30 - Rhinoplasty & Septoplasty & Turbinate Construction - Darien, CT

A little late on the update, but days 10 and a 11 were really just full of congestion and stuffiness, which was beginning to make me frustrated. I feel like a dog wit my tongue out! But I got dressed and put on some powder (since I'm petrified of touching my nose) I just put some on my cheeks and such. And I felt really good almost a little bit like back to normal. It was still swollen, but with my hair down, it looks kinda normal.....I hung out with my family too but I started to get some sinus headaches from all this damn stuffiness of mess inside the nose so I went home and hung out by the humidifier, my new favorite hangout. I sound so nasally, and for some reason I am really tired, like physically tired, most be the healing.

Today Day 11 - I spent a lot of time in my room with the humidifier on! Just watched movies with my fiance. I got showered to go out to dinner and a little crusty fell out my nose! I was really excited, ha ha ha! So there's been some drainage coming out of one nostril, so I can kinda breathe through it for now. Not great, but its something. That side feels so much better. I think cause I walked around a lot earlier this morning at the mall, and because Ifelt so much sinus pressure, I then rested and then got up and walked around a lot again!!! I'm hoping it doesn't get bad again, but I shall enjoy these moments of sort of breathing for now.

My nose today I think looks better, but in pictures it looks terrible. I read on here that that is very common. Oh well, I will post some!

Hope everyone is having a good night!!!!!

Wanted to update this thang quickly, as I am trying to journal every day post op. Every day is so entirely different recovering from this surgery!

Yesterday was an absolutely great day! I had tons of congestion when I woke up per usual. I had a friend coming over, and I had little to no pain and my swelling looked great! I put a dab of make up on my face (including my nose) and then went out to dinner! We talked a lot, and I tried hard not to laugh because it's way uncomfortable. When I came home, I noticed that my nose still had tape on it, and since I had make up on it, I started to freak out and wanted to wash it all off. So I washed and exfoliated my face and nose with a washcloth, being very careful. Kinda soaking my face with water and then gently rubbing it off with a washcloth. It felt so good to get the tape and dried skin off. Went to bed a happy girl.

Holy Lawd, when I woke up this morning, my nose was throbbin and I looked in the mirror and my nose was so so so so swollen! So much bigger than yesterday. It was insane, and I was so congested, I couldn't even breath through my nose. I was pretty upset and tried sitting by my humidifier to clear it out, but it hurt my nostrils! It was so strange. And I noticed that my bottom lip is going through some funky tenderness. But more importantly, I just couldn't even look in the mirror because the swelling was so bad, my tip looked like a pig nose, and my bridge is so swollen and wide it was so depressing. I thought that the swelling would subside slowly day by day, but I guess not! It's been very tough for me not to recognize myself when I look in the mirror. I feel like I don't look like myself mainly because I cannot smile. At all. Especially today, I can't even show my top teeth! My nose I know will look beautiful some day, but it's impossible for me to get used to seeing something different every day when I wake up! So today I spent majority of my day cooking to get my mind off things because I didn't want to go out in public (dramatic I know), and it probably made the swelling worse because I was kinda moving around a lot and bending, etc. But the whole day, I was having aches and throbbing especially around the bridge of my nose. Ugh, I iced it a bunch of times. I think I should just ALS ice bucket challenge my nose! haha

This patience thing is really tough. When I look back at my pictures from before surgery, I am very happy to have my taste back, my sense of smell back, and to have my bump gone. But it is very trying on the pyske to go through the ups and downs like this. I can't wash my face, eat foods I want, go to the gym, lay in the sun, smile, talk for a long period of time. I just want to be back to normal! It's driving me crazy! It's hard for me to rest I guess. I just try and stay out of my head for a while and entertain myself with cooking, television, music, etc....until I feel confident to go out. I still have bruising anyways!

I hope today I feel better, I have to call the surgeon's office to set up an appointment so I may voice my concerns, just so he can ease my feelings. I know he will say "its swelling, its so soon..." but I need to just be affirmed.

So the take away from these two days is 1. Leave your nose alone and 2. If you are having more than rhinoplasty (septoplasty and turbinate reduction, etc....) your recovery will be a little more complex. There's going to be congestion, drainage, a feeling of running nose, and throbbing from the correction of the deviated septum.

Hope you all are having a good week! Leave me some positive stories below!

Hey beauties!

Hope everyone's healing is going well. Patience is a Virtue. I have to remind myself that about a 100 times a day. And progress, not perfection. A slogan from another type of community, but a good one none the less.

So yesterday at Post Op 6, I got my packing out. It was very anticipated and tiring. I did not come to the office with the best attitude, I made sure to correct both the nurse and doctor when they said, "oh the pressure is bothering you"....I said, "No, the PAIN is!" Like listen, I don't care where the pain is coming from, but thats what it is. I was in a very "anti plastic surgery place" cause I'm sick of people describing this healing as "uncomfortable" and how to "deal with the pressure." And it's just not accurate, what is more appropriate for me is to say it feels like I've been smashed in the face with a hammer and when I go to sleep I choke on my saliva cause I can't breath. But I digress, they use pretty words to market as they do i guess.

Anywho, the removal of the packing wasn't really that bad. I was in a lot of pain and my stomach felt sick because like a dumbass I took a 1000mg of tylenol with no food on the way. But the packing removal wasn't painful, it was more like nails on a chalkboard. If I can keep it a 100% real on realself, its just basically removing two super tampons from your nose - complete with the bloody mess. So its more gaggy than anything. But right away, I felt the air in my nose and I thought I could cry. It soon got stuffy again, and I went home and sat by the warm mist humidifier for three hours. But theres a definite change in the feeling of your airways. Its crowded, and you can't blow your nose. So just like if you had packing and had to get used to it, you have to get used to now having this wound without packing. It doesn't drain a lot per say, but it feels like it is. Still, the next day. I have a terrible desire to blow my nose to clean it out, but I could literally bleed out, so that's not a good idea.

So then today I had my splint removed, and this time I entered the office in a very good mood. I soaked it in the shower as instructed, and it was the best shower of my life. The splint removal was painful because my skin was very much stuck to the adhesive. So the nurse had to apply more liquid to it and basically peal it off with a q tip. And man oh man, I was praising God for sure. It felt amazing. The bridge of my nose is very very tender and it hurt like a mother when it came to that area. But I also had a very large bump removed from the area, as well as a crooked septum, so that's my own experience. But I was just so elated. And listen, our faces are gonna swell up like balloons! It just is what it is. When I looked in the mirror, there were all these dents and redness from the splint and it's like I have the face of a sumo wrestler. My whole face is tinted yellow, my eyes are bruised and my entire nose is swollen times a million. But it feels so good to get a look at it!

I've decided today that I need to be more easy on myself and this process. I was so grateful today to eat normal food and to be able to smell it. My nose doesn't have a bump, and it seems like I might have a tip beaneath the big ball of swollen tissues, so it's all good! I'm very lucky to have this website to come to and be more comfortable with my decision and honest about the process. It carries over into my life, like I've now gone out to eat twice, inside coffee shops, trader joes, with the splint and all! My nose is no longer my enemy, so I don't mind talking about it to people. Before I would cringe if I felt like my nose was even being looked at, or someone even mentioned noses. I think that we are really strong people for even contemplating changing something that brings us grief. If someone is overweight, they can diet, they can dye their hair and wax their lips, so why should we be ashamed of doing this? To me its the same, you know minus the risk of surgery ;)