Rhinoplasty Scheduled Sep 13th - Glendale, CA

I have been lurking here on RealSelf for about two years now, and I now I finally get to write my own review! I am scheduled for rhinoplasty with Dr. Vladimir Grigoryants on Sep 13th, so I still have some waiting time ahead of me. I booked the surgery in April, and contacted the office here through RealSelf. The first time I sent the form I did not receive any reply but after yet another message, Dr. Grigoryants answered promtply! I guess they receive many inquiries, so they probably want to make sure you're serious.
He asked me to send him pictures of my nose (front, side and bottom), which I immediately did, and he answered back within a day. His suggestion was a removal of the dorsal hump, refining and lifting the tip, shorten the nostrils a bit, as well as open up the airways. Perfect, exactly my words! I booked the surgery that same day. The reason that I didn't go to a consultation is, that I live in Sweden so it will be quite a trip for me! I have never been to California, I'm super excited even though I know I will probably spend most of my ten days there in the hotel bed! I'm bringing my boyfriend, who has been very supportive in my decision even though he is completely against it;-)

I have seriously disliked my nose for a looong time.. When I was 15, I suddenly started noticing my nose more and more, I thought it was too big and the tip too bulbous, which made me avoid having my picture taken and being seen from certain angles. Today I'm 25 and still feel super self conscious about my nose. I figured it's really about time now, so I have been saving up money for about a year and a half and it is honestly quite surreal that it is actually going to happen soon!

I have attached a few pictures i did with the PlasticSurgery app. Totally know that I can't expect the outcome to be just like I want to but I just think it's cool to be able to demonstrate how I would like my nose to be.

I just want to thank all the other patients of Dr. G for sharing your stories! It is incredibly helpful and the reviews meant a lot in my decision.

I had my surgery on the 13th and just thought I'd give you a little review on how it went.
As mentioned before, I travelled all the way from Sweden to do this surgery so I had been quite nervous about all the things that could go wrong, including flight delays, sickness (either me or the Dr.) etc. but everything just went so smooth and on the 12th I finally got to meet Dr. Grigoryants for the pre op. He was very nice, very down to earth, calm and straight forward. The pre op only took like 10 minutes but I felt he knew exactly what I wanted, and when he asked if I had any questions I couldn't come up with anything that had not already been answered. The girls in his office are nice (and also gorgeous!) even though they had written both my name and birth date wrong(!). It didn't cause me any problems but the staff at the hospital were frustrated since this meant they had to rewrite a bunch of things and print new labels for me. I'm a student nurse, so I understand their frustration! It all worked out fine tho:-)
I arrived to Verdugo Hills hospital with my boyfriend at 6 am. I had to sign like 100 papers. We waited for about 30 min and then I was called by a nurse to go to the prep/wake-up area. I changed into the surgery gown, nurse put an IV in my arm and then the waiting game began. I met the anesthetist and I have to say that all of the staff in the hospital were incredibly friendly and professional. They really made me feel at ease!
My BF was allowed to stay with me all the way until I got the first shot of something "relaxing";-) I remember kissing him goodbye and the next thing I remember was hearing the nurses talk in the wake-up area, and I open my eyes and it was done, i had a new nose. Such a strange experience I'd say.. I felt very drowsy and when I stood up I got nauseous. I got a shot for the nausea and it worked like a charm!
Apparently my blood pressure had gone a bit high during surgery so they had given me some medicine for this.. A few times I was thinking whether I was going to have to pay extra for the meds and stuff, but I did not pay a single dollar more than the 8.500 so I was relieved:-) At noon I was out of the hospital, so the whole thing took 6 hours! So be prepared for a quick in and out on surgery day! They are busy and have lots of patients, but I was honestly happy to just be able to go lock myself in the hotel room really quickly hehe. The sun light is really a pain when your face is all swollen.

The first day was fine. I had blue bruises under both eyes but did not feel any pain! The first night was really uncomfortable, since the elevated sleeping position is hard to get used to! The following day was the worst. I felt like I had a bad flu with throat pain (from breathing tube) and back pain. I took some Tylenol and it got a bit better. The swelling had gotten worse and I could almost not see through my right eye. Day 2 was significantly better, however still very swollen but the soreness in throat and back was gone!
Today I feel really good, which is why I figured I'd write this update=) The swelling is still there, not really changing much. But staying patient! This will take time since I have quite thick and oily skin.
I have no idea what my nose looks like under the splint, I can't wait for the removal on Thursday 19th!!! The profile definitely looks better but I can't tell whether my nose is shorter or not. Can't really see what the tip looks like, but I have a good feeling about everything. I am not expecting perfection so I would be happy even if the changes are rather subtle.

