South Asian Rib Graft Rhino

I decided I wanted to minimize the chances to require a revision rhino so opted for choosing surgery with the most reputable surgeons in the UK. Turns out the most reputable are also the most expensive lol but I do not like taking chances. After research I came with 3 names, JRJ, Matti and Ion. There are some very good surgeons overseas as well but as I'm a mother with 2 young kids it make more sense for me to have it done in London. I dismissed Matti because of bad reviews and booked a consult with JRJ (mostly because he lived round the corner from me and he's a specialist at rhinoplasty) for last summer. Just before the consult I came across bad reviews about JRJ and cancelled the appt. I then booked a consult for sept with Lucian Ion. On my second consult with Dr Ion in Feb 17, I chatted to a lady who was waiting to see him after me. I thought she was pretty but when I asked her what she was here for she said something like “my nose isn't it obvious” turns out she had a rhino with JRJ 6 months prior and she said he “botched her nose”. After she said that I had a double take at her nose and I did think it looked a little bit unnatural and her nose looked a bit square (babes i'm sorry if you reading this and you recognize yourself I still think your nose now is far nicer than mine pre-op honest !!!). Anyways, I thanked my lucky stars I never went ahead with JRJ. At the first consult, Dr Ion took photos and did morphs. I had brought photos of all the K pop singers noses I liked. Turns out Dr Ion could not give me my dream nose, because my nose didn't have the bases he needed to make it happen. It had never occurred to me before about whether the slim petite nose I wanted to achieve was achievable with my nose structure or not. I just assumed that it was all down to the surgeon's skills, not down to what he's been given to work with (very naïve I know). I went home deflated but after a couple months thinking booked the surgery on the basis that : Dr Ion is one of the most talented surgeons in the UK... If he can't give me my dream nose, no one else will be able to. I would be better off going with him, rather than move on to another surgeon who would promise the moon to get the customer but not deliver in the end. I looked long and hard at the morph photos before and after. The after photos were not my original dream nose, but they were still a big improvement to my current nose. I was happy with the profile morph (defined tip, I had a south east asian mushy tip, no more overhanging nostrils). I was disappointed with the front morph, the nostril show was reduced but still present, the alarplasty would make my nostrils less wide but not as narrow as I wanted, my bridge also smaller would still be too wide in my opinion. I would get a rib graft rhino to elevate my tip and bridge (2mm) But looking at the before and after morph, I could tell it would still be a big improvement so decided to go for it. Dr Ion at no point tried to put on the sale. He told me there was a way to have a bigger alarbase reduction by cutting the side of the nostrils but he did not do that practice because it left scars quite visible on the side of the nose and he was happy to recommend me to another surgeon who would (err no thank you). I booked in october one month after my consult and the next avail date was beg march on a Friday for a day case at Weymouth Street Hospital. I took it. The months flew by, I had another consult with Dr Ion a month before the op to go over what would be done again. On the day I had been booked as a day case as I didn't want to spend the extra £500 to stay the night so had to go first in the morning at 8AM (you have to be there for 7AM). You should get discharged latest in the evening if you're a day case so you have to be the first surgery in the morning. Staff at Weymouth Hospital were generally quite nice and caring. The room I had for day case was not as nice as the one shown on the website (very small) so I was glad my husband didn't spend the whole day with me at the hospital and only came to pick me up, he would have been really bored in the small room. Dr Ion popped in my room when I was waiting to go over what would be done one last time, he had blown up photos of the morphs. I went down at 8:30 to get the anesthesia. They put the drip in my hand, I had a very unpleasant feeling of being woozy (like really badly drunk whole room spinning) and then I was out. The operation lasted 3 hours from 9:30 to 12:30. I woke up around 2 or 2:30 in the recovery room. Now was the hardest hardest part. I wish I was prepared for it because I wasn't. Throat on fire, really dry mouth. Acute headache and nose pain. I felt like sea sickness at its worst, room spinning, moving my head a tiny bit would take loads of efforts, dizziness, nausea, cold and hot chills. I could not move my limbs I felt exhausted and drowsy. They gave me morphine and I could hear the nurse saying (I don't want to give her more she's only tiny) and I wanted to scream “give me more” but I was in such a state of exhaustion, pain and dizziness I could not say a word. I could just about shake my head to say yes or no when the nurse would ask me a question. My eyes seemed swollen and glued shut (they had put some ointment to protect them during the op) not that I wanted to open them anyway because the brightness of the light made me more dizzy and uncomfortable. They then took me to my room. Dr Ion came to check on me couple hours after when he finished his other surgery. The rib only hurt when I move. It's become comfortable enough by day 4 that I forget about it. At 3:30 I was a little bit more with it and asked for my watch and phone which I had put away in the room safe. I had been told by the practice I could be discharged by 4-5pm. Never occurred to me that I would not feel well enough to leave by that time. I basically was not well enough to leave until 8pm all before then I had that horrible sea sickness feeling. They gave me pain meds which had the side effect to make me feel drowsy. I could not keep any food or meds down, threw up twice. The nurses kept asking me all afternoon if I had been for a pee. I didn't feel like I needed a pee so never did mostly because I was exhausted and it seemed a massive effort in my state to move from the bed to the bathroom because I had not drunk anything since before the surgery and thrown up everything I drink afterwards. It's not until almost 7pm that one of the nurses EXPLAINED to me I