Tracking the Healing Process of a Bulbous Nose - North Carolina

To be honest, I had an emotional meltdown/identity crisis when the tape came off. I was sooo used to seeing a huge ball of nose on my face for so many years that I had major remorse and just wanted it back. Its funny because the 6 months before my surgery I had felt the complete opposite about it. What upset me the most is that I always had a very skinny bridge and then the nose "ball" at the end, and my bridge was so swollen from surgery that I felt like it looked like an unnatural dinosaur nose. There were also flat spots on the sides near the tip that I thought made me look like a dinosaur bird. Needless to say, I was pretty panicked. My best advice is to throw away all mirrors for a few weeks, not let yourself look, and have somebody with you to distract you. I was alone for days and couldn't think about anything else. When I finally returned to work, no one noticed. A man who I work with and who I went on a 8 day road trip with did not recognize a difference even when I told him that I changed it. After that and after venting my emotions to a trusted friend I started feeling a lot better.

My post-op appointment sucked. I drive 3 hours to go to my surgeons office and then turn around and drive 3 hours back. I have an old car with no A/C and it was 100 degrees outside (not exaggerating.) I was not in a good mood upon arrival and the rude/indifferent receptionist put me off once again. He took the bandage off and I was in a bit of shock. I asked some questions about if the bridge was swollen, if the indents would go away, if my smile would come back, etc. and he pretty much rolled his eyes at me. I wish he would have been sensitive, and maybe explained to me where exactly the swelling was and how it was going to change in appearance as the swelling went down so I didn't panic. He looks at swollen noses all the time and knows what they are going to turn out looking like so it bothered me that he didn't want to try to reassure me. He has also made some slightly sexist comments at each consultation that kind of bothered me too. For instance, when I said that I just needed to get used to it and I trust him that it will change as the swelling goes down, he said "You're not one of those girls who just stares in the mirror all day, are you?" Umm... men do that too, and I think its normal to feel worried after your face has been dramatically altered.

Its now day 10 and I do see that the swelling is going down slowly. People either can't tell the difference because they never stared at the size of my nose before (duh), or they are being polite and not mentioning it. I don't really look in the mirror too much now and I am doing massages to help with the swelling.

I'm having trouble with the tape sticking to my face because of how oily my skin is around the edges. I'm also having worries about the chin implant because while the bruising, numbness, pain, and swelling have gone down, I'm not liking my face shape nor the fact that I can't smile wide. It might have to come out.

I am only on day 3 post-op of my surgery, but wanted to start to track my progress. I had a tip-plasty (no change to bridge of nose) and a chin implant to balance my profile. Growing up, two of my four siblings had a nose job because of "bad genes". They had large humps on the bridges of their noses and also very strange, thick tips. My other two siblings have fine noses, and mine was the unique one of the family, not as "bad" as the ones with humps but still unusual. I never disliked my nose until college. I had my septum pierced when I was 16 and it never healed right. It would bother me from time to time and the hole never closed. The way my columnella was shaped allowed you to see into my nose and people would tell me all the time that they could see light coming through the hole in my nose even though I stopped wearing a nose ring when I was 18. That really bothered me because I was not into the "alternative" lifestyle anymore. Also, at the end of high school, my nose got bigger. It really is true that your nose does not stop growing until you are probably about 22-23.

I liked looking "ethnic" and "polish" and there are nice pictures of me from certain angles but I hated seeing pictures of me smiling with my bulbous and drooping tip hanging down. Still, my goal was to retain some roundness on the end of my nose, not pointy-ness, and still keep some "ethnic character."

It was a long time in between my first consultation and my pre-op, because I traveled out of state for this surgeon, and at my pre-op I told my surgeon that I wanted to keep roundness in the tip of my nose so that I still look like "me". He defintely gave me some strange glances. I'm not sure if he listened to me. I trusted him from all of the wonderful photos of his patients but he did not give me a computer image or really discuss what was going to be done. So while it is still healing I am nervous about what it is going to look like and hope that the change is not too dramatic.

I also did not like my weak chin profile from the side and took up his suggestion for a chin implant. He said he has never removed a chin implant in 20 years of practice because people are very satisfied with them, so I am not as concerned about that, although 3 days after surgery my face is so swollen I can barely recognize myself!

I get my tape off in 4 days and I will keep updating during the healing process. I knew that I really wanted this nose job but I am still nervous about the outcome and worried that people will judge me.

My surgery experience was good, I was awake the whole time, just drugged up. Only scary thing was the sawing sound as they cut the implant pocket in my jaw. Otherwise, I was too loopy to care. The nurse was great and held my hand. My biggest complaint was that the pain pills they gave me for post surgery were not strong enough and had to call in another RX. I'm very pain tolerant but it was bad, and I think mostly from the chin implant. I also spit up so much blood that I was really worried, but that completely stopped by the next day. Since then I've been fine, hardly any pain, no stuffiness, can breath out of my nose just fine, but just lots of swelling around the perimeter of my face, my eyes, the top of the bridge of my nose, and I'm not sure what is swollen on my actual nose because of the tape.