19 Year Old Otoplasty - Conroe, TX

I got my ears pinned back about two weeks ago. I am going try to write my experience so far and answer questions that I had before my surgery.
I went to two doctors about four months before I wanted my surgery because I wanted to schedule it over the summer when I was out of school. Both doctors I went to said the same things so my decision came down to the price. The first doctor I went to was 1,300 cheaper so I decided to go with him. My first appointment after the consultation was a week before my surgery and in that appointment he gave me my prescriptions and told me what head bands to get.
The morning of the surgery I had to be at the surgery place at 7 am. Once they called me back I had to sign a lot of papers and then changed into a gown. Shortly after, the nurse put a IV in my arm. If your scared of this part it barely hurts and just close your eyes so you don't see anything. After that, the anesthesiologist came over and put the stuff in that makes you go to sleep. I had general anesthesia because that's what my doctor suggested but I would have wanted it anyway. As they started wheeling me into the OR I started feeling really tired and by the time I was in there I feel asleep. Probably took less than 30 seconds. When I woke up, all I remember is the nurse giving me water and my mom coming into the room. As I woke up more I asked my mom how long the surgery took and the nurse told us it was about 1 hour and 20 minutes. I also was surprised that I didn't have a lot of bandages on my head. Every post I had read before my surgery the people described having huge bandages on their head but I only had cup things that went over my ears. I actually ended up liking those because they didn't put pressure on my ears. After I had mostly woken up, I got dressed and they wheeled me out to my car. I got home around 11 am and fell asleep for a little bit. My ears didn't start hurting until around 4 pm so I decided to take a pain medicine so it wouldn't get worse. The pain was really manageable, it didn't hurt as bad as I thought it would. They were more tender than anything. That night I slept on the couch so I could be propped up. It took me awhile to fall asleep and I woke up a lot during the night but I expected that. The nights after that I slept fine. One thing I noticed was that a part of my bottom lip was numb and it took me awhile to figure out it was because of the tube in my throat. It took about four days to feel normal again. The tube also made my throat kinda hurt for the first day.
The next day I had appointment with my doctor to take off the bandages. When he took them off I kind of expected to what they were going to look like because of others peoples pictures I've seen. They were really swollen but I really like the positioning of them! He told me to just wear the headband for the first couple of days and the cones over my ears at night. I ended up not wearing the headband during the day really because it hurt more with it on because of the pressure it put on them. Two weeks later I got my stitches removed. I stopped taking the pain medication about three days afterthought surgery. I will update when the swelling goes down more and pictures to how they look. If you have any questions feel free to ask :).

I am almost four months after surgery and my ears are doing great! The swelling has mostly all gone down now. You can still tell the fold is a little swollen but I know that it takes a long time for them to completely heal. They are still sensitive when they get knocked against something or if I lay on them. I still sleep with a neck pillow so I can put my ear in the center to take the pressure off of them. Behind my ear where the incision was made is a little red and swollen but you can't tell unless you were looking very closely. Also, parts of my ears are still numb. The feeling is still trying to come back to the edges of my ears but I have felt an improvement in them in the last month. I am finished with all my post op appointments and my doctor said everything looks good!

So it has been about a year and 2 months since I had my surgery. I have not had any problems with them. They are fully healed now and the backs are looking good. The skin was very folded at first because my doctor did not remove any skin but now they look back to normal. The scar is not noticeable at all. I have never had anybody notice or ask me about them. The swelling on the inside has also disappeared. The only thing that still kinda bothers me is laying on them. I still like to sleep in the crack of my two pillows because I feel like that is the most comfortable. However, my ears were sensitive before the surgery so it might just be my ears. A question I get a lot is if my ears came out any after my surgery. And yes, right after my surgery, my ears were pretty close to my head. Eventually they came out a little more maybe like a fourth of a inch. Also people ask me if the permanent stitches in my ears have bothered me or if I had any problems. I have not had any problems yet with the stitches. My ears feel really secure because my doctor put three stitches in each ear (one at top, middle and bottom). I can kinda feel the top stitch in my skin if I touch behind my ear but it doesn’t hurt. This will probably be my last update but I’ll try to answer any questions!