csolare Posted May 8, 2018 Posted May 8, 2018 EDIT: I'M SO SORRY THIS IS SO LONG SLJDEF this is exactly what happened with my review last year haha. It's labeled out of convenience though! Hey guys! I've been pretty active on this forum for the better part of 1.5 years and I'm about 2 weeks post op with GNG. First and foremost, I'd like to preface my review. If you look at the way I generally talk/review the clinics that I choose, you can refer to my double eyelid surgery thread with Teuim from last year. I write very detailed reviews because I feel like anything less is rather useless for anyone interested so I'm sorry about the length! Prior to even meeting with GNG, I had plans to review them on PF because they were gaining a lot of attention/traction, for better or for worse. You can pm me for additional details and I'd be glad to talk to you! I've always been incredible insecure about my facial profile. In fact, I probably don't have more than dozen photos from my childhood because I absolutely despised taking photos. The asymmetry in my face made me look a million times worse in front of a camera and I didn't want anything to do with it (which I regret now, but I'm not sure if it would have changed my course of action.) I obsessed over my face for the majority of the day and teetered between not being able to look at my face yet constantly staring at it. I don't think I'm horrible looking, but there was just something so off about my face. My mother is a naturally stunning woman and it made me feel even more displeased about my unfortunate genes. I already knew I was eventually going to get rhinoplasty, fg, and fc, but I just didn't know where or when. Idk if it's just me but I couldn't find a single rhinoplasty clinic that I felt could deliver to my satisfaction–at least, not from the names I was familiar with. I was fully prepared to do as many consultations as I could with more local clinics, seeing as how I was uninterested with my current options, when I stumbled across GNG. After months of coordinating with my consultant Julia and doing an obsessive amount of research, cross posting here and there, reading up on qualifications for this and that, I was confident in GNG's ability to get me the results I wanted. Note: They used to reply just fine but I know people have been having trouble with their response rate. I personally always received a response within 1-2 days but after staying there I and some of my friends realized how busy they were, responding to patients, doing consultations, and visiting the in-house recovery patients. They really do take their time with their patients but that comes at a cost in other areas. I really do hope they pick up their response rate because it really does give people the wrong idea lol. That's one thing that saddens me to hear and perhaps one of the few complaints I actually have. Anyway~ I talked to many people who were happy patients, and even upon reading some dissatisfied results, I made my decision. Surgery is a relative thing; you'll never find a place that's completely perfect and the opinions of everyone are rather skewed to their own experiences so your job is to read between the lines. Every, and I mean every single clinic has good and bad results. I suggest drawing your own conclusions from your research and determining what is more important to you~ the most important thing is talking to people privately! You'll often find they're willing to have a more intimate conversation when it's one on one ^^ In any case, this is 100% my own opinion and I don't pretend to represent anyone other than myself. Anyway, enough about that. I secured my deposit during that new year's promotional period and was off to Korea. The driver picked me up at around midnight and Hazel greeted me over the phone. The car smelled so nice but that's just a sidenote haha.
