>> Before Surgery

My long face and lantern jaw was lowering my self-esteem since my 4^th year of elementary school. More than that, my face shape when I was little was different. I think it was due to recessive genes where it started getting severe (habit of biting nails, not breathing through the nose and breathing with mouth open).

During puberty, my lower face started getting longer and protruding outwards which made me sad and upset. When I looked around my classmates.. there were students with small eyes (I have small eyes as well but I had double eyelids which I liked since only 5 people in my class had it), students with bad skin, everyone had their own concerns. However, those students’ concerns would improve over time but my case was not like that.

Looking at my other family members, my grandfather had a slight lantern jaw but other than him, no one had the same jaw as me. It feels like I was the only one born unusually and I was receiving a punishment. It made me depressed throughout puberty.

I went to university and before studying abroad, I took a semester leave before 2008 to get jaw surgery. I considered this my task before applying for jobs in the future. My mother is a nurse – which is probably why she was strongly against my surgery. I ended up saving up money for the surgery by doing part time jobs and I received surgery at the hospital that my mom’s friends recommended.

Thinking back at it now, I think my surgeon did not have any prior experience to double jaw surgery before.

The internet back then was not as developed as now and my mother did not really know much about plastic surgery either. We thought that a plastic surgeon would be specialized in all types of surgery. I think the plastic surgeon must have been surprised as he had to do surgery since we were introduced by someone who he knew.

Even though if it wasn’t the exact surgery that I wanted, since it would make the appearance of my chin shorter, I thought I would be satisfied with just that. My chin and facial shape still looked almost the same, it seemed like there was a placebo effect of gaining more confidence due to the fact that I did surgery and I got accepted into the company I wanted to work at. There were no discomforts with the function of my jaw and mentally, my work life and personal life was fine. But I knew that deep inside, I still was not satisfied.

I was able to was for the first time since surgery. I’m on my way to get the de-swelling laser treatment.

My left Eustachian returned to normal. My left ear kept feeling clogged so I thought the swelling was severe on the left side. When I tilted my head in a certain direction, I realized that it wasn't the swelling that got better, it was the eustachian tube that was the problem.

That was the 3^rd day…. I was scared… when I searched about it on the internet, it said that it will return to normal at about 1~2 months later… luckily, I feel some of the functional aespects returned back to normal today.

I still have a lot of swelling left but the swelling below my jaw is still there.

My lips that thinned out is now slowly returning back to normal.

The more my swelling decreases, the more I get worried about skin sagging.

8 years ago, I had jaw angle reduction and chin reduction which made my skin sag after my recovery. I was told that through my revision surgery, there was a high chance that my skin will sag since my skin was thin at most of the clinics for my consultation.

I had my stitches removed today. Getting the stitches removed at the bottom did not hurt at all but the ones at the top hurt and I almost shed a tear.

After getting my stitches removed, moving my mouth was more comfortable.

I was told that I can remove my wafers during the mornings.

During my University orientation, I couldn’t speak properly so I was worried that they would misunderstood me. What will happen in the future for my student life…

I was worried but it went well.

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I met my friends and they all said that I looked different and that my surgery was a success so I was happy. I’m already getting used to my current appearance so I wonder if I really do look very different?? After looking at my old pictures.. I was very surprised.

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