Can't Believe I Did It!! - Dallas, TX

I can't believe I'm already 6 months post op! Well, 6 and a half to be exact. I'm still loving it! When I look at old pictures I just think WOW it looks so much better. The healing process is so unbelievably slow and it's easy to forget how my old nose looked or forget how insanely swollen my nose was that first month. Speaking of swelling.. It is STILL stiff! Now I understand why they say it takes a full year. It is still swollen from the middle of the bridge and down to the tip. Some days are more swollen than others. The tip is still stiff and even my nostrils are stiff. I can't comfortably pinch them together yet or pick my nose without a q-tip (lol sorry probably tmi). The columella is still numb where the stitches were. When I touch it it feel like there are a bunch of nerves so I try not to because it tickles. My upper lip doesn't really have that numb sensation anymore like it did on the right side. I'd say my smile is 95% back to normal on a good day. It still pulls a little to the right side. There are little tiny imperfections with my nose I have noticed as the swelling goes down but they are so small and unnoticeable that I can't even capture what I see on camera. They are probably things only I would notice. Some even go away after a few days so maybe its uneven swelling, I'm not sure. Either way, I am not a perfectionist and I never expected it to be perfect. I am still completely happy I did it and feel like it looks 100 times better!

I am one month post op and I could not be happier with the results! As the swelling goes down each week I get more and more excited and thrilled about my new nose! I still cannot believe I actually went through with it. It has been something I've always wanted but was way too scared to go through with it. It wasn't until I did a ton of research about it that I learned how common it is and how natural looking they come out now.
My nose was not bad to begin with and nothing was wrong with it medically. This was fully cosmetic. Not many people understood why I was getting it done but I basically just wanted a smoother less wide (less boxy) tip and a slightly thinner bridge. My profile and side view was fine but I was insecure about the straight on view. I would always be on the end of a group picture so I could turn my head lol.
After the consult and the 3D imaging, I was sold.
Dr C got it exactly right! He exceeded my expectations! Just those few adjustments made a huge difference! It's still really really swollen and wide but I LOVE the shape! Right now it looks like a fatter version of the predicted imaging lol! I'm excited to see what it looks like 6 month down the road and I'm anxiously waiting for my smile to come back. I will keep posting pictures. Reviews are great but pictures are the real deal and I know how much they help!
Below is a more lengthy review of the pre op and post op process.
Consult: Dr C was the first and last doctor I had a consult with. For some reason I was really nervous but as soon as he walked in the door I suddenly felt so relaxed. He just had a good calm presents about him and he took his time to explain everything to me. I briefly told him I wanted a thinner bridge and a smaller/ less bulbous tip and he altered the 3D imaging to exactly what I wanted. I didn't even show him any pictures of my "dream nose" which was Margo Robbie's lol. After the consult I knew he was going to be my surgeon for 3 reasons: 1) he was only five hours away 2) he only does rhinoplasties 3) his good reviews and his personality upon meeting him. I actually cancelled the other two consults I had scheduled on the way home back to San Antonio.
Surgery day: I had to start the staph prevention medicine 5 days before surgery. It made my nose itch so bad! I was extremely nervous the day before surgery. I had such bad anxiety on the drive up to Dallas but I think that is normal. Plus I knew that this surgery was 100% elective for me. So I knew if something went wrong I would have no one to blame but myself bc I chose to have it done.
Surgery day went very smoothly! The nurse who started my IV told me she had her nose done by Dr C also! She numbed the area where she stuck the IV so I didn't even feel it. I took a pill to help prevent nausea and the anesthesiologist gave me 3 shots of something through my IV to help me relax. Next thing I remember being rolled into the surgery room and looking up at huge round light. Next thing after that I was waking up in another room and a nurse was helping into a recliner. I was in a lot of pain. The nurse said they gave me pain meds in my IV but I guess they had worn off. She offered me a Percocet and I took one but an hour later, I was still in some pain so she gave me another one. The pain was in my upper teeth, I had a bad headache, and the area where all the stitches were hurt the most. The 2 Percocet helped and I started feeling better. I didn't see Dr C after the surgery (he had two other surgeries that day) only before surgery when he answered last minute questions, but he talked to my mom after and told her everything went great.
Recovery: when I got home I took hydrocodone even 2.5 hours. If I was late taking it, I was in a lot of pain. I was basically counting down the hours to when I could take another one. The pain pills helped a lot with sleeping too. I am a stomach sleeper so I though i would really struggle but the pills made me pass smooth out! I also had a patch behind my ear for nausea too.
The 3rd day of recovery was the worst for swelling. Both eyes were pink and purple. I thought I wouldn't be able to open them at one point. My sister arrived in Dallas and helped me clean my nose (she's a nurse) which was awesome because when I looked up my nose with my phone flashlight, I honestly couldn't tell what was going on up there.
A lot of people say they didn't have pain.. for me, I wasn't in a lot of pain as long as I took the pain pills. But those gave me bad headaches. I eventually went to half a hydrocodone but still took it every 4 hours. Day 5 everything was more itchy than painful. Oh and I had to take Benadryl with the hydrocodone bc it made me itch all over.
Cast off: I was so ready to get the splints out! It's was day 6 and I think they were causing most of the discomfort. After everything was out I could stop taking the hydrocodone and started taking Tylenol. Dr C was on vacation for Thanksgiving so nurse Jane took everything out/off. I took a hydrocodone 30 minutes before and I'm glad I did because it hurt a lot! It felt like a sharp rock was being pulled out. But I'll admit, I think I have a very low pain tolerance. It was a relief after to have them out. Nurse Jane cleaned my nose and that was more uncomfortable than painful. The tip felt really weird being touched because it was so numb. I didn't really feel the stitches across the columella come out either because it was so numb. When I first looked at myself in the mirror it was a bit overwhelming. I felt like I looked weird because the bridge was soooooo swollen. It was so wide that it looked flat from the front. I seriously looked like an avatar but I knew that was going to be the worst day so I kept it together! It wasn't until 2 days later on Thanksgiving I called my sister and had a mini freak out. I don't even know why, I knew I was hella swollen! I think maybe because i put on make up for the first time and did major contouring but it still just looked horrible (to me) lol.
Now a month out, the bridge is still pretty tender and the tip is pretty numb, especially the columella and my upper lip. My smile isn't fully back yet and it's currently a tad crooked but that's because my right side has always been more swollen.