Mid 20's - Always Hated my Arms and Hip Dips!

Hi Ladies

Finally getting around to doing this review - Ive been meaning to do this for an entire year but you know how life gets in the way sometimes!

So, a bit of background about me, I've always had "chicken wing" shaped arms, or as my surgeon calls it, "butterfly" arms, where when you rest your arms down by your side, it flares out - giving you a wide back appearance. I've been chubby before, and I have also exercised my way into being very slim as well - both times i still have this butterfly arm shape. It's just the genetics I had.

I have even been to consultations with other surgeons and had them assess my arms to only tell me that there was nothing they could take out and that the money spent on lipo would be wasted and that my arms would look exactly the same - apparently because that was my muscle shape'. Im sure there was some truth in that however I still KNEW there was lots of fat in there that could be removed which would have made a drastic cosmetic difference.

Boy was I excited when I came across Dr Arthur Tjandra's work. He operates out of both Singapore and Medan (Indonesia) and I saw videos and pictures that illustrated transformations of regions that I never even thought was possible to liposuction....(lower legs for example...like woah). Anyway - back to me. I sent a couple of pics through to this lady called Jen (their client services coordinator), and she shipped it off to Dr Arthur for a free email consult, plus sent through a TONNE of information detailing every single step of their process and why they do the things they do. Very very informative and reassuring.

So basically, this is Dr Arthurs difference - he does this thing called 3 Dimensional Sculpting, so for example, if you want thinner arms like I did, they basically recommended to liposuction the back of arms, shoulder, armpit, and backfat. So the entire area basically shrinks uniformly to make you look like you have skinnier arms - instead of just doing the arms and leaving shoulders and back and armpits still as chubby as they were before...it would look strange and almost obvious you had something done since it would 'indent'.

Anyway - so I flew into Medan, alone (a little scary since my Bahasa Indonesia wasn't up to scratch). And I had a driver pick me up and bring me to the premises. His clinic is basically in a giant gated mansion, where you can hire rooms to stay for $50 per night or something like that. He also apparently stays there while he has patients there - so if anything goes wrong you can literally call him at any time - it was so great. It was a little hard to get in at first because one of the staff there didn't speak english, however it was better afterwards because the Dr spoke fluently and I could communicate with the nurse - she was super sweet.

My consultation was great, the Dr was very confident with what he did and his techniques and explained it all to me down to a tee. He also agreed that he could definitely get more out of my arms than I had been previously told (I had been previously told that i could only get 100cc out of my arms). He did mention that my arm skin elasticity MAY be an issue though - I may have skinny arms after this but I may also have a bit of loose skin because of the stretch my arms used to accomodate, and also i was in my mid 20s or something like that... But anyway, while I was at it, I also had a great idea to use the fat that I would have removed, to 'replace it' into my "hip dips" which I hate. It was an extra $2000 for fat transfer. He talked me through the medication and procedure, I was going to be awake for this which would be safer if anything went wrong.

The drugs worked really well on me, I was in a woozy but still aware state and could communicate. The procedure hurt a little bit (at the insertion points) but it didn't really bother me...I do have a high pain tolerance though. Let me tell you - he managed to extract 10x the amount of fat that another dr had estimated they could remove. OH MY LORD! I was going to have the muscular arm definition of my dreams! Anyway - and then he goes onto injecting the fat back into my hip dips to fill those out, and I even get to look in the mirror to say if I wanted any more put in.

So once Im happy with it all, they dress the wounds and the nurse helps me back to my room to rest. I stayed there for a few days, and the first few days I didn't do much - just lots of sleep - I was pretty sore as you could imagine but nothing I couldn't handle at all. I did wish the beds were softer, but I know that firm beds are the style of Indonesia - so whatever. I have this compression garment that Im wearing. The nurse periodically checks on me and ensures Im taking my meds right, and I also go downstairs from my room for my scheduled lymphatic massage by the nurse to reduce swelling and aid healing.

Every time i went for my massage they had to remove my compression garment and I could see my arms in all its skinny (but bruised) glory. WOW! What a feeling to hold your arms and feel that its small - something I've never experienced before in my life. But it was just going to get better as the swelling went down. I had photos taken from the back and my arms no longer "flared out". Plus my hip dips were much more rounded out.

By the end of my stay (5 days) I was able to go shopping at the local mall. The Dr said that I should only resume exercise after a month. So I flew back home and continued with the lymphatic massage and followed the aftercare instructions. After the wounds closed I had to start using scar cream and bleaching cream for the insertion points. One thing I will note - is that the bleaching cream didn't really seem to do much on me and my insertion points still darkened :( But thats something I can't change due to the pigmentation of my skin.

I will post my initial before and after pics below, and will update with another entry with my results one year on :)

Hey guys, so these are my results one year on. My arms took a while to settle as the skin was quite loose from the amount of fat that was removed which caused my arm to look a bit loose at first, but over the year with the right diet of vitamin c and amino acids (and a lot of firming cream) my skin tightened up a little better.
My hip dips retained a nice amount of transferred cells. My hips are still squareish in shape but at least my hip dips aren't as obvious anymore. I do wish my insertion scars didn't darken as much as they did but that's genetic... guess I have to look out for procedures that will reduce the pigmentation...or I can just live with it!

Here's a better before and after, what a difference to my overall silhouette!