Rhinoplasty: Stories

To first read part 1 of my Rhinoplasty Story, please click here.

End of Day 6 Post-Op:

No pics today because I didn't get to wash my hair today and my face looks gross and oily so I'd rather you all not see me like that (despite having seen me far worse) ;) No pain today (and none in my teeth either, as my braces have loosened a bit); there's not really been any since day 1, with a tiny bit of discomfort here and there on day 2 (which I would've only rated, at worse, a 2 out of 10). More or less, today was just the odd pinch here and there inside my nostrils. I can only assume it was my stitches, otherwise I'm not sure lol Really, the only annoyance at this point is the random itches on my nose. I'm ALWAYS thankful when I tentative go to scratch (gently) and realize its on a part of my nose not covered by the cast; on the contrary, it's the worst feeling ever when it IS. Lol. Tomorrow (technically today as its 305am as I write this) is my last full day with the cast, and although I can't wait to get it off, I haven't experienced the frantic, "OH MY GOD, I HAVE TO GET THIS DAMN THING OFF, IT FEELS LIKE IT'S BEEN ON FOR A MILLION YEARS" feeling. It actually feels like this last week has gone by rather quickly.

Umm, there's just a little bit of yellow left under my eyes but by the end of today I could barely see it. Most of the swelling in my face is gone; Brendan looked at it today and thought it was ALL gone, but I still think there's a tiny bit in my eyes and cheeks, but it's hard to tell. I'm not worried! There's obviously still swelling in my tip, but my nostrils are looking almost even if I tilt my head back and look at them that way. But since there's still decent swelling in the upper left part of my tip, they still look a little bit uneven if you look at me straight on; but again, I'm not worried, as when I gently feel my tip, it's hard and tender in the spot where I know there's swelling. And even if they stayed that way, it's not that noticeable, and I don't mind; it kind of looks natural that way regardless, since everyone has asymmetries. My stitches are doing well. The stitches on my septum don't look the nicest (as they poke out a bit now) but they aren't infected, so that's all that matters. I apply polysporin to it several times a day. I'm not entirely sure where the ones INSIDE my nose are located so I don't pick around in there, just to be safe. Dr. B told me that ALL my stitches are dissolvable, even the ones on my septum. What happens when they dissolve? Do they just fall out? Or will I sniff and suddenly I'll be choking on a stitch? hahaha Importantly, I've changed my rating to Worth It. I know that I'll experience more changes when the cast comes off, but based off of what I see now I am very happy. Tonight, for the first time, I compared photos of me with my old nose to my new one (looking in the mirror and comparing). Before the surgery, I was worried my upturned tip would look gross on my from straight on; that my new nose would make me uglier, or make me look too different. (These were concerns and fears of mine.) But especially after comparing to photos of my old nose, I see more than ever that not only does this nose still make me look 100% like me, despite the changes (I'm convinced that anyone who DOESN'T know will not be able to tell I had any work done), but that my new nose actually suits me way BETTER. My tip especially makes me look much more feminine, which is exactly what Dr. B wanted, since I'm already a petite girl (I'm 5'1" and 115lbs). I'm very happy right now. :)

My cast was super easy coming off; just a small wiggle and it slipped right off. Absolutely no pain! Dr. B checked in my nostrils and said everything looks great, I have some obviously swelling in my tip and it looks like some in my bridge (it's only really noticeable from my 3/4 angles), but I was healing nicely and had better results than a lot of people do at 7 days post-op. He kept commenting how nice my nose looked so, bracing myself for the worst, I got up and looked in the mirror and ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT! Even with the minor swelling, it was much smaller than I expected. I also was anticipating that my front would look like a huge shapeless blob but it has definition and looks just as adorable as my profiles! I kept repeating, "It's so adorable !" But the Doc said, "It's not the nose, that's just you!" I was so excited I got a pic with him, which ill upload later since it's on my camera and not my phone. If I do have swelling in my upper bridge, ill be happy when it goes down, but really, the only angles I think it'll affect are my 3/4s. But even if it stayed exactly the same as it is now I'd be perfectly happy! I can't thank Dr. B and his staff enough - I'm so so happy! Now I have to wait and see if it balloons and gets all swollen in the next couple of days haha

The admins were nice enough to make a new review for me, since I reached my max on the other one, so I will try my best to write less on this one. They didn't add my LAST-last update where I spoke of getting my cast off, but you can read it on my Part 1, which you can find the link to at the top of this review I think. The short and short of it was it was super easy, no pain getting the cast removed, and I absolutely love my new nose.