csolare Posted May 8, 2018 Author Posted May 8, 2018 CONSULTATION: Finally met Julia! She's an absolute sweetheart and was so sympathetic to my concerns. She and the other consultants immediately made me feel at ease! The consultation floor smells amazing btw. I feel like I have to ask them what diffuser they use lmao. All doctors asked me what my primary concern was, to hear how I viewed my own insecurities before suggesting a procedural plan moving forward. I really appreciated this because I’m the type of person to obsess over the details and overthink exactly what it is I need and don’t need, and my requests were very specific; I wanted a dramatic change but a natural, button like nose with a lower bridge and a face that was more round than v shaped. Despite my desires for a natural outcome, I didn't want to look like I had gotten nothing done. I wanted people to look at me and think, "Wow, she looks so much prettier but I'm not sure why..." I didn’t want my face to be subject to whatever the surgeons felt like doing, nor did I want them to be too accommodating to my uneducated opinion, so to have these people willingly listen to my concerns before pushing any procedures onto me made me feel very at ease. The consultant is surprisingly very knowledgeable (but obviously the opinion of the surgeon matters the most.) I only say this because a lot of consultants, quite frankly speaking, aren’t. I originally went in wanting to consult with the eye surgeon, Dr. Park to discuss ptosis/forehead lifting. Though they definitely agreed I had weak forehead muscles, they told me that ptosis alone was not the issue (which I already knew beforehand, thanks to my own research and discussions with my previous eye surgeon.) Since endotine forehead lifting is a larger surgery than some may realize, they recommended against doing it this time as 1) I’m very young and can always do it later and 2) I was doing so many procedures it would not be a wise idea to pull my face in so many different directions, especially with the fat graft. If I wanted it in the future, I was told I can consider it perhaps 6 months post op and I appreciated the honesty. Plus, I probably wouldn't be able to afford it at the time anyway since it was a last minute consideration haha. I found that the GNG consultants and doctors are very much about YOU, which, generally speaking, can be a blessing and a curse because what if you don’t know what’s best for you and demand to do something that you don’t necessarily need? This was my primary concern going in–that they would perhaps listen to me too much or be flippant? Though they are very accommodating to your needs and constantly stressed that it was my option to do this or that, they did draw a line where they felt I did not need a certain procedure. Forehead lifting is expensive anywhere you go, so I was partially thankful for that. I was on the fence about zygoma reduction because of the added expense (lol you can see a pattern) even though it was a huge area of concern for me. I opted out of zygoma reduction this time around and did vline instead. The fat grafting would help even my contour anyway. DR CHOI / FC CONSULTATION : Dr. Choi was kind and courteous but straightforward. Don’t feel intimidated to ask any questions because it’s your face!!! It can feel a bit nerve-wracking what with the Korean consultant, the doctor, and the translator al in one room, but all of them were so nice. Again, I cannot stress this enough. Ignore the anxiety and the apprehension and ask your own questions at your own pace. After looking at my CT scan for a bit, he asked me what my primary concern was and I explained to him it was my chin, along with the general uneven contour of my face. They asked for reference photos and I showed them the photos that I liked ( they recognized the person too haha.) We spent the most time talking about my mandible and chin, and then brought up my concern about my zygoma area. I told Julia that my zygoma area really bothered me but I’m just not sure if I can budget for it at the moment (and I wasn’t sure if I could just hold off on it until I was sure I wanted it, as my cheeks run low and I was concerned about how it would hold up. This is evident through my cheek dimples.) Dr. Choi addressed this and said it would be recommended if you wanted a “perfect” line, but my zygomatic arch didn’t protrude so much that I would look weird without it, so it was really up to me. In any case, the fat graft would help to mask the issue. He did stress the important of mandible reduction in my case, as my particular case would have required it for the genioplasty to look more natural. I didn't have that many questions and felt super comfortable with his skill so I was on my way!DR. KIM / FAT GRAFT Next, Dr. Kim for fat grafting and anti aging procedures. Her English is fine already and the consultant rarely had to speak! The consultation was more brief but for good reasons, because I was already sure I wanted fat grafting and didn't have that many questions (though she was very patient with me!) She recommended forehead, under-eyes (I have genetic sunken eyes and shadowing) and nasolabial folds. She fully answered my questions about looking “overfilled,” scarring, donor site concerns etc… She’s very gentle and kind ^^ The consultants also gave me free forehead botox to help prevent the forehead fg from absorbing too quickly, since I tend to lift it a lot.DR. SEONG / RHINOPLASTY And now we get to the meat and potatoes of the post lmao. Everyone interested in GNG is trying to decide between Dr. Hong or Dr. Seong, claiming that one is better at this than the other, arguing about this and that etc etc... I say that when you have surgeons who have been doing this for more than a decade, it matters less than you might think. Now of course, this philosophy is highly contingent on the variety of noses that a surgeon does. If they all tend to look the same with little variety then you might actually want to take that into consideration, but I noticed that their noses tend to really fit harmoniously with the patient's face. Yes, Dr. Seong tends to do some of the more natural looking rhinoplasties (natural not always meaning unnoticeable but rather, more button nose like?) but I chose him because I saw a few noses he did that were relatively similar to mine with an outcome that I liked! This may alarm some people but this was actually the shortest consultation out of all of them. The only reason for this is that I didn't have any questions. The consultation is really only as long as you wish for it to be; it can be an hour long or 10 minutes long lol it's all up to you. I was so incredibly paranoid about my nose walking in, but Dr. Seong addressed all of my concerns within the first few minutes. I gave him some references photos + emphasized my personal aesthetic concerns. For some reason, despite my nerve-wracking anxiety, all of my concerns just melted away when I heard how confident he was. It didn't come from a place of cockiness, but of practice. It was an unspoken attitude where it felt like "Hey, I've done this many times before and I know it's going to be great. Here's what we can do. Easy!" I just felt like I could put all of my trust in him despite my nose actually being the point of most concern. We decided on a super thin silicone implant (my choice, they said cartilage would be great since I’m only looking for a slight bridge augmentation but for the hundredth time, I was on a budget haha) with tip plasty and osteotomy. He fully explained the need for osteotomy as well since that was quite unexpected for me. I always thought my nose was ridiculously squishy/large looking despite not being thick or bulbous, and the bone was the reason why. Don't be too nervous if you didn't ask everything you wanted to. Remember, you have a final consultation on your surgery day so if you forgot to tell them anything or would like to shift your phrasing, you still have time ^^ It’s probably better to be more specific on that day anyway.
