hello everyone..
I went for my nose job (augmentation/alar plasty/tip narrowing) with dr jung (at shimmian) in seoul just last friday. Today is post-op day 7 and my nose is less swollen by now
*happy*
okie so here is my experience:
Basically once I touched down, there was a driver who was arranged by the clinic to pick me (and an accompanying friend) up but we reached there early so Jay (the english speaking manager) was telling me more about dr jung. In short, what he told me was that dr jung is the best in korea. I've been to dr jung's website and seen the works he have created and the reason why i chose him was because i do trust his skills. (given that he is also highly rated by other forummers about his skills).
So what happened was that we waited for the clinic to open at about 8 plus and then I was brought for consultation with a lady consultant (think she is the financial consultant). she gave some advice about my nose and quoted me the price. it is only after meeting her that I got to see dr jung. Dr jung is super friendly (like a father like figure) and he can speak english and chinese. I was quite surprised about the chinese part though haha. So, i told him what i wanted. actually i only wanted alar plasty (cos i hate the flares when i smile) but he pointed to me that if i only do alar plasty, my tip will become big. which kind of made sense, since it is all about proportions. So either I dont do anything at all and bear with flares (whenever i smile for the rest of my life) or i do all. So since I'm already in Korea, I decided, okie, i should just do it. He did a simple sketch of my nose and showed me some pictures in his computer - some before and after pictures. and i told him what kind of nose i wanted. (it will be good to bring some pictures of stars/or whoever's nose you want over there and let him see). I did bring mine
and he understood what i wanted. Gore-tex was used to raise the height of my nose, and ear cartilage for the tip. After that, I was brought to confirm the amount and then make payments.
After payment was made, the nurses prepared my turn for surgery at 12pm. (i had to do the surgery on the first day since i was only staying in seoul for 6 days). I was damnnnnnn nervous and was trembling la..especially when i was in the operation room, before they knocked me out with sedation. and im really really scared of the iv drip thing they are going to do on my arms. one nurse tried to find my veins on my left hand (poked but not successful) i was like, OMG, this is bad..but then before i knew it, they tried it on the right arm and it went fine. it was not as bad as i thought it was..okie, so i was lying on the bed feeling nervous and trembling, but the intern doctor who was there (dr loh (aka Ian) from singapore) was talking to me and making me relax. After that, there was just some confirmation on what they were going to do to my nose and i was asked how tall i want my bridge to be etc. then i blanked out.
next thing i knew, it was like 3 plus in the afternoon and i was lying in one of the rooms, resting. I cant remember who woke me up (should be the nurses) but i just kept telling them 'I wanna sleep..let me sleep' hahaha. Surprisingly, there was no pain at all, though i was super drowsy. And i cant breathe through my nose; had to breathe through my mouth. Jay, the manager, came in soon after. He had bought me some porridge to eat and he asked if i was okie. It was nice of him to do that..i ate some porridge and then went back to sleep. But i woke up a few times coughing since continuous breathing through the throat makes it super dry and i was quite weak to do things like pouring the water for myself. So i was like trying to shout 'hello..hello' to the nurses and they came in to help me (either pour water or help me to the toilet). The intern doctor was very nice too..he came in to check on me a few times and gave me advice on medications -what to do with the creams/which medicine to eat etc) I stayed in the room and continued the (vitamin) drip till about 8plus and Jay sent me to my hotel. I stayed in Coatel (quite near Shimmian). The only thing I was not so happy was that I didnt get to see dr jung that day (after my surgery). But there were definitely a lot of other people who checked on me that day. There was also one point when i was told that there were a few singaporean girls outside for consultation and i was asked if i could meet them to tell them about my experience. I didnt go out to meet them as i was really really sleeepyyyyyy (sorry girls!! hope this entry would have helped you guys if you haven already gone for the surgery yet!!)
