Rhinoplasty: Stories

I have always hated my nose and felt that people were constantly looking at me differently because of it. Also, little things like when wearing glassess, they would be too high. I made a decision about five years ago but I am very nervous now.

I go into surgery in one hour and im freaking out. Ive never been to hospital or had general anaethesia. Im so worried. My mum is so angry about it and I have only told my dad its a sinus operation. I hope I've made the right decision. Im so scared of the pain.

Well I survived surgergy! I was emotional when I was waiting in the hospital but the nurses were great and helped to calm me down. The operation took about 3 hours. Once I came to, I was wheeled into my room. My first feeling was of pressure on my nose but also on my eyes. I could feel myself swelling quite a lot. I put ice packs on my eyes to help with the discomfort. I wasn't in any great deal of pain, which was a relief! Also I was very happy that I had handled anaethesia well. I was prescribed endone and panadol and that seemed to help quite a bit. I ate as soon as I came out of surgery as I was starving. I did not sleep at all the first night though, as I would keep waking myself up because of my heavy breathing.


Day 1- after surgery. That morning I left the hospital and I was still feeling fine. My face felt very very swollen though. I camped up infront of the couch and watched a movie marathon with my boyfriend. I was eating soft foods as it hurts to chew. I took two endone before bed that night and it helped me to sleep better.

Day 2- This day would be my worst. My black eyes were very red and swollen. The swelling has moved down my face to around my mouth which was causing alot of discomfort. The worst thing this day was the side effect of the pain killer. Normally I have a sensitve stomach, which I thoguht it was weird that I was handling the endone so well. It all caught up with my that day. After about 2 hours of constant nausea I vomitted. I was soo scared because I thought i would choke and stuff something up in with my nose. Luckily, it was fine. Once all the food was out I was good again. The nurse from the ps rang asking hwo I was, I explained to her the nausea and she said it happens quite alot with this type of pain killer and to keep with the paracetomol and ib profen. I didnt eat anything else that day and took a sleeping pill before bed. I have pain behind my head/neck from laying down as well as an extremely sore throat.

Day 3- I feel alot better today. I accidently took two endone in the morning thinking they were paracetemol. After the nausea and the vomit I felt fine again. Silly me! I am starting to eat normal. Its hard to think what to eat thats healthy and with low salt. My swelling is starting to go yellow and the swelling is moving down my face. I am still icing it. I looked at my throat today with a torch and could see that the uvulva is incredibly swolllen. Tomorrow I get the stitches out. I am worried about the pain as I have heard they can hurt quite a bit! I am going to make sure they are clean and I've had enough pain killers before it.

Day 4-Well I had the stitches removed. The nurse took them out as she said that she's a lot more gentle then the ps. I dont know if thats a good thing, considering he did my actual op? Anyway the stitches came out relatively easy with little discomfort. I took strong pain killers before so maybe that helped. The internal ones were a little more trickier and at times stung.

I have developed three mouth ulcers next to my uvula in my throat. They are the worst ulcers I have had. The ps said this was from the trauma of the mouth tube. I cant drink or eat without covering them in bonjela.

But overall I am fine!

Day 5-7 Over the next few days my bruising has gone done immensely. I am only on panadol for pain relief and that seems fine. A big problem is sleeping. I keep waking up every few hours with my tongue feeling like sand paper. I have tried a humidifier but to no avail. I can breathe out of my nose a little however cannot get a full breath from it. At present I keep getting a whoff of bad smell when i clean out one of my nostrils. Sort of like manure, its very gross! I get my cast off on Saturday. I originally had it scheduled for Monday however I asked the ps to do it earlier so I could go to a family tea on the Sunday. I thought this was very nice of the ps to do this on his day off. My worry now is that if my nose looks ridiciously bad what am I going to do about the party, haha. The nurse said I should have some swelling the next day so here's me hoping that I dont look too swollen and disformed. My nose looks okay atm, however it seems very bulbous and my nostrils look flared. I hope this is only temporary.

Well I had the cast taken off. I made sure I had a long shower before I went in for the appointment so that it would come off easy, and it did. There was heaps of gunk on the nose and they use this substance that makes your nose peel. When it came off I was literally shaking. I think I was in shock. About an hour after the cast was taken off it swelled right up though. I had to keep doing nasal massage on it to keep it down but i wasnt sure if I wasnt doing it to hard. I love my profile and the bump seems gone however the front looks so wide and big. Hopefully this will go down. There is also a slight bump on the side of my nose which my ps said to hold with my finger.