csolare Posted May 8, 2018 Author Posted May 8, 2018 NEGOTIATING I went back and forth with my mom on the phone for like an hour during pricing discussions but they were super nice about it and allowed me to talk in an empty room. One thing I can say is that the consultants care a lot about your desired outcome as well. I would recommend not solely focusing on price but on what you want to get out of your surgery. Both are important and internal compromise may or may not be necessary ! At least in my personal experience, they kept my desires at the forefront of their mind even if it is still a business and money is the driving factor. We'd be foolish not to take this into consideration. But with the way I was treated, I felt very much at ease with putting my face in their hands..? haha. Price was a factor for me, as it obviously was for them, but even as I was going back and forth with this and that, they addressed all of my concerns and helped me to decide what I was going to do. We went ahead with more scans, bloodwork, urine samples, etc…which were completed very quickly. Then, I had to sign the contracts. I’m going to be honest, nothing should come as a surprise to you if you thoroughly read those contracts because they’re incredibly long and outline everything from infection rates to all potential complications. My head was spinning after signing one for each procedure lol. After a while, I went down to pay. By the way! I was particularly nervous because I have a tragus earring that became embedded inside my ear (the back is completely swallowed whereas you can still see the front piece) and in the US, you’d typically be referred to an ENT surgeon to remove it. Apparently, you can go to a medical piercing shop in Korea or the ER, but this was very last minute. They were so sympathetic and asked me tons of questions about it. They took me up to the treatment center where they weren’t quite sure what to do since its not In their area of expertise, but eventually took the time to find a reputable medical shop near my home and wrote me a small memo to take to them (since my conversational korean can only take me so far when explaining things like this lol.) Big thanks to Henny and Julia! FINAL CONSULT Won't go too much into detail here since it largely varies but I had quick final consultations since I tend to speak very cohesively. All the consultants seem very close/get along and it makes you feel so at ease being around people who are relaxed and jovial so early in the morning, which was great because I could hear my heart pounding! I was so nervous I felt lightheaded, especially because I had the piercing issue (long story short, my earring situation was a bit more complicated and required a trip to the ER but I would have had to wait too long so I just didn't do it. Not as serious as it sounds, Korean people tend to go to the ER if they can't go anywhere else lol.) If i'm going to be honest, I actually felt less nervous as the surgery time loomed closer. It was roughly 10am; I was talking to a friend to help me preorder something at 12pm and tbh THAT made me more nervous lol. The nervous and shakiness came back when I walked into the theatre, though. I had the typical pre surgery jitters–feeling like i should have been more specific or given more time or whatever. Julia was so nice and helped ease my nerves. She's been such a sweetheart this entire time and I cannot thank her enough! Okay, by the way. I can handle just about any kind of gore and a high pain tolerance but I have an insane fear of needles. However, needles hurt way less in Korea than in America! I noticed this from last year at Teuim and my thoughts are confirmed lol they're probably smaller? Better technique? Idk but I don't even remember feeling the IV needle enter my body until the fluids started coming in. I breathed in and next thing I knew I was being woken up. I was so dizzy and woozy and could barely see because I was so watery eyed but I was lead into a wheelchair and taken to my room. Had to breathe deeply to get rid of anesthesia! After a couple hours I was allowed to drink water and rest. My first night was so damn rough lol. I didn't notice my iv was leaking (they wouldn't know unless you told them ) until like a few hours in because I thought it was my ice pack soaking my sleeve. I was in agony, not because of pain (it was at most a 4-5 throbbing) but a maximum level of discomfort. The IV has phlegm and pain meds so my throat was so clogged up. It felt like the night lasted 100 hours and I kept sleeping for a few mins