Thank You. Dr. Julian Rowe-Jones. How Clever You Are.

When I met Dr. Julian Rowe Jones, he told me that I had a “saddle nose” and a “polly beak.” It was such a relief to hear somebody give me an honest opinion. And more importantly, to hear that he could help me. Let me take you back.

As a teenager, I begun to notice that my nose had grown larger on one side and it begun to make me feel conscious of myself from one angle. I felt like I had to drape my hair over one side of my face to try to disguise it. I never mentioned it to anybody as I felt it was my “weakness” that I didn’t want to share and make myself feel vulnerable. But other than that I was confident and happy.

Fast forward to late twenties and my the husband and I were sharing our most intimate secrets. I revealed my self consciousness about my nose and thereafter I was taunted about it relentlessly. Thereafter, my new name was “Beak.”

That was the turning point that prompted me to have my first rhinoplasty. It was 32 years ago and there was no internet in those days, so I had to rely upon a referral from my doctor. The consultation with the surgeon at BUPA hospital was incredibly brief and I should have backed out at that moment as I knew nothing about him and wasn’t even sure about what he intended to do. But he was a surgeon specialising in rhinoplasty so I trusted him. What a bad life changing decision that was.

I remember my shock a week later when the bandages came off. For the first time in my life, I fainted and I remember being ushered away to recover. As I came around, I could hear himin the next room laughing and chatting away happily with his next patient, without a care in the world. My previously straight nose was now thin with a large bump on it and I felt like it was the end of the world.

I plunged into a deep depression for three months. My parents had seen a rhinoplasty surgeon on a ptv programme and in a desperate bid to help, contacted him. So off I went to Liverpool and had my second rhinoplasty. This surgeon had a better, kinder manner and he did what he could, but he wasn’t very skilled and I effectively just changed one set of problems for another.

So too terrified to risk another attempt at rhinoplasty, I got on with my life and accepted what I had. My family, fearing another downward turn in my mental health, told me that it was “lovely.” I knew it wasn’t but I tried not to think about it, never mentioned and didn’t talk to anybody about it again. It was a bad experience that I just wanted to out behind me. If the word “nose” came into a conversation, I’d change the subject or leave the room. I didn’t want to think about it. I felt grateful for the good things I had in my life and didn’t want to focus on the negative. But it was always there like a cloud. When I sat with somebody, I would position myself so that they didn’t see my profile. And I’d wear my reading glasses half way down my nose in a bid to disguise it.

I thought that perhaps people didn’t really notice how strange my nose was. Then, one day, “out of the mouths of babes and sucklings, “ my grandaughter likened my nose to that of “a witch.” That cut to the core and I decided to seek help.

I researched the internet and came across Dr. Julian Rowe-Jones and after reading the reviews at length, decided to make contact. I hadn’t mentioned my nose to anyone in 32 years.. Nobody, including my partner knew anything about my “nose saga” so I made contact with him secretly.

He put me right at ease. He’s a genuinely lovely man. I can’t describe the feeling of elation when he said, “I can help you.” And I knew that he could.

I travelled down to see him at Guildford and I loved how I was photographed, my face was put up on a screen, the problems with my nose were pointed out and I was talked through what could be done. He felt my nose and remarked that it was “very small.” There wasn’t much to work with but he said that he could build it up with cartilage taken from deep inside my nose and my ear.

Dr. Julian Rowe-Jones doesn’t accept everybody. If he doesn’t think he can help you, he won’t. I had great confidence in knowing that I wasn’t being taken on just for the money. I knew that he wouldn’t be risking his reputation in taking on somebody who he didn’t think he could genuinely help.

Even so, my past two bad experiences of rhinoplasty still haunted me so it was an incredibly anxious time when the day finally arrived for me to have the operation done. But the hospital staff were so kind to me and made me so welcome and comfortable. .

After two bad rhinoplasties, my nose wasn’t the easiest to work on. So much of it had been previously taken away that there were parts where there was nothing to attach the new cartilage to. As a result, it wouldn't be as straight as had been intended. Dr. Julian Rowe -Jones told me that he’d had to draw on “every bit of (his) 25 years of experience” in order to work on it. But he assured me that he was happy.

And he was right to be happy. After 32 years, I no longer have a “nose complex.” My nose is now actually rather pretty and my confidence in my appearance has shot up. I often look in the mirror and think, “thank you Dr. Julian Rowe-Jones. You did that. How clever you are.”