Trina's Blog: December 2016

My Plastic Surgery Experience in South Korea: Day 7 Banobagi Facial Contouring and Rhinoplasty Post-Surgery : Finally I can shower~ Eye mask, walking around Yeoksam and a summary of my 7 days of recovery!

Day 7 Post-Surgery

It's day 7!! I finally got to wash my hair today because I had my nose and zygoma stitch removal yesterday. I honestly felt so refreshed and so much better! The selfie on the left was taken this summer. I had a huge habit of hiding my large face and square jaw with my hair… Hopefully after I deswell more, I’ll have more confidence to try different hairstyles! ^^

As you can tell from the photo, my bruises have definitely gotten less yellow thanks to the laser treatment from yesterday. My nose is still swollen at the tip! Dr Lee did warn me that it would take about 3 months, and in that time my nose would look bigger and more upturned than it should do. I can clearly tell the difference that my nostrils don't look as exposed by comparing my selfies though!

I've mostly been walking around the guesthouse but today I decided to walk to Gangnam station to help with deswelling. Unfortunately by the time I left my guesthouse it was like 4 p.m. Why? Because I spent like an hour showering! It was so lovely to finally wash my hair again that I took so long lovingly brushing it out and conditioning it. My hair is really long so it demands a lot of time to take care of it. I lost so much hair 😭

I took these pictures before showering so I’m sorry for the messy hair ^^ I honestly think my swelling has gone down quite a bit and my bruising is much better too. Deswelling treatment work! I seriously love my side profile thanks to my new nose. Although rhinoplasty felt like a minor procedure compared to facial contouring, I feel like it's made the most difference to my face. Possibly because it's in the centre of my face 😂

Comparing side profiles! The difference is huge, but I still have a lot of swelling. I think I'm the type that recovers normally/a bit slower. My plump cheeks and high nose 😂 My new side profile is pretty cute!

Wearing my face band! I put it on for about 20 minutes today instead of 10 because I didn't feel any discomfort. I want to wear it as often as I can because I have a lot of facial fat which could potentially sag after zygoma and jaw surgery. Curse you gravity!

Eye mask and ice pack at the same time?

You can't get more relaxed than this.

My mum took this selfie with me in Starbucks. I'm still getting used to how I look in pictures now.There was a bit of snow outside today- it was definitely cold enough! It's so nice to get out and walk around. In winter it's also not weird to have a mask on to protect your face from the wind, compared to like summer where you would stand out a bit.

I would definitely recommend the walk from Yeoksam to Gangnam for deswelling. It was only about 10-15 minutes and there was lots to see on the way. Gangnam station also has lots of underground shopping and food stalls to drool over. I couldn't eat anything but I did discover a hidden gem:

A smoothie stand called Juicy! It was really affordable and delicious, I highly recommend it. If you go to the central food area, it's next to a coffee shop ^^

Recovery overview

I've gone from hospital bed to shopping in Gangnam in the first 7 days after surgery. I feel like it's been a really long 7 days!

Looking back at these photos, I feel like I’ve come really far in just 7 days. I think I can judge my deswelling progress based on how far my eyes manage to open 😂

The toughest part of the process was definitely the first few days. The first night after surgery was quite difficult but I feel stronger after overcoming it ^^ Making myself walk and get up to gargle and learning how to change the ice pack myself- I feel proud that I am recovering well.

The changes are starting to slow down already day by day, so I’ll carry on taking pictures but post a few times a week. There is definitely a long journey ahead with stitch removal still to come and more deswelling, so I will have a lot of updates! I'm excited to share my results with everyone <3

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My Plastic Surgery Experience in South Korea: Day 6 Banobagi Facial Contouring and Rhinoplasty Post Surgery: Nose Splint and stitches removal day! First time wearing face band and deswelling treatment from Banobagi Dermatology Clinic

banobagi 07:44

Day 6 Post Surgery

It's finally day 6! Nose splint removal day! To tell you the truth, I never really got used to having the plastic cast on my nose. Sometimes I would tap on it accidentally and it would make a really weird clink sound. It felt like I seriously got a Mr. Potato nose grafted onto my face. I'm also having my outer stitches taken out from my nose and zygoma incision sites, as well as deswelling treatment. Super excited and pretty nervous, since some people have said that stitch removal is painfully unpleasant. I’ll update with my version though. I am also seriously looking forward to washing my hair.