and waking up. Breathing wasn't hard, just the phlegm was awful. I was fine after they switched arms because it actually leaked from my right arm multiple times. The worst part about the first night is the waiting game. Other than that, the nurses were at least super kind and responded very promptly to my requests haha. They check your blood pressure and administer meds tons of times so it was really just a waiting process. I slept fine for a whole 2 hours after the iv calmed down my phlegm and the 2nd day was soo much better. I could sleep for several hours before waking up, which feels great! I wasn’t too tired. Throbbing yes, but I could move, hold my phone up, and walk! I totally forgot to eat so I basically went without food for like 2.5-3 days..oops lol but make sure to drink tons of water to clear out the phlegm! My nose was completely blocked due to the packing, which was removed on post op day 2. That was incredibly uncomfortable but not necessarily painful. My mouth was super dry and swollen, it was awful. I drank pumpkin porridge and meal replacements (which I liked a lot) and lots of water. Took off my face cast post op day 1 and was instructed to wear the compression garment every other hour. it gave me a slight headache due to the tightness but the more you wear it, the more it stretches! The worst part was honestly the watery eyes. They were so itchy and uncomfortable due to the swelling from the rhino and forehead/undereye fat graft and it honestly kept me up all night. It gradually got better throughout the next few days, though. I did some more oxygen therapy and treatments (the pressure is weird but I just dealt with it and took a short nap lol.) Tip: Make sure to keep yourself entertained. They have a TV but I'm never really in the mood for that so bring your charger phone, etc etc...hell, bring your laptop if you want, no one's stopping you! Walk around a lot! I was discharged around 11 am with thorough post op instructions, a list of medications + multivitamins, juice, ice packs, face masks, nose packing (to catch any mucous or blood) and probably some other things that I can't quite remember.
csolare Posted May 8, 2018 Author Posted May 8, 2018 DAY 02 post op I'm still very swollen but I look better and feel better too. Nose is pretty uncomfortable but otherwise I'm browsing the internet and talking to friends just fine. Thighs are sore from the fat grafting donor sites. I was told I could remove my chin tape and thigh tape tomorrow myself! Nose is bleeding a little- totally normal. As long as its not huge amounts. Just diligently keeping up with aftercare, waiting for tomorrow. The compression garment gets easier to put on, especially as you become less afraid of hurting yourself with the pressure lol. You have to gargle saline and rinse your mouth after eating or drinking anything that's not water, but I wasn't too hungry anyway.DAY 03 Please make sure to walk as much as you can! Literally no one gives you a second glance. They don't care enough to, and it's one of the best things you can do for your swelling! Even walking for 40 mins helped some of my bruising go from green to mostly yellow and I was able to close my mouth more! I look ridiculous but its ok~ My eyes.. are so uncomfortable. Gosh, I hate it and I can't even put contacts in because I can't tug on my eyes or open them very wide lol. By the way, my skin is disgusting, as all post op skin is. Sigh.DAY 07 MY EYES ARE FINALLY MOSTLY NORMAL! I was able to carefully fit in contacts around this time from the bottom then sliding them up. I'm more or less still incredibly swollen. I heal way more slowly than most people so even Dr. Choi and Julia were pretty surprised to see my bruising! I got my cast taken off (not that bad) and my stitches removed (barely painful) and got to see my new nose~ Here's a piece of advice: don't look at yourself too much for the first few weeks. It's better than your nose look too bulbous in the beginning so that it deswells nicely. If you're nose looks super perfect immediately after cast removal, you may find that it heals to look pinched/fake. You just went through a lot of facial trauma and you need to give yourself time to heal. Stressing about it is pretty useless tbh. It's normal to feel nervous, but even as the consultants tell you during your contract signing, you need to give yourself time before you have any negative thoughts. That being said, though my nose looked pretty ridiculous immediately after removal, the shape was nice and I could tell it was going to heal nicely. I can eat