POSTED UNDER Rhinoplasty Reviews
Male South Asian, Open Rhinoplasty with Keyhole Surgery, 39
ORIGINAL POST
Male South Asian, Open Rhinoplasty with Keyhole Surgery, 39
WORTH IT$9,340
Finding a plastic surgeon to trust with your surgery is no easy task. There’s no master list to cross-reference to help you ensure they’re fully qualified and certified with all the right bodies; no price table (not that a decision this important should be based exclusively on price); no perfect and unbiased list of client testimonials or before-and-after images. You just have to Google the procedure you’re looking for in the city of your choice, create a short list of requirements, and do all the legwork yourself. Whose website do you like best? Whose biography reassures you the most? Who seems the most experienced? Who ticks off most items in that list of requirements you put together?
This is how I came across Mr Uppal’s website and shortlisted him. Eventually I proceeded with a consult, and then with my “open rhinoplasty with keyhole surgery”.
THE SURGEON –
Per the above, in my desk research, Mr Uppal came across as highly qualified. (Note: I learned that male surgeons in the UK are referred to as “Mr” not “Dr”.) The words on his website were reassuring. Furthermore, reviews for him / his work on various review websites were highly rated, and I understood that he’s also a high ranking surgeon that trains others. Perhaps it didn’t need to be a relevant factor, but being South Asian myself, I hoped that our shared background meant that he would be well experienced in any special nuances with working with South Asian noses (I doubt its a relevant factor, but I found it reassuring anyway).
Despite being highly qualified, I do wish Mr. Uppal was a bit warmer and more personable. Despite him “saying the right things”, when spending several thousand pounds to change something that’s always bugged me about my face, I would have liked for him to have come across a bit friendlier and patient. In the initial consult, I left feeling a bit rushed and a little disappointed by the interaction. The questions I asked were responded to efficiently, but not in the level of detail I would have liked. Perhaps someone else may have decided to find a surgeon they had a better rapport with, but I decided I didn’t want to pay multiple surgeons for consults, when I’d already found someone that was highly capable, if perhaps not as warm as I’d like.
Following the first consult, where a mockup was produced, I decided to proceed with booking my surgery and had 2 follow up appointments in the interim months. The first to review and discuss the mockup, and the second was to answer questions prior to surgery. Again, I received lean, reassuring answers and the right things were said about getting in touch as often as needed about any future queries/concerns, but I was always left craving a bit of warmth and detail which perhaps led to the feeling of being rushed.
DAY OF –
I booked the procedure in Windsor at the BMI Princess Margaret Hospital on a Friday. (Note: Annoyingly and surprisingly I had to chase the hospital multiple times to send me the promised info pack so I would what to do on the day of the surgery, and only received this about a week in advance). Mr. Uppal and the anaesthesiologist came to see me separately in my room prior to the surgery, and eventually I was taken into the operating room’s holding area where I was eventually put under. I woke up about 90-120 minutes later in my room, and was checked out later that day, after lunch and some monitoring.
RECOVERY –
I was pleased to see that I had very minimal bruising as compared to what I expected from seeing Youtube videos. I also wasn’t in pain. A week after the surgery, I was able to take off the cast in the shower, on my own.
You often see YouTubers crying in happiness after their cast is removed. That wasn’t the case with me. I felt like the tip of my nose looked quite bulbous and comical (Super Mario-esque), but in a follow up call, Mr. Uppal reassured me that there was going to be a long healing process, and the tip of the nose would take the longest to go down. Apparently South Asian males have quite thick skin, which results in longer recovery time.
From one week to the next in the first several weeks, there was a lot of change. I also noticed that one side of my nose felt a bit larger to the touch (as if the cartilage wasn’t evenly placed on both sides), but after many months, that has become much less noticeable as well. The rapid changes from week to week slowed after the first 8 weeks to the point where it was very hard to notice a difference from one month to the next.
REACTIONS –
One of the things I was most anxious about prior to surgery was my coworker’s reactions – I was quite ashamed about getting this done, and people judging me or talking behind my back. I lucked out with the timing of my surgery as the COVID rebound in mid December 2021 meant that we went back into lockdown for several weeks, giving me more time for private recovery at home. I combined my return to the office with some thick, dark rimmed eye-glasses, which I felt might help ‘camouflage’ the change somewhat. Apart from the colleagues I’d told beforehand, no one said anything – it’s hard to say who noticed.
9 months after the surgery, I also went to visit my family in Canada, and those that didn’t know (my aunts, for example) didn’t seem to notice. In fact, with most people other than my close friends, that’s the reaction I wanted.
CONCLUSION –
I spent my twenties and thirties being obsessed with and hating my nose. I put off rhinoplasty throughout my thirties, first because I was waiting to save enough money, and then because I wanted to time it to happen between jobs to avoid the judgment and gossip I expected from colleagues, and maybe hoping that I would, someday, be at peace with the way it was. In the end, at 39, I decided to bite the bullet as I wasn’t intending to resign from my job for the foreseeable future and the ‘making peace’ wasn’t happening.
