Rhinoplasty: Stories

I am 24 years old and my surgery is scheduled for November 14th.

Like many on this site have written, I have hated my nose since middle school. I was never made fun of for it, and I can only assume that I must have surrounded myself with some really nice kids because my nose could definitely be made fun of.

When I was in high school I REALLY began to hate it, and dreamed of a nose job. For some reason plastic surgery just seemed unattainable, or unrealistic at my age then. It wasn't until I was in college that I realized that it WAS attainable, and decided that I would definitely have the surgery one day when I got the money. I am SO HAPPY that that day is almost here. I feel like I have waited so long, and I really hate my nose more than ever.

I got married last year and I honestly cannot look at my wedding pictures. All I can see is my ugly nose.

From the front it is much too wide, and I have a dorsal hump and slightly droopy tip. I will also have my deviated septum fixed (I'm looking forward to breathing!).

I am SO excited and anxious (and scared!). I met with 3 surgeons--the first was awful, I actually didn't even meet the surgeon and the office billed me for the surgery without my permission (GIANT headache), and the second surgeon was okay but seemed more concerned with talking me into a chin implant (which probably would look nice because I have a weak chin, but I just don't want it) than actually addressing my questions and concerns about rhinoplasty. Third time's a charm though and the surgeon that I chose seems amazing. He only does faces and I have heard and read nothing but good things about him.

My pre-op appointment is November 2nd and we will do digital imaging then. Excited to get this started!

I'm trying very hard to prepare myself for the emotional side of rhinoplasty. I'm very worried about the first moment I see my new nose after the cast comes off, because I know there will be swelling...but I can just see myself being very upset if it looks weird or bad.

For example, I got my first tattoo a few months ago and immediately starting having regrets even though I had decided that I wanted this particular tattoo 4 years ago. For some reason I guess I freaked out emotionally over the permanence of it, and the more I looked at it the more I convinced myself that it looked bad. This horrible feeling only lasted a day or so, and now I LOVE the tattoo (as I knew I would).

Anyway, I keep thinking about that experience...if I freaked out that much over a small tattoo, how am I going to feel when I have this new, giant, swollen nose in the center of my face?

Really I'm just venting, I do feel like I am going into the surgery very level-headed and with realistic expectations. I am very nervous for the moment of the cast removal though, but I'm sure I'm not the only one!! I'm just trying to prepare myself as much as possible. :)

Pre-op was today! A nurse went over a huge stack of papers with me about what to expect from the surgery, I met with their financial person to pay my balance, I met with the surgeon and we took pictures and did some computer imaging, and then I went down to the lab to have some blood drawn. It all took about 2 hours.

I really liked the changes he made on the computer. He wants to remove the bump, raise my tip slightly, narrow my bridge, and bring down my columella slightly. I'm happy with these changes, I'm very scared of ending up with a nose that's too upturned but I'm sure that won't happen...hopefully.

Tomorrow I'm going to pick up my prescriptions (an antibiotic, nausea meds, and pain meds) and pick up the rest of the post-op supplies I need.

The surgery will be here before I know it! I'm pretty nervous but excited too.

6 more days, and I have thoroughly terrified myself by researching twilight sedation (which is what my surgeon uses). Apparently waking up during surgery is a common thing?!

Counting down...4 more days! Today I picked up the last of my supplies. I've probably bought way more than I need. For food items I bought applesauce, pudding, saltine crackers, gatorade, ensure, sprite, and apple juice.

Other things I got are q-tips, hydrogen peroxide, Afrin, Tylenol PM, Tylenol extra strength, facial cleansing wipes, lip balm, Dial bar soap (to shower with the morning of surgery per dr's orders), frozen peas, rubber gloves (to put the peas in to make an ice pack), a manual toothbrush (I usually use Sonicare but I'm thinking that probably wouldn't feel so great), and of course my prescriptions.

I think that's all! Ready for 8 AM on Wednesday!

Tomorrow is the day! I have started taking Arnica Montana pellets that melt under your tongue and drinking a lot of pineapple juice. I've read conflicting reports on whether or not pineapple juice actually has bromelain in it (which helps prevent bruising/swelling) but I figure it can't hurt.

I live 2.5 hours away from where I'm having the surgery and we have to make a detour to drop off my dog at my mom's house (since we have to stay in a hotel tomorrow night), so I will be waking up super early, around 4 am. I'm sure nerves will have me wide awake anyway.

Also...does anyone know if you can delete pictures on here? I thought you could and I was going to switch out some of mine but now I can't figure out how.

Well it's done! And I'm alive! I've been resting in the hotel room for about 3 hours now and I feel great. No nausea, little pain, and my husband is waiting on me hand and foot even though I really feel well enough to do some things myself haha. I can only remember bits and pieces between waking up from surgery and driving to the hotel, hubby can't believe I don't remember being in the post-op room because he said I seemed completely awake and lucid. He said I have asked him 4 times what he did while he was waiting lol.

Oh! I did NOT wake up during surgery, I went to sleep and woke up what felt like 10 seconds later. So I was happy about that.

Anyway, there's not much to say right now so I will update more at a later date! Obviously I can't tell what my nose looks like but I CAN see that the bump is GONE and I love that. :)

I have really meant to update more than I have but I've just been feeling drained. I'm mostly just sleeping on and off throughout the day. Yesterday was a long day, we had an almost 3 hour drive home and we had to stop by my mom's to pick up my dog. I stayed up much too long at her house and by the time we finally made it home I was exhausted.

Today is day 2 post-op and I haven't been in much pain. This morning I woke up with my face looking like a balloon though. I'm feeling very nauseous right now and just took my first nausea pill, I think the pain meds are to blame so I'm going to try to start cutting back on those.

