Tips for people getting surgery alone?

[JLeeLee91]

Hey guys,

I've done my procedures mostly alone as well.

i always do it alone. its no problem. I actually prefer doing it alone than with someone else. When im all swollen and recovering, i prefer to be super low key, wear my face mask go out shopping and trying street food/restaurants then coming home and chill. Im not in a social mood nor am i talkative whilst recovering, because well.....most of the time i just wanna sleep lol. I've done pretty much every procedure you can imagine too: zygoma, mandible, fat graft, double eyelid, rhino, concentric malar lift, smas lift, breast, bbl, lower blehpharoplasty, elasticum neck lift etc etc etc. Never had any issues taking care of myself. Just stock up your fridge for the first 2 -3 days post op. thats all

Same here

If you're the type who doesn't mind being alone, I would recommend that too in most cases.

My best tips, from my personal experience if you go alone:
1. Make sure you arrange everything well up front. As much as you can. Especially transportation and clean place to stay with enough towels and an extra pillow to sleep upright .
2. Depending on your surgery (especially in the face): do bring a blender.
3. Pre-set your timer on your phone for a good week to have your prescribed pain medication after surgery.
4.Put everything you need near you, and well organised: water!
5. Get the healthiest food that is the easiest to prepare that you also actually like.
6. Make sure you move and walk (carefully, indoors, first days).
7. Make a playlist before surgery that is really positive. Books are also great. Stay away from Social Media please, if that makes you only feel insecure. I always did an audio-course on Self Esteem during recovery because Plastic Surgery will not fix issues on the inside. Last time I did a free 12-day audio course from Deepak Chopra for free on YouTube haha.

 

[pumpkin77]

I guess the dilemma is when it comes to those relatively smaller and "local" clinics. There was a time I was all about "small & local" clinics since I felt I couldn't trust these big corporation like clinics especially the ones targeting foreigners mainly. But with some experience(learned in harder ways you can say), now I know there are good sides and bad sides for any clinics including those smaller and local ones. Communication definitely would be a major one. Plus the doctor having less experience with "foriegners"(both consultation and surgery wise) also became a turn off for me. I know it is the doctor that matters but sometimes those consultants? translators? whatever they name themselves, at these clinics not really knowing what they are doing didn't help my preop anxiety either. The major good sides I've expected were of course, transparency of the performing surgeon and no foreigner rip off. Well, those supposedly to be "local" ones are playing with their prices too now(especially when you look naive? so at least go with your ps buddies if not with your own backup mate) and making sure about no ghost doctor is also possible from mid-sized clinics too as long as you play it right.
Going solo is perfectly fine too but I personally recommend travel buddies, joining a group chat and etc. I personally like utilizing every possible help and assist I can get when it comes to my surgeries.

 

[mrslee]

What kinds of surgery are you guys doing? I am planning to go to Korea also mid 2022 for eyelid surgery

let's chat
line/kakao id: angellee
me want to have eyelid revision surgery...
hopefully march-april, if covid gets better soon

 

[jfghk]

not really. Like i said its very simple. I mean after doing sedation procedures like eyes and nose, you literally stay for like 2-3 hours, once drowsiness from anesthesia is out of your system you can literally go shopping or to a restaurant or whatever. Its really not a big deal and there's zero pain, LIKE ACTUALLY ZERO. Its not painful in the slighest, not even a 1 out of 10. Its only discomfort from the swelling. And your first day you won't feel the swelling as it has yet to peak and your senses are still numb from the anesthesia.

And then for procedures like lipo,fat graft, acculift etc its all the same. ZERO PAIN. Go shopping right after you leave the clinic if you want. Difference is you prolly will get some bruising from lipo so the region might be a little sore. But no pain at all.

Face lift = no pain also. But you gotta stay overnight since its GA and its a long surgery. You will prolly feel quite uncomfortable too cos of all the tightening and the bandages and the drains. Once the drains are out on day 3 (depends what your surgeon advises), its really a breeze. The drains are just annoying.

