The pro skateboarder, 23, recalled her first of seven reconstructive surgeries after her upper lip and part of her nose were ripped off in a pitbull attack in November 2020
Brooklinn Khoury is sharing how intense her first surgery after her life-changing dog attack was.
On Tuesday, the 23-year-old posted a TikTok video responding to a follower who asked her how long her surgery took. The pro skateboarder has had seven reconstructive surgeries since November 2020 when her upper lip and part of her nose were ripped off in a pit bull attack.
“My first surgery was 20 hours!” she revealed. “They did have a lot to do with the surgery. They had to take my skin from my arm, attach it to the lip, funnel a main artery and a vein so that I could feel my lip.
“But I was unconscious for two days, so when I woke up I was very confused. I didn’t know what day it was. It was the trippiest thing,” Khoury said.
“First thing I asked my doctor when I woke up was what he ate during those 20 hours,” she added in the caption.
Earlier this month, Khoury admitted that she was initially scared of how she looked after the attack, reflecting on beauty standards and how much she’s grown to accept her new appearance.
“A lot of you have been asking, ‘What was the first thing that went through your head when you were attacked?’ To be honest I was scared and worried about looking so different in a society that strives for perfection,” she wrote alongside photos of her immediately after the attack.
“But instead of being scared of how I looked I started to embrace it,” Khoury said at the time. “I couldn’t change what happened, I couldn’t wish things were different. I just knew I needed to learn to accept how I looked, even if I was scared of it at first.”
“I realized that to me beauty has no definition. We all go through things in life that change us,” she ended. “Whether it’s emotionally, mentally, or physically. We have all been through something that has changed us from the inside and out. Beauty is in everything, yet so undefinable.”
Khoury received a bunch of praise from her followers under the post, including her girlfriend and Dance Moms alum Chloé Lukasiak, who wrote, “My pretty girl.”
Since the dog attack, Khoury has been documenting her recovery journey on social media. She underwent her seventh reconstructive surgery in February, telling about the excitement she feels coming close to the end of this lengthy journey.
“Basically, my doctor is recreating the top lip in this surgery — creating a Cupid’s bow and central columns. So kind of making my lip look more aesthetic,” Khoury told , noting that her surgeries typically take all day to complete. “My doctor’s very cautious and wants to do everything perfectly.”
Looking to the future, Khoury says she is eager to put these surgeries behind her and resume the high-velocity lifestyle she led prior to the attack.
“That’s one of the hardest things is just having to sit still and kind of refocus my attention into not being active and hiking, biking, surfing and skating,” she said. “But we’re almost at the finish line.”
In April, Khoury shared that her surgeon still wants to perform one more reconstructive surgery but said she’s “obsessed” with the results already.