Finally Got my Rinoplasty! - Glendale, CA

I have always had complaints because of my voluptuous tip. After many years of persuasion to my parents, I at last received an 'okay' last year. So last year, I researched many plastic surgeon, even abroad like Korea for their plastic surgeons being the best and well known in this cosmetic industry. However, for the job that I had and money spent flying in and out, also for the nose that I had, I questioned if they could work with it well. Not being racist, but Asian noses are usually lower, and because it is what they are working on almost every day - making it higher - I wondered if they will be good in making big nose smaller. So I changed my direction of research to a Middle East. I studied that they are good in making big noses smaller. I found many doctors in Los Angeles including docs who had Halle Berry's nose and many other celebrities but they charged for consultation and the price was way over my budget.
So I actually went to a consultation where my friend had her nose done. He looked at my nose and said it will be a very complicated procedure because my skin is so thick at the tip, and I have a bump so he'll have to shave that down, and he'll have to put a thin silicone in it. What?! A silicone? My nose is already high enough! And he kept on saying things that were unnecessary - not things that I want to hear and positive, but he quoted me at $4500. The price was really good but all the things that he said was not promising and it turned me even more down because he said he'll have to do an open rhinoplasty.
So next consultation I went to was Dr. Grigoriyants. When I saw his after pictures, I had a feeling. He has aesthetics on how a good nose should look like. I went through every single before & after pictures - looked for a patient who had similar nose like mine, and before I even met him, I wanted him to do my nose.
There was about 2 months wait list for consultation. When the date finally came, I went and had to wait about 30 minutes, went inside the room, waited another 20 minutes for the doc to come in. He said because my skin is so thick, I won't be getting the perfect narrow nose I want. But to achieve close to it, he said he'll remove maximum cartilage, shave my nose down a little and most importantly, close rhinoplasty. He quoted me at $8500, which was a little more than what I have expected, and I thought I should talk to my parents about it, but I just scheduled a surgery date to Jan 29, 2014.
In November 2013, it seemed like my work schedule wouldn't fit into my surgery date, so I called the doc to change the surgery date, and the fasted date was April 9th. Wow. Three months wait. This guy must be making a lot of money!

I had my rhinoplasty at last. It was actually written Rhinoplasty, Septoplasty, and turbinate reduction. I got to the USC Verdugo Hospital at 8 am, filled out paperwork, got to meet nice nurses in the same day surgery room, and I was told to change into a gown and lay down in one of the beds. I felt a bit weird laying down because I was not sick. The nurse gave me a shot (she said it was just water), stuck a needle and taped it on my arm. I laid there waiting for about an hour and a half, and finally a nurse rolled me out into the operation waiting room. Again, I felt so weird getting rolled out on a bed - I wanted to get up, walk and help him roll the bed. In the waiting room, I waited again - this time I didn't have my cell phone or books I can kill time with - I was so bored! Later, Dr. G finally showed up in his scrubs and he went over what he'll perform and left. And I waited and an anesthesiologist came in, introduced herself, asked me questions and left. I waited again, and an OR nurse came, asked me questions and left. I waited again,,, god damn it! so many waiting times! A few minutes later, the OR nurse and the anestheologist both came and gave me a shot through the needle the nurse stuck on my arm earlier in the morning, and asked me questions like what's the new in celebrity gossip, gwyneth paltrow stuff, and I remember saying I don't know anything about celebrities because I'm not really interested... and BOOM! No more memory after that.
Like in the movies, my eyes slowly opened, the world was a bit blurry, I wasn't in the room I was in earlier, and somehow this nurse knew I was awake right in that moment. He asked if I was okay, if I felt any pain, how I would rate my pain in numbers. He said the operation went well, will inject some pain killers, now get some sleep, okaaay? And BOOM!
I was in the recovery room I was in earlier in the day. The nurses there asked me if I felt any pain, and I did. The pain wasn't that much, just a discomfort, so I rated it a 3, and she went to get a Norco pill. I started coughing - felt like I had a cold because I could feel there was mucus in my throat and it sounded like one. I was expecting a lot of swelling in my eyes but I was surprised that I could open my eyes wide and big, so I asked the nurse if my face was swollen, she said no and showed me my face with her cell phone camera. And I was FINE! Except that my nose had tape all over, a cast, and some blood, there was minimal bruising and almost no swelling. That was quite unexpected but a very pleasant surprise. The nurses helped me change into my clothes - I felt embarrassed so I told them I can handle it but they just dressed me. There went so many things like the nurse teaching me how to change drip pad, signing out to leave, nurse giving me a cracker and water, watching me take Norco pill, and more... I remember glimpse of it but not precisely everything... Later my mom came to pick me up, that was around 2 or 3 in the afternoon. I was going to leave, I mean "walk out", but the nurses said nononononono we got to get you a wheelchair. So I said I can walk..!! I feel weird getting wheeled out... they said NONONO it is our policy you must leave out on a wheelchair... They won. I had to sit in a wheelchair. A nurse wheeled me out to my mom's car. The picture was taken while my mom was driving me home.
When I got home, I felt fine just a bit out of place and dizzy, so I tried to do stuff and move. But I felt nausea in my stomach, so I forced myself to throw up, and I threw up blood. Just a little bit of blood which the nurse said was normal earlier in the hospital. I slept a little, woke up, and forced myself to throw up - this time I threw up a little more - the blood must have gone the other direction during operation. Later I felt so weird in the stomach again, gave me very upsetting feeling, so I forced myself to throw up again - this time throw up as much as I can so everything that was in my stomach could be gone. At last I threw up a lot of blood that discolored to brown. Throwing up mad eme feel soooooooooo much better. I didn't throw up after that.
I didn't think I could chew much so I just swallowed some blackberries, started taking antibiotics and slept. That was the Day of Operation. Yay!