My appointment wasn’t until 1 p.m, so I decided to apply the cooling eye mask first! Popped it into the fridge for about 15 minutes and it was ready. It was genuinely the most relaxing thing ever, especially when I had my ice pack on my face as well. I felt like a chilled cucumber 😎

Took some random photos before stitch removal! Super nervous

Stitch removal appointment

I got to Banobagi’s lobby a bit early and waited around for a bit. It genuinely gets so packed in the afternoons! I was chatting with a lady sat next to me which was interesting because she couldn't speak a word of English and I was equally confused by Korean. Google translate also failed me so we made do with hand gestures. When my consultant came to fetch me she thought the lady was my mum! My actual mum was back in the guesthouse playing solitaire because she was too scared of stitch removal to come 😂

I was led up to the second floor and went into one of the smaller side rooms with a sort of dental chair and huge lights. The nurse was lovely and checked my condition. I got a real talking to 😭 It turns out that despite cleaning my nose a lot, I wasn’t actually cleaning it properly. She advised me on the proper way to do it and said that it should make stitch removal less painful if I clean my nose well.

By this point I was low-key scared about the stitch removal. I kept asking how painful it was going to be, like not that painful or seriously painful. I was so stressed out that they gave me a huge teddy bear to hug while I laid down for stitch removal.

IT WAS PAINLESS. I was so dramatic and dreading this day for nothing! The nurse was super experienced and gentle, the only sensation I felt was her clipping the stitch. It was over so quickly- nose, right incision, left incision. The removal of the nose splint was also not painful at all! Let me reassure you that I am a complete baby when it comes to pain and the most pain I've ever experienced is a sprained ankle. Outer stitch removal was a thoroughly painless experience!

My consultant warned me that removal of the inner stitches was super super painful by comparison and I started stressing out again. 😂

Glue and pen marks on my face 😂

After stitch removal, she explained to me how to use the face band to keep the skin firm and reduce sagging. Here's a pic of me wearing it:

Basically there are 3 sets of straps: one around the neck, two on top of the head.

My consultant told me to start wearing it for 5 minutes, then increase it by 5 minutes everyday until I can wear it for one hour. When I reach the one hour mark, I should try wearing it for 3 sets of one hour sessions per day.

It's important to have breaks between wearing it though, as it restricts circulation.

So if I wear the band for one hour, I’ll rest for another hour before wearing it again.

De-swelling treatment

After the ‘scary’ appointment comes the nice and relaxing one. My lovely consultant accompanied me to Banobagi’s Dermatology clinic to receive aftercare in the form of deswelling treatment. I was a bit nervous since I heard that some treatments involve being hooked up to an IV for ages or painful shots, but I was also sick of my swelling! It was like a 1 minute walk from the main clinic.

Banobagi Dermatology Clinic! It looks so modern and professional.

I waited in the lobby for a bit before meeting the director of the dermatology department. Had a flick through the brochures in the picture:

Woah the results are seriously impressive! The brochure was in Korean so I couldn't really read most of it, but the results speak for themselves ^^ it was for Fraxel Laser therapy. I had really bad acne as a teenager and was a bit traumatised by it; I wish there was something like this available back in London for reasonable prices.

After a short while, I went to meet the director! He was real friendly and poked my face a bit. I was trying to reassure him like I just had nose cast removal so there's still glue on my face, I don't have a huge skin problem. He was cool with it and said he’ll definitely give me laser treatment for the bruises under my eyes. He assured me that there was no pain without prompting. It's as if he read my mind!

I dropped off my coat and bag in the locker room, changed into slippers and was lead to a big room with lots of massage tables. The aesthetician had me lay down and started a machine which blew a lot of hot steam into my face to open up my pores. After, she gently removing the glue from my face. It was so relaxing, I could have fallen asleep.

