Botched Abroad: That Time When Lilli Spilled the Tea

Kerry: Hi, welcome to my show. I’m Kerry Berlet, wife of world-renowned plastic surgeon Dr. Anthony Berlet. I’m here to bring you plastic surgery stories from start to finish. Why did they do it? What was the prep like? How was the recovery? How has their life changed since they did the surgery? We’re here to spill the tea over plastic surgery.

Kerry: So good to see you.

Lilli: So good seeing you.

Kerry: So tell me about your background, your cultural background, because I know that’s sort of part of your story. I want to hear it from you.

Lilli: So I am originally from China. I came here about 25 years ago. I’m in the beauty business, so I do care about how I look, of course. So even though it’s a little bit of imperfection, I feel I’ve got to fix it. So I went to my gynecologist, and I talked to him about it. I said, you know, I think I need to get my face done.

Kerry: But why are you talking to your gynecologist about this?

Lilli: Because maybe he’s a doctor, so he might know. So while I was talking to him, he said, “Li, if you ever want to go, you’ve got to go to Dr. Berlet. He is the best.” He said, “Dr. Berlet fixed my son.” His son, when he was a child, had an accident. He kind of broke his face or something. So Dr. Berlet fixed his face perfectly. You can’t even see the scar. You can’t even see anything. So he said, “You have to go to this doctor.”

Lilli: So that’s why I went to Dr. Berlet and I spoke to him. I got a [inaudible]. I do love him, because I know he’s very much an artist.

Kerry: Yeah. He has that feel.

Lilli: He’s a very handsome guy, of course. So anyway, I said, “I want to do that. I want to get my face lift done.” So after I went home, as much as I loved talking to Dr. Berlet, I also thought about it, since I’m Asian. I thought probably an Asian doctor will know my face better, will probably do a better job on my face, even though Dr. Berlet is the best. So I decided I’m going to China.

Kerry: Yep. This is what I hear. Asian people think that an Asian doctor will do the best job, right? And so people fly. Wait, so did you go to China for a consult, or did you do it virtually?

Lilli: I did the consult virtually. And then I went to China, actually almost right before COVID time.

Kerry: Oh my gosh. You might have gotten trapped there.

Lilli: I did. So anyway, I originally wanted to go to this doctor who’s a Korean doctor. Everybody always thinks Korean doctors, in cosmetic surgery, they are more advanced.

Kerry: I’ve heard this.

Lilli: So that’s what I thought. I said I’m going to go to him. So when I went there, the doctor wasn’t there, but I only had a short time. And I also wanted to fix my nose, because when I was young I had it done a couple of times, so there’s scar tissue in the nose, and my nose became shorter and shorter because the scar tissue shrank. So I wanted to fix my nose to make it extended. They told me they can do it. In order to do that, they had to add some kind of extension.

Kerry: Like a nose extension. And do you know what it was made of?

Lilli: I don’t really know.

Kerry: They put a clothes hanger.

Lilli: I don’t really know. But anyway, for the nose, the doctor did an okay job. Pretty good job, according to what Dr. Berlet said. Except normally you see the bridge of the nose, it should come out evenly, gradually, rounded. The way this doctor did it, the bridge part all went in. It looked so odd.

Kerry: So it was inverted up here. And he did that at the same time as something with your face?

Lilli: So when I talked to the doctor, he said he can do the nose. But because the Korean doctor wasn’t there, I said, “Okay, I’m going to get this Chinese doctor.” He’s a very good doctor also.

Kerry: Now, did you expect to see the Korean doctor when you got there?

Lilli: I was, but the doctor was not there.

Kerry: What? So you have an appointment and they just put a different doctor. Wow.

Lilli: So anyway, this doctor, he’s a pretty famous doctor also, in Shanghai. So I said, “Okay, if he can do my face, then I’m just going to get my face lift done also.” The reason I did my face lift is, at that time it wasn’t that bad, it wasn’t really sagging that much. The reason I wanted to do it, I think as you get older your face becomes more square, and I did not like that look. So I asked the doctor if he can lift it, to change my face features so it’s not so square in the jaw area. So the doctor said yes, of course we can do that, and we can suck off some of the fat from the bottom part. So that’s what he did, but the result came out really bad.

Lilli: After my surgery, I went to see one of my girlfriends. She’s also in the beauty industry, she’s had so many procedures, and she knows all those kinds of things. So she saw my face. She said, “This is not a face lift. All I see is you have more scars, but nothing was changed.”

