26 Year Old, First Time Rhinoplasty with Dr. Clutter in Sacramento Area - Folsom, CA

So...it has been a month since surgery. My upper lip is finally regaining full motion and I can breathe pretty well through my nose. The left nostril is still pretty swollen inside, but it is getting better every day. My nose still feels completely foreign--like it was glued on my face, it is so stiff and numb--and the skin on my nose is oily all of the time and covered in blackheads. Overall, though, I feel great. No issues going out in public and I am back to my full activity level. The swelling on my nose has fluctuated a lot. The bridge has gone down a lot and is finally starting to look more refined and how I ultimately want it. The tip, on the other hand, has gotten significantly bigger over the past two weeks (which surprised me, I thought it was supposed to be all downhill after two weeks). It is now very bulbous and I feel like my nose sticks out from face too far. My attitude so far has been to avoid staring in the mirror or taking pictures as much as possible. I know that I am still seeing swelling, so I would rather just stay positive and focus on healing and other more important things in my life. But I just wanted to post an update and get some more pictures on here since I reached the one month mark (hooray!)

So...I am going to keep posting thoughts as I have them, and this will be a sort of diary that I hope will help others thinking of having rhinoplasty and help myself see my progression over these next several months. I am liking my nose even more today, even with the swelling (and man is it getting big)--but, actually, maybe that is why I like it, it is reminding me of my old nose lol But really, I am starting to get used to it and I think i will just continue to like it more and more as the swelling goes down and whatnot. There is still some asymmetry right above the tip--the left seems slightly indented--but it is too early to know if it is swelling or whether it will be noticeable when all is said and done. So I am going to try to focus on the positive and just wait and see. As for recovery, I feel pretty much back to normal. My main complaints are that my upper lip doesn't want to move, which makes for pretty hilarious attempts at smiling and gives me an overall alien look. And my skin. It is dry and oily at the same time and is driving me nuts. So I try to remind myself that it has only been a week and that, in time, everything will return to normal. And I've added some pics from today.

Got the cast off today! It didn't feel great when he was getting it off, but man is it nice to have it off of my face. I didn't get taped, which is strange because everyone else on here seemed to. And my internal splints were left in because the swelling inside my nps is still really bad. I have to use an OTC steroid nasal spray and go back Friday to get them out. I'm bummed about that because the splints have been bothering me more than anything. As for my nose, it is...different. That is all I can really say right now. It doesn't look bad. It looks weird, which is swelling I think. The bridge seemed really pinched looking, but Dr. Clutter assured me that it was just from the tight cast and everything would "fill out." I also have a slight indent in the left side that worries me, but again I think that is swelling. I love te profile, though! Nothing really prepared you for looking in the mirror and seeing a different nose. And mine is a pretty dramatic change. So I think I am in shock. I will post a couple pics today and then more next week after I get the splints out and everything has (hopefully) calmed down in terms of swelling.