Rhinoplasty Journey Perth - Claremont, WA

Hello to anyone reading this:)
RealSelf has helped me tremendously in answering all my questions regarding rhinoplasty, the reviews on the doctors and the pre/post op journeys of their patients are so informative and helpful, I would not be going for this surgery if it wasn't for them! And therefore it would be rude of me not to write my own, so to you, RealSelf community, I leave my copy of the tales of my rhinoplasty journey in the hope that you will find it entertaining and instructive??

For most of my life I've disliked my nose and I've never liked my photo being taken; I thought I wasn't photogenic; but it's because I can't angle my nose to make it look less huge which is the problem! Basically it's too big for my face, it's slightly humped and wide at the bridge which means I can't comfortably wear sunnies, and in my job I have to wear safety glasses which even though they are a perfect fit, my bridge is so sensitive that it aches after wearing them for too long. The tip is also very bulbous and droops when I smile, it's just overall nasty! So I've finally done some hard research and found Dr Imani who I hope can make my nose look more feminine and suitable for my face, and overall make my confidence grow:)

I've had my consult appointment (02/08/16) which was great, Imani was very straight to the point (which I like) and friendly, we went through the things he would change about my nose; the difficulties of the procedure, he examined my nose (which he told me must have been broken at some stage of my life, of coarse) and showed me similar cases of what the expected outcome will look like. The difficult aspect of the procedure is that I have thick skin so my swelling will take longer to go down and there's only so much tip refinement that can be made but that's fine I'm sure it will be better than what I've got!

All the staff there are also very helpful and patient; I asked a lot of questions through email in which they replied almost instantly:) Thank you girls!

I've booked my surgery for the 31/01/2017 I wish it could be done earlier but I have to wait a while after having my wisdom teeth extracted first:(.. but I'm so excited for the day to come!!!

I'm counting down the days till surgery! I've stocked up on supplies and am just waiting for the two week mark when my bank gets drained.. I may cry a little, or a lot. Ahh well, I've been wanting this for a while.
I have also booked a pre-surgery appointment the day before as most people say it's good to do so and I'd just like to go over everything with Dr Imani before the big operation.

Also; Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

So for 2 weeks prior to surgery I wasn't allowed to have any of the following;
-Anti-inflammatories such as; Aspirin, Voltaren, Nurofen, Naprosyn
-fish oil/herbal medications
-no smoking/alcohol
-vitamin e supplements

Tomorrow is my surgery and I'm really excited and nervous (obviously) I'm a lot less nervous though because I had a quick appointment with Dr Imani today to ask a few questions about the procedure- I really like Dr Imani he's so nice and you can have a joke with him as he told me he wouldn't make me look like Mrs Piggy (I had to ask..) hehe. I was also told to trim my nose hairs and I awkwardly did it with some nail scissors, it's not fun so if your surgeon wants you to do this get a cheap nose hair trimmer..

Tonight I'll be eating a big chicken parmigiana and will be fasting from midnight. I have to wash with antiseptic soap and be at the hospital by 7am tomorrow morning, crazy I'm getting surgery on my face!!! Wish me luck! :))

Sorry I didn't update earlier I was just too exhausted!
Anyway I went to the hospital at 7am, filled out paperwork and was told I was first up on the list. I went through to my room where I changed into a hospital gown and stockings and at 8:00 was wheeled into the recovery room where I met the recovery and theatre nurses (I waited a bit at this point and was so so nervous I was taking deep breaths to calm myself down) and then met my anaesthetist Catherine where she put the cannula into my hand and had a bit of a chat to me, she was really lovely:) and then Dr Imani came in and went over again what he was going to do, he seemed so jolly that it made me feel at ease and I was ready to go into theatre. Then I remember lying on the table and the anaesthetist gave me some magical drug that made me all giggly and then she gave me the 'strong stuff' and that was that.

I woke up in recovery feeling fine, no pain, nothing, I could breath out one nostril but the nurse said just to breathe through my mouth, I was talking away to the nurses (most likely gibberish) and was wheeled back to my room where I rang my boyfriend to come visit me. I think the surgery took 3 1/2 hours, i was able to eat a normal dinner I just cut it up into small pieces, I tried to sleep but I was so awake and even trying to go to sleep at 10:00 at night was a struggle. Sleeping at first is difficult because your throat is so dry that you wake up choking or gasping for air cause you've closed your mouth. I woke up at 1:50 and went to the toilet and felt really nauseous and my incision area was hurting a bit so I called the nurse and she said to wait it out and the nausea should go; it did. She then came back in to do her routine checkups and I asked for a painkiller as it was getting worse, it took ages for it to kick in but once it did I was finally able to have a decent sleep.