Kerry: Really? Oh my, that’s terrible. So that was after you fully recovered that she could see this?

Lilli: It wasn’t that long, because I was still in China, so I was still a little bit swollen. But because she’s experienced, she can see there’s nothing. I had all kinds of scars at that time. It was disgusting, because it was all red. It was bad, and the ear was pulled down.

Kerry: Why would the ear be pulled down?

Lilli: That’s the way China does it. The way they do it, they cut the ear off here, and when they reconnect, they sew it so the ear is pulled.

Kerry: Why? They think you don’t want a lobe?

Lilli: They do not have earlobes. Actually, in China, if you see the Chinese movie stars, there’s a very famous movie star, Liu Xiaoqing. All Chinese know her, she’s very, very famous. She went to the most famous plastic surgeon in China, but you look at her ear, it’s like that. Those kinds of weird lobes all come down. So that’s the way they do it.

Kerry: And then where is the scar, in front of or behind the ear?

Lilli: The scar was in front, and behind, and was even coming down here. You can see.

Kerry: So what were they doing that you would have a scar there?

Lilli: I really don’t know. I’m not a surgeon, and I didn’t know what to expect. And that’s the result I came back with, and I really wasn’t happy about it. After I came back from China, I took a picture and sent it to the doctor. I said, do you think this scar is going to go away? And the doctor said, oh yeah, it’s going to go away, don’t worry about it. And I asked, what about where they sucked the fat from both sides of the cheek?

Kerry: Okay. So like liposuction here.

Lilli: Yes, liposuction. And there’s an indentation on each side.

Kerry: Like dimples?

Lilli: It’s not dimples. Now I have four. My mom gave me two. Now I’ve got two more. I have four dimples. I don’t think I need that many. If anybody wants, I can donate them. So anyway, when I came back, I also asked the doctor, “What about this indentation? Is this going to go away?” And the doctor said, “Oh, yeah. It’s going to go away. Don’t worry about that. It’s going to take about 6 months.”

Kerry: Okay. But if you have a dent, why would the dent go away?

Lilli: I did a lot of research online. They said usually if the doctor is not experienced, when they do the liposuction, you have to do it very smoothly. Sometimes if you go too deep or too shallow, it won’t be even.

Kerry: So it caused lumps or something?

Lilli: It’s not even a lump. It’s just a hole, a dimple on each side. It was bad. On this side you can still see a little bit.

Kerry: Doesn’t look bad.

Lilli: Yeah, but that’s because Dr. Berlet did so much. He did the fat transfer, to suck out the fat from my stomach. I was trying to lose weight, I didn’t really have much fat. Get it from here a little, inside my thigh a little bit, to try to fill in this indentation. I think we did it three or four times, because you have to understand, the hole was kind of deep. It’s not going to be that easy.

Kerry: Okay. So this happened. You have the facelift you don’t like. You have the nose that’s okay but not great, a little inverted. And then you have these dents. So when you went to Dr. Berlet, what was the first step? And was he like, why’d you go to the other guy?

Lilli: No, he would never say that. So I told him the story. I said it’s not because I don’t love you. I love you, but because you’re not Asian.

Kerry: Right. Exactly. This is what I’ve heard, that’s part of the culture, right? And everyone thinks Korea, that’s where you’ve got to go.

Lilli: Yes. So I said, because you’re not Asian, that’s why I went to this doctor, but look at the result. I’m really not happy with it. I said, Dr. Berlet, you have to fix that. And he said, let me take a look. So he took a look. He said, I can fix it for you, but you have to wait, because you cannot do the surgery so close. It hasn’t really recovered, and if you do another surgery, you will have worse scars. So you have to let the scars settle and wait for a year.

Kerry: That’s big too, because a lot of them would just want the business, right? But he was like, you’ve got to do it right.

Lilli: He’s so honest. He said, I really want to do it right. I can’t do that for you now. You just have to give yourself a little bit of recovery time, and wait for a year, then we talk about it.

Kerry: So did you have to wait a year for everything, or just for that? What about the nose?

Lilli: At first I wasn’t as concerned about the nose as my face.

Kerry: So could he address the dents first?

Lilli: I asked him, can we address this first? He said no, let’s do the face lift, and after that we address that part. Because if he fixes the face lift, it may be different. He wants to go step by step. So the first thing he wanted to do was fix the face lift part, all the scars.