The rest of my evening yesterday was just fine. My skin was a bit oily and I can see that ill have to exfoliate whenever my nose isn't as tender but it wasn't nearly as gross looking as I was expecting. It didn't have any marks or redness on it from where the cast was either, which was nice. Took a long hot shower which was HEAVENLY but couldn't submerge my face in the water cause I stayed in a hotel and the water pressure was set to Tear Skin Off. But I still sprayed some water on my nose and it felt good :) And washing my whole face felt AWESOME!

It feels SO weird touching my bridge because 1) there's no longer any bumps and 2) I can feel the slope where my tip upturns. It's just different haha but I like it! My tip is pretty tender right now since it's the most swollen, but my bridge only feels maybe 3/10 on the tender scale.

Still cleaning my nose and stitches with polysporon and using the saline spray. My nose became stuffy and slightly runny a few days ago and it's sill persisted so I'm constantly sniffling. But to anyone who also has this problem, just know that this is super common and it can last anywhere from a few months to a year in some patients - but RARELY ever longer.

I iced a tiny tiny bit last night (as a precaution to today), and applied a bit of Arnica gel to my nose, but I woke up this morning (after sleeping well) and it hasn't really swelled up at all. I guess I must've gotten lucky lol any swelling that MIGHT have happened overnight isn't noticeable and I'm still completely in love with my nose :) my fiancé keeps looking at me and saying how beautiful it is and how great I look, awww. And I sent pictures to my mom and she couldn't believe how adorable it is. I hope I've passed the major point for swelling but I'm still bracing myself lol

10 Days Post-Op; 3 since the cast came off:

Nothing huge to update you all on; since I didn't have much additional swelling when the cast came off, it's mainly just been the usual swelling - the majority of which is in the tip of my nose, so that'll take a long time to go down. It went down a tad in size within the 24 hours of getting the cast removed, and to me it looks like it's stayed the same (which is perfectly fine by me).

Other than that, little improvements! The majority of the stitches on my septum came off today, which was nice cause they'd all clumped together and looked kind of gross. Also, I was FINALLY able to clean out the half-dried/half-gooey blood that had been trapped in the upper inner corners of my nostrils. The blood was a week old and had started to cause a gross smell in my nose, but I didn't try to clean it in case any of it was scanning or it was wrapped around stitches. But last night, after a hot bath and saline sprays, both sides loosened up and with the tiniest prodding, it finally came out on both sides. FREEDOM! That, mixed with the fact that most of my septum stitches have finally dissolved, and my nose FINALLY looks normal. My scar is pink but looks like I just got a scratch there; otherwise it's hard to tell that I got any work done. :)

Still stuffy, but that's to be expected! Not concerned about it, I have faith that it'll subside over time. I absolutely love how positive the responses have been from my friends and family who knew; my best friend says it's feminine and cute, and Brendan keeps looking at me and says at least 5 times a day, "Your nose looks so good, you look beautiful and seem more confident already." My mom is probably the biggest fan of it though; she was always supportive of my choice to do this but I never expected she'd love my results this much. Even my dad has completely come around. I update him all the time with pictures and he says the same thing as everyone else, along with the fact that he can see how happy I am and that's what matters most to him :)

Since my surgery was early on the morning of the 19th and the rest of that day counted as Post-Op Day 1, technically this makes today Post-Op day 14 - however, tomorrow morning truly marks my two week mark since having it done.