Zygoma and Mandible, there will be a little pain, especially when you first make up. From what I remember, I think i wasnt allowed to use a straw because the way you suck the water when you sip and the muscles involved when doing so can affect the newly closed incisions. The swelling is pretty bad for that but overall pain is prolly like 1-3 only out of 10. 3 being when you first wake up then it slowly dissipates on day 3 to zero

The one that is by farrr the most painful is breast. I've never complained of pain before until that. Holy crap its painful. Felt like i had a ton of bricks sitting on my chest when i woke up and breathing was heavy and hard. pain was like an 8 out of 10 but like my surgeon said, 2-3 hours later the pain will be gone. Breast for me is definitely a no shopping after procedure lol. But the pain really depends on what size you were before, and how big the implant is, and how the surgeon created the pocket. For me, I was a surf board with tight breast muscles, and went up to a full c. Pain from breast comes from expansion of the muscles and i had ALOT of expansion. Hence the pain.

But seriously, even with the pain from breast, I managed to do it easily on my own. So if I can do all these procedures solo anyone can.

May I know where you did the liposuction? I’m still trying to understand the whole PS scene in Korea. Currently considering pretty body clinic.

 

[K Couture]

May I know where you did the liposuction? I’m still trying to understand the whole PS scene in Korea. Currently considering pretty body clinic.

I did my lipo at dream with dr yoo. I had some unevenness in my belly region from doing multiple fat grafting, as in:

1) 1st time i used belly fat for forehead fat graft
2) 2nd time belly fat for top up to forehead
3) 3rd time ALOT of belly fat for brazilian butt lift

It wasnt uneven after the fat harvesting, BUT what happened was 2 years later when i gained some weight, because the fat cells distribution is now different, the areas where the weight was gained became uneven. This is because when you gain weight, the fat is deposited to areas with more fat cells and since my cells were distributed all over the place from all the fat harvesting, i ended up developing unevening fat deposits during weight gain if that makes sense. Note its IMPOSSIBLE to ensure even distribution of fat harvesting when you do multiple sessions with different surgeons like I did.

Anyways it doesnt matter where you go to do your liposuction to be honest. Liposuction has no speciality. There's no such thing as best liposuction clinic or surgeon since its a very very very simple procedure any surgeon can do. Just be sure to find a plastic surgeon and not a gp doctor. In korea gp doctors can legally perform liposuction. But gp doctors are doctors which prescribe you medicine when you have a cough and cold, and do not have the same training in anatomy and plastic surgery principles as plastic surgeons.

 

[JLeeLee91]

I guess the dilemma is when it comes to those relatively smaller and "local" clinics. There was a time I was all about "small & local" clinics since I felt I couldn't trust these big corporation like clinics especially the ones targeting foreigners mainly. But with some experience(learned in harder ways you can say), now I know there are good sides and bad sides for any clinics including those smaller and local ones. Communication definitely would be a major one. Plus the doctor having less experience with "foriegners"(both consultation and surgery wise) also became a turn off for me. I know it is the doctor that matters but sometimes those consultants? translators? whatever they name themselves, at these clinics not really knowing what they are doing didn't help my preop anxiety either. The major good sides I've expected were of course, transparency of the performing surgeon and no foreigner rip off. Well, those supposedly to be "local" ones are playing with their prices too now(especially when you look naive? so at least go with your ps buddies if not with your own backup mate) and making sure about no ghost doctor is also possible from mid-sized clinics too as long as you play it right.
Going solo is perfectly fine too but I personally recommend travel buddies, joining a group chat and etc. I personally like utilizing every possible help and assist I can get when it comes to my surgeries.

Any tips on where I can find legit travelling groups?

 

[Transformation2021]

not really. Like i said its very simple. I mean after doing sedation procedures like eyes and nose, you literally stay for like 2-3 hours, once drowsiness from anesthesia is out of your system you can literally go shopping or to a restaurant or whatever. Its really not a big deal and there's zero pain, LIKE ACTUALLY ZERO. Its not painful in the slighest, not even a 1 out of 10. Its only discomfort from the swelling. And your first day you won't feel the swelling as it has yet to peak and your senses are still numb from the anesthesia.

And then for procedures like lipo,fat graft, acculift etc its all the same. ZERO PAIN. Go shopping right after you leave the clinic if you want. Difference is you prolly will get some bruising from lipo so the region might be a little sore. But no pain at all.

Face lift = no pain also. But you gotta stay overnight since its GA and its a long surgery. You will prolly feel quite uncomfortable too cos of all the tightening and the bandages and the drains. Once the drains are out on day 3 (depends what your surgeon advises), its really a breeze. The drains are just annoying.