Its now two weeks since my operation. I am still swollen and my nose feels fake. I am struggling to breathe at times as it keeps getting filled with snot. I am okay when I go to sleep its just during the day. I get so bored during the days as I have time off work. I have tried to entertain myself with cooking. My nose isnt numb anymore and every nose and again I will fill a slight bit of pain, however I have been off all meds for the past week. My nose looks good from the side but the front is still bothering me. Everyday I hope that it will go down. Up close its not too bad but when there is light shining on it, it looks funny. I think it is gradually going down though. I miss exercising so bad. I cant get motivated to do anything without a gym class in the morning.

Its now 2.5 weeks since the op. My swelling has gone down heaps. Everyday it seems to change a bit. I have found if i eat salty food or alc it will swell back up though. I am immensely happy with my rhinoplasty. My family took the whole experience quite well. My parents didnt think i looked to different until I showed them my before/after pic. My breathing still isnt 100% so hopefully this will improve. I have cut my hair short to try and defer people from the change in my nose, hopefully this will work. I am so pleased with my ps. There is no scar on my nose, its amazing. I can still feel some scar tissue on one side of my nose and there is a slight bump on one side of my nose but i realise no nose is perfect and it is only early days yet. If anyone is considering a rhinoplasty and you genuinely need it I believe you should go with it. The pain was minimal it was mostly just being uncomfortable. I strongly recommend spending the first night in hospital as this helped alot. Aswell as having someone look after you for the first few days.

Here's are some things you will need to buy for your rhinoplasty:

A travel pillow (this was a life save as it kept your head upright)
A laptop
Tv series/movies
Vaseline (to clean inside your nostrils)

Humidifier (im still working out if it worked though)

salt water nasal spray

Magazines

Heaps and heaps of Que tips.

Cling wrap and sticky tape (I covered my nose with plastic so I didnt get it wet in the shower)

Face wipes

Sleeping tablets! (Aided in sleeping when nose was blocked)

Mac and cheese (easy to eat)

Face mirror ( To clean whilst you sit on the couch)

Torch (to look up your nose)

Arnica and bromelin tablets(I didnt know it really worked until the ps was so imprssed with my swelling that i was convinced)

Ice packs (to cover your eyes)

Swiss therapy eye masks (these arrived after I had recovered from my bruising. I could see how they would help however they are really pricey. If you have money to spend get them otherwise normal eye packs or cold packs are good enough).




Right now I worried my nose will change too much coz I love it as it is now.

Its now four weeks since my surgery. I am pretty much back to normal. I can exercise and my nose doesnt hurt at all. I can breathe through my nose however there is a slight whistle. I need to reguarly clean my nose and am using salt spray. I am concerned about the bump on my nose on one side there is a bump on the bridge of my nose. As time goes on and the swelling is going down it is becoming more prominent. I am not sure if it is because I have a mole right on the bump that makes it more noticeable but just worried its going to get bigger. I love my side profile from the right but not so from the left. How can there be such a big difference betwene the two.

Right now I am not very happy with my nose. I am trying to be patient but it is difficult because once I get happy with my nose, it will swell up and look big again. It feels like my nose is actually get bigger. I dont know if that is because the swelling is going up because or what, but I am not too happy.

Also, as I mentioned there is a bump on one side,the opposing side to where the bump is, my nose looks like it has a dent, therefore leading to assymetric look.

I am having breathing issues, especially at night. I think I may have a collasped valve in one nostril because if I pull my nostril towards my ear I can breathe. At night I cannot lay on my right side because its like my nostril closes and I cant get any air through it.

Right now I am wishing I had of asked my ps what his revision policy is. I think I just didnt want to think about it at the time, because it would jinx it and I wanted to think the best.

I am wondering how I spent 6000- when I dont like my profile (bump) I dont like my front (bigger and bulbous) and I cant breathe!

It has now been 7 months since my rhinoplasty. My nose is getting smaller everyday. It is true, when they say, that it can take 12 months to see the final result. I was worried that one side was going to sink and may cause a depression however it now looks even to the other side. I am very happy with my result now. It just shows, be patient! I am concerned, however that I still cannot breathe properly out of one nostril unless I put it out towards my ear. Also, my nose has a constant sniffle, that gets worse when it is cold.I accidently hit my nose with a netball, it hurt like crazy and I was so worried that it would 'sink' or create asymmetry but it hasnt seemed to change. I think your nose does go back to being quite strong, luckily! It's hard to believe that I even had a rhinoplasty now, because it feels like another life. My cousin is thinking about getting one and I couldn't recommend it more. Do it.