When it comes to uploading pictures, I don't really know why I'm doing it at the moment.. my nose hasn't changed since the last photos.. maybe I just love taking photos of myself now, lol! But in all seriousness, I think that's part of the reason I keep doing it, because I find it kind of reassuring that I don't see much change between photos - it keeps me optimistic that my nose won't go do some complete 180 in the next few months. As long as it can stay pretty much like this, I'll continue to be in love with it. We've noticed that in the last week, the tip has gone done in swelling a tiny bit in a couple different spots, but of course, there's still a ton.

I saw my godparents yesterday and my godfather flat out forgot that I had the procedure done, so he couldn't even tell. My godmother didn't know and she didn't notice anything either. It wasn't until I was leaving and I finally told them and then I showed them my scar and it was at that point that they were like, "Ohhh okay, well now that you've told us, we can see the changes." My godmother said she thought there was something slightly different about me, but she just thought it was due to my new hair, as well as just not having seen me for a long time (which is good because that means the majority of my friends and family should have the same oblivious reaction when I see them in the summer). They were the most surprised by the fact that I wasn't bruised or swollen and didn't even look like I had any surgery; my godfather especially, once he remembered, had been expecting me to LOOK like I was different, and still battered and bruised lol So that was a positive, reassuring experience. I also returned to University today (I took a sick leave all of last week), and although my prof knew why I was gone, no one in my class noticed. I am very happy about that! :)

Hmm.. what else? Oh, last night, I irritated my nose a lot and I could feel it swell a bit (I think). I have Tourette Syndrome and a couple of my tics involved twitching my nose in various ways (sometimes multiple times until it feels "right"), and I noticed by the late evening, it was achy in my upper bridge and around my nostrils, and then when I felt it, it felt like the very top of my bridge was the tiniest bit swollen. You still couldn't tell visually, but I could feel it under my fingers. So I tried my best to stop, and then applied some arnica cream before bed. Woke up this morning and it was back to normal again; I'm trying to fight against most my tics today that involve moving my nose around (knowing I shouldn't do it makes my body feel like it has to do it more, so it's a bit physically and mentally exhausting. They're not BAD for my nose and I know they won't mess up my results; they just wear my nose out and make it prone to some swelling and aching.

In my front shot that I uploaded, my nose looks slanted in one direction more than the other, but that's just my phone. It's really hard to take a front shot on my iphone camera because it's never fully symmetrical, it always makes my proportions look off. If you saw me in real life, it's straight. When I smile, it still looks like I have a bit of a curve on one side of my nose, but when I feel it, it's not bone. I think my face just does that, and I don't mind because it's a characteristic attributed to my old smile, which I'm glad to keep.

Sorry for my gross skin and lack of makeup in my photos today. My skin has been breaking out around my cheeks and now it looks like it might a tiny bit on my nose. Admittedly, what I lucked out on in terms of swelling, I didn't luck out on in terms of the quality of the skin on my nose and around it, haha. It looks kind of gross; I'm trying to moisturize it but I might have to do it more. The skin is very peely and the pores are big and clogged. I can't wait until I can use the Biore strips. Also, the skin on my cheeks right around my nose is peeling too. I bought a ton of face masks and stuff so eventually I'll try a couple of those and see if they help at all. I've also been applying sunscreen on my nose whenever I go out - important not to forget that!

I'll probably update again at my one month mark. Cheers!

I know I said I wouldn't update again until a month post-op, but I decided to delete my pics from this review and just put up some comparative photos from each angle, to remind everyone either about to undergo rhinoplasty or in the early stages of recovery that it DOES get better, and you will see so many changes from day 1 to day 5 to two weeks. I'm still early out; I'm sure my pictures will look different at my one-month mark (and I mean it, I won't update anymore pics until then hahaha :P), but even now at little less than 3 weeks out, I can see how crazy of a difference my nose is compared to before, and CERTAINLY the day after surgery (yeesh). Also, I thought that I didn't have much of a change between days 10 and 14, but you can clearly see that my tip reduced a great deal in swelling. Just goes to show you that patience really is a virtue! This is the best investment I ever made for myself! :D

One month post-op:

