I had a large bump from the bridge of my nose that was very 'witch' like, it also drooped slightly down at the end of my nose and made me very self conscious all my life! I decided to go to transform Clinique at jesmond in Newcastle and I was recomended to mr Ahmed who mainly specialises in rhinoplasty/face procedures! It has only been a week since I had my cast removed and I am thrilled with the results!!! Mr Ahmed is amazing!!! He has changed my life for the better and I would never look back!!!!
I've been looking at this website and considering whether or not to write here for a long time, but looking at all of the reviews has been so helpful to me and I want to share my own experiences in the hope that someday they might be of use to others going through/considering rhinoplasty. I've had an issue with my nose for many years . Not only does it have a bump, it is very asymmetrical and leans very much towards the left side of my face. This is most obvious in pictures facing the front, I often have to tilt my head to make it look normal. I feel that this really upsets the balance of my features and makes my face look (to use the bluntest word I can think of) wonky. It's also very large in general, I feel that it 'sticks out' too far from my face. I have what's called a boxy tip; the tip of my nose is very square , this is dificult to describe but I'll point it out in the pictures. Due to the asymmetry, my left nostril is a lot more exposed than my right, giving it the appearance of being larger. My septum also droops slightly when I smile. Lastly, I have what you call a 'tethered' lip, where the bottom of the nose is attached to the lip in a way that pulls the top lip forwards making the lip appear smaller, again this will show up better in my photos. I'm booked to have my rhinoplasty on the 20th of September with Mr Omar Ahmed at Nuffield Hospital in Jesmond Newcastle. I did a lot of research into this and knew that I wanted a surgeon who was registered with BAAPS/BAPRAS. I found their websites to be full of very helpful information regarding choosing a surgeon. I had consultations with a few different surgeons and felt that Mr Ahmed was the one who was the most honest and realistic about what could be done (he was also the nicest, always a bonus.) I think it's important to find a surgeon who shares your views, he shared mine and was very considerate and professional. He said that the most important thing was that I still look like myself and that the nose suits my face, this is exactly what I want. He will be taking the bump down and using a spreader graft on the asymmetrical side of my nose to balance it out with the other side (which is straight). The square tip is going to be given a more rounded appearence. Also he will be fixing the tethered lip so that hopefully you will see a bit more of my top lip and raising the tip of my nose very slightly to stop it drooping when I smile. I saw Mr Ahmed twice and took time to consider my decision. It's safe to say that I'm absolutely terrified to have this operation, especially since I'm going under general anesthetic but I've had years to consider this and I know that it's what I want and that it's the right decision for me. I'll be updating this as I go along (with all the gory details :p ) so look out for that. I'd also like to point out that the price of my operation is in dollars because the website asks for that but in pounds it's £4525. Thanks so much for taking the time to read this and I hope it can be of some help to you :) X Updated on 12 Sep 2014: I forgot to mention that I'm having open rhinoplasty. I'm a very curious person who likes to know everything so stupidly a couple of months ago I decided to watch a video of this being done... The less said about this the better- not recommended! I also paid my surgery off on Wednesday! I can't believe this is really happening, I've wanted this since I was 15. To take my mind off the worrying, I thought it would be nice to talk about the things that I'm really looking forward to about my new nose. I've always hated my side angle, I'll put my hand in front of my nose sometimes when I'm facing the side so that people don't see it. I do this on the bus, sitting in class and at any social gathering. I'll choose my position carefully when I walk into a room to make it so that people don't see the side of my face, it sounds so silly writing it out but I'm sure some of you will be able to relate. This has been especially bad in changing rooms when I'm trying on clothes - those 3 way mirrors where you can see yourself from all angles are the enemy! I've actually left the shop and gone home on a number of occasions because I get so upset about seeing myself from the side. I feel like it makes me ugly and no matter what I do or how nice I can make myself look, my nose will always let me down. I'm looking forward to not having to hide it anymore. I'm looking forward to feeling like I look nice :) I've also been scared to change my hairstyle or wear bright lipstick because I don't want anything drawing more attention to it. After I'm all healed up and feeling better I'm going to wear my hair off my face and wear every colour of lipstick that there is :) Finally I'd like to say that I'm so happy that I found this website, I've been so shocked at how supportive and