Asymmetry - Henderson, NV

People call themselves beautiful once they have accepted and/or fallen in love with the current way they look, including their imperfections.

It wasn't until other people pointed out my nose imperfections that I started noticing them. I would get called out, bullied, and made fun of, starting from middle school. I am now a 5th year in college, and I am still facing people making remarks about it that make me feel uneasy. People have asked me why I had a dent in my nose, and if my ethnicity was Arabian, or if I was Jewish. My little sister has fortunately got the best genetics for her nose from both my parents and further up the family tree, while I had the unlucky combination from both of my parents. The asymmetry is not genetic--it is either a birth deformity, or possible trauma to my nose when I was little. It sucks to be made fun of for something that is out of my control. As much as I had tried to accept the imperfection of my nose, feeling beautiful was out of my reach with people making nasty or passive remarks about my nose.

In society today, people are taught to love themselves and their bodies given to them and fight the beauty persuaded to them by the media. I never even thought to get a nose job because I felt silly bringing up my self-consciousness to my friends and family. When I came home for summer to my family, I had an impulsive idea to get rhinoplasty. Before it wasn't doable, but I have college loans that are offered to me every semester that I have rejected--but I can accept it for this one thing that I have been dying to get.

I did extensive research online to find the best plastic surgeons online, mainly on realself.com. I really wanted to find a doctor with a lot of reviews, all of them being 5 star, and a lot of them being for rhinoplasty. If I intend on being thousands of dollars in debt as a college student, I better get the best of the best nose job done. Dr. Khorsandi of Henderson, NV sounded like a good match. Because I found his profile on realself.com, I was able to book a free consultation.

I never did smoke cigarettes, but my friends all got me into this thing called vaping--electronic cigarettes. It's basically vaporizing liquid containing nicotine. There is no combustion (burning) of solid substances, so it is free from lung cancer. Unfortunately, I was forced to quit nicotine as it is a huge complication in surgeries. Nicotine is a vasoconstrictor, meaning it makes your bloodstream (notably your small capillaries that reach the delicate parts of your body and face) smaller. If your bloodstream is smaller, that means blood has a harder time on traveling to these delicate parts of the human body, thus oxygen cannot enrich the cells in those areas, thus complicates any healing processes of surgery. Not to mention, it is nicotine (not tobacco) that is responsible for aging (sagging skin and deep wrinkles). In the future, why would I want to look 50 when I would be 30? Quitting was easy.

Going into surgery, I was more excited than scared. Going under the knife is never an easy decision. Oddly, I was more scared of the anesthesiologist than my surgeon (how scary is it to be forced to be put to sleep?!)

My mom came with me to the day of surgery. Tip: don't forget to bring your ID. Luckily, my surgeon had a copy of mine. I met all of the doctors and nurses that were to be helping me before, during, and after the surgery, and they each told me their role in my procedure. I jokingly asked my surgeon if I was going to die, and he laughed and said although it is a rare possibility, under our professional care, you will not.

After being rolled into the surgery room, it felt like a dream. 6-8 doctors running around the place, monitoring different machines and setting up the bloody-to-be room. I was lying down on my back, looking up at the bright white lights. Literally 4 doctors were looking down at me...oh my gosh, it looked just like the movies, and I started freaking out!!! They kept trying to put an oxygen mask on me to calm me down as I fought the anesthetics. Finally, I felt a sharp pain on my right arm where the needle was, as the anesthetics finally entered my bloodstream. 2 seconds later, I exclaimed as I felt the painful feeling on my chest. I yelled at my doctor, "I feel it!!!" as soon as it hit my head 2 seconds later, and all of my vision was completely blurry, blackening out slowly.

Next thing you know, I was awake! I felt no discomfort or pain. I saw all the doctors and my mom, and they asked if I was okay. I remember my mom telling me the reason I couldn't eat or drink pre-surgery was because people "use the bathroom" in their sleep if they have too much in their stomach. The first thing I did when I woke up in the recovery station was pull up my blanket and look underneath and scream as I noticed my sweaty legs, "Oh man, did I [RS bleep] myself?!" Apparently I did not remember that. I was so loopy and drugged out from the painkillers.

Day 1 is not so bad because you aren't swollen, bruised, and you got all those wonderful painkillers rollercoaster-ing around your body.

Day 2 is a different story. I woke up not being able to open my right eye--AT ALL. Even my upper lip had a bruise inside my mouth (I don't even know how). I sent this picture to all of my friends and family, and said, "Look guys, I got a free lip job with this." Been drinking smoothies and eating yogurts for the few days after surgery. Mom has been taking care of me all day in bed. I feel like a queen...an ugly one!

Rhinoplasty is not that painful, actually. It is more discomforting, if anything. Blood and snot would ooze out of my nose randomly. My nose was so stuffed up and I had to breathe out of my mouth for a week straight, even while sleeping. There are two large splinters up my nose that exerted so much pressure against the walls of my nose, which induced a strong headache on me. Extremely discomforting...

It took about 1.5-2 weeks for all of the swelling and bruising to go away. My bruises turned yellow...! I looked like I had jaundice.