Rhinoplasty: Stories

Long Story Short. I wanted a nose job since forever. When I was 29 I took the plunge and went with my second choice doctor because my first choice was too expensive. My breathing went from great to terrible, and my nose went from not so bad to crooked, collapsed, and ugly. I guess you get what you pay for. I finally got the money and nerve to go back to my first choice doctor for a revision. I was hesitant to post my story here because I am a VERY private person. But I see everyone else here opening up and helping eachother and so I felt it was a good and right thing to do. My surgery is 3 days away and I am of course nervous. I don't know what's worse, knowing what to expect, or knowing nothing at all. After my first surgery I said I would never do this again, yet here I am. I'm hoping to improve my breathing, my looks, and my quality of life.

So tomorrow is the big day. I have to be at the office at 9am. I'm taking my brother and my boyfriend with me. I'm nervous, but I know you can't make a change without taking chances. No risk, no reward. I just got off the phone with my brother and he's picking me up at 6am, (to avoid NYC morning traffic). Seeing as I've been through this before I realize I have to get through the 3 hardest parts of rhinoplasty.

1.) Making the decision to actually do it. I don't mean making the appointment and deciding I want to do it. I mean going to office, getting on the table, and saying ok, let's do this.

2.) Dealing with the recovery. My first time around I was so nauseas when i woke up. The nurse gave me something in my IV for it. It didn't work. Then she gave me a pill for it. It didn't work. Finally she told me to roll over and gave me a shot in my ass cheek, lol. That didn't help either. Finally, two hours in recovery and still feeling sick, they sent me home. Dry mouth anyone? From the second I woke up I kept saying I need a drink. But they couldn't give me any water. They just had a stick with a wet napkin wrapped around it and kept putting it on my lips. It sucked. Then there was the mouth breathing. It took several days of me waking up every two hours gasping for water before I could get comfortable with the mouth breathing. (I'm dreading that the most). Then, there's the emotional breakdown. Why did I do this? Who does this? Did I do the right thing? Finally, there's the feeling by the 5th day of wanting to rip the cast off your face. Get this thing off of me! Not to mention I bruised and swelled to the point where I looked like a monster.

3.) Accepting your new nose. Whether it's beautiful or terrible, you still get that feeling of, it's not me, even if it's just for a split second, or in my case months and months. There's no going back and you will never see your old nose again. This is the new you, love it or hate it.

So, I anticipate going through all of that for the second time. This time a little more prepared and hopefully with a happier outcome. I give so much credit to all the people out there in RealSelf world who have gone through this experience.

So, it's two days after my surgery and here's how it went. Everyone at the office was wonderful. If not for their kindness and comfort I may have chickened out. The dr and the anesthesiologist both came to speak to me before the surgery and go over everything. They took me in gave me the IV and then I woke up. I felt super nauseas when I woke up, but I figured that would happen. My throat was also very sore! I got home and just started icing and resting. I had absolutely no bruising when I got home and still don't. The swelling is insane! The inside of my nostrils are pretty much swollen shut. I had cartilage from my ear taken to put in some collapsed areas in my nose so that I could breathe better. My ear is blue and purple and so painful, but my nose doesn't really hurt. I'm 2 days post op and I'm pretty much ready to have this recovery be over with already, lol. Patience was never a quality I posessed. Hopefully the swelling will go down soon.

OK, so I'm officially 10 weeks post op from my revision rhinoplasty. I posted some pics just to give everyone a better idea of what my nose looked like before and after. Although, I haven't posted any pictures of my nose before I had ANY surgery. First, I want to say, my nose is definitely improved from what it looked like before. Second, my recovery was SOOOOOO MUCH EASIER than the first surgery I had. I had no pain and no bruising this time. I took no pain medicine, and I wasn't as anxious and on edge afterwards. I credit that to my surgeon and anesthesiologist. If they did nothing else, they made recovery a breeze. Yes, there was swelling, yes my ear hurt like hell from where they took cartilage and yes, my nose was swollen inside, BUT, I actually could breathe a little through my nose the first night and every night after that got better and better. By the 5th day I was wanting to get back to my normal routine, because I felt like I hadn't even had surgery.

That being said, my nose is still swollen, but I don't care. I had ear cartilage placed on both sides on my nose where they were too narrow and collapsed. I never wanted a super skinny nose anyway. I wanted it too look feminine, not necessarily small. I went into my first surgery wanting to remove a profile bump and raise the tip a little, I never cared how wide my nose was, but apparently my first surgeon did. So now my nose is wider than before, but I don't mind it at all. Actually I prefer it that way.

There are still a few concerns I have, but I will wait to express my concern until I see my surgeon to find out if it is just swelling or if these things are fixable.