I had my laser treatment straight after. The director himself was there and he was saying things like ‘don't worry’ in Mandarin. I was super shocked that he could speak some Mandarin before I got distracted by the laser treatment. It didn't hurt at all, but after each zap I could see a flash image of my eye which was weird. My eyes were protected by small metal goggles so I wasn't afraid for my safety or anything. Hopefully my eye bruises will be gone!

There were quite a few other people receiving treatment at the dermatology clinic, even people who still had their nose splints on. After the laser treatment, I had a face mask put on for about 15 minutes which was very soothing.

I really enjoyed my aftercare! ^^ By the time I got back to he guesthouse, my mum was like your bruises have seriously gotten better?! +1 for laser treatment! Thank you dermatology clinic <3

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My Plastic Surgery Experience in South Korea: Day 5 Banobagi Facial Contouring and Rhinoplasty Post- Surgery: Taking off face tape after facial contouring, cleaning incisions and pumpkin juice!

banobagi 07:39

Day 5 Post- Surgery

Today was the day I took off my face tape! To be honest, l was meant to take it off on Day 3. Please read the post-operative instructions carefully guys 😭 My new friend in the guesthouse advised me to ask my consultant, so I double-checked with Irene and she said it was fine. Warm water and oil can be used to help remove the glue from the tape. By day 5 the tape was already starting to come off by itself already, so I just absent-mindedly peeled off one side until the chin, peeled off the other side then gently pulled the tape from my chin.

Ta-da!

The brown stain you can see in the middle of the bandage is actually because of the brown-coloured mouthwash! It's not blood or anything like that. There's no wound on my chin itself. On the first few days, I was pretty bad at gargling because I couldn't really control my jaw and cheek muscles. The gargle leaked out a lot, leaving this stain. I’m happy to report that I am no longer a drooling machine.

My mum is helping me to plait my hair ^^ It’s been 5 days since I’ve washed my hair and face… I don't suffer any discomfort from it but this is probably the most gross I’ve felt for a while.

Here we go! My bruising still doesn't look great today, so I tried using some arnica cream and was careful not to let it get into my eyes.

The slight red discoloration in my sclera is called subconjunctival haemorrhage, which basically means there’s a broken blood vessel in my eye. Interestingly, it has taken on the shape of a small isosceles triangle. I can’t wear contact lenses until after it heals so I hope it goes soon~ usually it takes up to 2 weeks.

Cleaning my incisions~ Cleaning with dilute hydrogen peroxide solution to prevent infection is important. I clean the inside of my nose and behind my right ear 10x a day, and the other areas 3x a day.

A closeup on the small incision next to my ear! This was for my zygoma procedure, look at how small it is! My mum was scrutinising it closely and praising the doctor for his tiny and neat sutures. It's also skillfully hidden in my hair so when it heals, it won't look obvious at all.

The incision behind my ear is quite a bit bigger as Dr. Lee needed to use my ear cartilage for tiplasty. Honestly though it's behind my ear, no one can see and I'm not bothered by it.

I do try and clean it more often and apply ointment because it's larger than the other incisions. It's only to be expected because a lot of cartilage was probably needed for my nose- it was so small and short before!

Using ice pack to help with deswelling!

My jaw also aches sometimes and the ice pack really helps.

What’s this?! 😱 it's my dinner! My medicine should be taken after a meal, so I try to eat well beforehand. I’ve never really been exposed to pumpkins beyond Halloween decorations, so I couldn't get used to eating it. Everyone else I know doesn't mind it and I always see pumpkin porridge in food stalls in Seoul. I didn't want to miss out on the amazing healing properties of pumpkin though, so my mum came up with this idea:

Mash the pumpkin porridge thoroughly to make sure there aren't any solid products that will cause choking.
In another cup, pour some juice (we chose aloe vera) and add a few spoonfuls of pumpkin porridge
Mix thoroughly until it becomes a drink

It's seriously delicious guys ❤We’ve tried it with apple juice and it works well! This was basically my meal everyday along with the soy milk. Please try it!

