Long Road To Recovery
Sorry for the lack of updates but this post took longer than I thought.
First off, I’d like to thank everyone for your support. I had people who followed me on Instagram ask about my experiences and I was really happy to be able to provide information and insight about my experience with Banobagi.
This post is about my recovery process in the first two weeks!
Day 2
Taking this where I left off, we were allowed to go back to the guest house on the day after the surgery. Fat grafting was really the least painful and it was really gratifying to see that my forehead has really rounded out and that my laugh lines were mostly gone. The bandages you see in the picture below mark the incision points where the fats were injected.
I wasn’t allowed to shower or wash my face but I cheated by using a wash cloth so that water doesn’t touch the incision points. I had lymph fluid matted in my hair and it was very hard not to clean my hair. Thinking back, I had no idea how I managed to clean myself as I could barely raise my arms.
My chest was bound tightly with bandages and it was really uncomfortable to move around. I felt pretty helpless at times as everything was a challenge to me. Getting up to go to the toilet, sitting up, walking around, opening and closing doors, getting dressed… everything hurt. I couldn’t on or out of bed without first reclining it. Sleeping on a reclined bed really hurt my tailbone andI would wake up several times a night because my butt would go numb from the pressure.
Day 5
Dawn and I had our post-op check-up on Day 4 and I got the all clear from Dr. Jae-Sang Ban when I removed the bandages around my chest. My implants still sit very high up and were really pointy but they will soften and droop eventually. My scars, especially the one on my under arms, were healing really well according to my consultant, Claire. It still baffles me how neat the stitches were. I couldn’t even sew this straight using a needle and thread on fabric. My face had some bruising and swelling especially around the eye area but this is normal as the body is trying to heal.
Day 7
Stitches came off on Day 7! I thought it was going to be painful but the nurse made it really swift and painless. I definitely had more mobility and could sorta dress myself. We moved out of the guest room and into a hotel in Myeongdong for the last two days so I had to stack up plenty of pillows in order to sleep properly. I was also really glad that I didn’t have to sleep on a reclined bed and my tailbone stopped hurting cause of that. Sleeping on my side is impossible at this point but I was just really glad to be able to sleep thoughout the night for once. The bruises for my liposuction had more or less remained the same I started wearing the compression clothing.
Day 8-12
I made the mistake of wearing jeans on my flight back from Seoul which explains the weird seam marks on my inner thigh. If anything, it proved that pressure will really help in getting rid of the bruises. I had to wear compression clothing for my thighs, abdomen and arms. Although it is unlikely that it will affect the results if you don’t wear them, they really help in getting rid of the bruises and reduce the swelling. I’ve noticed a marked improvement when I started wearing the compression wear and the bruises started going away within days. I couldn’t go out without wearing long sleeves and pants as I didn’t want to scare anyone with my bruises.
My breasts would hurt in the middle of the night and I would wake up from the pain. There are medications prescribed to me to prevent capsular contracture as you are not supposed to massage teardrop shaped or textured implants (mine is a textured teardrop shaped implant) and I have to take them for three months. Implants inserted under the muscle take much longer to heal but they look more natural especially if you are skinny or have small breasts to begin with. This is something you might want to consider if you wish to have implants too. Although my implants haven’t really settled, I really like the size and I loved that Dr. Ban took my needs into consideration by giving me implants that look natural and flattering for my body.
I am an impatient person and I freaked myself out several times wondering if my scars will remain or if my breasts will look hard and pointy forever or if my bruises will never go away but I’ve learnt to listen to my body and let it heal itself. Looking back, I think I made an amazing progress for just two weeks and if there was one advice I could give to anyone who is considering plastic surgery; it would be to have patience.
Sorry if I ranted too much but I’ll be posting more on my progress so do look out for it!
Check out our previous posts on our experience with Banobagi:
