Getting Over The Hump - Chicago, IL

Wanted to let you all know that everything went just fine yesterday! I had the chance to talk with Dr. Shah before everything got started, and he was really great about answering all of the questions I had. He checked out my nose pretty well and just really helped to put me at ease about everything I wrote about in my update yesterday.

When I told Dr. Shah about the leaking issue I had this past weekend, he took a look inside my nose and came to the conclusion that it was most likely NOT a CSF leak. He did mention a couple of other things it could be, but after talking to me a bit about the circumstances of the night in question, he mentioned that the leak was probably related to allergies. That makes sense because I had been sneezing hard in response to something at a friend’s house about an hour before the dripping thing happened. The doc also let me see inside my nose with a mirror while he used a speculum, which was surprisingly helpful. We could see that my turbinates were enlarged some, which goes along even more with the allergy theory. So all of this was obviously a relief after that unexpected scare. I may have jumped the gun by believing it could be a CSF leak, but it’s hard not to worry about all things nose after going through the surgery. Either way, it seems that things are all good there for now, but I’ll make sure to be on the lookout for any other similar issues in the future.

In regards to my other concerns, Dr. Shah also said that he actually did think my main bridge irregularity was the edge of bone. He explained that he felt rasping would still be the best option, and told me the game plan for the procedure. This bone was also said to be contributing to some to the unevenness in the front view, but Dr. Shah also said that ongoing tip swelling was probably part of that as well. He mentioned that he would like for the tip to go down another 10% or so, so I guess I’ll just have to keep waiting to see more refinement in that area.

After talking about the plan for the day and once all of my questions were answered, one of the assistants came and gave me a little baggie of meds to take before the procedure. They included an antibiotic, pain med, anti-anxiety med, and a muscle relaxer, and basically just helped to get me relaxed before the rasping began. I had to wait about 45 minutes for all of that to kick in, and was then taken to another room for the actual touch-up procedure. The whole thing went well and was pretty quick, too. Dr. Shah shot up my nose with some local anesthesia, which was actually the most painful part. He asked me to pick whatever kind of music I liked and the doc and assistants were all very friendly and easy-going throughout the procedure which helped it feel like such a breeze. I couldn’t feel any pain during the procedure, just some pressure, and the whole thing was over in less than 5 minutes. After that, they helped me to another room to do a quick spot treatment with a laser on a little notch I had from a stitch in the originally surgery. That was also easy-peasy! I was taped up and given some patches to help prevent swelling and bruising, and then was good to go. I was tired from the muscle relaxer, but otherwise felt pretty good after leaving the office.

Everything’s gone well since coming home, too. I woke up with some puffiness on the side that the rasping was done, but have had zero pain today. I wish the initial surgery had been this easy! Haha. So far, so good, though. Someone from the office also called today to check in on me which was really nice. I’ll keep the tape on for another day or two and check in with the doc next week. Definitely looking forward to seeing how everything looks in a couple of days!

Hey, all. So it’s officially been more than a year since surgery now! Crazy.

As is probably expected, not a ton has changed since the last time I posted. I do feel like the remaining swelling came down a lot in those last couple of months, though. It’s hard for me to tell how much if any is left, but my guess is that the tip will continue to refine a bit as time goes on.

With the swelling down more, the bridge irregularities ended up becoming a tad more noticeable. I’m actually scheduled to go into the surgeon’s office for a rasping procedure this afternoon. I saw Dr. Shah a couple of weeks ago to talk about what to expect, and he answered some questions for me at that time, but I’m still feeling kinda nervous! He said he thinks what will be rasped is callous that had formed, but part of me still worries that it is bone that may have shifted after surgery. The bridge just feels like it has a few “ridges” when I touch it, so I worry that if it really is bone, that rasping would not be the best way to treat the issue. I obviously don’t have a clue what exactly is going on, but it’s a concern of mine. I suppose this is where I have to place my trust in the professional, huh? If only I had a team of docs that could help in letting me know what’s best for me! Haha. But Dr. Shah is great and I will hopefully get to talk to him about these thoughts again before going through with the procedure.

As I kind of mentioned in my last update, I also have some questions about my tip area. I tend to really like my nose when looking at it in a mirror, but for some reason I think it looks different when taking pictures close up. I can’t really verbalize what looks “off” to me, but the front view does worry me a tad in those up-close pictures, particularly when smiling. This is something I haven’t talked about as much with Dr. Shah, but I plan to ask him about this today as well. I guess I’ve been kind of scared in the past to sound like I am unhappy with my results and have therefore hesitated in asking him about this issue. I realize that I should be totally open about any and all questions or concerns I have, though, so I’ll have to try and be more straightforward about that in the future. I also have to remind myself that while I am overall very happy with my results, it’s important to have the concerns I do have addressed, even if they may be minor in the big scope of things. Wish me luck! :)

One final thing to note is about something strange that I experienced this weekend. I was just hanging out with some friends and happened to look down at the ground when all of a sudden a clear fluid POURED out of my right nostril. It was so strange and unexpected, that I wasn’t even sure it came from my nose at first. A few minutes later, when I took a sip from a water bottle, I could taste the same salty fluid come down from the back of my throat, however, which confirmed that it really did come from my nose. I avoided looking down again until I got home that night, but when I leaned over the sink, more of the fluid came out. I Googled (yeah I know - never the best resource for “ self-diagnosing”) the symptoms as soon as I got home and the glaring result was that this liquid was cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)... as in the fluid that cushions my brain. Some websites said that it can occur as a rare complication of nasal or sinus surgery, but it seems strange to me that this would happen more than a year after surgery. The sites also said that a CSF leak can occur because of some trauma (which has not occurred to me recently) or just spontaneously as well, so I really have no idea what may have led to this issue. It obviously sounded super freaky, though, and can reportedly lead to some scary complications, so I got really worried that night. The information I saw recommended that people experiencing this issue see an ENT, so I guess it worked out well that I already planned to see one today. I decided that if the issue continued I would contact Dr. Shah or my PCP before then, but I have not had any additional problems since that night. Hopefully that means it was just a one-time thing, but this is of course something that I will tell the doc when I see him today. I guess we’ll see what’s up with that.

So as you can see, there’s a lot to go over with the doc today! Haha, I guess more than I originally thought. I do want to say that in spite of the way this post may come off, I am STILL generally happy with my surgery results. My nose seems to function well for the most part, and I think that it’s looking good from most angles, too. Some minor tweaks will only serve to make it even better :)

About 9 and a 1/2 months post-op. Not a whole lot has changed since I last posted. The swelling continues to go down, and the doc and I are still keeping an eye on the bridge irregularities and general healing as time goes on.

I saw Dr. Shah almost 2 weeks ago and he said that one side seems to have more swelling than the other. He skipped injecting my nose again, though. That’s just fine, but I am anxious to eventually see what is hiding underneath the swelling! As you can see in my most recent pictures, the tip does look uneven in some ways, so I want to know how big of a part the swelling is playing. Since the tip seems to be kinda leaning (for lack of a better term) to one side, I also put up a frontal picture of my nose while smiling for you all to see. I’m still happy with how my nose is looking overall, but it’s something that I noticed and that I therefore thought was worth mentioning.

During the appointment, Dr. Shah again mentioned the possibility of rasping when I’m closer to one year post-op. I’ll check in with him via Skype next month to talk about whether there’s been any changes in the bridge, then probably go in to the office again in June. Will keep you all updated, of course. :) I suppose that’s all for now, though!