24 Y/o Closed Rhino/Septoplasty. Etobicoke, ON

If you're reading this, you're probably thinking that you want to get rhinoplasty performed because you've hated your nose for a long time. I was no different, and I'll spare the details. Despite wanting to have this surgery since I was a child, I made a fairly quick decision, and an even quicker surgeon decision. I had an upper limit of $7000, and didn't really want to spend more than that. I'm from London, but no one specialized in cosmetic rhinoplasty (other than perhaps Dr. Corey Moore, but they refuse to even give you a base quote without paying for a consultation), so I started looking to a bit bigger cities. I found Dr. Nicholas Hynes in Hamilton, and had a consultation with him, even though he did not specialize in rhinoplasty (I really only looked at the price - a mistake). As far as I can remember, it was around $6800 for a rhinoplasty with Dr. Hynes. I was a bit worried about him not being a specialist, so I e-mailed his receptionist and she told me he only did around 5-7 rhinoplasties a year!! I don't know what I expected, but I expected more than that. I decided to keep looking and somehow stumbled upon someone's review of Dr. David Hacker in Toronto/Etobicoke. Dr. Hacker specializes in rhinoplasty and septoplasty, and is an ENT - something definitely reassuring. I looked on his site and was really fond of the "no-frills" approach to the surgery - I hate how a lot of plastic surgeons are business people first and surgeons second. He also advertised his price on his website, showing they had nothing to hide, and his price was less than $5000CAD before tax!! I was astounded. I read a lot of reviews, which were mixed, but all the reviews on his nose surgeries were very good. I decided to take a gamble and e-mail him, and he responded to me personally, almost right away. I was blown away that a busy Toronto surgeon could take the time out of his day to answer seemingly stupid questions for a prospective patient. Anyways, after a few e-mails back and forth, I decided I wanted to book a consultation with Dr. Hacker. His consultations are a bit pricy (around $150 inc. tax if I remember correctly) but he spent over an hour with me and really convinced me that he was the one I would trust to do the surgery. I booked my surgery right after the consultation, and had to wait roughly 1.5 months. We agreed that I needed a substantial dorsal hump reduction and had a slight septum deviation that needed to be corrected. I did not get any tip work done as we agreed that "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." The lead-up to the surgery was a bit concerning because of his staff, the follow-up conversations seemed to be a bit rushed and they didn't always get my information right (IE, they gave the wrong birthday to the hospital - but this was fixed after the hospital called me). All in all, his staff are nice - just a bit organized I'm guessing. It can be VERY hard to get a hold of his office at certain times...I would recommend directly e-mailing Dr. Hacker. I did this a number of times and he had his staff call me as soon as they were available. As for the actual surgery - I showed up to Etobicoke General (stayed the night in a hotel nearby) and the nurses were very nice! I told them I was a huge baby about needles and everything and they comforted me the whole way. Before I knew it, I was saying bye to my boyfriend and I was being walked to the operating room! I'll admit that the operating room was a tad odd looking (although I don't have much to compare it to) but everyone, including Dr. Hacker, comforted me until I lulled off to sleep. I woke up in the recovery room and was in a lot of pain naturally, but they pump you full of morphine and you're on your way. I was already visibly bruised under one of my eyes, but nothing too bad. I was given a RX for percocets, which I did NOT want to fill, so I didn't. I had T3s at home and was determined to get by on them and ibuprofen alone - which I did. The first day - very easy compared to the rest of the week. You're still hopped up on the morphine etc. that your body hasn't had a chance to catch up yet. Second day - Sleeping is the absolute worst. You can't sleep. You have to have your head propped up by 2-3 pillows at least, and you cannot breathe. I did not even have packing, I just had the cast and stints! Third day - The WORST by far. The pain and discomfort was at its peak, but again, wasn't THAT bad because I got by with T3s and tylonel/ibuprofen. Dr. Hacker doesn't believe in all the arnica and pineapple juice junk, so I didn't bother, and I was fine. I stuck to a soft food diet obviously, and ate as healthy as possible. I was exhausted already by this day as I couldn't sleep all night, and had a bit of a breakdown!! I advise you to NOT cry after a rhinoplasty, you will swell and it will really suck! Fourth day - Started to get a bit better, still couldn't breathe through nose obviously so talking was interesting and so was trying to eat harder things. Fifth and Sixth days - Much better. Went to Walmart, a friends, etc. even with my cast on - I just had to get outside! Seventh day - Cast removal day!! I had read that this was painful and I tried to mentally prepare myself for it...but it didn't work. Cutting the stitches from inside my nostrils was disgusting, and pulling out the stints was even worse. He did it very quickly and I didn't have time to really process what was going on until after. The cast removal was also quite quick, and yes, it does hurt a lot. But then its over. However, in my case, I started to feel very ill and of course passed out. So I was stuck in his office lying on the floor with a pillow under my head for a few minutes, until I gathered the strength to go sit outside until I felt better. All in all, not a great day...BUT, I loved my new nose! Dr. Hacker said it looked amazing and I healed really well so that was nice to hear. He recommended that I taped my nose for 1 month and massaged it, which I did. The swelling is still quite bad at this point (I still couldn't move my upper lip) and remained so til the 10-14 day mark for me. The breathing also took a while, almost 3 weeks, to improve. Now I am almost 3 months post and I cannot say enough good things about it. I am obsessed! Its a truly indescribable feeling to look at yourself and no longer be ashamed of how you look, to finally feel confident and happy in your appearance. It was a long, long process for me and it was really hard at times (most times actually!!) but I wouldn't change anything at all. This was the best decision I EVER made, and would recommend Dr. Hacker in a heart beat. Even after my surgery, I still e-mail him with silly questions and he responds very quickly and is always helpful. I'm so glad I finally got this done, and that I chose Dr. Hacker. 3 months post and loving it more and more each day!