This is the era of staying healthy, looking good and feeling youthful. Modern medicine together with explosive advances in the fields of Anti Aging and Cosmetic Surgery have allowed us to do just those things, and have even given us options of how we want to achieve them. As someone who has recently chosen to undergo some of these options, I would like to ‘cur had’ with you how my life has changed and share the experiences I had with my doctors, nurses, family, friends and last but not least of all, with myself. I would like to openly tell my story, and hopefully dispel some of the myths and allay some of the associated fears, to show that there still exists a strong sense of willingness to share amongst those of us who actively compete in the race with Mother Nature to preserve youth, as well as the dedicated doctors & nurses, with whom we have a fighting chance of victory, albeit a temporary one. In order to begin, let me give you a little background on myself. I am a woman in my sixties (very early), married with children and blessed with grandchildren. I have a full time job, and over the years, have always been fascinated by beauty and the preservation of youth. As such, I watch what I eat, maintain a regular fitness schedule, and keep up to date with the latest treatment modalities as well as with several doctors who are dedicated to the fields known as Aesthetic Medicine and Cosmetic Surgery. Amongst procedures I have undergone in the past include Thermage (to lift facial skin), ‘clipping’ or ‘stitching’ to lift my upper eyelids and have tried several types of anti-aging skin treatments, all by doctors in Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand. A few months ago, however, I looked in the mirror and realized that despite my most valiant efforts, my skin was beginning to appear ‘kusam’ and my eyelids seemed to be significantly more sagging. The overall look, according to me (and several close friends who I consulted) was tired, sleepy and a little lackluster. The next couple weeks were spent seeking out names of doctors in Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand who were seemingly experts in this field. Several people whom I approached were extremely helpful, and have inspired me to write this article as a sort of karmic way of repaying that kindness and continuing the custom of sharing. These were friends who were willing to share with me their experiences, their doctors and even show me their results! Some even let me see their before and after pictures so that I would be better able to appreciate their healing process and what they had gone through. Sadly, there were an almost equal number of people I approached who simply denied any encounter with the Aesthetic Medical industry (although their faces looked a million dollars), and some even who feigned ‘memory loss’, claiming that what they had was so long ago that they had forgotten the doctor or the type of procedure i.e. ‘udah lupa!’.These individuals equally inspired me to write this article, but clearly in a different way. Next, I made appointments with several recommended doctors renowned for their skills in enhancing the Asian face. Over several weeks, I visited each of them for consultations, armed with a prepared list of questions and requests. Almost a month later, after seeing hundreds of before/after eyelids and skin, as well as talking to several people who had undergone exactly what I was interested in, I believed that I had found the doctor who was best able to provide what it was I needed. I attended second consultation, during which a date was set, the deposit was paid, pictures were taken (by both doctor and patient!) and a detailed operative plan was laid out to rejuvenate my eyes and face. The former would be done surgically (a procedure known as an Anchor Blepharoplasty) to refine my eyelids and the latter done using a combination of radio frequency as well as laser treatment, followed by an intensive five day skin regeneration program, ending with a skin resurfacing that would leave me glowing and radiant for months. An appropriate skin care regimen would also be tailored for me as part of the treatment package. Day 1
I arrive at Camden Medical Centre in Singapore and am directed to change into a comfortable gown plus thick socks to keep me warm. All makeup (foundation, nail polish, fake eyelashes, etc) had been removed the day before, and the staff just double checked this to make sure. Next, I was met by my doctors and we ran through all the risks, complications and what could possibly go wrong. Having heard about all the potential disasters – allergy, asymmetry, swelling, bruising, and infection (to name a few) – I almost ran away! It was either the comforting hand on my shoulder (good nurses are so important!) or the fact that the doctors gave me a sense of calm, controlled confidence that kept me in my seat at that moment. Once I had signed the consent form, the doctors reassured me – saying everything was going to be fine. This too, I felt helped calm my nerves and steeled me on to stick to the original plan. I was given a sedative to make me relaxed and helped onto the procedure table, which was warm and extremely comfortable. Soft music played in the background, similar to the hypnotic beat of a gamelan band. The doctors then took some measurements of my eyelids made some pen markings with my eyes open and closed, and took a few more photos of my eyes whilst I comfortably dozed off to sleep. Now here comes the best part of my entire Cosmetic Surgery experience – that was honestly all I remembered of my procedure! I awoke approximately 2 hours later (according to my watch) and was accompanied (I) a warm cup of Milo
(II) the doctor with a mirror
(II) an ice pack to place over my eyes Having before seen all the photos of patients recovering, I was not as horrified to see my swollen eyelids and reddish skin. Amazingly, my face felt taut, and I could already see that my lines had reduced and my pores were smaller. Equally amazing was that it was almost impossible to see the stitches in my eyelids (which I later observed with a 5x magnification mirror). The next hour and a half was spent drinking Milo, eating biscuits and chatting with the nursing staff. I felt absolutely no pain at all! The doctors also made regular checks on me every 30 minutes or so. After two hours and a final review by the doctors, I was ready to be discharged. Donning my oversized sunglasses to conceal all evidence of my recent experience, I made my way to (believe it or not!) Takashimaya to meet my daughter for evening tea. Seeing me with my sunglasses on throughout tea raised her suspicions considerably (oh yes, I forgot to mention that I had opted to tell nobody prior to under going the surgery). She reserved her questions till later on in the privacy of our Goodwood Hotel suite, when I could no longer conceal the evidence and had to remove my sunglasses. Surprisingly, my daughter was extremely gentle and comforting with her words – saying how good I would look once the swelling had subsided, how fine the stitching was, how fresh my skin appeared – the kind of things only a loving daughter would say in order to reassure her mother, despite the mild annoyance of having been omitted from any part of decision making earlier on. Well, that night we had a hearty room service dinner together, and I fell fast asleep after taking my medications (antibiotics, anti-bruising, anti-swelling, and anti-pain). Day 2
