Rhinoplasty: Stories

This testimonial is going to start out like everyone else's - I've never liked my nose.

I was never made fun of for it (at least not to my knowledge), but since I was about 15 or 16, it always bothered me. I would look at my profile in the mirror and hold my finger up against the side of my nose, imagining what it would look like without the hump on the bridge. Actually, I still do that, who am I kidding? But anyway, getting my nose done was always something that I thought of doing, but I never really seriously considered it. I could never fathom spending that amount of money on it, especially as a college student.

Fast forward a few years...now I'm 30. I still don't like pictures of myself - 9 out of 10 pictures taken of me look like my nose takes up at least half of the shot. One night, my boyfriend and I were talking about what, if possible, we would change about ourselves physically. I mentioned my insecurities about my nose. Conversation went further, and all of sudden I found myself researching surgeons.

I made appointments with 2 different surgeons in the area, and after I met with one, I knew I found the surgeon that I wanted. He had a great vibe about him, and after speaking with him I felt really at ease with my decision in general to get my nose fixed, let alone to let him do it. He emphasized that if I wanted a very drastic change, he was not the doctor for me - that he would create a very natural looking change that would fix my hump, but not create a nose that was obviously "done" looking. This was exactly what I wanted to hear.

So that consultation appointment was in July of 2012. I have my pre-op appointment in a couple days, where I'm assuming we'll finalize what my nose will (hopefully) look like, and they'll collect all my money. I guess I'll update this posting after that meeting!

So my surgery is in, oh...38 hours or so. Still not nervous, but I think that will change by tomorrow night. I'm just really excited...I keep telling people, which I should stop doing. I want to see if anyone would actually notice a change! Oh well.

I'm a high school teacher, so I spent all day making my sub plans and copies and what-not for the sub during the days I'll be out. My mom and dad will be taking care of me the first couple of days of my recovery since my boyfriend has to work this week, and I'm kinda looking forward to hanging out with my mom and watching Colin Firth movies and eating soup, haha.

Next time I update this will be after my surgery, whoa....

I'm done!

I went in at 7 this morning, and I was so nervous - couldn't sit still, couldn't stop laughing at stuff. The anesthesia part, for me, was the worst. I'm really afraid of needles and all that stuff. They had me lie on this table that was set up with like an air mattress cocoon or something, it was nice and warm, which was good, because I was freezing in that medical robe. They put these things on my legs that contracted and expanded, I guess to keep my circulation going. Then they put the IV through a vein in my hand...SO uncomfortable. Then I was talking with the nurse about stuff, and all of a sudden I was awake and it was all over. Evidently, they gave me a drug that acted like a mind eraser. After they set me up with the anesthesia, I guess they needed to have me lucid enough to walk over (with some help) to the operating table, and the drug made it so I would have no recollection of that. So weird. Anyway, I woke up totally surprised it was already done!

They didn't have to break my nose to work on it, but they did have to take a graft of flesh from behind my ear to smooth out the bridge of my nose - evidently I have thin skin. I have stitches there, and that spot currently hurts worse than my nose does. The pain in general has been minimal, but I'm due for another Vicodin soon. A little bit of blood drips from my nose here and there, and I HATE the feeling of needing to blow my nose, so that's going to take some getting used to, but I can breathe A LITTLE through my nose, so that's nice.

All in all, a pretty easy experience! We'll see how the next couple of days treats me, though. As far as the rating goes, I'll say it was worth it so far....we'll see how I feel when I get my cast off! (Although I'm pretty confident I'm going to like it)

So it's the day after my surgery, and not a whole lot has changed really. My head still hurts more than my nose, which is still not a lot...I barely feel any pain in my nose for that matter, but I've also been keeping up with my hydrocodone pills, so I guess take that for what's it's worth. I've been holding the frozen peas bag over my eyes (and on my head) periodically throughout the day, and I might have the slightest bit of bruising under my eyes, but I also usually have darkish circles under my eyes, so it's still not a big deal.

So it's the day after my surgery, and not a whole lot has changed really. My head still hurts more than my nose, which is still not a lot...I barely feel any pain in my nose for that matter, but I've also been keeping up with my hydrocodone pills, so I guess take that for what's it's worth. I've been holding the frozen peas bag over my eyes (and on my head) periodically throughout the day, and I might have the slightest bit of bruising under my eyes, but I also usually have darkish circles under my eyes, so it's still not a big deal.

Day 4 - still haven't really had any swelling! Not sure if it's due to the fact I keep ice packs around at all times so I can periodically ice my face and head, or maybe it's due to the fact my nose wasn't broken...I don't know. But I strongly suggest keeping the ice (frozen peas, actually) on hand constantly, because even if it does little for the swelling, it feels nice.

I haven't taken a pain pill in almost 10 hours, so I'm taking that as a good sign. A Saturday night without a glass of wine though...such a bummer. Maybe tomorrow.

I'm also getting pretty restless. My boyfriend is doing all kinds of chores around the house, and I feel weird not doing anything to help. I might venture out to get coffee tomorrow and run errands...hopefully I don't scare anyone.

Anyway, cleaning out my nose is a weird thing, I never know how far I can go up, and the hydrogen peroxide kinda foams up, that was strange the first time. I just am getting tired of that perpetual snotty feeling I have in my nose. I'm a chronic nose blower, so you can understand my frustration.

Cast comes off and stitches come out on Tuesday! Very excited.

Just got back from an entire afternoon of running errands. I felt pretty self conscious at first, going out with this cast on, but it was no big deal. Kept having to dab my nose here and there...it keeps running and sometimes it's hard to feel it. How gross would that be, to walk around with stuff dripping from my nose?! Anyway, I think I kept it under control, it was minor anyway. Felt so good to finally get out of the house! And since I haven't taken any pain pills in almost 24 hours, I figured I could have a glass of wine. Life is finally starting to return to normal. :)

The cast came off today! I was almost as nervous for that as I was for the actual operation, so weird. I was worried that getting the stitches out would hurt, but that was no problem. They put this anti-adhesive stuff on my cast and left it there for a couple minutes to help loosen it up, and then the doctor took some sort of little stick and gradually pried the cast off. Felt super strange! Didn't hurt, just was a lot of pressure. Then he peeled the tape off. I didn't have any splints, so that was pretty much it! When I looked at myself in the mirror, I could tell that it was still pretty swollen, and thanks to this website and all the testimonials I read from other people, I knew that it my nose would not look exactly the way I want it to, so that helped stay realistic during the "reveal."

Went out to lunch, and luckily I had some of my hair pulled back, because there was still adhesive on my nose and every time the wind blew, some of my hair stuck to my nose. Had to go home and gently clean my nose with rubbing alcohol to get the adhesive off.

I still feel pressure on my nose - sometimes I forget that the cast is off, because in a way, it still feels the same. I can't explain how happy I am with the results, even though it's not yet how it should look in the end. It still looks better than it did!

I updated with pictures from today, and I guess I'll update every couple of months or so. Blogging here was fun! Thanks to everyone else for sharing their stories and I hope that mine helps someone out in the future. :)

So I'm almost had my cast off for a full week, and my nose has definitely swollen after the removal. Evidently, the cast does a great job in containing any swelling, and I noticed a few days after the cast came off, my nose got bigger! Totally sucks! But I just have to keep telling myself that the swelling is completely normal, and that what I saw right after I got my cast removed is much closer to my final results than what I have now. It's going to be a long road ahead.

Also, I HATE not being able to scrub my face! I like using that St. Ives apricot scrub stuff, and there's no way I can adequately scrub my nose. I feel like a greaseball. :/

Had surgery exactly 7 weeks ago. Updated pics :)