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4 Month Post-Op w/before and after photos
I continue to wear my garments at night for best results. I still think there is some fat on the upper back that I would like removed. I also would like the fat around my navel to reduce and for my stomach skin to be tightened. If I bend or do a plank position, you can see fat rolls or hanging skin. I wasn't expecting that. I have asked doctors and they just say, "Workout a lot." Thankfully, the skin is tight when I'm standing up, but it is a concern for me that I have been left with loose skin. That's something to consider.
For the most part, recovery went well. I lost 10 kgs in total, but more importantly, I have lost a lot in terms of centimeters and inches. When I put on my old clothes, there is so much space that even a belt couldn't fix it. I am now buying a whole new wardrobe. My scars are minimal, but they are brown, so I am waiting for them to finally lighten. I would definitely say it was worth it because I was able to go to the pool and not feel ashamed of my body. I am back to what I consider a healthy weight, like how I look in the mirror and in my clothes, and am more motivated to workout because I don't have fat covering up all of my muscles like before.
Actually, tomorrow, I am going to a different clinic here in Shanghai, China (where I actually live) for leg liposuction and eye bag removal with fat repositioning. I'll create a separate post to document that.
Arms, Upper Back, and 360 Liposuction in China
I put an immense amount of trust in this clinic based on the recommendations from a couple of ladies in this WeChat group who had previous liposuction procedures done there. It required me to travel from Shanghai down to Guangzhou and take about 3-4 days off of work to heal before flying back.
My experience with Linda / Nancy (she has 2 English names) has been great. She is a consultant for the clinic and she speaks English, so she helps a lot of foreign patients who can't speak Chinese. We had to do a quote / consultation from afar while I was in Shanghai. I sent pictures of different angles of my body, the doctor examined the pictures, and they determined a price quote. After discussing the quote and expressing my concerns about trust, we began the process of me making a deposit until I could pay for the surgery in full. I kept in touch with Linda asking her questions, asking for photos of the clinic and the hotel attached to the clinic. She helped me organize my trip and was very supportive.
I flew down in the middle of the night on March 10th. I woke up early on March 11th, visited the clinic, had a physical exam (blood pressure, bloodwork, ECG) and then immediately was taken into the surgical theater room where we basically had the consultation as they were prepping me for surgery. To be honest, this was all too fast of a process for me, but because I had to travel down, I wasn't able to have the consultation prior. In hindsight, maybe I should have asked to have a virtual consultation, but the surgeon is very busy, so I'm not sure if that would have been an option. Linda was my translator for every part of the experience. She helped to communicate between me and the doctor, nurses, etc.
It was a bit odd seeing the room and standing there cold without any clothes discussing my expectations and seeing the nurses prepping everything right before my eyes. I could imagine this experience might cause anxiety in some. For me, I was trying to trust in the process. Nurses began slathering me in iodine everywhere because I was having liposuction done on my arms, upper back, and abdominal 360. Because I didn't have too much fat all over, the doctor was able to remove 4500-5000 ml of fat total from these different areas all at once. I preferred this, so that I wouldn't have to undergo 3 separate surgeries in order to have liposuction in various places.
When I woke up, unfortunately, the nurses had put the nurse bell and my phone next to my head, which made it impossible for me to reach since I had just had liposuction done on my entire upper body. Therefore, I was laying there vulnerable - unable to speak the language, weak from not having eaten in about 20 hours time, and unable to reach my phone or the bell. Luckily, there was another patient in the room and the nice lady was able to understand my nonverbal head and hand gestures for her to put the nurse bell in my hand and put the phone where I could access it.
Linda was not there during the first 24 hrs. of my recovery due to an untimely death in the family. However, I really wished she had been there because I didn't know what to do, what was considered proper post-care, etc. I was also surprised to see that I didn't have nurses automatically coming in to check on me. Post-op care seemed to be largely based on when I thought it was appropriate to ring the nurse's bell to ask questions or ask for help out of the bed because it was so painful or hard for me to do after having my whole upper body worked on.
The beds are hard and uncomfortable, but it was explained to me that this is due to government policy. The government feels that patients need a firm bed for recovery. For me, I felt that this hard bed just made the tenderness feel even worse.
The compression garments that Linda helped me buy were not the right size, so I had to buy an expensive compression garment that the hospital had available. I guess I was lucky that the hospital even had an alternative to offer....
After getting through a really rough first 24 hours, Linda was able to return the next day to assist me. I will say that the clinic is extremely busy and noisy during the day. There are patients non-stop all day long coming in for consultations in the hallways and people being sent into surgery or having follow-ups. At night, nurses are supposed to be on duty, but at 2 am I rung the nurse bell twice and no one came. A nice Chinese patient in another room came in and checked on me and asked if I needed something. She was able to help me get some water because it was too painful to get out of bed by myself. Because my post-care was so poor the first 24 hours, I do believe that's the reason I felt so weak and had to stay in the hospital another night. I tried walking the 1st day and almost fell in the hallway from sudden nausea.
I didn't have any pain meds. Just an IV with some anti-inflammatory medicine. On the 2nd day, after eating something more substantial, I had enough energy to walk slowly to get blood flow pumping. Walking and moving around is crucial for a faster recovery along with eating the right foods and drinking enough water.