helpful people have been. In real life I've had mixed reactions from the few people that I've told. On this site people have been nothing but nice and I feel like I can share everything on here, so thank you everyone for that :) Updated on 19 Sep 2014: So it's 9.45pm here and my surgery is tomorrow! I'm terrified but also really excited to get this over with so I can stop worrying and start enjoying my new nose. Unfortunately I've started to get a bit of a sniffle today and a sore throat, nothing too terrible though so I'm hoping that it still goes ahead. I've hardly slept lately because I've been worrying so much, I keep thinking about the anesthetic and how something could go wrong. I know this is really unlikely but the thought has been really bothering me, there were even tears over it last night. I will be fine once it's done though. Luckily I have the best and most supportive boyfriend in the whole world and he has taken a whole week off work to look after me. We have a supply of games to play on my xbox/wii so we don't get bored and plenty of films to watch :) My mum is also awesome and has bought me strawberry juice and soft foods to eat like yogurt. I also have recovery supplies like arnica gel, a neck pillow etc. Wish me luck guys and i'll update tomorrow as soon as I can if I'm feeling up to it. Shall we have one last picture of my nose to look at? I think we shall, goodbye old nose! Updated on 20 Sep 2014: I had my surgery this morning and everything went really well :) I will post a proper update with pictures later but for now, I just want people to know that I'm fine. I'm actually so surprised that I didn't wake up in any pain and I still can't feel any pain at all. I thought it would be a lot worse! Updated on 21 Sep 2014: Hi guys, so I had my operation yesterday and everything went really well. I was so scared when they took me into the pre op room but the anethiatist was really nice to me and re assured me that I'd be fine. All of the staff were lovely also. When they gave me the anaesthetic I was asleep so quickly, it was amazing. One second they were talking to me and then the next I was asleep. When I woke up it felt like no time had passed at all. I remember thinking 'you did it!' And being really happy. The walls were spinning and I had the driest mouth in the world but no pain whatsoever and one of the nurses gave me some water. The doctor didn't put any packing in my nose and as a result I could actually breathe straight away which was really nice. I can still breathe out of one nostril but only sometimes, (sometimes the swelling means that it blocks up again.) It just feels as if I have a cold. I Don't have much bruising around my eyes yet either which is strange because I expected a lot worse. The top part of my mouth on the other hand is really swollen and I'm starting to resemble the ape woman from planet of the apes but I'm sure that will go down in a couple of days! (I hope) So overall I'm doing well and enjoying my recovery at home :) . I feel fine and can even walk around without any problems, though I found sleeping upright a bit uncomfortable. I have really dry lips so I keep putting Vaseline on and drinking plenty of juice. I've added some pictures so you guys can take a look, my nose is already noticeably shorter, though my nostrils are a bit swollen. Lastly id like to thank everyone on this site so much for supporting me and being so nice :) I will keep you updated. Updated on 21 Sep 2014: For some reason my pictures didn't upload properly, here they are Updated on 22 Sep 2014: So today is the second day after surgery and I have to say, I'm not feeling as good as I was yesterday morning. My top lip is really swollen and is showing no signs of going down, I can't smile and I'm finding it hard to eat normally. Although I can breathe out of my nose sometimes, when I do all I can smell is blood and it's really unpleasant. I tried spraying some strong perfume on my neck so that I would smell that instead - this worked a little bit but I can still smell blood. Most of all, it is so irritating having all these bandages on my face, the feeling of the tape being stuck to me is really horrible. So even though I'm still not in any pain, I am constantly uncomfortable. I was warned about this though and I knew it would be annoying, the bandages come off on Saturday so I just have to hang in there till then. My eyes have also swollen up a bit more since yesterday and I still look like a monkey! I have to admit, even though I know the swelling is only temporary and that it will go down it's really disheartening looking in the mirror and seeing myself like this. I don't look like myself at all. The tip of my nose is still quite high too and though I've been told this will drop later on it does look too high and a bit ridiculous at the moment. I know I need to be patient though and wait for the swelling to subside. Another thing is that in general I've just been feeling miserable, I'm crying at the slightest thing and feeling really emotional. I think this might be a combination of a side effect of the anesthetic and just being uncomfortable. Hopefully i'll feel better tomorrow and in the next few days when I start to heal. Updated on 23 Sep 2014: I feel a lot better today than I did yesterday. I think yesterdays miserable mood