My nose has always bothered me - Rhinoplasty - Chicago, IL

I have wanted to have rhinoplasty for some time now, since my nose has always bothered me. Of course, like a lot of people here, my family has tried to convince me that I "don't need it", but I beg to differ. I searched plastic surgeons over the years while I was still thinking through it, and Dr. Shah always stuck out to me because he focuses on the face rather than the whole body and his results looked more natural than other before/afters I had seen. I did a whole lot of digging through this site to find a collection of reviews and before/after pictures (yes they're out there) and I'm mostly confident with his work at this point in time (hopefully my opinion doesn't change).

One day I finally took the plunge and set up a consultation appointment. I walked in with a stack of celebrity and model pictures with my ideal nose, but before I could show them to him, he told me that he would tell me what he would fix about my nose. He started by examining my nose, asking me some health questions, and then proceeded to described the flaws and the changes I wanted to see perfectly. I actually didn't end up using the pictures that I brought with me because I felt like he already understood.

He did a photoshop morph of my nose from profile, front, and 3/4 view. His suggestions are to make the nose more feminine and reduce the amount of visual focus on it by reducing the projection of the tip and bridge from a profile view, make the tip less bulbous, bring in the nostrils, and narrow the bridge a bit. In the profile, the tip is still a little more projected than I'd like but he said he would bring the tip in more if the thickness of my skin allows for it. I asked to see before/after pictures of his patients that aren't posted on his website, who have similar noses to mine pre-op. I also glanced through some other pictures that didn't look like mine. Across the board I was impressed with the pictures I saw.

Currently I feel like I'm on a roller coaster of being gut-churning nervous and then feeling gutsy again, as I am about two and a half weeks out from my scheduled surgery. Right now I have $600 down between the consult and the deposit, but as much as I have been wanting this for years, there's that leap of faith moment that I still need to make.

***Please note, I will not be posting pics here. Please PM me.***

Two weeks away! Just got my blood work done and ordered some supplements and a skin cream for anti-bruising online. Yikes! This is too real now.

I could barely sleep last night out of excitement and nerves. When the dr called last night he only summed up about the tip and not the rest of the plan so I was afraid he had forgotten, but today I clarified and he did everything we discussed during consultation. I went into surgery around 6:30 am, it took 2 hours, and everything went smoothly. The surgery center staff were all really nice. The pain afterwards wasn't unbearable but was still kind if high. I've been taking pain killers since and icing on and off for 20 minutes, and both have really helped. I have some drainage and my mouth is super dry from breathing and the air tube during surgery, but other than that not much to complain about. Sleeping has been easy and helps pass the time. I've just been eating egg whites and drinking apple juice. So far so good!