It has been two months post my fat grafting and apple lift at Shinsang. Whatever should happen already happend and it is a good time to share my experiences. To start, I want to let you know that I went to Korea twice for other procedures before this one. Those two times, I would say, hard and mostly failure, ended up using money to buy scars, LOL. I found Olivia with All About Mei while planning my most recent travel to Korea. Olivia has been super helpful and patient with me and boosted my courage to give Shinsang a try. Shinsang has two main doctors and I saw Dr. Lee and he is the best I have ever met so far in Korea. First of all, he is fluent in English, which made it possible to communicate properly. I think a large factor of my past failures was the language, and of course then doc’s expertise. I was able to talk to Dr. Lee in detail and and found he is very knowledgeable and experienced. One top of that, he is a super kind, patient and humorous person. He does not push you buy anything, he respects your opinion. He gave you right expectations. What more you want from your doctor?
Shinsang has a cute office with lots of old charms which is rare in Korea. Their staff are very friendly. There is only one English translator her name is Marie. She is rather helpful.
I had my surgery under sleep anesthesia. It took me very long to wake up(this was the same as in my previous experiences). Actually they woke me up as it was 9pm and I was still sleeping! I walked back to my air bnb that night. It was about 10 min walk so no problem. My face was slightly swollen right after surgery nothing bad. One day after I had to take my flight and things actually changed. The swelling on my face had gone so much worse that I could hardly recognize myself and was really scaring. Since I was going to China, I lost contact with Shinsang and could only keep texting Olivia and she was the one trying to cool me off. I was told most people will swell up for the first week then it will go down. But it took me nearly three weeks to look normal except the eyes. The eyes were bleeding almost everyday towards evening and this lasted until recent. It was the most horrible days I went through although Olivia kept telling me she checked with Dr. Lee and it should recover…I did not believe until I actually flew back to see Dr. Lee and he checked me up and told me I should not worry. With my trust in him, I was able to patiently wait even after I got back to the US. Now my eyes are not bleeding anymore.
Now let’s talk about the result. I had full face fat grafting. As Dr. Lee said before surgery, average only about 30% will survive. At two month mark, it is a good time to know if you need a second round. Unfortunately I have not been able to keep much of the fat, there is little left so far although I have been trying to eat more to keep them. I am genetically the skinny type who does not keep fat well, so this is not surprising. Am I going for a second round? Yes if I can. However, I am not sure if I still got fat on my thighs.
Apple lifting results are sutle, as Dr. Lee told me. And it tunred out to be very sutle on me. I do not think I am able to tell you this is good or bad here. Just that if you expect big improvements you probably should pick another procedure. The good thing about this one is no scar. I got scars from before and now I refuse anything with scars.
One important thing that everyone should keep in mind is that the recovery period is different from individual to individual. It is a process largely depends on your own biology so the time they tell you should only be a reference.
And, if I choose to do anything in Korea again, it is Dr Lee.
Last, good luck to everyone.