Arms, Upper Back, and 360 Liposuction in Guangzhou, China

I could write so much about my experience. First of all, it's scary to have a major surgery done in a foreign country. I'm an expat living in China and decided to have liposuction done. For a previous unrelated surgery, I used this website to help me locate a doctor. However, there aren't any doctors or centers really listed on here for China. So, I found a WeChat plastic surgery group and some previous patients that shared information, photos, and experiences, which led me to this clinic that I chose.

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...

Tomorrow will mark my 4 month post-op anniversary date. Because I didn't add photos before, I will now supply photos so you can see the before and after effect. I didn't see much difference between the 3 month and 4 month photos, so I believe that I am pretty close to the final result already.

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.