slightly chewier foods now especially because I didn't do zygoma reduction. I never really had a problem in the first place, it was more that I couldn't really open my mouth very wide haha. I started eating small bites of ddukbokki, soondae, and chicken about a week afterward! Skin is still gross. Technically you can put on makeup at this time but I wouldn't even try since it looks so awful lol. I started to do some peeling gels and skincare about a week and a half post op before I even thought about putting on any kind of makeup.THOUGHTS SO FAR (POST OP 2 WEEKS) As the days go by, everything is deswelling more and more. Facial contouring makes your lips look pretty small, especially coupled with rhinoplasty. I also got lip fillers about 10 days post op so I'm even happier haha. I always had relatively voluminous lips but they were so uneven so I just evened them out a bit. Everything is still super swollen but even then I can see a significant improvement in my facial contour! Isn't it crazy that I dread taking photos less now than before even though I have tons of swollen tissue? My two other roommates (from PF) saw my pre op photos are were pretty surprised haha. The fact that it can only get better from here is very reassuring. I totally look "human" right now but FC tends to take at least a month until you can really start to see a shape. It'll take a few months (3-6 typically) before you can smile properly and the majority of the numbness goes away. My nose is looking great! Obviously I wouldn't be satisfied if this were the final result but the beautiful thing is that I'm only 2 weeks post op and it's only looking better and better. I have super high hopes that I'm going to get the button nose of my dreams (kind of. My nostrils/alar wings are naturally uneven so I just have to deal with that but everything is looking good!) As for the fat graft, I'm still bruised even 2 weeks post op but it's more green/yellow at this point. My fat graft is looking amazing and though I'm still swollen, I couldn't be happier about actually having a forehead! My undereye area is looking pretty smooth so once the bruising goes away I'll be super happy. My nose tip is obviously still swollen but I'm over the moon about the shape and I'm excited to see how it heals in the next couple of months. The slope is pretty and my columella scar is healing beautifully! I'm relieved about that because I was super nervous about the incision–I suffer from pretty bad hyper-pigmentation. Again, I heal super slowly (but I guess this is sort of a blessing for fat graft haha.) Depending on how long you're staying in Korea, your final follow up will vary. I just had mine since I'm staying for a while and went in for a final check up with Dr. Choi and received some deswelling injections. I'm coming back in July to accompany my sister for her fat grafting appointment but even so, I feel so incredibly grateful and indebted to everyone involved for making this entire journey so pleasant. And shoutout to my wonderful roommates haha. I miss you guys already! I'll update this thread as I see more significant improvements but as of right now, I'm just riding the waves of recovery. ^^ I'll post photos later if requested! Sorry if this is a bit incoherent! I wrote a lot of it in the moment as I was recovering. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment and/or pm me~
135gf Posted May 8, 2018 Posted May 8, 2018 @csolare this is so helpful! Thank you for taking the time to post such a detailed review. It would be amazing if you could share before and after pictures.
nochu Posted May 8, 2018 Posted May 8, 2018 Great reviews with lots of useful details. The IV leaking thing is something I’ll have to remember to check for. I’ll def check out your Teium review too, your style of storytelling to enjoyable to read. How long after your initial consultation where you able to go into surgery? How often did you go back for aftercare during the recovery period?
csolare Posted May 9, 2018 Author Posted May 9, 2018 Thanks so much! I'm glad it was enjoyable to read ^^ It doesn't happen to anyone really, but I have a feeling my right arm didn't want to be poked haha. Definitely notify them if anything feels off though! I did my consultation 2 days before surgery because most clinics are "closed" on Sunday but you could do same day surgery if you wanted. I had an appointment for stitches removal and then 2 follow ups (for treatments as well as final follow up with Dr. Choi.) This will vary depending on how long you stay but you should have at least 2!
