i posted this in another forum and thought i would like to share it here as well
i had liposuction done on my inner thighs, pelvic flesh area, + revision of upper and lower tummy
i had vaser performed on me 3 times before, during 2007 and 2008
my overall experience with elixir devie and dr arthur was good.
medan is a safe place but still have to be on your guard
I was impressed by the hospitality and was very well taken care of,
im into my 2nd week of post op now, and i absolutely contented with the results and the scar management.
my bf accompanied me, we stayed at elixir for 5 nights 6 days , its was a little too long, we were supposed to stay for only 4 nights but jetstar rescheduled my flight one night forward, but nevertheless time passed really fast.
i think i bumped into a few other forumers from sg
here is a honest opinion and summary of what happened during my stay, hope that girls/guys who decide to go medan can have a little understanding of what having an operation there is like.
I chose to go medan because of the price and because of the restriction imposed for lipo in singapore, and also because i need a getaway with my bf badly!! i actually left on the day my exams ended.
Day 1/ 16th Mon.
Arrived at medan airport at night, airport looks old and there were only 3 custom check points opened, and it seems like people there are expert at cutting queues, cos at first me and bf were in the middle of the queue and it was moving slowly but somehow gradually we were "pushed" to the back of the queue. But as soon as I walked out of the airport I saw a man holding my name on a signboard, it was Dr arthur's driver and he drove us to the clinic.
The drive to the clinic took about 15mins, the clinic was closed and Dr arthur's mother came to welcome us, she was very nice and motherly lady not to mention she looks fit for her age, she showed us around and to our room. The clinic looked very new still, there was alot of construction going on, and the walls at the reception was filled with certificates/awards/achievements and photos of dr arthur with famous people, my bf said there was one with president nathan!!
Patients room were all on the 2nd floor, there was a 3rd floor but I didnt go up, our room was nicely furnished with tv and lotsa channels, towels and hairdryer were provided. some toiletries provided but i suggest to bring your own.
common kitchen and bathroom/toilet were spacious and constantly cleaned by the maid who is constantly working.
overall the place was more then what i thought and saw in the photos, at first i thought the place was like a hospital and wanted to stay at backpackers (cos im a seasoned backpacker myself) but our accommodation fee had breakfast, chauffeur to drive us to malls, free movie ticket i think (i did not redeem), and bestest of all!! 50% off all the massage and facials services.
Dr. arthur stays at the clinic too and he came back around 10ish (11ish sg time) and called me down for consultation, my initial areas i wanted to lipo was only my inner thighs and arms (cos i have done on my arms and front thighs already) however, he said that results wont be dramatic if i choose to only do one area of my thigh, I told him my only concern is that i wanted to get rid of that chunk of flash which rubbed on my inner thighs whenever i walked so he agreed to do my inner thighs only.
And as for arms, he also said it would be more proportion to do 4 areas which included the shoulders,arms,upperback and pits.
I didnt prepare enough $$$$ for so many areas, and i thought i would just skip my arm altogether and come back another time.
Dr arthur is a very buffed guy, i think he does alot of running and gym and he kept encouraging me to workout. He is also a very very chatty and to a point i think its long winded, i wanted to close my ears when he told me the details about how he is gonna to do by operation,
but my bf said at least he is very detailed and meticulous but at the same time professional.
I was very tired already, and just wanted to cut short the consultation to sleep.
Day 2. 17th Tues.
My bf ordered breakfast and he accidentally dialed the doctor's room which was super embarrassing, but i think the doctor took the order for us. lol We had hokkien mee basok and nasi lemak
I went the op preparation room after breakfast at 9, where the nurses gave me some meds and injection drip thingy on my hand.
I felt a little disorientated after that, im not sure if its the meds doing it?, those who had been before can confrim with me?
I met jenny for the first time she helps the nurses too, and to all those people who had judged her from her email tone , she is acutally a very cheerful nice girl and she is very helpful.
after an hour or so i was called to the operating room, i wasnt nervous or anything, just freaking cold cos i was naked.
then he rubbed some brown liquid on my thigh area, and discussed about what was gonna be done, then i expressed how awful the protruding fats on my pelvic looked and he said it can be lipo-ed.
he also said if he sucked the fats out on my pelvic, he will also do my tummy revision, and I agreed to it.
He took some photos and then it was time for the operation!
I wasnt frightened or anything, i just wanted it to be over.
he jabbed some LA and then i dont know what happened already.
I have a feeling that during the op i woke up to beg for painkillers, but I cant remember much, infact when I woke up from the operation, my memory for the whole day was very twilight like. I kept asking silly questions and hearing silly things. I thought i heard dr arthur asking me to bring back my fats to singapore to fry meatballs for everyone and give it as christmas presents.
And i keep asking how come the bowl of porridge for lunch disappeared, when I ate them up. it was a very weird day, quite similar to vaser post op day.
My op took 2.5 hours and dr arthur managed to draw 1 litre of fats, i was hoping he could draw out more tho during the op, my bf actually went for a javanese massage lol. but he said it was painful.
i had 5 incisions altogether, there was no stitches, i could walk after the operation, and i could actually hop, but maybe because my major thigh muscles wont affected during the operation.
had these thick brown cloth bandages, tightly wrapped round my thighs and tummy, I would so prefer to have design veronique garment , I brought it along but I was too lazy to explain that i wanted to wear it. so my fault.
but i put it on myself, and it really makes a difference, i felt so much better and the operation area felt more "in place".
the doctor had advice to wear bicycle shorts, but really i think design veronique post op garments really does what it markets.
for the rest of the day, I just spent sleeping, not much pain YET!....
Day 3 18th Wed.
