Liposuction of the calves

Googling online has returned almost close to zero results for liposuction of the calves in Singapore. Many Caucasians have done it in US or their homeland, but not much has been said in Singapore.

So, before I went for the operation, I met with Dr Arthur in Singapore when he was here for consultation. He warned it would be SERIOUSLY painful, worse than the thighs. I have had a lipo experience once and I really want slimmer calves. I was prepared to die for them!

On the 12-May-2014, again I arrived in Medan. This time, nothing was new to me, and I knew that I am not gonna die on the operation table.

The usual when I've arrived - I was shown to my room, the same room I stayed when I did my thighs. Then quickly took a shower and went to the operation room. Circles circles were drawn on my calves, Dr Arthur took some photos and videos and warned that I have big calf muscles. After taking out the fats, the calf muscles may be very obvious and there is nothing to do with the muscles unless I want to go to the extreme of breaking the ligaments, which sounds horrendous!

I think this time, the medication didnt knock me out totally. I could feel pain throughout the process. Usually its a dull pain with occasion sharp pains which left me crying. I remember in a stage of blurness I was telling the nurse its soooo painful.

After the ops, my calves were wrapped up. I had to get off the operation table to walk back to the room. To my horror, this time I couldnt even stand up at all. It was just really painful and my legs just feel very weak. As I am taller and bigger than the nurses they couldnt really support me, and Dr Arthur had to hold me himself. In the end, the driver was called to carry me up the stairs to my room. OMG!! I really didnt expect this.

Another thing that was not within my expectation was how bad my feet swelled. For the thighs lipo, my feet swelled only for 1 day and it subsided. This time, the swell persisted for 2 weeks even with daily massages.

However, I must say lipo of the calves recover quicker than thighs. Even though I couldnt walk myself immediately after the operation, but I could shuffle around in the clinic in a very awkward manner. And by end of 1st week, I could walk very well, like normal. The pain was all gone by end of 2nd week. Of course, I still couldnt wear heels yet. Bruising was much lesser compared to thighs too.

It has been 4 months and 1 week now. I am totally happy with my liposuction results. Below picture says it all. As I've always said, I do not need supermodel thin legs, I just want slimmer legs :) Thanks to Dr Arthur who made it happen for me!

Day 3 & 4 & Results

The picture below depicts my transformation. The one most right was taken before the lipo, at home. Middle pic was during the lipo when some liquid had been pumped into my thighs. Left pic was immediately after the lipo.

Day 3 and 4, the pain didnt get any lesser. Though by Day 3 my feet had stopped swelling.

I managed to wash my hair on day 3 myself. Also, decided it was too boring just staying inside the clinic all the time. Got the driver to drive me to Sunplaza to have a nice meal in Dome, as well as bought some sushi back for dinner, and breakfast for next morning from Breadtalk. Also went to buy the famous Medan Kueh Lapis from the shop that usually customers of Dr Arthur would go.

Sunplaza

Dome 

Grilled Salmon

I tracked the development of the bruises too!

Order as such
Day
6,5,4
3,2,1

The bruises took about 7 days to fade to a pale yellow and another 3 days to completely disappear. However, the intense pain in the thighs lasted a good 2 weeks. This was even with daily massages that I do myself in the morning and at night, and professional massage at Healing Touch twice a week. After 2 weeks, its not as painful as before, but there was always a very very tight feeling - its as though something was being pulled or stretched inside the thighs. Constant massage helped to ease this tightness for a while, but it came back all the time.

I wore the 2XU tights everyday and night for a month.

After 3 weeks, all the pain were gone. 

Today it is already been 4 months and 2 weeks. The parts which were bruised pretty badly (the very red and black parts) are now a darker shade than other parts of the skin. Dr Arthur did warn me about this discolouration. But I guess no one would really stare at my thighs to notice this.

As I have thunder thighs to start with, I am not expecting to get super model legs after lipo. In fact, only 3 litres max of fats can be aspirated safely. So 3 litres isn't really going to make my thighs very slim. But I am happy with the results as the fatty bits on my knees and the inner thigh are gone! And my outer thighs look more defined. 

If you asked me if going through all this pain was worth it, I would say YES. I have never done any operation in my life, and I am allergic to painkillers. Not sure if this actually makes the pain more unbearable? However, tolerating 3 weeks of pain and getting a nicer pair of thighs is definitely worth all the hardship.

Next up, I am going back to Dr Arthur to fix my calves in May 2014. I wonder why my legs are so freaking fat!! :( But I am looking forward to a nicer pair of calves.

Day 2 of Thighs Liposuction

I have to mention that a gown is provided by the clinic, so I didn't bring alot of clothes with me. 