Zygoma and Mandible, there will be a little pain, especially when you first make up. From what I remember, I think i wasnt allowed to use a straw because the way you suck the water when you sip and the muscles involved when doing so can affect the newly closed incisions. The swelling is pretty bad for that but overall pain is prolly like 1-3 only out of 10. 3 being when you first wake up then it slowly dissipates on day 3 to zero

The one that is by farrr the most painful is breast. I've never complained of pain before until that. Holy crap its painful. Felt like i had a ton of bricks sitting on my chest when i woke up and breathing was heavy and hard. pain was like an 8 out of 10 but like my surgeon said, 2-3 hours later the pain will be gone. Breast for me is definitely a no shopping after procedure lol. But the pain really depends on what size you were before, and how big the implant is, and how the surgeon created the pocket. For me, I was a surf board with tight breast muscles, and went up to a full c. Pain from breast comes from expansion of the muscles and i had ALOT of expansion. Hence the pain.

But seriously, even with the pain from breast, I managed to do it easily on my own. So if I can do all these procedures solo anyone can.

Thanks for teaching us how to wear big girl's pants. I just read a forummer's review of her SMAS, she said the pain from the drains were unbearable, like 8/10 despite her staying 2 nights at clinic with pain meds in her IV every 4 hours. She begged to have them removed at Day 2 and immediately felt human again.

 

[K Couture]

Thanks for teaching us how to wear big girl's pants. I just read a forummer's review of her SMAS, she said the pain from the drains were unbearable, like 8/10 despite her staying 2 nights at clinic with pain meds in her IV every 4 hours. She begged to have them removed at Day 2 and immediately felt human again.

I can't speak for her but the drains arent painful. My mum has had a facelift too, so has my aunty and several of my friends. I know many forumers who have had a smas lift too and not one has complained of pain from the drains. The thing is alot of people confuse discomfort with pain. Its all a state of mind imo. The drains are certanly uncomfortable but are not meant to be painful. I remember I had a patient in my surgical practice who did her breast augmentation. My surgical staff gave her the maximum dosage of morphine because she kept complaining of pain. Even then she still kept complaining of pain and kept wanting more oral pain killers, which not only made no sense since she was not only given the maxmum dosage of MORPHINE, but she would overdose if we had given her more. Eventually I spoke to her and asked her this "Tell me what do you feel exactly? A stabbing pain? OR do you feel your chest is heavy and uncomfortable". And she was like "Yes its really heavy and uncomfortable". And i was like.".....girl.....that's NOT pain. You were an A cup and wanted Double D breasts. So of course you will feel heavy and uncomfortable during the first couple of days because your muscle needs to expand. But the pain from breasts should only last 2-3 hours post op, the rest is discomfort". After that chat with her I think she realized she was confusing discomfort with pain and didnt ask for anymore pain killers.

 

[딸기소]

i always do it alone. its no problem. I actually prefer doing it alone than with someone else. When im all swollen and recovering, i prefer to be super low key, wear my face mask go out shopping and trying street food/restaurants then coming home and chill. Im not in a social mood nor am i talkative whilst recovering, because well.....most of the time i just wanna sleep lol. I've done pretty much every procedure you can imagine too: zygoma, mandible, fat graft, double eyelid, rhino, concentric malar lift, smas lift, breast, bbl, lower blehpharoplasty, elasticum neck lift etc etc etc. Never had any issues taking care of myself. Just stock up your fridge for the first 2 -3 days post op. thats all

You make it sound so nice! What kind of things would you recommend stocking up on for your 3 post-op days? (Food, health related items, special pillows?)

 

[K Couture]

You make it sound so nice! What kind of things would you recommend stocking up on for your 3 post-op days? (Food, health related items, special pillows?)

I usually go get the korean porridge from the shop. There's one in the alleyway next to grand(awful clinic, dont go there). Comes in different flavours too. I usually order like 6 bowls. Each bowl is HUGE. Can last 2 meals. Yummy too. They have pumpkin porridge, kelp/seaweed porridge, i think they have abalone too i can't remember. Or when i did some of my surgeries at Dream you can tell the staff in the post op wards to order it for you and its delivered. I don't know which shop they order from tho. But i think its about 8-10000krw per bowl.

I dont bother with health related items for deswelling. They work so incredibly minimally that its a waste of money. I just use my regular everyday vitamins. No neeed for special pillows. Just sleep with two pillows stacked on top of one another.

By far the most important is a laptop and netflix to keep yourself occupied while u recover lol. You probably dont want to be off gallavanting around the place until your swelling peaks. Even though you should still be moving around and going for short walks to improve blood circulation. That helps with deswelling the most.