Waking up as always at 7am, I was pleasantly surprised to feel ABSOLUTELY NO DISCOMFORT at all! Swelling and redness around the eyes would have been quite frightening had my doctors not thoroughly prepared me for what to expect with the many before / after photos. Lesson: Look at as many photos of patients experiencing the recovery process so that almost nothing will shock you! At 11am, I appeared at Camden Medical Centre (with sunglasses of course) ready for my follow up check. As usual, the lovely nurses made me feel comfortable, and placed me in a private cubicle, away from prying eyes of many other (obviously Indonesian, by the audible chatter) patients in the waiting room. The doctors came in about 20 minutes later and exclaimed ‘Simply splendid!’ Their happiness with my eyes / skin gave me even more confidence and reassurance that this journey was going to go quite well. Thirty minutes of cold-compression of my eyes and face, and I was once more on my way to the Indonesian shopping Mecca, ‘Takashimaya’. That day, and the following 72 hours were really quite uneventful. My eyelids became more swollen around day 3, and settled down around day 5. My skin felt tighter and firmer as the days went by. The initial warm glow (like a hot flush) was replaced by a pink healthy radiance that was noticed by almost everybody I met, including several Indonesian politicians and their wives. I was really looking forward to day 5, when the doctors had said would be the final stage of my complete transformation. Day 5
Excitedly, I turned up 30 minutes before my scheduled appointment – big mistake! In the waiting room there were almost 10 people, all of whom I knew or had previously met at some social event or other. Fortunately, I was once again quickly whisked away by the incredibly efficient nurses to the privacy of my own cubicle. Anaesthetic cream was applied to my eyelids for 30 minutes, after which the doctor came round with a lighted device (looking like a microscope) around his head and painlessly removed my stitches. After the stitches had been separated from my body, I felt so much better and somehow more relieved. My eyes felt lighter and I felt that my recovery process had just taken another leap forward. The line of incision was almost completely invisible to the naked eye, and there was almost no evidence that surgery had taken place…except of course, a fresher, brighter and more lifted pair of eyelids! Next, I underwent a treatment that I would call ‘strange’ but not uncomfortable. A blue lotion was applied to my face and a device was used to resurface my skin. There was no pain at all; in fact I was not even quite sure when the procedure was starting or ending since I had a pair of dark goggles on throughout. After 30 minutes, the doctor pronounced that it was all over, and I then proceeded to undergo 30 minutes of a green seaweed mask and cold oxygen therapy (at -4 oC!). Aside from a mild brain freeze (similar to that experienced when eating an ice cream), the entire experience was really quite pleasant. The best thing for me, after all this, was to be greeted in the mirror, by a fresher, brighter firmer and more vibrant face! I left the clinic feeling and looking rejuvenated, happy that I had chosen the right procedure, the right place and most of all, the right doctor! Day 6
The next day, I made my trip back to Jakarta, eager and nervous at the same time of how people around me were going to react. It was still less than a week after the eyelid surgery and skin treatment, and my newfound unshakeable confidence suddenly became a little shaky. To my delight, NOBODY could tell what I had gone through! (I also had quite a good deal of help from make-up, concealer, etc). And the comments I received made me blissfully happy, as well as reaffirmed my decision of what I had undergone. The only things people at social events said were ‘You look so fresh’, ‘you’ve done something to your eyes or face, but we can’t tell what!’ and of course the same questions that I had asked at the start of my journey “What did you do’ and ‘Who is your doctor?’. Needless to say, I gladly shared my experience with all who had the inclination to ask, even to those who had been less than generous when I was seeking exactly the same information months before. Incredibly, the greatest compliments on my skin came from my facial therapist, who said that she had never seen my skin looking so radiant and full of life! According to her, this was the first time she had seen such a drastic improvement in my skin health, and my therapist has seen me through everything that I have tried in the past.
In conclusion, my life had changed positively after this recent 5 days transformation program. I felt and looked better, younger and more alive. The encouraging feedback I received when I had just returned has continued until this day, and does not look like it’s stopping anytime soon. I feel that people who openly shared their experiences with me in my journey are part of my success, and I am grateful to them. To those whom I had approached and had placed more priority on privacy, I now understand and respect the way that they had felt. I too was briefly nervous in the doctor’s waiting room when my eyes were still swollen after surgery and my face tight as a drum, and recall the naked discomfort of coming under public scrutiny when I was still unprepared for it. Perhaps some people are just never ready to come under public scrutiny in matters of beauty and attempts at rejuvenation, and the feeling of naked discomfort persists long after the swelling and bruising have disappeared.
Our society is one that places a high price on health, beauty and staying youthful. The race against Father Time and Mother Nature has an inevitable outcome, but we have at least a temporary chance of victory with good information, advanced medicine and amazing doctors.
So if any of us has good information about advanced medicine being practiced by (who we feel are) amazing doctors, we can really help others who are just beginning their journey of transformation (like I was months ago) by sharing our experiences and being supportive (like my daughter was when she saw my swollen eyelids and pink skin) as they recover, reassuring them (like my friends when I first returned after my surgery) and rejoicing with them in their triumphs. Most of all, we should also treasure the information shared with us by generous, caring friends. We should never abuse the trust and courage by divulging to others what was said to us in confidence out of a desire to guide and encourage us in our decision making. Then we can be sure that our transformation would have surpassed what Cosmetic Surgery can achieve, and we would have given ourselves a spiritual facelift (sprituaplasty)! |
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