So Far....AMAZING! - Miramar, FL

After living for 6 years with a terribly botched nose from a primary rhinoplasty, and after months and months of research, I finally selected Dr. Davis for my revision surgery. At my first consultation in February of 2013, he spent over 4 hours with me answering all of my questions and detailing what his plan would be for nose. In the months following, I met with two other highly qualified revision specialists. However, I never felt as comfortable with them as I did with Dr. Davis. Dr. Davis would even quickly respond to all of my emails whenever I had more questions. The best part to me was that he nor his staff EVER pressured me into the surgery. With the other two specialists, I was receiving calls at least once a month between March and August with them asking if I want to schedule my surgery. Having revision rhinoplasty is a huge and very difficult decision to make and the last thing I (or anyone else) want(s) is to be hassled by a plastic surgeon into rushing the surgery date.

Anyway, I have posted some photos and will add more to this review later :)

When my splint came off four weeks ago, I was taken aback by how HUGE my nose looked. Even though my nose looked noticeably straighter and more symmetrical, I was terrified that I now had a giant nose to live with. Luckily, as a lot of you know, it was mostly swelling. But I was still panicky and frantically looking around online to see if other people experienced something similar. So I thought to help other people out, that I would post photos that showed the differences in swelling. Obviously my nose still has a lot of swelling, especially in the tip, but at least I can walk outside without feeling like my nose is taking over my face.
I did notice in the photos that it looks like the swelling around the outer sides of my nose is going down much faster than the swelling in the middle (including my columella). I'm figuring that's because Dr. Davis had to do so much work straightening out my septum and reinforcing it that my columella is probably the most swollen part of my nose right now. He said he used septal cartilage fastened to thin bone grafts in order to straighten out and strengthen the columella. I met with him for a follow-up last week and he said that over the next couple months it will start to flatten out more as the swelling subsides.
Either way, my nose looks natural now and I couldn't be happier. Considering the mess (both inside and out) that Dr. Davis had to deal with, I'm absolutely amazed that he was able to construct something that actually looks like a nose and not some twisted blob on my face. My friend jokes that he basically "playdoughed" a new nose on my face.
I really do hope this results hold up! Dr. Davis told me last week that I will have to do a sort of "physical therapy" for my nose, including stretching my nostrils downward to prevent them from retracting back to their original positions. The idea of pulling down on my nostrils sounds terrifying when I'm almost too scared to even touch my nose at all, but I guess he has a point and I'll just have to suck it up!

So today has been a little over 5 weeks since my revision and I FINALLY worked out for the first time since I had it done. I'm usually pretty active so the last 6 weeks of not exercising at all have been rough. But I've been so paranoid and terrified of swelling that I just couldn't bring myself to exercise. And I've never been so excited to get on an elliptical in my life haha. Usually, I run. But right now I'm still too scared of the impact of running to do that. That might just be unnecessary paranoia, but I keep imagining me sprinting and then jostling my nose loose from my face or something hahaha.

I'm also still getting used to my new reflection. I went shopping with a friend the other day and walked past a mirror and was a bit startled. Not in a bad way. It's just that now my nose reflects light in a different way and it's so strange to see myself looking completely different. Even though I hated my nose after my primary rhinoplasty, I did kind of get used to it and assimilate it into my self-image. But I'm loving it more and more each day and can't wait for it to heal up!