Rhinoplasty, Sliding Genioplasty, Submental Liposuction - Miami, FL

Hello, everyone

I am now three days post-op from my procedure and, as you can imagine, I am feeling awful. Today is the most swollen that I have been thus far. I cannot even close my mouth completely because it is so swollen and numb. I also have swelling and bruising all around my cheeks, eyes, and chin. I have been crying a lot, and had a bit of an emotional meltdown yesterday and just feeling overall depressed. There is something very traumatic about looking in the mirror and not recognizing who you see. It could be because I got so many facial procedures done at once. I keep asking myself if I made a huge mistake. I am a young, healthy 23-year-old who wasn't incredibly terrible looking. I just wanted some revisions to improve myself. I know I have to give it time, but I feel like I was emotionally unprepared for this. I want people to have a realistic expectation about facial plastic surgery. I was kind of under the impression that I would go in and three days later I would look beautiful. My surgeon even told me that I would be good to go back to work within a few days, which is definitely not true. Now I am panicking because I am slated to go back to work next Tuesday, but I look like an absolute monster right now and I cannot imagine that changing much within the next 8 days. I have just been locked up in my house alone because I cannot face the outside world.

Aside from the emotional aspects of all of this, there is of course the physical pain. Surprisingly, my nose doesn't hurt at all, it is just very stuffy. If it weren't for the cast, I would have forgotten that I even got it done. It just feels like really bad allergies or a cold. The chin, however, is very very painful. My entire bottom row of teeth feel tight and painful and I am unable to open my mouth wide and eat. The incisions from the liposuction are also quite painful, but not as much as the chin. I have my follow up with my surgeon tomorrow so hopefully I can get some of this heavy duty bandaging removed. I know it is there to help with swelling, but they are quite annoying. I wish I could post a picture for you all, but I feel so monstrous and disgusting that I just can't bring myself to post a public picture like this online, especially since it is my face. I really hope I made the right decision here. I guess only time will tell. I am sure it will all turn out great, but I need to rant somewhere where someone will understand, My friends and family will only tell me that I didn't need to do anything and that I made a mistake. Sigh... Anyway, I hope to document my progress in the weeks to come.

So, as I stated before, I am only 3 days post-op at this point, but I do have some tips that have been helping me thus far. My first tip is to pick up all prescriptions before surgery that way once you are finished, you can just go straight home and not have to worry about stopping at the pharmacy. I would also recommend getting something for sore throat because your throat will HURT. In fact that was the most painful part for me for the first two days. I ate lots of strawberry ice cream and it helped with my throat and also with settling my stomach. Ginger ale is great for the nausea too. You need a great support system. You will be sleeping A LOT and you will be in pain and generally you won't want to do much of anything. It would be great to have someone to prepare your meals for you, clean up after you, help you take your meds, etc. I truly think this is impossible to do alone. Unfortunately for me, my family is far away, but my boyfriend has been incredible throughout this process. This would have been pretty much impossible for me without his support. So far, this is all I've got, but I will be sure to update as often as possible. I just have to say, that I have had my gallbladder removed in the past, which I thought was pretty painful until I went through this. I plan to get a BBL later this year, but I think it will be easier than the facial surgery. Again, it could be because I got three facial procedures at once (I would rather do that than go through three separate recoveries), but facial plastic surgery is nothing to be taken lightly. Think it through thoroughly!

Hello, everyone. I am now four days post-op and I went in for my first follow-up today. I still have the cast on my nose (which is beginning to itch!), but luckily the nurse removed the large bandage around my head and replaced it with a much thinner and lighter chin/head wrap, which is much looser and more comfortable. I will be going back in again in a week for a second follow-up to have my nose splint removed. By then, I will also be heading back to work and school so I hope my swelling goes down drastically and I start to feel better soon. The nurse said that everything should start improving at this point and that I have basically been through the worst of it. Let's hope she's right! At this point, I just want to feel normal again. I am not even concerned about feeling beautiful or glamorous. I just want to feel NORMAL. I am going to make an effort to take great care of myself in order to make he healing process go as quickly and smoothly as possible.