Anyway, back in the hotel, I looked at myself in the mirror for the first time after the surgery (okie, lucky me, i didnt have bruising under the eyes at all or anything..so i was quite happy) My nose was in a white cast and i have this drip pad thing taped underneathe my nose, which I have to change every now and then since the nose is bleeding after the surgery) Sleeping at night was a horrible experience though. Just remember to prop up the pillows so that you can breathe well if you are going to do rhinoplasty. I had to wake up to drink water to dampen my throat all the time and i barely slept the first night.
Post op day 1: was spent sightseeing. When i woke up, my face was still not swollen (thank god). I was told that day 2 and day 3 of the surgery are those days when you swell up the most; and by day 4, the swelling will start to subside. There was no bruising either so i guess i was lucky. I felt well enough to go out so i went sightseeing/shopping with my friend who accompanied me there.
Night time was similarly, a bad experience (since i still cannot breathe through the nose). Oh yeah, and i had to take medicine every 8 hourly.
Post op day 2: the face was slightly swollen that day (my friend couldnt tell that it was swollen, but i could) I went back to the clinic to remove the splints inside the nose (this thingy that they stuck up at the nose to open the airway?? or to suck the blood?? or both?) i dont know the use..okie but after they were removed, i felt so much better. Like i could finally use my nose to breathe for the first time. Hahaa. the nurse removed my cast too when she cleaned the nose and she gave me the mirror. i had a shock!! i was like OMG?!!?!?!?! cos the nose in the mirror looks super HUGE and plastic. But the nurse just smiled and told me that it is normal, it is only post op day 2 and the nose is sitll very swollen.. for a moment, i regretted the surgery. but that depressed thought went away quite quickly la. But what i like about Shimmian was that, actually post op day 2 was a Sunday (and they are closed on Sundays). But in order to help with my recovery, they sent a nurse just to attend to me in the morning at 7:30am (to remove the splints and clear all the shit in the nose). After all the cleaning thing, the cast was put back onto my nose.
Night time was slightly better, since i could now use my nose and my mouth to breathe, though it was still the mouth doing most of the job. There was lesser amount of dripping blood but lots of mucus though (since it was really cold in korea. like 0 degrees when i was there).
Post op day 3: went back to the clinic to check/clean the nose; had a (free) hairwash at the shop opposite to Shimmian. if I am not wrong, they have some collaboration thing. The hairdresser was very gentle with the hair and did not hurt my ear (which was also stitched up due to the ear cartilage being removed). not much changes etc.
Post op day 4: no more dripping blood so i did not need to put the dripping pad underneathe the nose anymore. Nothing much to update about post op day 4 since it is pretty much the same.
Post op day 5: stitches-removal day! I was going to fly back that day at night. I was quite scared about removing of the stitches since my inner nostrils still feel quite 'raw' given that i have been dripping mucus continuously due to the cold weather. The nurse removed the stitches pretty fast but i had to get an ENT specialist to remove my inner stitches 2 days later since those stitches inside my nose were not ready to be removed yet. I got to see my nose again - this time, it was already less swollen! If i saw that big, swollen nose again that i saw on post op day 2, i think i would have cried. hahahaa but it was better. still looking swollen, but more shape could be seen from the side profile. the nose is tall and there was a nice curve. i did tell dr jung that i want the curve; i didnt want a straight nose (from side profile). I cant say it is nice, because it is still swollen and obviously it is not nice when it is swollen, but it looks better. Dr jung came to check on me and he liked the results and was saying 'good good' all the time. He pinched my nose (which hurt) but all the nurses there were telling me my nose looks good. So that did cheer me up pretty much. I was then advised on how to take care of the nose back at home - like how to put on the cast myself etc.
Then me and my friend flew back at night.
So that's it with my updates. I'm at post op day 7 now and i must say the nose has de-swelled like A LOT. so im liking my new nose more and more as each day passes by.
Feel free to ask any questions if you have any and i will try to answer them in this forum.
SORRY for my long winded post! but hoped this has helped anyone interested in going for rhinoplasty with dr jung!
and even if you are not, hoped this has helped anyone interested in knowing how patients usually feel post op. hahaha!