Rhinoplasty & Fat Grafting 40 Year Old Male

Had my surgery yesterday, and all went as planned. Left the hospital at 5 pm and felt fine. Last night was pretty rough though, the worst part is the dry mouth and lips. I could barely breath at times because my mouth was so dry, and I can't breath through my nose. Part of my nose is also still bleeding slightly, which will hopefully subside soon. The pain is really minimal, almost no pain, just uncomfortable. I've had headaches that were worst. Right now, feels like a really stuffed up nose. I also have two small black eyes, that already look better today, compared to yesterday. I wasn't sure if I would actually have the black eyes, since some others did and others did not. Brushing your teeth can be a bit problematic, since you can't exactly open your mouth that wide.

As for the fat grafting, it looks all swollen right now, but doesn't hurt, just looks like crap. My nose, however, in spite of being swollen, already looks like it's taken in the shape close to what I wanted. So pretty psyched about that. As for the fat grafting location, my stomach, they put this stretchable belt on you, a lot like a back support belt around my stomach. It's pretty comfortable and I haven't taken it off since yesterday. Not sure when to it off, since the Dr. didn't say anything about that part.

As a word of advice, make sure you have food like soup and stuff that is very small for when you arrive home. You won't be able to chew anything big. I ate Mac & Cheese and soup, which worked well.

I'm a full two weeks out and the swelling is going down. I recommend using Arnica Gel to help reduce the swelling. My doctor never told me about this, I learned about it on this site. I also did fat grafting of the cheeks at the same time, which I personally wouldn't do again. As for the nose job, once the packing and splint come out, you start to see and feel improvements every day. I feel like I can breath really well after these two weeks and have no issues sleeping. I still get a stuffy nose, and the worst part is you can blow it. The numbness is also starting to subside and I can feel more and more of my nose now. The tip is pretty much numb, and I was told that part takes the longest to recover. One last thing, regarding the removal of the packing and splint, it was totally uneventful, no pain at all. I read some reviews where people were talking about it being a nightmare, but I did not feel a thing. in fact, this entire procedure has been painless and I have not taken any pain medication at all.

Overall, I'm quite happy with the shape of my nose, although the work is not quite as even on both sides of the nose as it should be. Regardless, it looks better than it did and I doubt I'll do anything else to modify it. I have noticed that it seems a lot more flexible that what my nose was before, but perhaps that's what happens. Lastly, I found that I did have a mild runny nose for what literally seems like almost 3 years, but that has subsided substantially.