Rhinoplasty with Igor Niechajev, 20s Male

I'm feeling pretty worried at this point. I saw my surgeon about 6 weeks post, he just said there was nothing to worry about this early into recovery. When I asked if the amorphous and undefined the tip area has right now was swelling, he felt it with his fingers and said that it 'could be', which doesn't feel comforting at all. I am trying to remember that swelling in this area can take a long time to subside, however I'm scared that this might be scar tissue forming into a polly beak deformity. My surgeon's hopefully giving me a call tomorrow, I have sent him these photos for him to comment on.

Obviously, looking like this is making me feel very insecure and ugly. This whole recovery is really horrible, just psychologically from what my nose looks like.

The first month has been hard. I've read people say that the recovery process can make you depressed and so on, but didn't really understand why. The truth is that your nose, especially if you have thick skin like me, can be so swollen that it simply looks worse than before – even a full month after surgery. I try to tape my nose and sleep with the tape on – this helps with swelling, but the swelling usually comes back after a few hours, at which point my nose looks like a potato again. However, when comparing photos of my nose just after I've taken the tape off (when it is the least swollen) with before photos is comforting, because there is already a big improvement.

I suppose my tip is a bit numb/stiff, but that doesn't matter at all. The only physical recovery issue is that I still can't breathe well through my nostrils, which is probably due to a combination of swelling and the fact that I have the tape on as much as I can (it applies pressure which probably makes breathing harder). This is especially annoying at night – I'm not sleeping as well as I used to.

I have a follow-up with the surgeon scheduled in 10 days.

Today Dr. Niechajev took the cast off my nose, cleaned it, and 'squeezed out' liquid from it (it was very swollen, some of which would be improved by this squeezing). These three steps hurt a LOT. Especially the squeezing part was maybe the most pain I've ever felt in my life. After this, my nose was taped. I've been given instructions on how to redo the taping until swelling subsides.

The nose is still swollen from the front, and as I have thick skin it will take time before the shape can be really seen. However, I can already see a remarkable improvement from the side. The tape obscures the tip a little, but it looks pretty much spot on in terms of what I wanted. Now i just have to wait and hope the front will look as good when the swelling goes down.

I am to schedule a check-up with the surgeon in about three weeks.