Rhino/septoplasty - Honolulu, HI

My biggest insecurity has always been my large, bulbous nose. I had never been courageous enough to go through with speaking to a doctor about having the procedure because I was afraid of being on the next episode of "Botched" or "Dr. 90210." Also, I am in the military and had already seen one-too-many bad experiences with plastic surgery done on people because they had gone through the military surgeons. Once I found myself having difficulty breathing, I thought it might be time to see what I could do to improve my nose problems.
Finally, I set up an appointment with Dr. Schlesinger around August 2014. I was pretty nervous at first and was really anxious to hear what Dr. Schlesinger would have to say about performing surgery on me. After about 10 minutes of speaking with him, I was 100% confident that this was something I wanted! Dr. Schlesinger confirmed I would need a septoplasty due to my deviated septum & he also talked to me about what he would reconstructively do to my nose to make it appear more attractive and feminine.
After I spoke with Dr. Schlesinger, he sent me the consultation where I met with Jenna. She explained all of the financial points for the surgery & we went over some paperwork too.
I went home to really think about the surgery and decided I would absolutely get it. I called the office and set up an appointment for October 14, 2014.
The days leading to my surgery, I became quite obsessed with before & afters of patients who had rhinoplasty. I would anticipate how I was going to look & whether I would love my new nose. Fortunately, Dr. Schlesinger and his team were so amazing through the entire process, any questions I had, someone was able to answer confidently & reassure me everything would be fine.
The day before my surgery, I felt completely calm and had no worries about the next morning. I took the medicine as instructed and when I woke up in the morning, I was ready to go. My boyfriend drove me to the surgery center & waited for me to go under. Once the anesthesiologist entered the room, the last thing I remember is him asking a question about my evil eye tattoo.
Fast forward 12 hours & I woke up at home. My boyfriend had medicine ready for me at my nightstand & he made sure I was comfortable. Honestly, the first 2 days were a blur because I was so heavily medicated.
After about a week, I was able to get my packing removed. That was probably the worst part of the entire healing process because I didn't realize how long the tubes were so they burned when they came out. Also, the stitching wasn't too fun either because my skin was quite sensitive so the pinching from the scissors hurt a bit.
Fortunately, I had ZERO bruising whatsoever and just a little swelling.
About 2 weeks after my surgery, I had a setback. My cartilage had dropped down and basically collapsed. Immediately, Dr. Schlesinger took charge and set up a surgery for me where I would be able to stay awake and he would sew the cartilage back to the spot it should be in.
That surgery was absolutely the worst pain I have ever been in. The surgery wasn't supposed to take more than 10 minutes because he said it happens kind of often to patients and it was nothing to worry about. For some reason, my body is stubborn and it ended up taking Dr. Schlesinger about an hour to fix my nose up. I had to be given heart rate and anxiety medication because the pain had become intolerable. Also, because the surgery had already begun, it was too late for me to be put under.
Dr. Schlesinger felt absolutely terrible for the pain he had seen I was in. He truly tried to make me as comfortable as possible but unfortunately, since the surgery had taken longer than expected, I couldn't really get comfortable whatsoever.
After my second mini surgery, I was swollen for about a week until I was comfortable with being seen in public. Surprisingly, I still never had any bruising.
Every checkup appointment I had with Dr. Schlesinger was great. He always reassured me my healing was going wonderfully even when I felt like I couldn't see any positive changes.
Having my rhino and septoplasty has been such a positive thing in my life. Not only do I feel better about my physical appearance, but I can finally breathe again!