17 days post-OP

Just a quick update.
I'm so happy with my result, so far, it was one of my best decisions to fly to Medan and Dr. Tjandra for liposuction!
Before surgery my arms measured 30-31cm and now I already measure 26cm on my left arm and 26,5cm on my right arm - amazing after such a short period of time! Remeber, swelling lasts up to 6 months!

I will post fotos when I'm 3 weeks post-operation on saturday. My bruises are already gone completely and I feel almost back to normal except for the compression garment. I had to buy another one in a smaller size already, the previous one is so big now that it wrinkles up!
This is how my garment looks like:

I never thought such great results would be possible! I guess because no other surgeon performs 3-dimensional liposuction.
In fact, I'm so happy about my result so far, that I already booked my second surgery and the flights in April!(liposuction of my tummy, lower back, waist and flanks and additional fat grafting to the buttocks)
Yes, it is expensive and exhausting to fly halfway around the world for liposuction, but it is definitively worth it!

10 days post-op

Today I'm already 10 days post-operation!
I feel very good and don't need any pain-kilers at all. (For the first week I took pain-killes only at night.)
The brusises are almost faded and swelling reduces slowly.
But even as swollen as my arms are right now, you can still see the toned form of the muscles.
And I know what my arms looked like right after surgery, so after all the swelling is gone, which takes up to 6 months, I will see the final result.

1 week post-op

I'm one week post-operation and still pretty swollen. But I feel that swelling is already getting better. My bruises went from dark violett to green-yellow, so they are also getting better.
But even as swollen as I am right now, the shape of my arms is still so much better than before! And I could see in the video immediately after surgery how slim my arms were then! So I know what to expect after the swelling is gone completely, which will take around 6 months! So patience is the key! :-)






 Look at how swollen and bruised my wrists are! And I didn't even get forearms liposcution done (yet)!

The beginning of my body transformation: Liposuction of my arms, armpit, shoulders and upper back

Flight and arrival

On January 11th I started my liposuction journey by flying from Europe to Singapore, which took me almost 17 hours! After a few hours in Singapore my next flight to Medan was about 1,5 hours. So it took me nearly one day to travel to Medan, I arrived on January 12th around 8p.m.
Pretty crazy, some people would say, but I can assure you, it was definitively worth it!
After I arrived, I was shown upstairs to my room (I booked ensuite) which was very clean and - very important - airconditioned! It is sooo hot in Medan, especially when you come from Europe and are used to 0 degrees! 

January 13th - Surgery

Since my arms were my most important trouble zone, I decided to start with liposuction on my upper body: My arms, armpits, shoulders and upper back
Initially I wanted to do forearms at the same time, but Dr. Tjandra strongly advised against that, because the swelling might be to much. (I'm glad that I listened to him, because even now my forearms and wrists are pretty swollen!)
 
After consultation in the morning Dr. Tjandra decided we should have lunch before surgery. Since it is performed only under local anaesthesia it is no problem to eat. It ís even recommended.
It was kind of an odd situation, eating lunch with your surgeon right before surgery. :-)

The surgery itself is quite blurred, because I got a sedative and pretty much don't remeber very much of it. But since Dr. Tjandra makes videos of his surgery, I can see that I must have been awake, although I don't remeber much of it :-)

The next day I got a lymphatic drainage massage by nurse Yusma. She is very nice and gentle. Other bloggers reported that this massage would hurt, so I was a little scared, but don't worry, it doesn't hurt. It felt quite good actually.  I looked forward to it every day! This daily massage is complimentary, if you stay in the clinic. It helps to reduce swelling and bruising and in addition to that, Yusma takes care of your wounds, which is very helpful, since some of the wounds are located on the back, so not easy to reach, especially after surgery, when your movement is a little limited due to the swelling.

I stayed till January 17th, which was ok. It would have been enough to stay there for 2-3 nights after surgery, but since I have a long journey home, I preferred to stay a little longer.

Here are my results:
Look at this comparison between my left arm after liposuction and my right arm before liposuction! Amazing result!

And now the result after finishing liposuction of my right arm (my left arm already started swelling):

I can finally see my muscles that were covered underneath all that fat!

Here are my videos before, during and after surgery:

Why liposuction?

Due to Hashimotos disease I slowly gained weight over the last few years, although I’m on a balanced diet and exercise regularly. I’m not overweight but I went from the lower end of my healthy BMI to the upper end and don’t feel comfortable in my body anymore.
I’m 1,70m and currently 69kg (BMI 23,9). I eat between 1500 - 1800kcal a day and exercise 4-6 times a week.


I had my trouble zones even with 54kg (which is almost considered underweight according to BMI)
I always had huge breasts, arms and shoulders, making me look less feminine. 
I already had liposuction on my arms done a few years back, but you couldn't see any result at all and I was told that there was no more fat, only skin and muscles, so that they couldn't do anything for me anymore. I accepted that liposuction maybe wasn't right for me, until I found videos on YouTube from Dr. Arthur Tjandra that showed amazing results!  It became clear to me, that I had to meet this doctor, no matter how far I had to travel...
I never felt comfortable wearing T-shirts or tops.When I gained weight, my arms became even bigger, so my first step of my body transformation started on January 13th with liposuction on my upper body: My arms, armpits, shoulders and upper back, to be exact
The next step will be my torso: Liposuction of my upper tummy, lower tummy, waist, flanks, lower back and fat grafting to the buttocks to create a more feminine silhouette.
After that I will do liposuction on my forearms.
My legs are ok so I don’t need to do lower body liposcution.
When I’m done with my surgeries I will exercise a lot more to loose some weight and reach (and keep!) my goal weight of 62 kg, meaning a BMI of 21,5. I think that's a reasonable goal weight that's easier to keep than my previous 54kg.

I will keep you updated about my progress regarding my surgeries and later my weight loss.
When you are already within your normal weight, it is not recommended to loose weight before liposuction because the fat cells only shrink in size, making it more difficult to reach for liposuction. So my weight loss has to wait until after my surgeries. For now I just keep eating healthy and exercising moderately to keep my weight and not gain any more weight.
Besides, liposuction is not a tool for weight loss but rather for sculpting the body of an already (more or less) slim person. Since I had the same trouble zones even with 54kg I know that overall weight loss wouldn’t affect my trouble zones very much or not to that extend that I would love. That was my main reason for doing multiple liposuction surgeries.