I've been sleeping pretty well during the night, though the dry throat and mouth is the worst. I wake up periodically frantically needing water.

Not sure why my photos uploaded sideways, maybe because I'm updating from my phone? Anyway, sorry about that!

Today is day 5 post-op and I am feeling pretty much back to normal. Yesterday was the first day that I stayed up all day, and I even baked a cake last night. Today I haven't taken anything for pain, not even Tylenol. The pain is pretty much completely gone, just some uncomfortable pressure still. The swelling has gone down tremendously, though not completely. I bruised VERY little and can only assume that the Arnica helped there, so I definitely recommend taking it.

I have used Afrin several times over the last two days and it is AMAZING. It allows me to breathe out of my nose immediately. However, it is addictive (and I can definitely see why) and I was told not to use it for more than 3 days so today I'm trying not to use it at all. I can breathe out of my nose slightly today so it's not too bad.

Cast removal is already in 2 days! I cannot WAIT. My tip looks very high right now (which was my biggest fear), but it is taped up and swollen of course, and everything I've read says the tip should come down after cast removal so I'm not really worried but I am ready for it to start coming down. :)

I go back to work a week from today so I hope my nose isn't too swollen by that point. I believe the bruises will be gone completely, they are already a pale yellow and almost completely faded, and the swelling under my eyes should be gone down as well. I hope, at least!

I got my cast off yesterday! I was pretty nervous all day because my nose was still so tender and I was afraid it would hurt. It did hurt a tiny bit. The nurse used medical grade acetone to remove it which smelled so strong I couldn't breathe, but it just took a few minutes for her to work the cast off. It was really on there tight...when she got to the bridge of my nose she REALLY had to tug and that brought tears to my eyes because my bridge is so tender. When she removed the tape from over my sutures that hurt a little too...another really tender area. But it was all over in less than 5 minutes and really wasn't that bad.

When she handed me the mirror I wasn't blown away or amazed, but I wasn't disappointed either. I still looked like myself, just with a really swollen nose lol. There is still a little bump on my bridge but it feels spongy and soft so that means it's just swelling. My tip is SO swollen, to the point that it looks kind of ridiculous. I'm not worried though, I just hope the swelling starts to go down soon. I like my profile though! It looks sloped right now but once the swelling in my tip goes down I don't think it will have such a slope.

The skin on my nose is SO oily but also peeling! And my pores are clogged so badly. It's awful. I've tried to exfoliate but I have to do it so gently I don't think it's helping much.

Overall I am VERY satisfied with the entire experience. I really think I will love my new nose when it has reached it's final shape, haha. Today is Thanksgiving and I get to jump right in and see extended family members...most know I had surgery but I didn't say "nose job" to anyone except my parents. I just said it was for breathing issues. So we'll see how today goes!

Everything went well with seeing my family, the ones who knew about the surgery insisted that my nose is not very swollen (HA!), and the ones who didn't know didn't say a word and didn't seem to notice. My uncle (who did not know) went on and on about how much weight I have lost (I haven't lost any)!

My cousin had a nose job 20-something years ago and she was amazed at how much easier my experience was than hers. I guess it has come a long way since then.

Believe it or not, the swelling has actually reduced a lot, even since I posted my photos. I was outside in the cold air for a long time yesterday and that seemed to help. It still has a long way to go of course and still looks ridiculous to me but at least it's a tiny bit better.

Today is a little more than 2 weeks post-op. I'm able to breathe through my nose easily most of the time, though it's not 100% yet. It's not very sore anymore, just tender on the bridge, but it still feels VERY tight and hard to the touch. It is still extremely swollen.

The swelling does seem to change daily, some days are worse than others. Today the left side looks much more swollen than the right, but I don't think anyone would notice other than me.

Honestly, I'm getting tired of having such a big nose. But I'm trying to be patient haha...it's only been 2.5 weeks!

I added a before & after photo of my side profile, I need to make one of the front view too so I'll do that soon.

It's still really swollen. The tip is rock hard so at least I know that it SHOULD get smaller. There is still a small bump on my bridge that I'm hoping will go down. Other than that I don't really think of it very much. :)

I did forget to address one thing in my last update: my skin. Out of all the swelling, bruising, pain, etc. I think that the condition of the skin on my nose has been THE most annoying/frustrating factor. The first week after cast removal I just noticed a lot of blackheads but I forced myself not to touch them and just washed my face very gently. After that week I have been getting ridiculous breakouts ALL over my nose. Right now I have 5 or 6 bright red pimples. I don't know what to do about it! And it's still oily and peeling at the same time...(sigh)...It's just in awful condition. I knew to expect it but I guess I didn't realize just how bad it'd be.

I am a few days away from 10 weeks post-op. I feel like it has been MUCH longer! My nose is still very swollen and I am just so ready for it to shrink. :( I'm very, very happy with the side profile but it just does not look good from the front right now.

On a positive note though, my skin has pretty much cleared up! I started using my Clarisonic again as well as pore strips every now and then and it looks (and feels) MUCH better. It's still peeling a little though.

Here I am at almost 5 months post-op. All is going well. The tip is still a bit swollen but the swelling has gone down SO much. I just looked back at the first few "after" pictures I have posted on here and my nose looked so big then (but I didn't really realize it)!

I'll put new photos up soon.

SO! In just a few days I will be 6 months post-op. It's flown by, and unfortunately I haven't seen as much of a difference in swelling as I had hoped. Which makes me wonder how much of it is swelling and how much of it is just the way my nose is going to be now...but really I guess I have very little to complain about.

I'm still very happy with my profile. My tip from the front is just SO ROUND though. And it's still very stiff...and I can see the difference in swelling from day to day so I am still hoping that it will go down a lot more.