was just a side effect of the anesthetic. If you're feeling down post surgery I recommend playing a game/reading to take your mind off it. Me and my boyfriend played a game all afternoon/evening yesterday and it really helped to cheer me up as I had something else to focus on. After all there's no time to be sad when you're setting zombies on fire. Today the swelling has moved further down my face to my lower cheek area and the area above my upper lip has gone down a bit. I still look silly and not 100% like myself, but I can sort of smile a bit more now which makes me feel better. You can't see very well from the pictures but I have a slight yellow bruising around my eyes which is slowly going away. I find that the arnica cream is really helping for the bruises and it's nice and cooling too. Other than that I'm still not in any pain although I am quite itchy! I managed to take a warm bath this morning too so I feel a lot cleaner now. I want to post new pictures every day so that people can see all the different stages of healing so I've added a couple :) enjoy. Updated on 29 Sep 2014: I'm sorry for not updating in so long! I've got so much to say and it's going to take a while to type out! Days 4-6 were pretty much the same as day 3, I started to improve steadily and apart from being extremely itchy I was in good spirits. I've added a photo to show how I looked on day 5, as you can see I didn't have a lot of bruising which I put down partly to taking vitamin c and using absolutely loads of arnica cream and partly to just being really lucky. The cast and stitches were removed on Friday and it was such a relief! It is amazing to finally be able to touch and wash my face. I still have a big red mark on my forehead from where the cast was which looks ridiculous though. All throughout my recovery I hadn't been feeling very stuffed up and I was always able to breathe through my nose but on Friday for some reason I started to become less able to breathe and started to sound like I have a cold. When the cast was removed this got a lot worse. I sound full of cold now and have to breathe through my mouth all the time. I have been told that this is because the cast holds in the swelling and removing it allows the nose to swell freely - it has certainly done this! The swelling has been slightly painful but overall the pain wasn't too bad and taking painkillers helped. Now I'm going to talk about my nose, it is beautiful :) even though it is swollen I still think it is a huge improvement on my old nose. When the cast was first removed and I looked in the mirror I nearly cried, I love it so much. The swelling does make it look slightly bigger than it will eventually be (I think) but I am already so pleased with the results. It has been made much shorter and much more even and I think I look much better with it. I feel much better too! The pain hasn't been as bad today though it does tingle sometimes and the tip is quite numb. I also still have some blood around my nostrils which I can't get rid of. I did try to clean it as much as I could but I don't want to go poking it too much in case I cause any damage. Also I still can't smile properly as my top lip is still slightly stiff but it is definitely improving and my smile is starting to look more normal. Smiling too wide is uncomfortable though so I've been trying not to laugh too much. Today I managed to put a little bit of makeup on for the first time in over a week which made me feel so much better and I also went back to university. It was so nice to get out of the house and actually do something after being stuck indoors for a week. I am so happy I did this, my nose looks great and I'm feeling better everyday! I'll keep everyone updated on my progress and hopefully take some better pictures when the swelling goes down a bit. Updated on 1 Oct 2014: I feel that the pictures I posted the other day don't really do my new nose any justice and I was feeling quite tired when I took them so they weren't very good. I've added some more for you guys to look at and you can see the difference more clearly. It's so much shorter and smaller now and a lot more even (although I still have a lot of swelling so I expect the final results to differ slightly). I seem to be experiencing more swelling this week than I was in the first week! I think the cast/splint was holding it all in. Yesterday it was super swollen and it was tingling quite a bit which made it look a bit like a fat marshmallow. Today it looks slightly better and I can breathe better than I could yesterday so at least it is improving. One thing I'd like to add is that it still looks as though there is a slight bump on the bridge of my nose, I think this may be due to swelling but it's too early to know for sure at this stage I think. I will keep you all updated on whether that goes away. Overall even though it is still early days I still love my nose. I think it is such a huge improvement on what I had. Updated on 3 Oct 2014: It's the weekend! I go back to work tomorrow which I'm not really looking forward to but I do miss my co workers and it's only a short shift, then I get to enjoy a nice Saturday :) Yesterday I went out shopping for some new clothes and I had the most chilled out and lovely time. I used to hate shopping because of all the many angled mirrors in