Take Your Time Trust Your Gut and Good Advice When Picking A Surgeon - Troy, MI

I have wanted a nose job as far back as I can remember. My nose was too fat, too long, too droopy, and had a dorsal hump from a childhood break. My father offered to fulfill my dream with a once in a lifetime gift which I am terribly sorry I wasted on the Dr I chose. My sister had a rhinoplasty done around 2 years before mine and hers came out great in my eyes but she recommended I not see her Dr because she had to have back to back surgeries to get her results as well as a recurring infection in her nostril. So, here I am not knowing a wonderful community like this one might exist because the internet just wasn't the same over a decade ago, or I didn't know where to look. I find a few plastic surgeons names and addresses online and go to consultations. I was expecting computer generated imaging of my new nose, tons of photos of their work, at least a drawing! I wanted to walk into the show Nip/Tuck's office, yes I was that naive. None of the Drs I consulted with seemed interested in whether I chose them or not which I found surprising as well. I figured it was time to ask for a recommendation so I asked my wonderful dermatologist thinking he must know an equally wonderful plastic surgeon. He gave me a name and it was Dr Steven Stein, called him right up and set a consultation. I believe he spent a quick ten minutes with my sister and I knowing I was ready for my surgery asap. From what I recall he told me I had a box tip nose deformity which he was going to fix and refine along with slimming my nose and removing the cursed bump. My sister leaned even more against him when she found out he performs his surgeries in office, hers was in a hospital so mine should be too was her train of thought I suppose. I was in a hurry though and I trusted my dermatologists word so I set the surgery date. It occurs to me now that it should have sent up a flag when he didn't order any medical tests and gave me the prescription for my pain meds a month in advance. I hadn't really done my research though so I didn't know much beside what my sister had told and warned me of. The morning of my surgery my mother drove me in. I quickly got prepped and before I knew it was dreaming of waking up to my new nose. I have no problems with going under anesthesia so that was another of the 3 best sleeps I've had in my life. Everything must have went as he planned since next thing I was up and getting into the car. I'm sure he gave me and my mom some post operation info but it was long ago so I cannot recall what he said. The first few days at home were a blur because of the pain meds, I know my throat was always very dry because my nostrils were clogged up first by a bandage under them along with the splint on my nose then they were just stuffed for awhile. I recovered well, no pain that I remember and only slight black eyes. I went back to my college courses splint and all excited to discuss the procedure with my anatomy professor that had for some reason taken a great interest in my rhinoplasty. Even before I went back to school I was trying to make out how my nose may look after the splint was off and got a sinking feeling in my stomach. I read that swelling can take up to a year to go down from rhinoplasty and was hopeful things would look different. I did not have a unrealistic expectation of how much my nose could be changed. I assumed it would look like my sisters post op nose since her pre op nose was quite similar to mine already. I found it harder to believe he actually fixed my nose than believe he could swap mine out for some celebrities tiny one. Two weeks later I went back for my post op visit to have the splint removed. Dr Stein took it off and as I had been fearing those past two weeks my nose looked exactly the same from the front and had a smaller hump from the side. Needlesss to say I was crushed, like wanted to run screaming from the room or hit Dr Stein with a blunt object repeatedly upset. Nothing had been done to the boxy tip of my nose, my nostrils were uneven, it was the same width top to bottom as before. I wanted to ask him if he had even done the surgery but I instead asked why it looked the same. Dr Stein told me it was all to do with swelling and once the swelling was down I'd see a much bigger change. I went home to see what would happen between then and my second follow up. Something did happen, the bump on my dorsum came completely back! I asked everyone I knew would tell me the truth if they noticed any difference in my before and after photos, yes I did take some I forgot to say earlier, and most said no and a couple said maybe right there and point to something they hoped was the right thing to say. I went to my second post op visit and I told him my hump had come back and he told me sometimes that can happen and he was sorry then blamed everything else on swelling again. He told me if in a year I felt the same to call him then! I couldn't take it I was so disappointed and angry I had started crying and left his office for the last time. I was too young and timid to stand up for myself to him and have another surgery done, get what he told me I would from the first. Friends didn't really understand so I couldn't get support from them and my sister was too busy telling me she told me so. By the time I got the guts to fight him it was too late. I plan on getting a revision, hopefully this year, because my nose has been broken again since my rhinoplasty and looks worse than it did before any of this! I hope this is a cautionary tale for anyone thinking about plastic surgery. Plastic surgery, especially facial, is an art and you need an artist. Don't stop looking or settle for anything less.