Simply the Best

Lydia Badia MD, is the absolute best in my opinion.
Lydia performed revision rhinoplasty on me and I couldn’t be happier with the results and the level of care I received. I can not recommend her enough, I am so grateful to her, she not only fixed my face but also my self esteem. Below is my story.
In January this year I had a bothched rhinoplasty performed in America, which left me with a collapsed left nostril, 2 pronounced bumps on the bone of my nose (which weren’t there before the surgery), a bulbous tip (which wasn’t there before the surgery) and I was unable to breath at all through my left nostril (again, I could breath perfectly well before the surgery). I felt the procedure in America left me with a deformed nose and very damaged self esteem. I felt silly for having the procedure because my nose was a thousand times worse afterwards. I was upset and felt vulnerable because of being treated basically like a piece of meat in America.
My experience with Lydia couldn’t have been more different. I thank my lucky stars that I went with her for my revision.
From the first consultation, Lydia made me feel completely at ease. She was very caring and has a great capacity for empathy, but more importantly she is brilliant at what she does. She put my mind at rest that all my issues could absolutely be fixed, nothing was a lost cause (which was a huge relief), she then explained in detail what the procedure would be to tackle each problem I’d been left with. She explained things in a detailed, intelligent way that was easy to understand and gave me all possible scenarios.
I felt instinctively that I wanted Lydia to perform my operation after our first consultation but I did meet other surgeons afterwards, because this time around I wanted to be 100% sure I was picking the right person and that I had as much information as humanly possible so I could make an educated decision. I narrowed it down to Lydia and one other surgeon but when I went for my second consultation with Lydia I knew it had to be her. She had very impressive before and after pictures of her previous rhinoplasty’s and revisions. Her’s were the best I had seen without a doubt, and that’s what matters most. She had literally hundreds to choose from and she talked me through cases similar to mine, while showing me the photographic evidence of before and after her work, as well as during the healing process. Her work is truly beautiful and natural.
Lydia explained to me that she would have to take a cartilage graft from behind my ear to rebuild my left nostril, as well as shaving down the bumps on the bone if my nose and removing the blockage in my left nostril. This would be performed as an open rhinoplasty.
She said that if it was ok with me, her and her practice partner Charles East would like to do the operation together because they are both passionate about noses and mine was an interesting case for them. Both Charles and Lydia come extremely highly recommended and I’ve heard them both talked about as being ‘the best’ in the country, so I was very confident with that.
When I went in for my operation, I was understandably more nervous having had a bad experience previously. Lydia and Charles talked me through everything again in great detail and completely put me at ease. The anaesthetist was equally brilliant, making me feel calm and talking me through everything that was going to happen.
When I came round from my operation Lydia was there within minutes to reassure me that all had gone extremely well and that I had a ‘beautiful nose under there’. However it hadn’t been an easy operation for them, when in surgery they discovered that the American had completely destroyed all the cartilage in my left nostril and some of the tip of my nose by slicing it in tiny squares, this meant that Lydia and Charles had to take more cartilage from my ear as I had hardly any usable cartilage in my nose. It was a trickier operation than expected. They were expecting the operation to take around 90 minutes but I was actually in theatre for four and a half hours, because of this complication with my cartilage being unusable. It was very comforting to know I had been in safe hands and that they had been so conscientious and caring about getting me the result I was hoping for. I can honestly say (5 months on) that they have totally surpassed my expectations and I couldn’t be more thrilled with the results.
The healing process was so much better than my first op, it was completely different. I hardly had any bruising, the swelling was much less, even though this time around I had open surgery instead of a closed rhinoplasty. My recovery all around was so much quicker and more comfortable.
Lydia was also always available on the phone or email during my recovery to reassure me. Obviously healing doesn’t happen over night and everything heals at different times so there can be some slight asymmetry while healing which is normal. Anyone who has had a bad experience before is going to obsess about these changes more than the average person, but any worries or questions I had, I called or popped in to see Lydia and she explained what was happening and reassured me that my nose was healing amazingly well and that she was very pleased with the result.
She was absolutely right. 5 months on, I still have some small areas that are slightly swollen (no one would be able to tell apart from me and my surgeon) but my nose is looking so good! My nostrils are perfect, no bumps and I can breath properly again. My ‘scar’ is barely visible even with out make up, it has already almost completely faded. I’m utterly thrilled and relived. It already looks better than my original nose and I can’t wait to see how it looks in 6 months time (when all the swelling will be pretty much completely gone). It looks so natural, suits my face, (proportion and shape) and is really pretty. Also I had plenty of friends who I didn’t see in between my first and second op (so they only saw the nose I was born with, then saw me after my revision surgery with Lydia) and not one person has mentioned my nose. Although I know it looks so much better (and if you look at pictures you can see how much better it looks) people really don’t notice. I have my face back, my happiness back and my life back thanks to Lydia.
Some things I’ve learnerd are, people really do not notice your nose as much as you do, make sure you research your surgeon thoroughly before having any procedure, (in my opinion it’s safer to have your surgery in your country of residence) and if you are having rhinoplasty or revision rhinoplasty go to East and Badia.