Kerry: So you had to be patient and wait.

Lilli: So the whole year I could not put my hair up, because you could see all the scars. It was just so disgusting. So I had to try to keep my hair down as much as I can. When I spend so much money on plastic surgery, I want to make myself look better, right? So you spend the money and end up looking worse. That’s terrible. If you don’t find a good doctor, you’d better not even bother to do it. If you find a good doctor, you’d better just stay with him.

Lilli: So let me talk about my surgery. One year later, finally, I went to Dr. Berlet. I said, “It’s time. It’s been one year. I need to get it done.” And he looked at my scar and said, okay, we can schedule. He’s always busy, so of course from scheduling to getting surgery, that’s another wait, another month or so. So now I made an appointment, and the doctor said, I think I can fix the scar for you. He’s very confident. He said, I can fix it, and I should be able to lift it. Thank God. So I was so happy that Dr. Berlet can fix it.

Lilli: And he said, “I can also fix your nose.” And I said, “Really? I thought the nose wouldn’t be able to be fixed. It’s just going to be that way.” He said, “Yes, I can do it. I can take cartilage from behind your ear and put it in here, so it can look more smooth.” So now my nose looks much better.

Kerry: Were you nervous, after everything you’d been through, that now he’s going to take part of your face?

Lilli: I trust him so much. And by now I came back for this, the face. So we scheduled the surgery.

Kerry: And what does that involve? Because you have a scar you don’t like. So can he just go over the scar, or how does that work?

Lilli: What he had to do is a whole new mini face lift.

Kerry: As if you had nothing done yet.

Lilli: Yes. He had to redo it, because before, they didn’t do anything. No lift.

Kerry: They just cut you.

Lilli: They just cut me. I don’t know how they did the lift.

Kerry: They just cut you and moved your ear.

Lilli: That’s right. So Dr. Berlet was able to lift my muscles. I think you have to do layers, right? I’m not a doctor.

Kerry: I am not either.

Lilli: So you have to do the layers. He was able to pull my skin up and cut off those scars. And the scars that were originally here, he hid them inside my ear. So you can’t really see.

Kerry: Oh wow. So he moved it.

Lilli: Yeah. You can’t really see the scar.

Kerry: No, I can’t see it at all.

Lilli: Before, the scar was all here. Now you can barely see it. And also, I started to feel I had a double chin, right? So he took off one of my chins. So now I only have one.

Kerry: Wow. Okay. But that was just the face, not the nose.

Lilli: Not that yet. The most important thing is he also fixed the earlobe. The ears were like this. Now look at my ear.

Kerry: Yeah. You have an earlobe.

Lilli: So I look so much better. Actually, when I was born, I naturally didn’t really have a bigger earlobe, but now he made one for me. So the facelift was not just to fix the face, it also fixed all the scars.

Kerry: All right. So let me see. Can I see both ears? So it wasn’t just the one ear?

Lilli: Both ears, of course. See? This one was worse. This one was really bad. The scar was so bad on this one. Look. Can you see anything?

Kerry: You can barely see. And look at the earlobe. I love that. That’s what I’ve heard about Tony. If he does a face, he also focuses on the ears, and actually the lips too. It’s the whole package. You can’t have a facelift and then have these bad ears.

Lilli: Yes, he’s really good with the details. I know he’s an artist.

Kerry: Yeah, that would bother him. But no, the ears look great.

Lilli: So now look, I can put my hair up now. Before I couldn’t. I was hiding my ear all the time.

Kerry: And that’s crazy. You had a scar and then he just pushed it into your ear.

Lilli: Yeah. Now you can’t really see the scar anymore. Oh, by the way, there is another thing. You’re supposed to have a little pointy part here. My husband found out. He said, “Why doesn’t this part have a point anymore?” It was cut off. But he also made that part.

Kerry: So they malformed your ears in China. Just really bad. Wow.

Lilli: Yeah, it was a terrible job. So anyway, then the next thing, Dr. Berlet said, okay, now we’re going to start doing the dents.

Kerry: And how long after the facelift was that?

Lilli: Because he wanted to see the result after it’s done, to see how much better, because he thought it might improve some. So he wanted to see it completely recovered before he does it. So I think it was about 6 months later. I went to him again and he looked and said, okay, we can do it. So the first time, he had to find the fat from my body to go in, and it looked so much better. But I want to be better and better, of course. I just hate that hole. So I think in total we did it three times, because each time you put in your fat, not all of it survives.