This past month has flown by! It's hard to believe that this procedure was already done a month ago - on the one hand, that feels about right, and on the other, it feels like I've had this nose for months and months. The greatest thing I can say about it is that this is the nose I feel I was born to have; I don't miss my old nose at all. I feel a bit more feminine now and I never worry about what angle I'm having my photo taken on. One thing worth mentioning is that my tip still gives off the appearance of "drooping" when I smile, which bugs me at times, but this has NOTHING to do with my actual nose, because when I smile and stare at my tip, it doesn't move. It's just the way I smile - I have such an animated smile (almost like a crazy person sometimes haha) that it takes over my whole face. I've come to accept this, since it's something that just makes me ME.

My tip is still incredibly swollen, obviously, and I think I have more swelling in my left nostril than my right because I have a slightly harder time breathing through that nostril. Having said that, I can still breathe well out of both. My nose doesn't run as much anymore; if it ever feels stuffy, usually it's just because of the swelling. I also noticed that my nose tends to be more sensitive (and sometimes, it feels like there's some pressure on my bridge) in the evening, but that's normal, since the immune system is weakest by the end of the day. My scar is still reddish-pink, but that'll go away with time. I still apply polysporon daily, on my scar and in my nostrils. The only thing that kind of blows is that, on the edge of both sides of my septum (where the scar is), I think there was a tiny amount of scar tissue that formed on either side, because if I run my finger down each side of my septum, I can feel a bump (more so on the left side of my septum). No one else notices it, so I'm not worried by it, and I can live with it. Mainly, I just hope my scar will fade at least 90% in the long run, as I still find it pretty noticeable. I also have two tiny bumps on either side of my nose from where it was chiseled against when they broke my bones; again, they're not noticeable to anyone else, and I hope it is swelling because when I run my finger over the bigger one of the two, it's sensitive and a bit achy, like when you have swelling. (It sounds worse than it really is, if you saw me, you probably wouldn't even be able to see what I'm talking about lol.)

Still positive comments all around from everyone who knows; only one of my friends says that "she can see the difference," but she also says that that's because she already knew about it. Everyone else hasn't noticed - and that's fine by me! Subtlety was what I wanted and I guess that means that it looks natural, so that's good!

Two more weeks until my bones are considered "healed", and one month until I can wear sunglasses again! I'm not a big hat person, so I've been dealing with it and just going into the sun without anything covering my eyes, which just means I'm walking into things a lot and squinting all the time. I miss my shades! My next appointment with Dr. B is at the beginning of May, and I'll be asking him when I can start using Biore strips again. That's probably the biggest annoyance since the surgery is the skin on my nose SUCKS now, lol. Gets greasy very easily, and is in desperate need of being exfoliated, and also flakes ALL the time. I have to increase my skin routine, I think.

I still don't regret this at all, and still maintain that this was one of the best investments I could ever make for myself. :) Unless anything detrimental happens in the next month, I probably won't update again until after I meet with Dr. B (a couple weeks after my two-month mark). However, I'll still be creeping the reviews and commenting, lol. Thanks for reading!

Yesterday marked my 2-month mark post-op, and my appointment with Dr. B is on May 6th :)

My tip has definitely dropped; it's no longer "pixie-like", which actually took some time to get used to. It was actually kind of disappointing when I realized it had gone away because I'd thought it was cute. Now, it's a lot straighter and it took me a little bit to get used to it, but I still like it. There was a couple days randomly where I'd feel like my nose was starting to look like my old nose, and I convinced myself it now looked like my old nose since my tip had dropped. However, that was also due to taking the photos way too close to my face, so the angles would make my nose look humongous compared to how it actually looked. Plus, things always tend to seem worse when you're feeling negative and upset. My tip felt a tiny bit smaller today so I took some pictures (which I've added here), and I really like how it looks. All I need to do is look at old pictures to remember just how big and bumpy my nose was in comparison to how it is now. My nose now still looks much better.

