Long time coming!

I had the best experience! The whole team was super warm and friendly, helping to keep me comfortable before putting me under. The entire process was about three hours. Everyone who says recovery is more of a mental rollercoaster is correct. I had no real pain. My surgeon was just as concerned with the inside of my nose with the exterior, so I had a hard cast and splints that were annoying but I expected to not be able to breathe out of them at all, I didn’t realize they were open in the middle so I had a little airflow. The first three days were rough. Very “stingy”. I was very groggy and out of it. Sleeping sitting up was my biggest complaint. I ended putting my neck out of place and that caused the most real pain, a few visits to the chiropractor fixed me right up. I preferred not to take the pain pills after day three. They made me pretty dizzy, by day four I was on the up and up. I really just wanted out of the house. Eating/chewing food was interesting so I stuck to pastas that I could take very small bites of and easily reheat. I completely quit drinking two weeks prior which was tough, I LIVE for my nightly glass of wine and started taking arnica three days before (and continued one week post). I also used the arnica gel, I can’t say if any of that made recovery better, but it was worth it to try. My bruising wasn’t too bad at all. I saw SO many photos where people look like they were hit by a train. My swelling is still going down even at three months post, especially at the tip of my nose. My biggest regret is that I didn’t do it sooner. My new nose looks completely natural and most importantly, I still look like me, something that I was very concerned with. Whenever I catch my reflection in the mirror, I’m SO happy with what I see!

Today I got my physical and bloodwork to clear me for surgery. I also booked a hotel room for the night before surgery, Omaha is a three hour drive, this way we can wake up and walk over for my 7am surgery. I've been watching a ton of videos when people get their casts removed and just cry because they are so happy with their results. I'm super excited! :)

This site and other people's experiences have helped immensely. The best reviews, in my opinion, have been the step-by-step ones. So, here we go. Step 1: I have hated my nose since middle school. I had some mean friends in middle school who drew a stick picture of "me" with a "big ugly witch nose". Which honestly, middle school isn't a good time for anyone when it comes to looks but I grew "in" to my nose a little and it didn't bother me as much through high school. I got used to never taking photos from a side angle and continued my life. Obviously, my nose continued to grow too. My senior year of college, I had the money and decided to move forward with the surgery. I met with a handful of surgeons and ultimately chickened out. Now in my mid-30s, I got married, had two kids, divorced and recently re-married. My wedding day was one of the happiest days of my life and I got my photos back and hated all the side angle photos, the photos themselves were beautiful, all except for my nose. My husband is my biggest supporter and fell in love with me with my “old nose” but also understands the power of insecurities and stands behind whatever I should choose so he is promising to take care of me during my recovery. ;) My co-worker recently had a septoplasty, and her recovery was great. It gave me the umph to get back out there and start researching again. I had a consult here in Sioux Falls and the surgeon was amazingly nice, didn't rush through, explained all the expectations with the surgery and seemed very confident we could achieve realistic expectations. The only thing holding me back was he didn't do a ton of noses a year, but not as many as the surgeons I spoke with in Omaha. I continued looking and had a virtual consult with a surgeon. He, also, was very helpful, knowledgeable, and genuinely seemed to care when asking me questions about myself. He said he did about 50 noses per year which made me feel more comfortable. Lastly, I met with Dr. Harbison. His business intrigued me as he specializes in only facial plastic surgery. I was very impressed to learn he does 2-6 noses per WEEK. I assumed the surgery would be very costly considering his specialization, but it was in-line with the other offices I spoke with, and they upfront about pricing from the beginning and didn't give me the whole runaround before "revealing" their pricing. (Just a personal pet peeve of mine, I'm all about transparency and time efficiency) They preferred me to come in for an in-person consult and did an amazing job of squeezing my husband and I into a late in the day appointment, so we didn't have to take an entire day off work. Ashley was an angel in all her emails. Super friendly, helpful and straightforward. When we showed up for our consult, we didn't wait for even one second in the waiting room. It was a pleasure to finally meet Ashley, and her personality was the same as through her emails, positive, straightforward, knowledgeable, and helpful. She took us straight back to do photos where their program combines the photos together to give a 180 degree before and "after". After that, she brought us to another room where we waited less than five minutes for the doctor. When he came in Ashley had already briefed him on my concerns, so he had a pretty good idea of a gameplan, but also asked me to reiterate to make sure there was no question of my expectations. Dr. H was very responsive and listened to what I was looking for. He showed me the computer-generated images of what my "after" was intended to be. It. Looked. So. Good. It was still me; the nose didn't look "done" it just finally fit my face. After Dr. H answered all of our immediate questions, Ashley hung around to talk though any additional concerns I had. She was very open and relaxed, to where it was more like chatting with a friend. I booked my surgery for just less than six weeks. I am beyond excited and will post updates as my journey continues!