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My Plastic Surgery Experience in South Korea: Day 4 Banobagi Facial Contouring and Rhinoplasty Post Surgery: Suddenly deswelling, facial numbness after facial contouring explained!

banobagi 07:01

Day 4 Post Surgery

From my photo before, you can clearly see my chin is leaning towards the left. Dr. Oh promised to fix it for me! Right now my chin is still bandaged, so I can't tell the difference yet. Hope to update everyone soon ^^

I slept really well and woke up late today! I think being able to breathe through your nose is really important. I usually set the air conditioning to quite high so that my nose won't run and block my breathing. As you can tell from the photo, my undereye area looks more bruised and yellow today. But compared to my before photo, my chin doesn't look like it's going to one side right? ^^ Deapite the swelling, I'm seeing small changes. It's still too early to judge though!

Here are some more pictures of how I looked today:

My eyes are swollen and more bruised, but compared to day 2 it's not so bad. I think it looks a lot better.

Tried to take this picture at a 45 degree angle! My face is as puffy as a baby’s. I'm really curious as to what my new nose will look like. I'm sure Dr. Lee did a great job.

I can't help but feel that my side profile looks so different already?! I’ll definitely do a comparison photo after my nose splint is removed. If you showed me this side profile randomly, I wouldn't think that it was me. I'm excited to see how it looks!

Facial Numbness

I suddenly experienced facial numbness last night and woke up hoping it would have gone away. Instead, there was more numbness around my eyebrow area! By the afternoon I felt like I had already gotten used to it though. It's a bit unpleasant but I don’t often find myself thinking about it.

I managed to get some reading done on why facial numbness occurs, how common it is and the recovery time:

Facial numbness is usually caused by trauma to the nerves running through the jaws. Surgeons take care to protect large nerves, such as the trigeminal nerve, from damage. However, smaller nerves branching off may be bruised or cut, leading to the loss of sensation. Facial muscles usually aren’t affected, as I happily found out. So I can still speak properly and gargle without making too much mess ^^

I didn't manage to get a lot of walking done today because I felt really nauseous and dizzy when I stand up for too long. I think it may be because I'm not eating enough, so I rested a bit more today. Hopefully tomorrow I can walk more for deswelling. Everyone in the guesthouse is so hardworking and walk around a lot. It's so inspiring!

I'm glad that I'm no longer at the peak of my swelling. I heal pretty normally, neither fast or slow so I hope this helps everyone prepare for their own surgery recovery.

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My Plastic Surgery Experience in South Korea: Day 3 Banobagi Facial Contouring and Rhinoplasty Post-Surgery: Stronger! Walking around guesthouse, talking, facial numbness

banobagi 06:55

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My Plastic Surgery Experience in South Korea: Day 2 Banobagi Facial Contouring and Rhinoplasty Post-Surgery: Swelling, Supplements and Vitamin C

banobagi 07:51

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Pages

My Plastic Surgery Experience in South Korea: Day 7 Banobagi Facial Contouring and Rhinoplasty Post-Surgery : Finally I can shower~ Eye mask, walking around Yeoksam and a summary of my 7 days of recovery!

My Plastic Surgery Experience in South Korea: Day 6 Banobagi Facial Contouring and Rhinoplasty Post Surgery: Nose Splint and stitches removal day! First time wearing face band and deswelling treatment from Banobagi Dermatology Clinic

My Plastic Surgery Experience in South Korea: Day 5 Banobagi Facial Contouring and Rhinoplasty Post- Surgery: Taking off face tape after facial contouring, cleaning incisions and pumpkin juice!

My Plastic Surgery Experience in South Korea: Day 4 Banobagi Facial Contouring and Rhinoplasty Post Surgery: Suddenly deswelling, facial numbness after facial contouring explained!

My Plastic Surgery Experience in South Korea: Day 3 Banobagi Facial Contouring and Rhinoplasty Post-Surgery: Stronger! Walking around guesthouse, talking, facial numbness

My Plastic Surgery Experience in South Korea: Day 2 Banobagi Facial Contouring and Rhinoplasty Post-Surgery: Swelling, Supplements and Vitamin C

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