SECOND Revision Rhino - Marietta, GA

One year ago I went in to a ENT for my VERY deviated septum. They wanted to go in and do surgery so I could breathe. I suggested possibly also a rhinoplasty to try and smooth out a couple of rough edges and generally just make my nose look smaller since everything else about me is so small. A few months later (August 2011) I was under and had 2 doctors perform on my face. One for the septo and another for the rhino. Dr. Lacandro performed my Rhinoplasty. I handle pain well and bruising wasn't too bad. Within a month or so I could tell something wasn't right. There was a sharp point coming out one way and the tip was definitely fatter on one side than the other. So I went in and Dr. Lacandro agreed we needed to go under again for a few minor adjustments. Waited a few more months to make sure I could heal a little more but he went back in Oct 2011. After the swelling subsided from the SECOND surgery I could still tell my nose was not straight and the tip is still fatter than I would like. I decided to go check out another surgeon. Too much money wasted on someone who clearly did not know what he was doing.

My surgery is scheduled for next Friday! I did my research on doctors around my area. Went on a few consultations and really felt Dr. McNeel is the best. His bed side manner is great. I never felt rushed. Seriously awesome all around. Also, the staff is so warm and welcoming. They showed me pictures of his previous patients to help put my mind at ease. They even did the morphing thing on my face to show me what the results will be. I wish I had done this much research before my other surgeries! I already have my prescriptions filled, read all of the pre-op papers to make sure I am fully prepared. I even have a picture of myself and a photoshopped pic to show what I would like for the results to be so the doctor will be able to view during surgery. I am not sure what else to do to feel more secure about this one. I have been so dissapointed in the past. I don't know what I would do if things didn't turn out right AGAIN.

Thank you for all of your support! I have been reading everyones blogs for the past few weeks and many have really inspired me.

FOUR DAYS AWAY!! I am very excited... and pretty nervous. I am really worried about being disappointed AGAIN. I am very prepared though. I have several sets of pictures of myself before/after that I have photoshopped so the doctore knows exactly what I am looking for. All of my prescriptions have been filled. I have read over my preop/post op instructions several times. I have a ride to and from the hospital. Everything is in order! The only thing I am not sure about is what to tell my friends. Only a tiny hand full knows I am having this done. The first two times around they thought it was just the septoplasty... no one could even tell I had a rhino done. Which I guess is a good thing since they haven't noticed that it is crooked. I am too embarrassed to tell them my plastic surgery failure.

Surgery is tomorrow! I am so excited. All happy thoughts, prayers and wishes will all be appreciated! Fingers crossed I will be able to sleep tonight :)

Surgery went well! As far as I can tell. A lot of bleeding, other than that no pain! I am staying on top of my pain killer. Now I just need to be patient.

Day after my surgery! I feel pretty good as long as I am on my pain killers. The bleeding has stopped for the most part. My eyes are so swollen and bruised. Last night around 7 one of my nurses called to check in on me. She was so so sweet. THEN around 9 Dr. McNeel HIMSELF called to check in on me. I was so impressed. He explained to me how I had a lot of scar tissue from my previous surgery but he was able to do most everything we had discussed. So far, I love it! But I won't really know what it looks like until I get the cast removed and wait for all the swelling to go down. My post op is on Wednesday. EEE!

Today has to be the worst day. Day 4! The swelling is pretty bad. The bruising might be a TAD lighter but definitely more spread out. Definitely more unattractive. For memorial day my family and I went to a war cemetery to pay our respects. I kept a floppy hat over my face for the most part. But on the way home I looked in the mirror and noticed my left pupil was HUGE! My right one was normal. I called the on call doctor and he said it's not a issue from the surgery or meds. Which I find hard to believe. But if it persists for another day or two then I should go see a eye doctor. Has anyone else had this problem?

I get my cast off today!!! I will update as soon as I get home. Fingers crossed I like the results :D

Cast came off today... but only for about 30 seconds. Apparently this doctor requires the cast to be on for 2 weeks. He did show me a glimpse of my nose for a second before replacing the cast. I was really really disappointed. The tip was good... but the rest of it was just very very NARROW. The doctor says it's because this is a revision therefore there is a lot of scar tissue which the cast has been pressing on. And that my nose should "swell up" after the cast is off a while. Swell up?!? It looks so bad right now! And I have to wait another 8 days before I even see it again! I am really freaking out and sad :(.

Day 10... Cast is still on and I am still really worried about how my nose will look when they finally take off the cast for good in 4 more days. I didn't realize they had to keep a cast on 2 WEEKS! Now I have to go to work with a cast on my face. But I guess that is ok. Last time they only kept it on one week and my nose went crooked. So maybe this is better? I am not freaking out as much as I was before. I am really praying the doctor knows what he is doing and everything is in God's hands. Also, the doctor ordered me Loratabs so those help :D.