This turned out better than I had ever dared to hope for!!! I was incredibly nervous and emotional as I went in for the cast removal, but when I saw my new nose I started crying a bit, from happiness:') Dr G is the absolute best plastic surgeon and I am incredibly happy and fortunate to have found him!
The nose looks better in real life IMHO, but had to post these that I took right after the cast removal (which btw didn't hurt at all, but obviously slightly uncomfortable). Dr G put tape on the nose, and told me to tape it at night for a while. He told me that I had quite some swelling, and the tip is slightly upturned which will settle after a while.. But it still looks nicely refined and significantly smaller than before. I am just super happy with how it looks already. I expect it to swell a bit tomorrow when I take the tape off but we'll see:-)

So on Saturday (day and a half after cast removal) we travelled back to Sweden. The trip was looong with lots of layovers. I decided to tape my nose during the flights since I was scared that it would swell a lot. Because of my bruises and the taped nose, I got many weird looks (even stares) and was told by a lady that I should really leave my boyfriend lol (she meant well;)
Other than the trip being long, it went really well!
The nose does swell a bit in the evening but it really doesn't bother me so much externally. It's the congestion that is a pain. I can breathe a little bit through the nose but I still have to breathe mostly through my mouth. Plus, yesterday I had a horrible smell from inside my nose, it was so disgusting, has anyone else experienced this? I tried to was it with saline water but it didn't really help. I can feel that I still have crusts way up inside the nose that wont come out even when i wash thoroughly with water. Can't wait for these to come out, they are really irritating!

The bruises are still there, hope they will vanish soon! Hate explaining to people what I've had done, hehe.. I just tell them it was for the breathing (which is partially true).

So things are going well! However, I STILL have quite visible bruises:-( It's frustrating because it kinda forces me to tell people about the surgery since everyone's asking what happened. And I definitely can't stay at the house all day, I got lots to do, especially after just having been away for about two weeks. Plus, still have a bloodshot eye - it has shrunk in size but still there right around the iris, which looks super creepy and makes me look tired and hungover lol;)

SWELLING: The #1 subject on the RS rhinoplasty board;-) It hasn't been as bad as I expected, until today. The tip is very bulbous now which it wasn't in the days after cast removal, and I have a slight bump on one side of the nose. The bump has been there from day one, but since it sits on the side that got especially bruised (right side) I know that it will most likely go away. Overall the nose is significantly larger/wider right now. This doesn't concern me as I knew it would happen but I do look forward to the day when swelling is history!

The breathing is improving so much day by day. I am still quite congested, and it's "noisy" when I breathe only through my nose but I hope that in a few weeks I'll be able to have my mouth closed and look a bit less retarded when I walk around town8-)

The boogers are driving me nuts, I have a constant urge to clean my nose but I can never really clean it completely. Stitches are still there, and despite it has been 16 days since the surgery, I do not want to disturb anything up there. I have used tweezers on a number of occasions though:-/

I don't think I have mentioned that I have two sons, aged 2 and 4 years? Anyway, it has been quite a challenge avoiding getting my nose bumped since we play and wrestle a lot. It hurts for a little bit but then it's fine. I get a little worried but at this stage I don't think it matters so much unless it's like a hard hit. I also went to work this weekend but apparently I had covered up the bruises quite well since no one noticed:) I don't work full time, only as an extra since I study.

I can't believe it's already been 6 months, seriously unreal. Actually, I often feel that the whole trip to California, the surgery and the recovery was all just a dream. That it never happened. Today I couldn't be any happier with my nose and I am so happy that I went for it!!!! So thankful that I went with my instinct and chose Dr. Grigoryants as my surgeon (never even consulted with any other PS) and thankful towards him for changing my life in such a positive way. I cannot stress how much of a relief it is to no longer worry about whether people see me in profile! Since about 2 months post-op I have not been noticing much variation in the swelling of my nose. It seemed to "settle" quite fast, but it might just be me not noticing the small changes since my nose is now SOOO much better than before, even with lots of swelling! My tip is still rather hard of the touch but this doesn't bother me. NOTE: I do realize that my "new" nose is not perfect in any way, and I don't want to sound full of myself, it's just because I'm so happy about not having my old nose anymore haha;-) Not one person has noticed the change, and the friends and family that I've told, have said it looks completely natural, which makes me very happy. My breathing has gradually been getting better week by week and now I have excellent air flow through my nose - which is a big deal for me since I could only breathe properly through one nostril before (the other collapsed everytime I inhaled). My nose was very stuffed for quite a long time, and I had to keep cleaning it for at least 4 months post-op. Another little issue was that the skin on my nose got VERY greasy - it looked like I was sweaty all the time, even only 15 minutes after I had wiped it. This slowly faded though, and by now my skin is completely back to normal. Take care everyone, thanks for reading!