Is This Really What It Feels Like to Breathe? - Sewell, NJ

I broke my nose when I was a child. I could still partially breathe through my nose, but if it was a particularly humid or allergy-prone day, forget about breathing. As a soccer goalkeeper in my teen and college years, I hadn't worried about getting my nose fixed yet because I just figured that I would re-break it on the next big save of the game. As a recent college grad though, I finally decided to get a septoplasty/rhinoplasty. To be honest, I really wasn't sure if I wanted the surgery in the first place. Sure, I had a crooked nose, but it didn't bother me as much as it bothered my mother. I mean, I could breathe well enough I thought and except for those pesky allergy seasons that put a ton of pressure on my nose, I thought I was doing fine. What finally convinced me? My twin brother of all people. As twins, we shared a lot of things in common, including both having broken our noses. While I was timid about the procedure that would be involved in a rhinoplasty/septoplasty, he kept insisting that I would be able to breathe so much better. So, I went ahead with the surgery with the same doctor he had perform his surgery seven years ago. Now that I am almost six weeks recovered from the surgery, I wanted to share what I've found to be the pros/cons of these surgeries:

PRO
*I CAN BREATHE! (Seriously, the first time the doctor took the splint out of my nose after the surgery, it quite literally felt like the stream of air that was pouring through my nostrils was like an air hose. Who knew it was possible to breathe so deeply through one's nose?)
*I sleep much better at night now that I'm not mouth-breathing as much and my throat isn't constantly scratchy and dry when I wake up in the morning.
*While only my immediate family really notices that my nose isn't crooked anymore, I admit that it is nicer to look in the mirror or to touch my nose where the bump of the bone used to be that isn't there anymore.

CONS
*Recovery of 1-2 weeks of not much activity. While to some people this may actually be a pro, a sort of mini vacation to put their feet up and read books and watch movies to their heart's content, not doing much of anything for two weeks was quite boring. It really taught me to try to enjoy the rest despite the fact that I'm very much an on-the-go type of person and to be creative as you'll find that watching TV for a week straight gets old very fast.

Other than that, I really haven't had much pain at all from the surgery.