I find that, the later it gets, and the more tired I am, the more swollen my nose gets (since my immune system is weaker). A couple night ago, I had been awake for 24 hours studying for my last exam, and I didn't get to sleep until after I'd been up for 36 hours. By the time I was going to sleep, my tip felt (although it didn't really look) so swollen that I couldn't get a full breath out of my nostrils. If I wanted a deep breath I had to inhale through my mouth. But by the next morning it was better.

My breathing is still worse out of my left nostril (on its own) than it is out of my right. Normally though, breathing through both is fine, so it doesn't really hinder me much. When I see Dr. B, I'll be asking him if it's due to swelling or any other reason. I did notice that a very very very tiny part of what looks like my septum pokes out right on the inside of my left nostril, and it doesn't on the right. I don't know much about what it could be; the closest thing I've read that maybe it could be is a slightly deviated part of the caudal septum (rather than the actual septum itself). It's not very large, although if I press on it, it kind of "pops" back in, but as soon as I let go, it comes back out (it sounds worse and more gross than it is). Again, I'll let my doctor look at it and tell me what he thinks it is.

The runniness in my nose went away ages ago, but it's still stuffy from time to time on a daily basis - I'm convinced this is swelling, as it feels like my tip still has a fair bit of it. Other than that, I still stare at it a lot throughout the day; sometimes over-scrutinizing, making sure it still looks nice, and sometimes feeling iffy about it and then feeling better about it again; other times, just happy with the way it looks, no complaints. I still don't regret this procedure at all. :) I'm just getting used to the way my nose is starting to look, now that the tip is dropping.

WOW - for the record, you never truly know how much your nose has changed - or a reminder of JUST HOW BAD your pre-op nose was, until you stumble across old "before" pics. This happened to me tonight; the before photos were taken on my webcam 6 days before my surgery (so, February 13th). Then I took new "after" pics (yesterday) to compare them to. HOLY MOLY. :S I guess I can't say my nose didn't change hahaha

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~2 months, 19 days post-op~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Saw Dr. B again for the first time since I had my cast removed at Day 7. I told him that my breathing through my left nostril isn't as good as my right, and I was weirdly worried that my septum had deviated after the surgery (how ironic, right, that I didn't have a deviated septum prior to surgery and I'd get one after it) - but alas, he checked and it isn't deviated, PHEW. He mentioned that something in my nose just happens to be smaller than in my right nostril, and there's nothing that can really be done about it. It's okay, and I can live with it; it isn't that bad and I can still breathe perfectly fine through my nose and with my mouth closed. I have a bump on the left side of my bridge from the osteotomy and he said that that could either reduce in size over time or it might not. It makes my nose look the slightest bit crooked from that side but overall it's not that bad. I also noticed that my nose naturally slants to the right of my face - I realize this when I see that it also does that in my before pics, so I accept that, just as I accept that due to the way I smile and how my nostrils are on my face, my nose will always droop when I smile. Oh well!

We both agreed that my nose still looks awesome and much better than my old nose. One of his employees who I hadn't met before said that, had she not have known, she would've never been able to guess that I had the surgery because my results are so natural. :) In terms of the remaining swelling in my tip, Dr. B says that there's still obviously swelling there, but he's not completely sure that it'll change that much in appearance by the time it fully heals. I'm okay with this; I still wish I had more of the upturned pixey nose I had in the beginning but I've grown to accept and love my nose now that it's straighter and the tip has dropped. My scar has also healed perfectly and the remaining redness should go away with time.

He also gave me the go-ahead to wear shades again! The only thing is, I now need to buy new ones that grip to my bridge better, because now with no bump in the bridge anymore, all my sunglasses keep sliding down my nose :P Anyways, Dr. B said he doesn't need to see me again until anywhere between 8 months post-op and a year (so, between October and February). I'll probably post again in the next few months; I had graduation portraits done recently for my University graduation (which is formally i June), and thanks to my new nose, they turned out lovely so I will probably post those when I get them :) And my wedding is in August, so I'll definitely post pictures from that :) Other than the odd pictures here and there I probably won't be posting much for a long while, unless something big happens. If any of you would like to keep in touch, feel free to message me and maybe we can find each other on Facebook or something :) Cheers!