Female 30s, Rhinoplasty - Was This a Good Idea?? - Glendale, CA

Tip of nose is still hard, one side is swollen more than the other so it looks crooked right now. Inside of nostrils still really swollen and scarred. Couldn't get a pinky in there if I tried. I'm cleaning with qtips still. I'm unsure about my smile -- it's not that it's stiff like before. I just look different and I don't prefer my new look only when smiling. Otherwise, I'm feeling good about how I look. I'm still hopeful that when all swelling is gone that my smile will look better again.

Almost week 3 update:
Things continue to improve. I think around 2 weeks, I saw a big improvement and I'm seeing minor definition improve continually. I am still not at a point to where I feel I look better than what I started with from the front, but that's mostly because my bridge and tip are swollen and still wide.

Acne - my skin has flipped out with this trauma. It's crazy oily and I've been breaking out on the chin and near the nostrils. I even got a pimple inside a nostril! Prior to this, I had some typical acne as a teenager. As an adult, I'd usually be suffering from a pimple here and there, but didn't really struggle terribly from acne as an adult. I look a lot better with makeup on and I have been dusting the external incision sites with makeup when I leave the house. I bought a whole new set of skincare products for oily skin too, but I'm down to only using an image perfect (perfect image? Idk - highly rated on Amazon for acne) salicylic wash. The toner, serum, and moisturizer were making everything worse. I do wear sunscreen during the day. Unfortunately the acne draws more attention to those incision sites. When that all clears up I think everything will look less noticeable.

I ran into a few friends last week in public, but for the most part I'm still avoiding social events with anyone outside the family. I just think people don't understand that this is a process (I sure as hell didn't to this degree!) and I really don't want to hear the dreaded words of "your old nose suited you better." I'm liking my 3/4 view on the right the best, but the jury is still out on the front. It's still a little to high for my liking but the tip is hard so I'm hoping that means that it still has room to drop. I'm also thinking that as it thins out it might not look so short, even if the tip doesn't drop anymore. I still have plenty of nose left on my profile and 3/4 view, and I'm happy about that because I still feel like I look like me. I'm hoping that when this is all done that the changes will be subtle.

Anyhow, I ran into a good friend early last week (2 weeks, 2 days) and I was super brief with her but I left thinking she hadn't noticed anything different - or at least not anything that she could pinpoint. Then I ran into her a couple of days later and I'm pretty sure she was inspecting me, but didn't say anything. It's not that I mind admitting - I'm just more curious to know if people will pick up the change without me telling them. I'm not at all uptight about being in public anymore and I'm giving people eye contact and closed mouth smiles :)

Scabs are falling out. I was really concerned about an infection last week too because the inside was super raw and sensitive, but dr g just told me to keep it coated in Vaseline. It has gotten better, but my skin and nose still hurt upon touch. I do get these little shooting pains in the tip now but I'm thinking it's probably a good thing since it might mean nerve endings are being stimulated again.

My smile is like, 75% ok. Most of my teeth show, but the lip is still stiff and pig-like. I'm hopeful it'll go back to normal soon but the thought has crossed my mind that the reconnection of tissue may have changed it for good!

I'm continuing to use supplements for swelling and allergies. I've also been eating a variety of solid foods too -- I could have done that long ago, but I figured a strict juicing diet would help with the low sodium. I haven't noticed any difference but my sodium intake is still quite low.

I also had this bump that felt like a bone or cartilage protrusion under my inner right eye. Dr g said bones were broken there and I should give it time. It's still there, not visible, but the slope of the protrusion has settled and feels smaller.

Around 2 weeks, I went to a beach bonfire one night and the smoke irritated my throat. It was sore for several days, so fires apparently should become avoided too. I should have known better!

In summary - in a better mental state, but still unsure about the front. Again, only time will tell!

The swelling continues to improve so I'm becoming more comfortable being around others, but still horribly self-conscious. My kids came home on Day 9. Sad that I had them away so long but I just didn't know how to explain all of this to my older daughter without impacting her self-worth. I ended up telling her that I went to the doctor to get some help with my allergies and breathing. It's not exactly lying, but I didn't feel compelled to share the whole story.

I went out as couple of days ago to drop my daughter off for a summer activity at church. It wasn't our home church so I didn't know the people, but I feel like there's a flashing sign above my head saying "nose job!!!" I'm sure it's all in my head, but at this point I feel so self conscious that I'm avoiding eye contact and trying to wrap up conversations as quickly as possible! It doesn't help that church people are so eager to be friendly, want to engage and smile at others. Smiling - my upper lip is tense still and produces a very awkward smile, but I am able to show more of my teeth now. Several days ago, only the bottom of my top teeth would show. Now I can show about 75% of my teeth, no gums.

The swelling has moved away from cheeks, so I'm getting my thin face back. It's very isolated to my nose and the space between my upper lip and nose is narrowing. The tip has dropped a little, I'd like a little more, but it'll come. The main thing distorting my face right now is that the bridge is SO wide! But taping did help the last few nights. The area I taped is more bony and less squishy than the part I did not. I even stick a little tape on the bridge between the eyes because that's the part that bugs so much now!

My nose is so clean! If anything now I'm worried about whether I've done too much prodding, cleaning, etc. But now that I can officially breathe out of my nose, I'm laying off on messing with it so much. I sleep with my mouth closed and thank god for that because I was dealing with some gnarly lizard tongue all night! I dropped Flonase and sudafed. I think I only used them 2 days. I guess Flonase isn't really recommended this early on because it can be too drying. One of my internal stitches fell out on day 8. Hope that's ok! No bleeding.

For those of you that haven't done this yet, stock up on a Costco sized pack of Q-tips. I've gone through almost 500 already and from what I've heard, this will be how I clean, lubricate, apply medicine, and itch my nose for the next 6 months.

Oh, I had another crying fest on Day 10 when I hadn't cried for days. My daughter had a friend over and they wanted to swim, so I was outside supervising for about 1.5 hours. I had a ball cap on, 30 spf sunscreen and I was almost always in the shade. My nose swelled up horribly after that and I may have even gotten sunburned! I have no idea how because of all the aforementioned. I'll check today. I had been looking somewhat normal too...not like me, but like a human. I had reserved a so cal camping site 6.5 months for this weekend and I ended up telling my husband last night that I can't do it. Bring in the sun and heat is not good for my skin or swelling :(

My new worry is that the bone on the bridge is too wide permanently. I had a narrow bridge before, but the I was thinking...if you had a mountain and cut the peak off, it would the look wider (from birds eye view) than before. I'm hoping dr.g did some narrowing work after removing the hump to prevent those nose from looking wider. I looked at his before and after pics online and most people who had narrow noses have a similar width bridge after as before -- but not all. Some look noticeably wider. :(.

I can tell you one thing: this is not the right surgery for someone who worries. The emotional cost of this is very high and quite frankly, I don't know that it's worth it. I'm hoping I'll love my new face so much when this is all said and done that this will be a distant bad dream.