Today was the 2nd day of the op, I had difficulties getting up, felt soar and tight on my thighs,
my bf had to pull me up and feed me my medications, i really admire those people who are brave enough who go there on their own, throughout the whole trip, my bf helped me with changing, cleaning up eating. Not that im entirely disabled, but it really eased the process to have a loved one around.
At 9.30 i went downstairs for change of dressing, massage and supposedly draining.
Doc took the "after" photos, im impressed by the revision he had done on my tummy.
He had mentioned that he had alot of revision of vaser cases from singapore, and that vaser had given problems of irregularities,lumps and burns. At first, I really thought he was just trying to demote vaser, but now that I saw my tummy, i think i was in denial all along about vaser.
Vaser did help me take out alot of fats (before the restriction was imposed), but i guess it left lumps because i didnt take care of it.
But for my thighs, the swelling was quite bad, and i dont think there was much improvement, the doctor had already warned me that I should have done the whole thigh. however, i do feel that the chunk in my inner thighs were gone, and im contented with that
My wounds were all closed up already !! so i could not do any draining. Im not sure if any draining was done after the op, but my super fast healing is actually a backfire cos draining helps with swelling.
My mom told me that one mistake i did was to eat alot of fish, i think fish makes your wounds close faster or something.
Jenny changed my dressing and did massage for me, massage was and painful, kept squeezing my bfs had and girmming my face.
but thank god it lasted only for awhile.
And as usual i was lazy to tell her i wanted to wear my design vernonique garment, and she started to wrap me with the bandage.
After that, we booked the chauffeur and head straight to sun plaza (medans biggest, upscale mall). I dont really like to say this, but it was really really boring, i started to miss scotts rd. lol .
the only place in sun plaza we found fun was the supermarket which had all kinds of indo stuffs which i so love, like indomee, indomilk chocolate condensed milk and all the jamu products. Our mistake was to spend 4 hours there, my bf and i was bored to tears and i started getting cranky, my bandage fell off and it was just all bad.
Chauffer picked us up on the dot, i tipped him 20000 rp (ard sg$3) for his good attitude and service.
For dinner jenny ordered, i had ikan panggang gurame, which was the most super awesomeness food but it was quite expensive, ard $12. and my bf had ayam penyat which was ard $4.
Dr arthur had some dvd stash, so we borrowed to watch it on my mac.
One advice is to bring your lappy, i told my bf that i can live without food, but i cannot live without internet. The internet speed there is quite fast overall with times of slow-ness.
Day 4. 19th Thurs.
had breakfast, meds and had the whole usual massage and change of dressing by the nurses. massage was pain as hell, but the other singaporean whom i met said it didnt hurt! i suspect its either i had a low treshold or its really because all the liquids were still accumulated and the swell was really bad. it would have been quite depressing but thank god my bf was there to entertain me.
im very pleased with the team of nurses, they were very persistent and caring. one of the nurse, was packing stuffs on the 2nd floor when she saw me going to the toilet and noticed my bandage was messy,
she went down and put her stuffs and called me to tell me she was coming up to re wrap me. of course i said no, cos i wanted to wear my garment lol. but i really appreciated her thought.
i decided to just walk around the area of the clinic, it was my first time stepping out of the clinic without the chauffeur, there were many taxi touts, and the roads and pathways were very uncared for, there were lots of potholes and gravel all over.
there is a small interesting plaza nearby about 5 mins walk from the clinic, medan plaza, i didnt know that it was a plaza for the "locals", mostly muslim patroized, i made a mistake of wearing just a tank shirt and gaucho pants, and i got alot of attention and rude stares.
my bf who was grabbing so tightly to my handbag, also was getting lots of stares, some guy actually came right up to use to stare at the bag.
I was like WTF.
but medan plaza is really interesting, but if i would go there again i would wear something more modest and not bring a handbag like that.
We went back early and spent the rest of the day watching district 9 and i robot. lol it was quite a boring day that me and bf started to play hide and seek on the 2nd floor since there were so many empty rooms to hide.
Day 5. 20th Fri.
Had the same routine of dressing and massage, today we decided to go carrefour to get groceries and buy some food stuffs back for family.
I bought coffee beans which was so cheap!! $3 / pack 250g and it smells so slurrp.
carrefour was slightly more expensive compared to the medan plaza or sunplaza supermarket.
we went back early to cook instant noodles, watched bolt and packed our luggages.
Day 6. 21st Sat.
I was supposed to have free session of RF, but because i was wearing braces, i had to skip it. but instead i went for facial, the facial room had all kinds of machines, i paid $28 fo 2 hours. really really worth my $$
jenny did my facial for me, she was really good, esp with the swiss massage, she did for my shoulders and face. i coaxed my bf to get one too lol, i treat him to microdermbrasion which was ard $45. i think its really worth since patients get 50% off . pity i couldnt do any of the other fancy facials because i have ezema.
Forgot to mention that dr arthru has a huge dance studio on the first floor, and he is the instructor! i was like speechless when jenny told me that.
but i didnt get to see him dance that day cos he was busy.
and i had to prepare for my flight back.
the chauffeur picked us with another singaporean back to the airport. and that was the end of our trip.
Pardon for my long essay.
hope my experience helps with your preparation or decision if you are planning to go medan,
my overall vibes and experience was good, dr arthur is a doctor that listens and he is understanding, nothing is more important then trusting the doctor who is gonna perform this surgery on you.
i also feel that he is fortunate to have such a good team of people working under him.
i will go back again but i plan to go back after i lose some weight myself first.
about waterproof plasters, i bought 2 boxes, ended up using one box because even if the wounds dressing was wet, it was ok cos i changed the dressing as soon as i shower.
i do not work for or paid to promote elixir devie, im just a regular student who is vain.
feel free to ask me questions on this thread
cheers!