I got my rhinoplasty 9 months ago, and I have to say I’m still obsessed with my nose. I look at it every day, but now it’s no longer with despair, but with intrigue and/or admiration. The bulbousness of the tip has gone down considerably, but I do think there’s still a ways to go as I cross the 12 month (December 2022), 18 month (May 2023), and maybe even 24 month mark in December 2023. I’m so glad I finally went through with this and didn’t waste any more time – I’m finally at peace with my face.
The surgery by Mr. Uppal and the healing process was fantastic, as long as you know not to expect a highly personable surgeon, but a highly skilled one.
This is how I came across Mr Uppal’s website and shortlisted him. Eventually I proceeded with a consult, and then with my “open rhinoplasty with keyhole surgery”.
THE SURGEON –
Per the above, in my desk research, Mr Uppal came across as highly qualified. (Note: I learned that male surgeons in the UK are referred to as “Mr” not “Dr”.) The words on his website were reassuring. Furthermore, reviews for him / his work on various review websites were highly rated, and I understood that he’s also a high ranking surgeon that trains others. Perhaps it didn’t need to be a relevant factor, but being South Asian myself, I hoped that our shared background meant that he would be well experienced in any special nuances with working with South Asian noses (I doubt its a relevant factor, but I found it reassuring anyway).
Despite being highly qualified, I do wish Mr. Uppal was a bit warmer and more personable. Despite him “saying the right things”, when spending several thousand pounds to change something that’s always bugged me about my face, I would have liked for him to have come across a bit friendlier and patient. In the initial consult, I left feeling a bit rushed and a little disappointed by the interaction. The questions I asked were responded to efficiently, but not in the level of detail I would have liked. Perhaps someone else may have decided to find a surgeon they had a better rapport with, but I decided I didn’t want to pay multiple surgeons for consults, when I’d already found someone that was highly capable, if perhaps not as warm as I’d like.
Following the first consult, where a mockup was produced, I decided to proceed with booking my surgery and had 2 follow up appointments in the interim months. The first to review and discuss the mockup, and the second was to answer questions prior to surgery. Again, I received lean, reassuring answers and the right things were said about getting in touch as often as needed about any future queries/concerns, but I was always left craving a bit of warmth and detail which perhaps led to the feeling of being rushed.
DAY OF –
I booked the procedure in Windsor at the BMI Princess Margaret Hospital on a Friday. (Note: Annoyingly and surprisingly I had to chase the hospital multiple times to send me the promised info pack so I would what to do on the day of the surgery, and only received this about a week in advance). Mr. Uppal and the anaesthesiologist came to see me separately in my room prior to the surgery, and eventually I was taken into the operating room’s holding area where I was eventually put under. I woke up about 90-120 minutes later in my room, and was checked out later that day, after lunch and some monitoring.
RECOVERY –
I was pleased to see that I had very minimal bruising as compared to what I expected from seeing Youtube videos. I also wasn’t in pain. A week after the surgery, I was able to take off the cast in the shower, on my own.
You often see YouTubers crying in happiness after their cast is removed. That wasn’t the case with me. I felt like the tip of my nose looked quite bulbous and comical (Super Mario-esque), but in a follow up call, Mr. Uppal reassured me that there was going to be a long healing process, and the tip of the nose would take the longest to go down. Apparently South Asian males have quite thick skin, which results in longer recovery time.
From one week to the next in the first several weeks, there was a lot of change. I also noticed that one side of my nose felt a bit larger to the touch (as if the cartilage wasn’t evenly placed on both sides), but after many months, that has become much less noticeable as well. The rapid changes from week to week slowed after the first 8 weeks to the point where it was very hard to notice a difference from one month to the next.
REACTIONS –
One of the things I was most anxious about prior to surgery was my coworker’s reactions – I was quite ashamed about getting this done, and people judging me or talking behind my back. I lucked out with the timing of my surgery as the COVID rebound in mid December 2021 meant that we went back into lockdown for several weeks, giving me more time for private recovery at home. I combined my return to the office with some thick, dark rimmed eye-glasses, which I felt might help ‘camouflage’ the change somewhat. Apart from the colleagues I’d told beforehand, no one said anything – it’s hard to say who noticed.
9 months after the surgery, I also went to visit my family in Canada, and those that didn’t know (my aunts, for example) didn’t seem to notice. In fact, with most people other than my close friends, that’s the reaction I wanted.
CONCLUSION –
I spent my twenties and thirties being obsessed with and hating my nose. I put off rhinoplasty throughout my thirties, first because I was waiting to save enough money, and then because I wanted to time it to happen between jobs to avoid the judgment and gossip I expected from colleagues, and maybe hoping that I would, someday, be at peace with the way it was. In the end, at 39, I decided to bite the bullet as I wasn’t intending to resign from my job for the foreseeable future and the ‘making peace’ wasn’t happening.
I got my rhinoplasty 9 months ago, and I have to say I’m still obsessed with my nose. I look at it every day, but now it’s no longer with despair, but with intrigue and/or admiration. The bulbousness of the tip has gone down considerably, but I do think there’s still a ways to go as I cross the 12 month (December 2022), 18 month (May 2023), and maybe even 24 month mark in December 2023. I’m so glad I finally went through with this and didn’t waste any more time – I’m finally at peace with my face.
The surgery by Mr. Uppal and the healing process was fantastic, as long as you know not to expect a highly personable surgeon, but a highly skilled one.
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