Rhinoplasty: Stories

Hello everyone. First of all, a huge thank you to all of you for posting about your experience on this site!! It has helped me so much and has given me a lot of assurance.

I am in my mid 20s and am going in for rhinoplasty on July 11th. Since I was very little, I was always told about how big my nose was by others. Family members would always make comments such as, "too bad you didn't get your mother's nose." Then later in elementary school, kids also made fun of me because of my big nose. Although I was always aware of my nose, I lived with it and did not seriously consider getting it reshaped until this year. I always used to ask myself if my self-confidence would be a bit better if my nose was a little smaller and I was always intrigued by the idea of rhinoplasty. In January of this year I decided to at least start looking on-line for some doctors in my area and at some before and after pictures. I only know one person who has had rhinoplasty done and she looks so much better now. I found out who her doctor was and booked a consultation with him in March. This doc is pretty famous in the city and has great looking results. The consultation was short but I got my questions answered. He suggested a closed procedure and nostril reduction. I had been to see other surgeons who suggested an open rhino, which I was a little nervous about. I ended up choosing this doctor mainly because I actually knew someone who had been his patient. This girl had a similar nose as mine and is of the same ethnic background.

Yesterday I went in to get my pictures taken and it ended up making me really nervous. The side profile mock up looked fine but the front was pretty bad. I know it is difficult to show the front view on the computer but I still can't help but feel really scared about the final outcome. I don't want it to look like the picture he showed me. The doc told me I have to trust him about the front. Has anyone else had this fear going into the procedure? Another huge concern for me is people noticing that I have had work done. I work with teenagers and will not be seeing them until September. Teenagers notice everything! They always notice when I get my hair cut or even if I change my make up! I'm going to get my hair done a little differently after the procedure in order to draw attention away from my nose. I have only told my parents and a few friends about the procedure and am so afraid that others will find out. Everyone says that people notice something has changed but they don't know what. I hope this is true but I feel like since my nose is so prominent, it will be more noticeable.

Anyways, I am super duper nervous and only have six days to go!!!! I've already got my arnica, wet naps, q-tips, saline rinse, polysporin and Netflix ready to go. I will update as I go through the process and will post up some pictures later.

So it's the day before my procedure and I am so nervous. I'm really trying to search for the excitement but it seems to have left the building for now. I'm trying to run as many errands as possible today in order to keep my mind off the procedure but I'm sure sleeping tonight will be very difficult lol. Yesterday I went zip lining and ended up hitting my nose really hard on the pulley. My nose even has a tiny little bruise on the side because of it. So glad that happened before I had the procedure done!!!

Day of rhinoplasty: phew...I'm glad that's over. I had my procedure done quite early this morning and was out of the clinic by noon. When I woke up I was in quite a bit of pain and could not swallow at all. I was given some Tylenol 3 before leaving the clinic which helped get rid of some of the pain. Once I got home, I put on some ice and took a nap. My nose is no longer sore but swallowing is still quite painful. I now just feel a lot of pressure near my nose and that there is quite a bit of blood constantly dripping onto the mustache gauze. Other than that I feel fine right now. I did feel a bit nauseated when I first woke up after the surgery and when I tried to sit up. I just finished cleaning the bottom of my nose with some saline solution and polysporin. I was a little anxious about cleaning the inside of my nose since the q-tips wouldn't fit in there easily. My nostrils were reduced as part of the procedure and I have an insicion at the base of each nostril.

My nose looks so much smaller at the bridge already and it's scaring me a little. I do feel like I look a little like micheal Jackson but I really hope the results look natural and that no one will really notice.

Day 3: well nothing too exciting has happened over the past two days. The bleeding has pretty much stopped but I'm still going to put on the mustache gauze while I sleep just in case. I am pretty much able to eat everything and don't feel much pain, except some pulling of the stitches. My nostrils are super swollen and I can hardly even squeeze a q- tip through. My left eye has a angry purple bruise beneath it but my right eye seems to be doing fine. I am getting my cast off next Thursday, which is over a week after my surgery.

Cast off: It has been just over a week since I had my procedure done and today I finally got the cast taken off. I was definitely very shocked when I saw my new nose for the first time. It is a lot smaller and thinner than my old nose. Most people complain that their nose is really swollen when they first get the cast off and I was hoping I would feel that way too. I know parts of my nose are obviously swollen, like the tip, but in general I feel like my nose is so small now and I can hardly recognize myself. I am so afraid to see how others react to the change and I'm hoping that it will start to look a little more natural over the coming days. I know the cast was pretty tight against my bridge and has created some indents on the side. I so hope this is the reason for my cartoon like appearance. I was prepared to deal with swelling and a big potato nose but now I'm really anxious. Please let me know if any of you felt like this right after the cast was removed.

Hello everyone. It has been exactly 2 weeks since my surgery and things are looking good. I think my nose looks pretty natural and the swelling doesn't really bother me. The shape looks pretty good already even with the swelling. My parents and friends all told me that they can't really tell that anything has changed unless they actually look at my nose. As for the people who I did not tell about the procedure, the few people I saw this past week did not notice anything. I went to church on Sunday and I was so nervous that people would notice but no one even did a double take when they saw me, which was perfect. The only thing that still bothers me is my upper lip which is still kind of stiff and makes my smile look a little weird. This is getting better day by day and I'm hoping my smile will be normal by next week. I still have a dark blue bruise under my left eye which I have to cover up with make up. I continue to ice my nose for a little while every evening and continue to clean my nose with saline spay and q-tips a few times a day. A few of my stitches have come out but there are still a few inside my nose and at the base of my nostrils. I went to the gym for the first time today and felt fine but was pretty stuffed up after my work out.

So far im happy with the results but i will wait till the 1 month mark to rate it as worth it or not. Everything seems to be going well and not much else to update about. Please feel free to ask me any questions you may have.

Hello everyone..I'm sorry I have not updated in a really long time. I am currently 2 and a half months post op and everything is going well. My nose is pretty much healed but is still quite stiff at the tip. I cannot do a pig nose and i cant blow my nose properly since I cant squeeze the tip completely. I also get some little pains once in a while but these are all minor problems and don't really affect my life at all.

I am quite happy with the way my nose looks now. I can look at my pictures without cringing and feel like my nose blends in with my face quite well. I work at a school and was so nervous to go back to work in September. I had cut my hair in order to distract people from my nose and it worked so well! Everyone commented on how great my hair looks shorter but I know for a fact that my hair didn't make that big of a difference. I was incredibly nervous about other finding out about the surgery but no one even asked. Everyone was just distracted by the hair.

I feel a lot more confident now and think I look a lot better. I have no regrets about the procedure and am happy that I got it done now without further delay. The procedure and healing period went by pretty fast. The worst part was sitting at home for the first week with my cast on. Its only been just over 2 months but I am satisfied with the results. At my one month post op appointment, the doctor said i was still quite swollen and I may need shots at the tip to help with the swelling. My next appointment is in December and I am curious to find out if I need the shots or not.