I was woken up again at 6 and had a shower and ate breakfast at 8 and got to leave the hospital at around 9 with my BIG bag of drugs in hand. Overall it wasn't a bad experience at all, everyone was so caring and kind:)

Day 2 is when I left hospital and was driven 4 hrs home. My swelling increased and my eyes darkened, it doesn't hurt at all it just feels uncomfortable. I've been keeping up with the medications and douches; which feels gross to do! You're basically flushing one nostril at a time until water comes out through the other nostril and repeating on both sides until all the solution is gone.

I took a pain relief pill to knock me out at night and slept way better! Again my swelling and bruising has increased, my eyes are heavy and itchy from the swelling. I started to clean the visible blood from my nose with hydrogen peroxide and it's so cool it fizzes when coming into contact with the blood! It's like a science experiment! Anyway.. in the afternoon the cast was getting really uncomfortable I just wanted to rip it off, it was so itchy:( but it eventually settled down. I managed to wash my hair so I feel so much cleaner! My philtrum seems so much longer haha but I'm getting used to it, my mum couldn't even remember my nose covering a lot of it before, she says it just looks natural:) thank goodness. I also had a good look at my incisions/sutures and they're healing nicely and are looking very neat. I rang Dr Imani's office and normally you get the cast removed on day 7/10 and unfortunately I get my cast off on The 9th:(( so 10 days of this torture.

Hi all:) so nothing much to report on the rest of my recovery except that on Tuesday night I started to get a constant sharp stabbing pain from one of the stitches inside my nose, (I think it's just my body telling it it's time to get out) but it was so annoying! (It still comes and goes)

Now to the important bit.. so today I got my cast removed and was able to see my nose for a brief 20 seconds before some more tape was put on.. but, I didn't realise how much getting your cast removed would hurt! No one else mentioned that it hurts! But my goodness it was sore, it made me feel a bit sick and faint.
But I got to see it and I was so shocked..my tip is so tiny! Like sooo tiny! I was thinking 'shit, I look like Michael Jackson' :( it made my sick feeling worse, I just looked so different it's a really weird and scary feeling, I've had this large nose all my life and now I'm looking at something totally different! I didn't cry but my boyfriend said I looked like I might. I have an unbroken nose bridge now so it's a bit higher and so thin! It feels strange touching your face and it feeling different. I'm feeling okay (really!) and I'm optimistic, hopefully I'll feel more accustomed to it in 7 days when the tape comes off.

Dr Imani was extremely impressed with my healing and the little amount of swelling I had, he was like; 'what have you been eating?' (Meat and salad) and I said that I was sleeping with my head elevated so he was very happy which is good! I just have to massage my nose a bit to help decrease the swelling and I go back in a month for a checkup. As I've said before I really like Dr Imani he's lovely:)

For anyone thinking about getting a nose job; make sure you're definitely unhappy with it because it is a big BIG change. So many emotions:(( I'll update again in 7 days time when the tape comes off!

I rang up Dr Imani's office just to double check how long I had to wear the tape for and the receptionist said that 5 days was enough time which meant I could take it off Tuesday afternoon! I was so happy because it's really humid and the tape was melting, which felt disgusting.
I removed the tape with a cotton bud and coconut oil and sat on the floor in the bathroom and I was too scared to look at my nose haha, my boyfriend was telling me it looked good but I was just so nervous. I still look like Michael Jackson but I'm slowly getting used to it, it's really tender to touch but being able to wash your whole face is so satisfying. The swelling is up and down and my pains not too bad, occasionally I'll get a shooting pain up my nostrils, but it was worse with the tape on.
Now I just have to wait for the swelling to go down:)

Nothing's changed much, gotten heaps more used to it and I don't feel like I need to wash my nose anymore, my smile has come back but the tip is still numb and hard as a rock, my skin is also so oily! I was warned about this though. All in all I'm pretty happy:)