courage and go ahead with the surgery & have such a smooth experience! I will also be doing my eyes during June & your post is making me consider JW as my top choice! Anyway, during the eye surgery when they inject local anaesthesia into your eyes, was it painful? I read somewhere that during the eye surgery, they inject it into the flesh underneath the eyelids, which sounds extremely painful to me @.@ Also, are you satisfied with how your eyes are looking now? Since 2 weeks have passed, they are most probably less swollen! Will you post a pic of your eyes here? ^^ If you are unable to do so for privacy reason, please kakao me at: Dream198, i will appreciate it sooooo much! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
koreasaurus Posted April 6, 2015 Author Share Posted April 6, 2015 Hey, no problem and thanks a lot! I didn't feel any pain when local anesthesia was injected in me, like, AT ALL. I wasn't even aware they started surgery until I asked 10 minutes into it because I didn't feel anything at all lol. I'm very satisfied with my new eyes, especially the shape. My eyes are still swollen though so it still looks a bit unnatural, but they are looking better everyday I'll go ahead and kakao you~ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ulzzang-quest Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 Thanks for sharing your experience, koreasaurus! I'm glad your results are pleasing! For your lower eyelids, did they make an incision on the outside (under lash line), or from the inside (flipping lower lid over to make the cut and extract the fat pad(s))? Also, it's interesting that they didn't schedule your procedures on the same day, any idea why? And is your Kakao ID the same? Hope you're liking the results more and more each day! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
koreasaurus Posted April 6, 2015 Author Share Posted April 6, 2015 Thank you, and no problem~ For my under eyes, they did an incision from the inside by flipping my lids over--so no visible scars or stitches that needed to be taken out! I was under IV Sedation for this so the whole thing felt like it happened quickly, and I only felt pain for a couple minutes when Dr.Kim was stitching up the left side. Yeah, I had my eye surgery first, then my nose surgery the next day. The only reason I could think of why they did this was because they were busy. There wasn't a factory feel though since Emily was very attentive, even after I came back home to the states she still responds quickly if I have any questions or concerns. PM me for my kakao ID! It's not the same as my username here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wishingstar Posted April 7, 2015 Share Posted April 7, 2015 Congrats on your successful recovery, Koreasaurus, and thanks so much for sharing your experiences! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
koreasaurus Posted April 7, 2015 Author Share Posted April 7, 2015 No problem (:! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nilesy Posted April 7, 2015 Share Posted April 7, 2015 Given that I can't send private messages to Purseforum, and in the event that the mod who deleted my message might read this, please be aware that I am known to Koreasaurus. We are in the same KakaoTalk group so it isn't bullying though it might have seemed that way. So basically, just vindicating myself. You're welcome to ask Koreasaurus to confirm. Moreover if you look at my post history, it's not likely that I would be someone to be breaking the rules. That said, I don't want to derail the thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
koreasaurus Posted April 7, 2015 Author Share Posted April 7, 2015 Lol Nilesy, you're gonna get banned if you don't behave (; Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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