Wanted Re-rhinoplasty and 3 Top Plastic Surgeons Talked Me out of It - Wayne, NJ

I had a rhinoplasty at 16 in 2005. Right after the surgery I noticed my septum was coming out of my nostril. The surgeon yelled at me when I brought it up. I have seen 3 surgeons since and only one has offered to help by injecting steroids into the one side that is more bulbous to try and even it out. Is it so bad that I should keep looking for someone willing to fix it? Or is it all in my head? Nobody notices until I mention it, but I notice every time I can’t breathe or when I realize both sides of my face are completely different.

It all started when I was in the face with a golf club when I was 12. When I was 16 my mom took me to a top plastic surgeon in NYC named Dr. Pamela Lipkin, she is extremely well known, and well, I didn't have much worry at the time. When I came out of surgery I noticed at my first post-op appointment that my septum was coming out of my left nostril. didn't care so much because my nose looked amazing. Although when I went in for a post-op and mentioned my concerns, instead of giving me input on how it can heal the best and why my septum was popping out of the left side of my nose, she went into her files and got pictures of celebrities including Farrah Fawcett, claiming she did her nose. showing me her file to make sure I knew she was oh so amazing and famous. I was pretty disgusted and mortified being 16 and just wanting my nose to be FIXED, it was scary, I didn't chose to be hit by a golf club and having my septum pushed to the right side of my face. The whole situation was just unsettling and dissapointing.

As time went on (I'm 24 now) the septum has shifted and my cartilage on the tip bulged out to the left. I have been seeing plastic surgeons in NJ/NY for a couple years seeing my options. Most of them didn't want to do anything about it, most of them wanted to jump right into open surgery. Then I heard about this Dr. Ganchi in Wayne, NJ, not to far from where I am. I saw amazing reviews and I went in for a consult.

Let me just say I've seen about 20 "top" plastic surgeons over the past 10 years since my nose injury (it was bad) and Dr. Ganchi was the first to actually sit with me FOR AN HOUR and go over in detail what is going on with my nose, and what about it bothers me the most. He didn't rush me into anything, he explained my options saying that he could file down the bone to make it look less zig zagged, but anything else he could do would probably cause more damage, and he thought my nose was fine the way it is, but did see my concerns. He fiddled with my nose for a bit, and realized what was happened. My nose was shifting the opposite way that it was deviated when it was broken. He gave me my options, but basically said... "I don't think it is right for you to get surgery, I think we should try Kenalog injections to reduce the amount of scar tissue that built up and see how that works out." So I took his advice and scheduled the appointment for today.

After meeting with him, he had me sit with a woman who sat with me and talked for about 2 hours. It was mind blowing how open and kind she was, we talked about body acceptance, and how sometimes you have to embrace the flaws, trying to remind me that my nose still looks beautiful even if it didn't heal perfectly over the years. They even gave me a free chemical peel for the day I came into to get my Kenalog injections.

So today I had the peel, and the injections. The injections HURT so bad, probably because of how long its been since the scar tissue formed, and how sensitive my nose STILL IS even 8 years after surgery. Everything went well, and as soon as I got in my car I realized that the area of the cartilage that had bulged out had ALREADY gone done a tad, even though he told me I wouldn't see a result for months (if any and he warned me of that since its been so long.)

Anyways, I'm feeling good about the whole situation, and if I go to my post-op appointment and he tells me there is not much else he can do, it will be okay, because at least he tried. And he told me that he will do his best to figure something else out for me. :)