Kerry: Right. You lose some of it.

Lilli: You’re going to lose some, because the hole is so deep. So you need multiple treatments. I still have a hole. I may still ask Dr. Berlet for more.

Kerry: I don’t see it, though.

Lilli: He said, I don’t think you need it. But I’m such a perfectionist.

Kerry: You’re a perfectionist. You’re in the beauty business, so it’s understandable.

Lilli: Anyway, so he did that part. Then we scheduled another time, and we fixed the nose. And I’m so happy with all these results.

Kerry: Yeah. You look amazing.

Lilli: I think my face doesn’t feel as puffy as before, and my scars I can barely see. Unless I tell you, you probably can’t see them.

Kerry: No, I would never know. And when you took the piece from your ear, can you see that at all? Where was it?

Lilli: Behind. Behind the ear. Let me see. You can barely see it.

Kerry: No, I can’t see it. So that part of your ear is now in your nose.

Lilli: That’s right. And my fat is in my cheek, you know. So anyway, I’m so happy with the result.

Kerry: Yeah, you look so young.

Lilli: I’m 62.

Kerry: No, you’re not.

Lilli: I am.

Kerry: Even Tony, I was like, “Oh, how old is she?” And he thought early 50s. Wow. You’re 62. That’s insane.

Lilli: So what I want to tell you is, sometimes you think an Asian doctor knows you better, so that’s why you want to go to an Asian doctor. I think that’s not 100% right. It’s not right, actually.

Kerry: All right. So I have more questions, but before we continue, would you like a treat? These are little bananas Foster protein balls. We have little biscotti.

Lilli: They look so good. Except I’m lactose intolerant, but that’s okay. I think this protein ball is okay.

Kerry: Let’s see. We do have a doctor in the house. Are you peanut allergic? It’s peanuts.

Lilli: I’m not allergic to that. Only lactose. It’s really good. Where did you get it?

Kerry: Upstate New York. I just came back from a swim meet. There was this bakery with all fresh-made stuff.

Lilli: It’s really good. That’s part of the thing I don’t like about America. The desserts are too sweet. Asian desserts are better.

Kerry: Yeah, I agree. I like Asian candy, too.

Lilli: But the doctors, Americans are good. I told my sister, I will never go to China to get any plastic surgery done again. Ever. And actually, my sister got work done in China too. Everything she got done was so bad. Her face, she also got the filler. She hasn’t dissolved it yet. Actually, I had to bring her to Dr. Berlet to dissolve it. She still looks puffy.

Kerry: Because that’s another thing, how he filled in your dents. He can put fat instead of filler.

Lilli: That’s right.

Kerry: And that’s more natural.

Lilli: That’s right. I did not want to put filler in anymore. Dr. Berlet suggested I do the fat transfer, which is natural. And now I think he has this new thing, the nanofat. I think that one really works out really good.

Kerry: Did you get it?

Lilli: Yes. Of course.

Kerry: And he’s done it with my friends around their eyes too, and it softens them. There’s always more, right? That’s the thing with plastic surgery. It’s a slippery slope. But you’re safe with him, because he won’t overdo you. But you look great. I would never know that you had gone through all of that.

Lilli: Thank you very much.

Kerry: And you said your sister too. Your whole family, and especially with you in the beauty biz?

Lilli: Since Dr. Berlet did a beautiful job on me, and I’m in the beauty industry, everybody at my spa, my receptionist, my workers, everybody gets their face done. My receptionist got her face lift, got her eyes done up and down. Got everything done. She looks so much better. She looks at least 20 years younger, I have to say that. So she’s very, very happy. A lot of my clients all go to Dr. Berlet. Of course everybody asks me, they say, “Oh, Lilli, you look really young.” I have to thank Dr. Berlet. I’ve referred a lot of clients to him, because he’s really the best.

Kerry: He is. Right.

Lilli: Sometimes I was talking to my client about him, and my client did not go, but went somewhere else and talked to her friend, and her friend said, oh, I know a doctor, really famous, the best doctor, and his name was Berlet. So we were talking about the same person. That was at my Franklin Lakes location. And at my Chester location it was the same. One of my clients, her friend was actually friends with you.

Kerry: How crazy.