 

[딸기소]

I usually go get the korean porridge from the shop. There's one in the alleyway next to grand(awful clinic, dont go there). Comes in different flavours too. I usually order like 6 bowls. Each bowl is HUGE. Can last 2 meals. Yummy too. They have pumpkin porridge, kelp/seaweed porridge, i think they have abalone too i can't remember. Or when i did some of my surgeries at Dream you can tell the staff in the post op wards to order it for you and its delivered. I don't know which shop they order from tho. But i think its about 8-10000krw per bowl.

I dont bother with health related items for deswelling. They work so incredibly minimally that its a waste of money. I just use my regular everyday vitamins. No neeed for special pillows. Just sleep with two pillows stacked on top of one another.

By far the most important is a laptop and netflix to keep yourself occupied while u recover lol. You probably dont want to be off gallavanting around the place until your swelling peaks. Even though you should still be moving around and going for short walks to improve blood circulation. That helps with deswelling the most.

Thank you for the quick and informative reply I was concerned with all the different topicals and supplements for de-swelling because it seemed like a LOT, so thank you for saving me the extra cash!

I also do have one more question for you if you are comfortable answering it! I know that many doctors and clinics offer some sort of discount when paying in cash, did you do this? If so how did you travel safely with so much? I’ve never had very much cash on me at one time so I’m kind of nervous, and I imagine carrying around a mini safe would be very impractical LOL

 

[lisajeon02]

What kinds of surgery are you guys doing? I am planning to go to Korea also mid 2022 for eyelid surgery

I got a successful surgery in Korea! I got my eyes done too! If you ever want to talk lmk!

 

[miiigooksaram]

Thank you for the quick and informative reply I was concerned with all the different topicals and supplements for de-swelling because it seemed like a LOT, so thank you for saving me the extra cash!

I also do have one more question for you if you are comfortable answering it! I know that many doctors and clinics offer some sort of discount when paying in cash, did you do this? If so how did you travel safely with so much? I’ve never had very much cash on me at one time so I’m kind of nervous, and I imagine carrying around a mini safe would be very impractical LOL

You can take cash out when you get here. Also, traveling with large sums of cash here is fine. You could probably leave the envelope in a bathroom somewhere and someone will turn it into police 9 out of 10 times. It's really, really safe, and stealing from another person is seen as dishonorable.

You can get discounts for paying in cash, but I REALLY recommend you pay with your card to have a paper trail in case something goes wrong with your surgery. I honestly find it to be a bit of a red flag if a clinic or hospital is asking you to pay for an expensive procedure in cash. If they're going to give you a discount, they should just give you a discount. Giving cash discounts is normal here when paying for like, clothing or some basic medical bills, but locals don't pay cash for surgeries.

 

[xanncy]

Definitely agree with not paying in cash. When you pay in cash the "discount" you get is usually around the same amount as the tax refund you would've gotten anyways. It only benefits the clinic and you'll end up in even more of a bind with no recourse if the clinic botches your surgery and ghosts you.

 

[K Couture]

Definitely agree with not paying in cash. When you pay in cash the "discount" you get is usually around the same amount as the tax refund you would've gotten anyways. It only benefits the clinic and you'll end up in even more of a bind with no recourse if the clinic botches your surgery and ghosts you.

I always pay in card cos well.....credit points = converted into free plane ticket

That said, its not true that paying in cash means you have no legal protections. Before you do any surgery, you are required to sign the consent form, and as a foreigner they are obligated to provide you one in korean and one in english or chinese. You should also be given / asking for an invoice/receipt too even if you pay in cash. Either one of those documents already proves you are a patient who has undergone surgery at the clinic. Note the consent form will have your surgeon's name too. That is a legal requirement under korean law.

As for the discount, it depends on the clinic. Some clinics won't give different prices/discounts regardless of whether or not you pay in cash or credit. Mine for example didnt. I tried to get a better price by offering to pay in cash but they said it makes no difference to them.

Typically clinics who do offer discounts for cash will start at 10 percent at least and say its the difference in VAT. And depending on what procedure you are doing this can actually make a decent different. For example, vat you actually end up getting back 7.5-8 percent at the airport (i cant remember the exact amount). So you should always calculate the difference in proposed cash discount amount vs vat tax refund. I mean, a spenditure of 5000 would yield a vat refund of 375 vs 500 if the clinic agrees to deduct an additional 10 percent. that extra 125 is an extra hera bb cushion and eye brightening concealer pen to me haha