Rhinoplasty: Stories

Growing up I've had a love/hate relationship with my nose. In one way, it fits my face and my features, and I have appreciated that it's prominence has given me an "exotic" look in my 20's. Fast forward to my early 30's, now I am starting to feel that sexy strong nose is making me look older and less soft. Last year I was certain that I was going to address this once and for all, I had the surgery scheduled and decided to consult with another surgeon for good measure. I was already having my doubts, there was something about the other surgeon's aesthetics that I wasn't quite fond of. The alternate consultation surgeon told me to leave my face alone, that my proportions were on, and the slight correction of my bridge was going to throw off my face, he said I was a diamond he would not want to crack... As you could imagine I took this as a sign to back out.

A year later I have agonized over the decision, the final factor was my wedding pictures and video. My nose seemed worse than ever for some reason!
As the aging process is starting to rear its ugly head, I feel that refining my nose will soften my face and soften what I feel is premature aging. I researched for hours and found a doctor who I felt would be a good match. After meeting with him it all made sense why the other surgery didn't pan out, he was my guy :)
I have been chomping at the bit to get this surgery under way, and Feb 5th is the big day! I am nervous and excited but also certain that everything has fallen into place. I have also decided to have my jawline (submentum) sculpted thru lipo to take some of the moderate pooch and heaviness which I feel makes me look a bit masculine along with my hard profile, so all around subtle softening and refinement.

So yesterday everything was straightened out and set in stone, i paid for half of the entire surgery and now cannot back out or I will lose 4k! I had horrible anxiety and even though I'm not a drinker, had a couple glasses of red wine to calm my nerves, it really helped! My pre-op is scheduled for feb 1st, and I have a few more questions and am looking forward to a bit more reassurance. It still seems surreal, and I am on a rollercoaster of emotion. Most importantly, I am trying my best to keep my expectations realistic, and know that there's a good chance it won't be "perfect" and a small chance it may not even be an improvement, and a slight possibility I could even hate it! My motto: "keep your standards and expectations low, and you're seldom dissapointed." Here goes nothing!

So my surgery is one week and one day away. I stay up all night reading RS, the good, the bad and the ugly. Sometimes I scold myself for exposing myself to the downside of rhinoplasty, it gives me terrible anxiety. I don't really advocate prescriptions because I am a yoga teacher, but I have resorted to Ambien to try and get off this vampire schedule. This morning I woke up with the creative idea to tape my nose because my biggest fear with rhinoplasty in elevating my columella is lengthening my philtrum! I almost want to leave it alone because even reducing the shadow scares me to have a longer upper lip. So I went Pee-wee Herman this morning and taped her up, and I gotta tell ya it worked!! I may be a Froot Loop but it gave me a great visual of what my nose will look like narrowed and lifted. Ofcourse it did nothing to deproject my bridge and tip, but wow, it actually put me at ease!! I posted a picture of my strange tape idea even!

Pre-op was Friday, and I feel it went really well, he was very thorough in the schematics of how he would approach my particular case, and answered all of my questions with flying colors. I also got to see a couple more patients from the previous week, which put me even more at ease. I haven't published the doctors information yet as I am waiting to get a better feel of his bedside manner, but he is very knowledgeable, patient, understanding, and even handsome to boot (which doesn't hurt hehe!) So now I have only 2 more sleeps to go (well maybe one and a half) until the beak tweak begins! Still seems surreal!

It's a matter of hours before we leave for Jax, and I feel pretty good for the most part. The only thing I'm a little concerned about is I did find out my blood pressure is way higher than normal. At first when I brought the clearance form to my PS he didn't think the reading was accurate, then when he checked it, it was a bit lower but still considered stage 1 hypertension. None of this made sense to either of us, I practice yoga daily, meditate, vegetarian diet, low stress life style, the only thing it can be attributed to is genetics, so not only did I get my Dad's schnoz, but his high BP too.. great! So I have kept my eye on it and it has stayed above normal. Doc says if it's thru the roof there's a chance they may have to defer the surgery until its under control. I'm hoping low sodium, meditation and hydration will level me out! Anyone else have experience with this??

Whoa! I was prepared to feel beat down after anesthesia, and I was surprisingly alert and even a bit witty. I had heard the recovery was easier than a breast aug which I found hard to believe since that was a breeze for me. I can still breathe thru my nose at this point, I feel a little angsty coming off the anesthesia but I haven't taken pain meds yet, as I haven't felt the need. I also haven't eaten yet which could change things. I do have a sensitive tummy so I am kind of dreading taking that step as I had nausea with my BA after eating. So far so good, I'm about 3 hours into recovery. My doc was amazing, he was kind enough to show me a picture of what it looked like immediately after so I can get an idea and not freak out! All surgeons should do this! I'm eagerly awaiting him to email it to me as I was kind of our of it earlier. I remember it looking pretty small, maybe smaller than I would have liked, but I am prepared that its going to be a change.

Went to my day 2 post op, everything looked great and proper, he was very pleased with his work. I also was relieved to get the awful head dressing off where I had my jaw sculpted and OMG it already looks freaking amazing! I even posted a pic, and to imagine its still swollen and I am simply blown away. Right now I feel so pleased with my decisions, I chose a true artist and a hidden gem, lucky me :) now the waiting game until Monday when the cast comes off!