Basically, I only brought my sports bra, and wore the gown over it. For bottom, I have paper panties and a 2XU tights as advised by Jennifer since I did lipo on thighs. So my bag was really light. I went to buy the dettol shower gel too as I've read some girls were advised to bring dettol but Jennifer didn't really instruct me so. Bring your own toiletries too, such as toothbrush, facial wash, moisturizer, etc, unless you dont mind using those simple ones provided. 

For this trip where I stayed for 5D4N, I mainly ordered food from the menu and when I got quite sick of them, the driver drove me out (FOC) to Sunplaza where I bought food. However, the kitchen has a fridge, microwave oven and hot water. So if you like to bring some food along, as such bread, spreads, cup noodles, it is possible too. Then you don't have to endure the pain while walking around shopping for food. Sunplaza has some good brands like breadtalk, some sushi restaurant and Dome. There is a huge hypermart too if you want to buy fruits or whatever.

I woke up the next day, not quite sure what I was feeling. My thighs were bandaged and I struggled to go brush teeth. Standing up and walking was quite painful. But this was mainly because I am allergic to painkillers so the only medicine I could take was panadol. 

At about 10am, the nurse called my room phone and informed that I have to go downstairs for massage, as well as changing of dressings. She came to my room and helped me downstairs to the room beside the operating room. 

There were 6 holes made to each leg - 3 near the groin area, and 3 around the knee area. I think one of the holes on my right leg at the knee area still has some drainage going on and once the dressings were taken off, blood actually spluttered out. I thought it was morbidly amusing :D This blood splattering was nothing. The massage was! I believe the nurse was already being very careful and gentle, but simply pressing on my thighs was a killer! 

All the discarded dressings.

After massage, the nurse bandaged me up again and put on the 2XU tights. It was this horrifying moment that I realised I have to climb up the staircase myself, with my poor legs! And this is the staircase where everyday I have to go and up down to change dressing, to go out.

The mount Everest staircase!!!

I read about how some of the girls have feet that swelled to elephant size. Luckily for me, my feet swelled just a little. 

Some of the food from the menu, which I got sick of by Day 2.

Most of the time, I spent trying not to walk, on my bed in the room. I watched alot of dramas on my laptop. 

The Big Day - Liposuction of the Thighs

The Big Day fell on 11-Dec-2013. 11-12-13 interesting date eh? But I was definitely not feeling anything else but serious jitters.

There are several flights that fly to Medan from Singapore - Jetstar, Silkair, AirAsia. I booked myself on Jetstar which is not the best, but definitely the cheapest. Only paid like SGD50 including all taxes. This is one of the reasons why I picked Medan. Travel time is short and cost is cheap, its like taking a taxis!

But if you have more money to spend, its better to take Silkair, as you would have arrived Medan earlier (9am vs 12noon on Jetstar) and have more time for consultation etc.

Since having a liposuction isn't a very glamorous thing to publicise about, I've only told 2 girl friends about it. I flew to Medan alone, by myself. Very worried, very scared, very nervous in all honesty. Not because of anything, but more of the operation itself. As I have never done any operation before in all my life of 35 years, this was really the very first operation I'll be going through (except wisdom tooth extraction). 

People are usually saying Medan isn't safe, locals are against Chinese blah blah. But if you have traveled to anywhere in S.E.A, Medan is just like one of them - Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam. It's not a high class place, just simple, but also not drop dead dangerous. Travelers just have to be careful and be aware of whats happening around you, as you would be traveling to anywhere else in the world.

The new airport is a good 40km away from the clinic. Options for traveling are provided by Jennifer - you can travel via local taxis, or the train or pay SGD 22 for the car from Dr Arthur's clinic to pick you. I opted for the car, and so by the time I cleared immigration, I saw the driver carrying a sign with my name on it.

The driver cannot speak a lot of English, but he was polite and all smiley. The car was a SUV, big and comfy, time taken to get to the clinic was approximately 1.5 hours.

Dr Arthur's clinic is a 3 storey bungalow, very nice and modern.

There are gym studio/ dance studio, shared living room and kitchen, and rooms for other patients. The place is very spacious and clean. My room is without attached bathroom, as the bathroom is just immediately outside. So very very convenient.

Entrance of the clinic

The shared living room

My clean and nice bedroom

I was taken to my room where I put down my bags and stuff. One of the girls brought me a menu and I placed my order for lunch. After waiting around for a while, my lunch came and I finished it. A little while more, the nurse took me to consultation with Dr Arthur.