Day 12... Cast came off! But only because I took NyQuil to try to sleep and I guess in my half drowsy slumber ripped that bitch off my face. I immeditately got out of bed to run over to the mirror to see what my nose looked like. It's... interesting. Not nearly as bad as it was last Wednesday when the doctor took it off for a minute. It's less skeletor like lol. Still more condensed and tight than I was hoping for. Hopefully that will easy up or as I call it "fluff up" over the next few days. The tip looks really good! He even did the little "scoop" on the bridge like I was wanting. Everything looks great except for how tight it is down the middle bone area. I am really hoping that will go away. Its a little red with a few blimishes. Probably from wearing a gross cast for almost 2 weeks. Also, the bruising is still there! Not nearly as bad. You almost can't see them with make-up. Eee! Everyone hope and pray it gets better!!!

As promised here are the pictures! You can't really tell how bad it is towards the front. almost to the tip the bone sticks out a little more than I want it to, I am hoping its because the cast was pushing down on either side of the nose making it stick out. OR there are stitches right underneath where its pulling down, I am hoping when the DR takes those out tomorrow that the skin will loosen up. Let me know what you guys think!

I know it's only been a little over two weeks but it's really had to see the light at the end of this tunnel. My nose is still really pinched in the middle. The doctor says it SHOULD fill out but he couldn't say when or even if it definitely would. So far I would say no all of this hasn't been worth it. This is the one thing money can't really buy. Your nose can only go through so many surgeries before it starts looking like Michael Jacksons. I am scared I have ruined my face. I should have been ok with a bigger nose and then I still should have been ok with a slightly crooked nose. Now I hate looking in the mirror. I really hope it gets better. I don't even want to go out in public.

It's been a week since my cast came off. I am starting to feel a little better. Perhaps my nose filled out a little more over the night or a nice email from the office made me feel better. The woman wrote me saying that after her nose job hers took about 6 weeks to fill out and look normal again. So until it looks normal I will keep my answer as undecided. Fingers crossed it continues to look better! On the upside my bruising is FINALLY completely gone. Took about 16 days for them to go away. If you look close you can still kind of see the one under my right eye. I'll submit a few more pics in a few weeks. I hope I don't have to get the scilicon injections to make it fluff up lol.

Almost 5 weeks post op. I am still very unsure about my decision to do the surgery at all. I THINK I like it better than it was before all crooked and junk. Still looks too skinny and tight when I smile. When I don't smile and I have make up on it looks almost normal. But who wants to be in a picture without a smile on their face?? The dr says it won't "fill out" but the skin SHOULD "loosen up". There that word is again. "Should". I know the doctors can't make any promises due to legal reasons but the word should never makes me feel any better. So going made me a little more discouraged than I was this morning. That's ok. I really hope it keeps getting better. Today he said I could massage my nose to try and get the skin to loosen up. Idk how well that is going to work since it's still rather tender. Meh, lets all hope and pray for the best!!

So! Today was my 10 week post op visit. I am feeling better and better about everything as time goes on. The reddness is completely gone and no more bumps! The dr says the cartilage or scar tissue down the middle is still very swollen which is why it gives the slight pinched look on either side. But he says we can inject some medicine into that area to make the swelling go down faster... but there runs the risk of it being uneven. So I said no to that. BUT he says in 4 weeks if everything still looks the same then we can put filler injections in on either side of the bone to make the skin come up just a litte. Which would be perfect! Over all I believe in the long run I will really enjoy my nose. But it's been a ROUGH journey. I don't know if I would recommend this to anyone else. Between the pain, money and emotional turmoil... it's wasn't easy. But the pain is finally gone! I can now rub my nose again without feeling like it might break off lol. I am very excited to feel back to normal. Thank you everyone for your support! I will update again in 4 weeks and let you know if I get the injections and how that goes :D.

Three months post op!!! I just got the injections yesterday. WOW that was kinda painful... but with what I have been through it was NOTHING. SO glad I did them though. Even though it is still rather swollen I can already tell it is going to be much better. I was becoming more and more happy with the results because of the reddness going down, the cartilage in the bridge doing down ( a TAD), and the sides weren't AS pinched looking. But that still wasn't enough for me to not get the injections. I went with Restylane injections because from all the research I have done those are the safest, and reversable. Because God knows my nose is a trial and error type of a deal! I am posting 4 pics. The first one is from right after they were done. My nose was very swollen and red from getting approximately 10 stabs of the needle to the nose. After the first stab it wasn't as bad due to the pain killer that is mixed in with the filler. But the first one was pretty painful, probably a 9 on the pain scale but only lasted about 15 seconds. The rest still weren't pleasant but more like a regular shot. I know it's still not perfect.. but its getting there. I still have half of a "tube" left of the injection so that if its not enough (when the swelling goes down) I can put in more at no cost. I only did half of a syringe which was $350. From what I have read that is a pretty good deal. When I go back in two weeks we will discuss possibly putting in a styroid in the cartilage of the bridge to help the swelling go down faster. But I may just wait it out, even though it could take a year. At this point I feel like I have done it ALL except steroid injections.