needed to force myself to go for a pee because all the nasty anesthesia chemicals were still hanging out in my bladder and I would not feel better until I had them out of my body !! Sure enough I dragged myself to the bathroom and had a massive pee which I didn't realized I had in me !! Really wish someone had told me first why I needed to go for a pee asap after the surgery !! In the end the nurse gave me some meds to stop the nausea in the drip so I could keep at least water down. That was at 7:30pm. I felt a bit better and managed to get dressed and leave. You get from the hospital : antibiotics, blood meds, pain meds, cream for the stitches, some kind of insulin shot to do for a week. You pay extra for the meds mine came up to £55. Make sure you sort out your childcare. I was banking on being discharged at 5pm. Turns out I wasn't until 8pm. My nanny couldn't stay later and I had to arrange for a last minute babysitter. Just make sure you have a worst case scenario childcare in place for the day (which whatever happens will be cheaper than the extra 500 you spend to stay the night) but I am actually lucky enough to only live an hour away from the hospital. Day 1 Feel terrible really tired, ok after taking the pain meds, they start to wear off after 4-5 hours then I really look forward to taking the next batch. Day 2 tiny bit of bruising on eyelids like purple eyeliner. Crazy swelling face all puffed up. Day 3 added yellow shadows under eyes. Crazy swelling which subsided in the day. Had a side effect of the antibiotic which gave me a really bad nausea with chills and dizziness (I do have a sensitive stomach). Luckily had 2 spare tabs of nausea pills the nurse gave me from the hospital, took one and sorted me out within an hour. I did not want to throw up the antibiotic (they only give you the exact amount of pills). Was advised by my sister to take the antibiotic after the biggest meal of the day, to reduce the side effects. Day 4 cheeks still swollen, jowls. Feel tired but pretty much ok. Am typing the review today. Have not needed to take any pain meds so far. I'd say first 3 days were the worst, with bits of headache, pain, nausea, chills... The anaesthetist pointed out to me you had a big operation, 3 hours, removing a brain tumour is only an hour. Like I I didn't realize until after the op that it was such a big op. I did childbirth twice with only gas and air and it was bad but trust me the after op and the first 2-3 days after are up there in terms of discomfort. Advice : WRITE DOWN what time you take what meds. It's easy to forget and get confused, there's so many meds, the blood meds every 8 hours, the pain meds every 6 hours ,... Pain meds : take the maximum dose. Annoyed at the nurse who told me i'm only small so instead of 2 pills I could take just one. One Day 1 I took 1 pain pill instead of the maximum allowed of 2. the 1 didn't touch the sides. I was in agony for 6 hours until I could take the next batch (you need to wait 6 hours between each take). Every time afterwards I made sure to take 2. My advice : take the maximum dose. Do not wait until the headache and nose pains get too bad. If it's been 6 hours just go for it. Drink lots of water Food : soft food I had porridge, soup, toast left to soften in the soup, yogurt, soft scrambled eggs. I found it helpful to eat with a baby spoon (those with the long handle). My upper lip and mouth were really swollen and it hurt my nose to open my mouth more than a tiny bit. I drunk water with a straw and cooled down peppermint tea with honey in it to settle my stomach. Sleep : I slept in a semi recline position which I thought would feel uncomfortable but somehow your body knows that it's better for it to sleep upright rather than laid down so it actually felt OK to sleep like that. The first 3 nights could not go longer than about 1-2 hours sleep without waking up with horribly dry throat and mouth and had to take sips of water. The thing that SAVED me is BioXtra Dry Mouth. When my mouth felt very dry because of the breathing through the mouth (nose congested) I would take sips of water to moisten it but a minute later it would be dry again. This thing is a sweet tasting GEL that you spray in the mouth, it coats everything and take longer to dry than water so you get a longer relief. I'm on day 4 and still on the first bottle. Wish I had known about this product before, can be quite useful when you have a cold and have a dry mouth cos you can't breathe through your nose ! Supplements : I am taking 1mg Vit C twice a day. Arnica 30 4 times a day. The Bromelain I am taking at NIGHT 1mg during one of the many times I wake up cos it needs to be taken on a empty stomach which is 2 hours apart from eating anything and I find myself snacking all day long. Still on the probiotics too which the practise advises to start taking 3 months before surgery. They had also advised to buy a supplement called FLX and Multi which was super expensive. I broke down the contents and instead bought every ingredient separately which worked out about 70 quid rather than over 300. Useful : cotton balls with cleanser. You can't wash your face properly and after the op my skin had a greasy spell. Had to clean it several times a day with the cotton balls and cleanser. Nose drips : my nose was dripping blood and whatever else for 2 days after the op. Humidifier : helped a little bit with the dry mouth. Not a lot. Do not : google crap because you're bored. I found some stuff online like what the rib graft can warp over time. Some other posts saying ear is better than rib or anything better than rib. Shouldn't google crap. It's done now. A bit like watching botched bodies in your recovery time. Not a good idea. You're not allowed to blow or sniffle but you're allowed to suck in the mucous through your nose and spit it out through your mouth. I had a cough before the op but luckily sleeping upright prevented the coughing at night (which is great cos coughing hurts your rib). I do not want to post or send any photos now. Might change my mind in a few months. It's only day 4 so will update after I get the cast off in a few days.

Day 5 and 6 : no more pain ! was able to get back to work behind the computer.

Day 7 : cast off, in the evening had a good look and decided I really liked my new nose.

Since then have had quite a lot of swelling ! just hoping the taping at night helps a bit.
skin had become very oily and have had to stock up on Clearasil bits !

Day 8 went out in public without any worries.