Lilli: Yes. And I was talking to her about it. She said, yes, I have an appointment with Dr. Berlet. So she got her face lifted and her eyes done. She looks so much better. I have to say he really is the best. And the funny thing was, one of my girls who used to work for me said, “Oh my god, I’ve got to get something done. I’m worried that he’s going to retire.”

Kerry: I know. People say that. Nope, he’s not allowed, because I need stuff too.

Lilli: I said, what do you want to get done? She said, I don’t know, I just need to get something done, because I don’t want him to retire. I said, “Don’t worry. He’s very healthy. He’s so young.” So that was funny.

Lilli: So anyway, now I’m very happy with mine, and every time I go out with my husband, everybody looks at me, oh, you look so young, right? Everybody thinks I look young.

Kerry: No, you do.

Lilli: So I told my husband, “I don’t know why you look older and older every day.” You know, I’m Chinese. Chinese usually tell the [inaudible].

Kerry: But is there an age difference?

Lilli: Oh, yeah. He’s actually younger than me. Three years.

Kerry: And you’re criticizing him that he’s too old.

Lilli: So old. I said sometimes when we go out, people think you’re my father. So I said, “You know what? You need to get your face done. You have to.” He said, “No.”

Kerry: So your husband didn’t want it yet.

Lilli: My husband said no, because he has these sideburns, right? He loves the sideburns. I do too. I think men look sexy with sideburns.

Kerry: Like an Elvis kind of thing.

Lilli: I like men with sideburns. So he has that. He was worried if he got a face lift done, he’s going to lose his sideburns. So he thought about it for over a year. And I said, “You’ve got to do it.” A year later, he looked even older. Every time we go somewhere, people always say I’m young, but nobody says anything about him. I said, “You really need to get it done. You really look old.”

Kerry: Oh, you’ve got to up your game, dude.

Lilli: So one day he said, “Okay, I’m going to go see Dr. Berlet.” So we made the appointment, and he talked to Dr. Berlet. He said, “I really want to get my face done, but I’m really concerned about my sideburns.” And Dr. Berlet said, “Don’t worry. I’m going to keep them for you. I will do the job and also keep them for you.” And guess what? He did. It came out so nice. He still has his sideburns. And his recovery was so good. His recovery was better than mine, because I think I’ve had too much surgery.

Kerry: Right, because this was his only one. All right. Well, so now I’m going to pour a glass of champagne. Whoops, that’s a little foamy. We’re spilling the champagne now, not spilling the tea. And celebrating the transformation, the recovery from the bad work in China, and beautiful Lilli, who looks so young and gorgeous, you would never know.

Lilli: Thank you. Thanks to you. Thanks, Dr. Berlet. Before we drink, we should call Tim.

Kerry: Yeah. Where is he? I need to see the sideburns.

Lilli: I really want to show you his sideburns.

Kerry: Wow. Look at that. The sideburns.

Lilli: Yeah. You can barely see his scar. This is not even 6 months.

Kerry: Oh, really? I didn’t know it was that recent. Wow, you look amazing.

Lilli: Yes, he looks so much younger. So now at least he’s in my age group, at least in the range, right?

Tim: I have no regrets. I’m very happy with the result.

Kerry: That’s amazing. Because a lot of men will not admit it, but I know a lot of men that have done it, and a lot of the good-looking men walking around have been to Dr. Berlet.

Tim: I have to say, this is a small surgery, but it’s a big change. And I really think everybody should do it, because if you can change without a big surgery, why not?

Kerry: You don’t even have to go under, right? What was it like as a man? A lot of times the men are the biggest babies.

Tim: You mean the process? No, it’s fine. It’s totally painless. I really liked that. First of all, if you go under anesthesia, it’s costly, and also they say it’s not good for your health.

Kerry: Right. You want to avoid that.

Tim: And the surgery wasn’t really bad at all. You don’t really feel much. I even heard them talking. I remember Dr. Berlet was using staples. Click. I said, “Dr. Berlet, are you using staples?” He said, “Yes, I am.” And I said, “Is this staple the one I use to clip all the paper together?” So I was still joking with him. You really didn’t feel anything.

Kerry: Oh, nice. Awesome. Well, cheers to you. We’ve got to get you a glass, too. So we just heard from Lilli and her crazy adventure to China and the bad surgery that Dr. Berlet fixed for her. I want to hear your comments and questions. Please subscribe to Once Upon a Surgery and hear more of these life-changing transformations.