Open rhinoplasty - 27y female - 4.5 months post-op - Gold Coast, AU

Going into surgery in 3 days... the time has absolutely flown and I can't believe it is going to be so soon! I haven't really started to feel nervous yet - I think just because I've wanted to do it for such a long time and I've been extremely busy with work.

I've hated my nose since I was about 12. I'm not sure exactly when I first realised I didn't like it but I can distinctly remember hoping that I'd somehow break it so I'd have an excuse to have it fixed. How horrible! I'm 26 now and have decided that it's time to do something about it. My family and partner have been extremely supportive which has made the whole process so much easier.

What I'm hoping to achieve is to straighten the hump on my bridge and have the tip reduced so that it appears more sculpted. Most of what I dislike is visible from the side view - I feel like I have a witches nose. Front on has never particularly bothered me. As silly as this sounds, I've found that the way I feel about my nose has had a big impact on the hairstyles and makeup that I wear. Everyone in my family is lucky enough to have a nice, proportionate nose so I hope that once this is all over I'll feel the same :)

In preparation for the surgery, for the last two weeks I've been on a reduced salt diet and have been taking vitamin c, arnica pills and bromelain. The reduced salt has been great actually since I usually find I'm quite fluidy in general and I haven't had that issue for the last week. I'll be continuing this routine for a while after my surgery in the hope of keeping swelling down, etc.

In my consultation with the PS, he took a 3d image of my face and made some adjustments that he felt were achievable. I was happy with everything that we discussed! I didn't get to take the images home though, so I had a bit of a play around in photoshop to try to emulate what I had seen.

I'll keep everyone updated as I go through the healing process. Wish me luck!!!

Well, the day is finally here and I'm starting to feel quite nervous and a bit emotional. My surgery is in the early afternoon, so I'm going to spend the next couple of hours trying to keep my mind off it as much as possible.

I can't believe the waiting is finally over! All the years of wishing and wasting time looking in the bathroom mirror hating my nose are hopefully behind me. I'll post an update once I'm up to it after surgery :)

All done! Now for the recovery..

Everything went well as far as I can tell - I was extremely nervous going into the hospital and even got teary in front of a couple of the nurses. Everyone was really lovely to me though, and it was over before I knew it.

I count myself extremely lucky as I didn't have any kind of bad reaction to the anaesthetic, so I haven't felt nauseous at all. I also have very minimal pain, which is mostly on my stomach as I had a scar revised at the same time as my rhino. It's amazing that something so major on your face could be painless! I have been a bit headachey but the painkillers I was prescribed have taken care of that. I've been sleeping upright in a recliner chair which has also been a lot easier than I expected.

I am starting to swell and bruise up around my eyes now which is more annoying than anything :) I think it was inevitable though because I had an open surgery and also had the bones broken in my nose. I looked pretty much normal when I got home from the surgery, but by today (morning of day 2) my eyes are quite puffy.

I have a bit of uneven swelling on my nostrils which I'm hoping will resolve itself. I'll be mentioning it when I go in for my post op appointment next week. Apart from that, I'm really excited about the result I can see so far - not that much is visible from underneath the splint! But I can see that the tip is definitely different and looking more attractive already. I'm excited about seeing how it all turned out :D

I'll post more pictures as the days go on. Hopefully the swelling will go down a bit :)