Really Wow... My Surgeon is Like Michelangelo - I Had a VERY Difficult Nose. - Beverly Hills, CA

Hi there, I am a model and have wanted rhinoplasty ever since the age of 14. I had a bump on my bridge, a depressed radix, a deviated septum, weak cartilage and hanging columella. I know that probably makes my original nose sound awful but it actually wasn't that bad because it was not huge...I just looked like Pocahontas and if you saw me in the street you'd probably still think I was hot. Anyway, despite people telling me to NOT do rhinoplasty, I went ahead and did it anyway. I did it because every time I look at another model with a perfect nose I felt less attractive and I'm so vain that I wanted to be perfect.
I had seen several surgeons but the one I liked the most was in Beverly Hills. I finally had the money and I was so excited.
When I awoke from my surgery, I felt a little sore but I was bleeding quite a lot. I took a peek below the drip pad and thought OH MY GOD I look horrible. My nose resembles miss Piggy's! Then I became depressed, looked at old pictures of myself and thought "I was so beautiful, why did I ruin myself?".
Anyway, a week later - my cast was taken off and I absolutely hated my profile... it looked nothing like the computer simulation that I expected. It was scooped out and really inelegant. On top of this, the receptionist looked so plastic that I thought I'd end up looking like her! This further stressed me out. Then I read reviews on here of bad experiences which didn't help matters at all.
After two weeks, my nose still looked odd to me, the tip looked so fat. The stress and tears made me even more swollen. I know that my friends were trying to comfort me but I could see in their eyes that they were freaked out.
It has been four weeks now and Jesus Christ it looks SO much better. No longer so scooped but much straighter. The swelling has dramatically decreased and my friends have been saying to me "God you look amazing, at first I was so worried you'd had a bad nose job"...
I went through a range of emotions including loss of identity. For years I messed around on photoshop with my nose and always wished it would look that way - I never realised the emotional implications it would have on me by waking up and not recognizing myself. Now I am so happy I did it, I feel my new nose looks beautiful and makes me look much younger (I'm 23 but now I look 18)...
Before any of you go through this procedure... PLEASE make sure you have at least $7,000 to spend on a fantastic surgeon. When I was 18 I didn't realize how complicated the procedure was and would have ruined myself but luckily I was so poor I couldn't even afford $1,500. Blessing in disguise I guess. If you are of ethnic origin or have thicker skin, the importance of a good surgeon is even more imperative because the surgery is much much more difficult. My nose was particularly difficult because it wasn't big but had such weak cartilage that a bad or inexperienced surgeon would have taken too much away and not given it strength or shape thus ruining my nose.
My surgeon made me feel very comfortable and he has such amazing attention to detail that he noticed problems that no other surgeon did. (I have seen 4 other top surgeons). He was the only one to suggest a graft in my radix and also suggest weirs in one nostril to make them symmetrical.
I wish I could show you my before & after pics, but due to the nature of my profession I can't.
On a final note, rhinoplasty is procedure that you must go into knowing that it is really emotionally painful. I know that when you look at celebrities who've had it done, you somehow skip past the "healing process" in your mind and think that you'll suddenly wake up with the nose you want. Well that's just not true - you must prepare yourself for the emotional stress of how disappointed you might be when your cast comes off but realize that patience is really important and you just have to trust that the swelling makes it look that way. Trust me, the tip will be piggy, if you had a radix graft that will be swollen too so will look very odd. My only complaint is that the clinic I went to didn't really prepare me for this, they seemed very interested in money and I felt at times like I was in a factory. I have no complaints about my surgeon because he is great, but the place oozes of greed and it made me feel very uncomfortable. Nonetheless, I am very happy with the result!