Meeting Dr Arthur for the first time, he speaks like any other Singaporean and is friendly and candid. Discussed about my thunder thighs and his approach to do a 360 degrees sculpturing instead of just inner outer thighs. Reason is because 360 sculpturing allows future weight loss to be more evenly seen on the thighs.

There were also 3 cannulas on his desk, where I almost fainted upon seeing. Seriously I would rather not see the equipment and think how they are going to go into my body. Too freaking scary! But Dr Arthur was explaining that by using cannulas 1-3mm in diameter leaves very small holes and would be hardly seen after recovery. Also, it is very tedious and time consuming process, which takes alot of experience and stamina. However, it is very safe too. I have allergies to all kind of pain killers, so I also asked many questions on the safety of such operation, to which Dr Arthur was very patient to reply and assure me.

After consultation, I was asked to go take a shower which was the only shower anyone would have for the next few days as the thighs would be all bandaged up. So be mindful to wash your hair and everywhere else really clean. I brought antiseptic wipes to use since no shower.

I was also given some pills and this horribly painful IV drip thingy inserted into my veins on my right hand. Seriously freaking painful! And I had to bear with this thing for one more day after the lipo too.

I was being brought to the waiting room beside the surgery room and told to wait. A nurse came to ask me to fill in some forms and do measurement of weight, height, BMI, also taking measurements of my thighs etc. While waiting, I could hear Buddhist music being played and was told the doctor was praying, which he usually does before operation. I am seriously glad! I too want the operation to be smooth and painless!

While waiting I have some time to take some photos of the operating room. I remember texting my girlfriend last min, this better be worth risking my life! haha..

Finally, Dr Arthur appeared! So he started videoing the process of drawing circles circles on my thighs, pinching my fatty bits and I felt so totally humiliated *boo. If I were slim, I wouldn't need to be here eh? *sobs* haha.. but this was the usual procedure that everyone who wants to do a lipo has to go through. 

A yellow liquid was plastered all over my thighs and I was told to lie down on the operating table. The last thing I remembered was turning to my left side and seeing the doctor with a big syringe and I told myself I didnt want to see anymore. Then kind of, I fainted immediately! Thats an exaggeration. More like the medicine has kicked in and I drifted in to a sleep, perhaps subconsciously telling myself "Go sleep! You dont want to know whats happening during the procedure!".

So I could say, I am fortunate I didnt really remember anything much during the entire process. Only remembered the doctor asking me to feel my left leg, when it was done. And also, a cannula going into my right leg and extreme pain before I told myself "ok you dont want to know" and went into unconsciousness again. 

This was how much fat thats been aspirated for my left thigh

A total of 3 Litres were aspirated. After the operation, my thighs were all bandaged up & half conscious, I was ushered back to my room, with the help of a nurse. She put on my 2XU tights too. Seriously I dont think I remember what I was feeling, except being glad I didnt die. hahahaa..

Ordered dinner and fell asleep. The next time I woke up was that dinner, the porridge I've ordered had arrived. Did not have any appetite, so just took a little of the porridge before drifting away to sleep again.

Dr Arthur stays in the room next to the kitchen in the same clinic. I roughly remembered he came to my room & asked if everything was ok, to which I've replied yeah. I didn't even throw up as many others have blogged. I just really want to sleep.

Liposuction- how it all started

YOLO - You Only Live Once!

Yes all of us do, sadly.

All of the 35 years of my life, I have this one major complaint - my fat legs.

I have inherited fat legs from my mom. From the thighs to the calves, they are just F.A.T. Always, I would look at the legs of my girl friends. Though they aren't supermodels' but they are slimmer than mine. And I would look at Victoria's Secrets Supermodels and their amazing legs, and feel why is life so unfair? :(

Well, life is never fair I guess. If you want things, you have got to make them happen!

But never have I really thought about liposuction till... age 35.

Perhaps, having just a few more years before hitting the big 4 messed with my mind and a little voice told me - Liposuction! It is the way to get slimmer legs!

I am a very efficient person. Once this thought crept in, I started to google furiously to understand how its done, whats gonna happen, the risks and who and where the best offers & services are.

There were many girls like me who have thought about lipo and blogged their personal experience. So it wasn't too difficult to find blogs with comparisons of different surgeons - in Singapore, in Medan and in Nara; and also forums where women discussed and bitched about their experiences.

In the end, different factors contributed to my decision, which was to have my very first lipo done in Medan with Dr Arthur Tjandra.

His website is here: http://elixirdevie.sg/about.html 

So, very nervous, and not sure if I am doing the right thing (plus thinking I would most likely just die on the operation table), I wrote an email to Dr Arthur's administrator by the name of Jennifer Cotto. This was the start of my liposuction adventure.