the changing rooms but this time when I went to try things on I actually liked my profile. My nose looked lovely in the mirror and I didn't get upset like I used to and I didn't want to leave. It is so much less stressful this way! I felt like I had a calm mind and could actually focus on what I was shopping for rather than constantly worrying about my nose. I also wore pink lipstick to university today.I never used to like wearing colourful lipstick or any colourful anything really because I felt that it drew peoples attention to my nose. It's something so small but I feel like this has opened up a whole new world to me and I can't wait to experiment more. I've been feeling a lot more confident in myself lately and I think it's going to take some getting used to, I feel like a new woman! As for my nose, at this stage some of the skin is peeling on the surface. I think this is due to having the cast on for a week and I'm trying not to touch it too much. It doesn't hurt at all but no one wants a flaky nose! I also managed to clear my nose out a bit today. This is quite disgusting and I apologise if it is sharing too much but I had so much 'stuff' up my nose that I could not breathe through it at all. This was really bothering me especially at night and I was losing a lot of sleep due to having to breathe through my mouth all the time. It had been a week since I had my cast off and it wasn't improving so I tried to gently blow some of it out and get some of the bits close to my nostrils with a warm cotton bud (q tip?) dipped in saline solution. I don't want to disgust any of you so I'm just going to say that this mission was a success! I can now breathe through my nose and it feels so much better. Maybe I will get some sleep tonight. I just hope I haven't caused damage. I was extremely gentle so hopefully not. My nose is still quite swollen and it still looks slightly 'fat' but I have confidence that this will go down as I am only 2 weeks post op. The tiny bump on the bridge is still there too, I hope this goes away. My nose is tingling less than it was a couple of days ago and feeling less tender. I think this is a good sign but I still have a long way to go until I can see a final result. That's all I have to say for today, apart from that I hope you all have a great weekend :) Enjoy your Saturday everyone. Updated on 24 Oct 2014: I can't believe it's been a month already! Where does the time go? This past month has been great, my nose is healing nicely and a lot of the swelling has gone down. In previous posts I mentioned that I still had a slight bump on the bridge of my nose, this has now gone so I believe that was just swelling. Some of the swelling remains in the tip and I'm hoping that over the next few months this also goes down (I've read that tip swelling takes a lot longer to go.) I am still so pleased with my results, my nose is changing and looking better week by week and it's amazing to see it take shape. It has definitely become more refined and smaller in the last few weeks so to anyone worrying about the initial shape of their nose post surgery I would say be patient! It isn't hurting at all anymore or feeling tender so I think that it has definitely healed a lot more since I last posted. Something that nobody seems to talk about is how weird the skin on your nose gets after having a cast on - my nose is dry and oily at the same time! I've been using tea tree oil on it as well as a weekly face mask which seems to be improving it. I think that my new nose really suits my face, it doesn't distract from the rest of my features and it looks very natural which is what I wanted. I've added some photos that I took about a week ago and a before and after for you guys to look at. I will update with more soon, enjoy :)
Without seeing any photos, it is difficult to know where the problem lies. It sounds like, however, you have had too much cartilage removed from the alar cartilages or upper lateral cartilages, or both. The difficulty breathing would then be due to lack of support, rather than just scar tissue. Kenalog may not be the best answer. Nasal stents (retainers) can be useful to help support the nostrils and to keep the airways patent. It is best that you see your surgeon again. If you want a second opinion, seek out someone who is experienced in secondary/tertiary rhinoplasty.
Are you middle-eastern or south asian? Do you have any photos from before your operation? To me it looks like your nose has been over-reduced in size. The dorsum has been lowered too far, and has lost its definition. The radix is now too low. From the front, the dorsum looks slightly pinched and the nose looks deviated somewhat, and the tip looks broad. There appears to be a lot of scarring on the right nostril (ala), with discolouration of the overlying skin. There is nostril retraction on both sides, worse on the left. There is supratip excess and the nasal tip appears to be rounded and lacking support. It looks like you have had an open rhinoplasty, and this will have to be repeated. There will be a lot more scarring the second time around, which makes revision more difficult. Make sure you see someone experienced in rhinoplasty, especially revision rhinoplasty. The procedure would cost between £5000 and £6000 in Newcastle upon Tyne, but much more in the south.