I am now a week post-op. I am somewhat happy to see that I already have a changed body when I look in the mirror and I know it will still take up to 6 months or even longer for a full recovery. The reason I am not fully happy is because I feel like I wasn't given proper instructions on how to achieve best results afterwards. There are a lot of things to consider, such as having the right fit of a compression garment, wearing towels under the garment to make sure permanent wrinkles or lines aren't formed, etc.
More importantly and most worrying is this deep wrinkle or crevice on my left arm. We noticed it while I was still in Guangzhou, the doctor examined it, and simply just told me to keep the compression garment smooth and not to worry. I am trying to trust the doctor's words, but this wrinkle looks like I was sliced open. It's definitely an irregularity and one that cannot be ignored or taken lightly.
I would love for a plastic surgeon in the US to give me a second opinion about the irregularity discovered on my arm and what I can do about it. More to write later...
Provider Review
Dr. Shi Zhentao works at Feiyue Yanmei Medical Beauty clinic. He has done operations on both Chinese and foreign clientele. He doesn't speak English, but there are consultants at the clinic who can help to translate and communicate. My consultant was Linda (Nancy). She has 2 English names. To be honest, I didn't have much direct communication with the doctor, except when I had a brief consultation in-person right before surgery. Most of the communication is done through the consultant who is your liaison. I had already communicated extensively with Linda, my consultant, about what I hope to achieve and she communicated between the doctor and I. The only contact I had with him post-surgery was when I had a few check-ups with him while I was still down in Guangzhou for a few days after surgery. We took the compression garments off for him to see the swelling, progress, and any other notable concerns. During the check-up is when you can ask questions directly to him. However, even if you continue to have questions, your consultant can answer them, help you, and also help to ask the doctor any remaining questions even after flying home and going through the long recovery process. I will give a final rating on the doctor after some time when I can see the long-term post op results. The Feiyue Yanmei Medical Beauty clinic is very busy between the hours of 9 - 6. Clients come in for consultations, check ups, and procedures. Therefore, the clinic can be busy and noisy, but that's because of how many people come and go for their various appointments. The staff is nice. For the most part, the clinic is fairly clean. They have 1 or 2 cleaning ladies who constantly roam from room to room cleaning up a lot of take out orders that people have consumed in the clinic. That's because the clinic doesn't make hospital food. The only food they provide is porridge for breakfast that is ordered as takeout and delivered to the clinic in the morning. The rest of your food needs is up to you. You can work with your consultant to help you order food or order it yourself. Because I don't speak or read Chinese, Linda helped me with that. When I left the hospital, she set up a food delivery app for me with my hotel address, so that I could order on my own while I continued my stay in a hotel nearby. The beds have to be manually adjusted by hand in order to go up or down, so you'll need a nurse or helper to assist you with that after surgery. The beds are also quite firm and uncomfortable. They have an area where someone can make you coffee, tea, hot water, or give you strawberries. The hallways are fairly long, so you can walk up and down the hallways to help with blood circulation after surgery. The environment is mostly white with lots of lighting and trendy music in the lobby. They do have their own hotel that is attached to the clinic if you want to extend your stay there. However, be aware that many of the rooms might smell like cigarette smoke or may not have windows. Therefore, I did not choose to stay at their hotel. I found an apartment hotel nearby that had a room that didn't have the smell of cigarettes and had a large window. Do not expect the nurses to anticipate your needs. The nurses seem to be there to administer IVs and come to you when you ring the bell for something. Therefore, you need to be your own advocate and make sure you are not shy to ring the bell to ask for help with something. You might even have to ring the bell 2 or 3 times before they come. For payment, you must put down a deposit to reserve your surgery date and time. Then, before you have the surgery, you must pay in full. Payment should be made in RMB. In terms of consultants, Linda is amazing! From my first point of contact with her, I was very anxious about trusting the clinic and the doctor because I have heard some horror stories of botched surgeries and non-existent post-op care. She helped me figure out the financial part, sent me photos and videos of the clinic and the hotel attached to the clinic. She sent me photos of previous surgery results. We discussed what I wanted from the surgery. She helped me make a plan for the surgery time, how to book flights, and the whole process. Even when my flights were canceled by the airline 2 days before, I panicked and she helped me sort everything out. She helped me find an apartment hotel that I felt comfortable staying in. She was in the room during my consultations with the doctor, during my surgery, and offered EXTENSIVE help with many things during my post-op care. She helped to order food, helped me order compression garments, etc. because those things are not easy for me due to language barriers. Linda is the reason I trusted this clinic and traveled from Shanghai to Guangzhou to have this major procedure done. I also was able to speak with previous foreign patients on We Chat to hear their experiences and see photos. Even for post-op care, I remain in touch with Linda to send pictures and ask questions about concerns I may have. Therefore, even if I am not able to go in-person to the clinic for aftercare, I am still able to get aftercare from a distance. When I needed to have stitches removed, I simply went to a local public hospital and paid a minimal amount to have them removed. (That was my first appointment ever at a Chinese public hospital actually.) Overall, if my results turn out beautifully, then I would return to that clinic to have liposuction done on my thighs and legs to balance out the rest of my body. We'll see how the recovery goes!