Excellent Experience from Start to Finish

Hello folks. No pictures I'm afraid, Winnipeg is a small place and while I'm quite open about my nose job, I don't feel like having my photos up online. I'm now three months post-op for a rhinoplasty and facial fat grafting with Dr. Esmail, and I'm very pleased with the experience and the result. I appreciate when people give very detailed reviews on here, so here's my long and complete review. Right from my first consult I enjoyed Dr. Esmail's demeanour. He's quite laid-back and has a sort of dry humour, which I share, so I found him easy to talk to and liked him right away. I also found him to be quite honest, including about things I don't need to change. For instance, when I asked him about doing a lip lift, he pulled out a measuring tape, checked my philtrum, and straight up told me "nah, you're right in the normal range." I appreciated that, because let's be frank: a lot of us considering cosmetic surgery are overanalyzing our features, and our brains may be magnifying the perceived flaws out of proportion. It's an excellent sign when a surgeon is honest with their opinion about what procedures you don't need. Because of this, and more, I left my consults actually feeling better about myself and my nose than when I went in. At one point he told me that I had a "great profile, we don't want to change it." I'd never once in my life thought that my nose was good in profile, so hearing this from a surgeon was a nice pick-me-up. It also made me feel confident that Dr. Esmail appreciated the existing character of my nose, and thus was the right person to improve its aesthetics. Dr. Esmail described himself to me as a very conservative surgeon. This is perhaps what sealed the deal for me booking with him, because I wanted to preserve the character of my nose and how it fits on my face while fixing the things that really bothered me. He clearly shared this preferred approach. I felt that he listened to and understood what I wanted, and that we were on the same page about what to change and what not to change. This made me feel very relaxed and confident going into surgery. The surgery itself was easy. The surgical staff were wonderful. I regret that I don't remember the anesthesiologist's name, but special shout-out to him: he was incredibly warm and friendly, and made me feel totally at ease. The surgical nurses were all cheerful, and I enjoyed chatting with them as they were getting me rigged up for surgery. My last memory before they knocked me out was laughing at their discussion about the music on the radio. It's nice to feel that chill before someone cuts your face open. When I woke up I felt great. Probably a little too great: a funny moment when I was still on the table after surgery and asked if I could speak to Dr. Esmail and the nurse, very kindly, was like "he's already come in to talk to you twice." Right. Lesson learned: don't worry about the post-op chat, just pack your doped-up self home and get some sleep. My recovery was smooth. I never took or needed to take the painkillers prescribed, and certainly not for my nose. The nose recovery was basically painless -- just your typical gross few days where you're bleeding, but after that it was smooth sailing. I had minimal facial swelling, most of that due to the fat grafting, and no bruising (but I didn't require osteotomy, which is likely part of why). The only real post-op pain I had was from the liposuction site on my legs for the fat grafting, which hurt quite badly for a few days. Dr. Esmail had told me in advance that would probably be the worst part of recovery, and he was right, so I was prepared for it. By the end of the first week that was much better. Dr. Esmail apparently does not typically use nasal packing, which is excellent. I'd had a previous septoplasty and the packing was by far the most miserable part of recovery then. So it was pleasant not to have a repeat. My cast fell off about five days post-op, which they said was fine. Right away, I was happy with my result -- the nose was obviously quite swollen at that point, but I could tell the things that bothered me most had been either totally fixed (the bulbous nose tip) or greatly improved (my nostril asymmetry). I also had some turbinate work and my breathing was much improved by that. Since then, recovery has just been a matter of being patient and watching the swelling slowly improve. It continues to improve at three months, and will do so for months more yet. As the swelling goes down I'm getting more definition in the tip, and it looks better and better every week. Still a little lingering numbness in the tip, which is normal and also improving steadily. Overall: with the rhinoplasty, Dr. Esmail listened to what I wanted and delivered a result that absolutely achieved my goals, respected my features, and has made me very happy. It's fascinating to realize I've had decades of self-consciousness about my nose just vanish. When patios were open I went on a couple of dates, and afterwards was amazed to realize I no longer feel weird if someone sits on my right side (the "bad" side of my old nose, with my nostril asymmetry) or worry how my nose looks at certain angles. I don't think I'd realized how much of my subconscious energy was being taken up by that until after my rhinoplasty. As for the facial fat grafting: I'm thrilled with that too. So thrilled I'll probably do another round down the road (Dr. Esmail is conservative with facial fat grafting as well, which I prefer: can always add more later). It looks great, a super natural and very subtle rejuvenation. Quite hopeful I won't need to keep up with fillers anymore. Overall a great job there, glad I went with his advice to do the lower face as well as the cheeks. Finally, my overall experience with the clinic and Visage staff was good. I found everyone there to be very helpful, very friendly and quite responsive to questions or concerns. I appreciated, for instance, that just one week before my surgery, when I was having major doubts about the facial fat grafting portion, they invited me to come in right away to have another consult with Dr. Esmail and ask more questions. I found that consult very reassuring, and appreciated that they didn't dismiss my doubts or but rather made me feel supported in having that additional discussion with Dr. Esmail. I did have to keep on the clinic staff a little bit after the surgery to get some paperwork done that I needed, but that wasn't a huge deal. The most important part was that throughout the pre-surgical process, I felt very supported as a patient. The post-ops have been quick, but that's because everything is going good. So, overall: excellent experience, both in terms of the result and how supported I felt through the process. I have already recommended Dr. Esmail to people, and will continue to do so.