Started getting uncomfortable last night and decided to take pain pills, I slept ok except I had chronic dry mouth from breathing thru my mouth I had to keep getting up to get more water. My husband said I snored pretty loud keeping him up lol. Today I am swollen and distorted, not really in a lot of pain, but I am starting to "feel" more sensations that were once numb. The U shaped memory foam pillow has been a lifesaver, I would nod off sideways if I didn't have it! Def worth investing in. I'm going to try to ditch the hydrocodon from now on, so hopefully I'm on the mend. I think out of everything this face compression belt for my chin lipo causes the most discomfort.

I woke up feeling kinda icky and uncomfortable though I did sleep thru the night. I ended up taking a nice jacuzzi bath and did a little pampering which brought me back to life. I put on a bit of concealer and had company and lunch and walked around a bit and felt pretty good! Shortly after, I started getting swollen and throbbing with every step, and started feeling tingling pain and itching under the cast. I took a pain pill and went back to bed, defeated. Now I know I have limits and just need to take it easy and stay patient. It's hard not to feel restless :-/
 

Not feeling bad, not feeling great, I would like to be more active but every time I get up and around I just get sorta tired. That could partially be from being in bed and sleeping so much combined with med hangover. I really like what I see in the mirror so far! I can already see how the tip rotation makes my face look "sweeter" and softer.. No more Roman warrior lol! The time dragged on at first, but now it's coming up quick. I'm going to be ambitious and attempt to get my hair trimmed and blown out today for tomorrow, hopefully it doesn't chew me up!

Wow what a crazy experience to see a whole new you! My surgeon is truly talented and I feel very fortunate to have chosen him as he gave me precisely the result I wanted. I realize I am still very swollen, which in one way concerns me because I don't really want it to get too much smaller, I really like how it is today! He said my skin is very thin, so my swelling isn't major, but it will look less pudgy and more refined.. I am threw the roof with joy.. and relieved!

I felt very fortunate yesterday that my reveal was so pleasant and hopeful. Today I am feeling the wrath of "patience." I woke up so strange, swollen and distorted, so downright ugly, I actually crawled back in bed. My bridge is so wide and swollen I look like a lion or something, my tip looks like it drooped more and columellar swelling and uneven nostrils are making quite an unflattering result. Now I understand why people freak out in the first few weeks, I keep having to look at yesterday's pictures to remind myself that I didn't disfigure my face. Perhaps it was the Sushi and glass of wine that aggravated the swelling? At this point I am so grateful that I have this forum for a reference point to understand that this is all normal. Thank you again and much love to everyone who is candid about their experiences.. it helps me keep my sanity!

Today when I woke up the swelling had gone down tremendously, especially in the glabella, which made a huge difference in making me look more normal. I'm starting to get a slightly better idea of the final result. I had enough energy to work, take a gentle yoga class, then hit the grocery store after, so pretty much resuming my normal activity. My nose feels like it has been stapled to face, and my tip is completely immobile. The technique he used was "permanent" and I really realize as it settles in what he meant, it's def taking some getting used to. Between the tightness in my neck, my immobile foreign nose and botox I'm starting to feel inanimate lol.. Maybe once things start to heal and settle I will get used to it!

I went ahead and uploaded my reveal on youtube finally, it's a bit drawn out since it took a few mins to get the cast off and my friend recorded it vertically.. but you get to see my reaction to the mirror at the end, and the anxiety leading up, I could relive that moment again and again haha!

Day 10 with cast off and I'm liking it even more. I have been concerned that it was going to get too small, it has gone down quite a bit but it's looking prettier and more refined. I am feeling really good about it, and I'm going to make a debut this evening and see if anyone notices! I can still see that it is still a bit swollen unevenly along the bridge, and I think the tip still has a fair bit of swelling, but overall I think I am getting a lot closer to the final result!

So my two week check up went well. When he first saw me he mistakenly thought we were 6 weeks out, and he looked at my chart and realized it was only 2. Upon examination he said I was healing unusually rapidly. He did also say that most people do have a lot more bruising and swelling despite my theory that he is a magician, but he did agree that he is gentle with the tissues, and his father is a surgeon and always emphasized that! He said most people can expect a closer result in 3 months, but mine should be more like 6 weeks!
So all of that was great news, and each day my nose is becoming "shrink wrapped" I guess I am glad that it wasn't as small when the cast came off, it has given me time to adjust and appreciate it in a gradual manner. It was still very prominent at first, now its becoming "cuter" as the swelling decreases, but still very proportionate. I'm realizing you can never become too attached to how it looks on any given day, because it changes so much daily!

So I'm now 6 weeks out, not really sure how much more I can expect it to change? It's been a very strange experience altogether. I guess I expected a tremendous reaction and to be able to accept myself finally and fall in love with my reflection once and for all. It is a huge improvement obviously, but it blows my mind how many people simply don't notice. I haven't decided if that's good or bad! I do feel so much more confident, and the people who know compliment me on how perfect it looks, as afraid as I was to change my looks I got the most ideal enhancement I could have chosen, there really isn't a better nose for my face! So, why haven't the clouds passed and birds sang? I have come to realize liking what you see in the mirror has very little to do with your appearance, there is no cosmetic "fix" for self acceptance. It's something that comes from within. So I have learned so much about myself from this experience as I continue on my journey understanding my quirks. My goal now is calm that critical mind chatter and smile without worrying about those creases under my eyes. A rhinoplasty can only enhance your nose, not your entire perception of yourself. I now have one less thing to criticize myself, so I am taking that momentum a practicing self love from here on out :)