csolare Posted May 9, 2018 Author Posted May 9, 2018 No problem! This isn't nearly the final result though. It's still super swollen–you can see how the tip bulges out wider than the bridge but here are some progress photos throughout the past 2 weeks. It'll continue to drastically de-swell but it's already looking better from day 01 post cast removal! Sorry for the gross skin post op haha. My nostrils/alar wings are naturally uneven btw. My alars could have looked even smaller had I asked for a higher bridge but I wanted something natural!Pre Op (I barely remember my nose at this point this is crazy omg...) the osteotomy did wonders tbh! You can't tell too much in the photos I took but it's drastically different and looks so much smaller on my face as a whole! Post cast removal 1-12 days EDIT: idk why that last photo is there that was like like post cast day 3 or something haha oops!
xxzxxi Posted May 9, 2018 Posted May 9, 2018 Thank you for posting!!! I am looking at GNG as my clinic of choice so I really appreciate the detail ☺️ Hope I have the same experience
csolare Posted May 9, 2018 Author Posted May 9, 2018 And here's the vline progress. I have a lot of swollen tissue especially near the chin so this isn't necessarily accurate but looking back at old photos has me shocked! I've tried to conceal the more telling parts of my identity but you can pm me for more details haha. Pre Op:
csolare Posted May 9, 2018 Author Posted May 9, 2018 Post Op Days 1-13 (not every single day, just significant changes.) I asked for something more natural/ u-shaped but it should slim down within the next month! View attachment 4062339 View attachment 4062340
jasminx Posted May 9, 2018 Posted May 9, 2018 Omg even with the swelling I can tell it’s going to look good!!! Mind if I ask you some questions? I’m looking to do rhino and v line too but I’m really scared of pain like I have really low pain tolerance, on a scale of 1-10 how much would you rate the pain?? Honest :<
csolare Posted May 9, 2018 Author Posted May 9, 2018 I honestly didn't feel any pain with vline, but your experiences may vary. There was pressure and throbbing but that's about it. I didn't take any painkillers once I was discharged ^^ Now of course, the swelling is by far the most awful part. The first few days your lips are slimy yet dry (and I mean insanely dry) and don't even feel like a part of your body lol. Drink tons of water and bring vaseline for post op!! As for actual pain in my jaws or something, I didn't feel much, if anything. Tbh, I feel like the rhino was tougher than the vline which is probably opposite of what most people think! The rhino didn't hurt either but the pressure was there and the packing was very uncomfortable. Because you can't breathe with the packing in your nose, drinking or eating takes a bit of getting used to. As I said above, the phlegm/blood was pretty bad and I had to spit it out constantly by drinking water and then (very gently) coughing it out. But the worst part wasn't even that, it was waiting all night and all day for the packing removal and discharge ;~( Felt like a thousand hours when I was too tired to use my phone but unable to sleep! Despite being told by so many people that they "couldn't breathe"–which is what scared me the most–that's not necessarily true. You can breathe just fine and I didn't ever fear that I would pass out due to lack of breath, it's just stressful having to constantly cough out the phlegm and deal with tears and snot ;__; During the first night, pain/pressure/throbbing maybe peaked at a 5/10 (you're on painkillers anyway) and discomfort was easily an 11/10. Part of what made it so bad for me was the leaking iv. At worst, I had some headaches after that. After packing removal and discharge it was just an annoyance factor of 8/10 but not much pain (other than my eternally watering eyes, which stung and itched so much. It was pretty bad for about 6 days.) I don't know how to describe it. as far as pain, I've definitely experienced much, much worse, but the first night right out of surgery was probably the most uncomfortable and emotionally agonizing thing ever lol. Tbh though, it's just that one night. Afterward, things just get exponentially better, or at least relatively seem so.
lovelypeach Posted May 9, 2018 Posted May 9, 2018 @csolare Wow thank you so much for your detailed review. The results are great even if you're still swelling we can already tell the surgeon did a great job! Wish you a fast recovery girl
jasminx Posted May 9, 2018 Posted May 9, 2018 Oh man looks like I’ll have to look out for the discomfort. But I’m really glad you’ve already made it through!! Thanks for giving us such detailed responses I’m really thankful for them :> !!! I hope I’m as brave as you Edit: I supposed the pressure you are talkin about is something like sinus or blocked nose?
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