The Reason the Word 'Schnozzle' Existed: my Nose - Bangalore, India

This is my second week post-op.

In 2008, I had a septoplasty because I had serious trouble breathing, to the point that I was waking up in the middle of the night from choking nightmares. I have had a deviated septum since I was a child. Over the years, the deviation had grown severe enough that ENT doctors I saw were fascinated by the insides of my nose. I had an S-shaped septum, apparently. "Very unusual". "Can I take pictures?" Its not fun being a pin-up in the medical world.

So in 2008 I saw an ENT surgeon who really seemed to know his stuff, and I had a septoplasty done. Everything was fine for a while, but then my nose started looking *really* weird. As you can see in the first two pics, it started twisting rather oddly to the side.

I waited very long, ostrich-like, hoping the problem would just GO AWAY. But I couldn't un-see my pictures. Finally a couple of months ago, I consulted a plastic surgeon here in Bangalore, Dr. Susheel Cleatus. I went to several surgeons actually, but he was the most thorough, and seemed to really understand my problem.

He said the ENT had taken too much cartilage out of my septum, so one side of the nose was sinking towards the bridge. What he would have to do was graft some cartilage onto the septum, either from my nose or my ear. I also had a deviated bone, which moved to the right of my face. He would fix that too.

It's funny the stuff that you can live with until suddenly one day you sit up and figure, I just can't. I went into the surgery one month after the consultation.

My husband was terribly supportive, in fact he is probably the reason that I delayed it for so long because he constantly told me I was beautiful, even when I was Ms. Twisty :D

I am now two-weeks post-op, and it already looks a lot better. My doctor had warned me that cartilage has a memory, so there may be some asymmetry still in the nose. But it already looks a lot better than it used to be, even with substantial swelling.

This forum had awesome advice for the recovery period. The pain wasn't bad, and I spent most of the time in bed. But I was so swollen up I nearly forgot what I really looked like - when I looked in the mirror I saw an orc. I imagined living in low-light rooms for the rest of my life, and venturing outside only after sunset :) Reading everyone else's experience helped. Things that worked for me during recovery:

1st week: Pineapple juice, sleeping as upright as I could, with three pillows propping me up. I iced like a champion. Tried to limit salt-intake.

2nd week: My cast came off last tuesday. Because I had a bone reset, I worked from home for close to two weeks post-op. After the cast came off, I taped every night. I also had a lot of crusting inside the nose, to manage that I did nasal rinsing, which really helped, as well as nasal sprays. I applied mupirocin cream at night inside the nose to prevent infection. I also started to take a fish-oil and vitamin D3 supplement, which seems to help with skin breakouts and the swelling.

In office, noone has noticed the nose (which yeah, throws me completely but then we are celebrities only to ourselves!), but people did notice the swelling on my face. Every day is a bit better, though. I am so glad I did it. Will update as the swelling goes down. Hope the orc doesn't reappear!