Asian Rhinoplasty in China

i've been thinking about rhinoplasty for a few years and I recently took a trip to China for a month.. so I went to the "top" plastic surgery hospital in Shanghai (Nr. 9 People's Hospital) for a consultation with Dr. Liu Kai. He didn't really speak English which was fine, but the surgery process in China is very different than in the US. Because of the sheer number of people seeking appointments, consultations are done by certain doctors on certain days of the week. You have to go in the morning of to pick up a number and wait for your turn to be called in. And since it's China, when you get called, the person a number after you is already in the room screaming for the doctor's attention.

I ended up scheduling the surgery for 3 days later on Sunday. The doctor said he can squeeze me in that day since I was leaving in 2 weeks and needed enough buffer time to heal. We used gortex for the bridge and septal cartilage for the tip since I wanted a very natural look. Just a few refinements in the bridge area and the tip to reduce my bulbous tip. I didn't want to do alarplasty because the external surgery procedure would leave scars on the outside of my nose. However, Liu Kai said that he can remove some of the alar base from the inside of my nose and stitch the internal perimeter of each nostril. There was a mistake on my part, during the rushed consultation, of not clarifying the difference between local and general anesthesia. In China, rhinoplasty is considered a small surgery, so typically local anesthesia is used.

The day of the surgery, I was really scared because I researched a bit about local and general anesthesia. However, it's unlikely for anyone to get an appointment so fast with one of the top surgeons in China's best plastic surgery clinic.... I just hope that I don't end up regretting my decision. The lovely part of local anesthesia is that only areas of surgery are numbed. You are conscious during the entire surgery. Needless to say, this did not help my nerves and if you are queasy, do not read the following surgery details.

On the surgery table, I was incredibly nervous to the point where I was shaking. A resident held my hand as Dr. Liu Kai gave me the anesthesia shots, 2 on my cheeks, 2 on my alars and 2 around my bridge. They hurt like a [RS bleep], but after that I was numb for an hour or two. The anesthesia started fading after a couple hours and I got nervous again. I kept asking when the surgery would be over and they kept saying soon (which meant 2 more hours in hindsight). There was a period where I believe they were carving the gortex, but I just laid there--dripping in sweat from being hot under the surgical blanket and nervous. That's when the pain started hitting me the most. I also had to pee. Anyways, I estimate that it took them 1.5 hours to do everything up to the gortex shaping. 30 minutes for shaping and then another 2 hours of surgery. That last 2 hours sucked because I could feel them poking around my nose--the anesthesia was pretty weak at that point. I told them it was gone, but they said it was "ok". The pain dulled after awhile (maybe my endorphins kicked in), but I just squeezed the surgery table and teared during those last two hours. The worst part came after stitching was done. The doctor just shoved a long cotton strand deep into each of my nostrils and I lost it at that point and I begged them to stop. But that was the end of the surgery.

After I was rolled out into my room, my nose was aching, but nothing beat those cotton things. The first few days I just rested, took oxycodone/acetominophin (combined into 1 pill) pills in the hospital. Today's my 3rd day post-op and I'm now at home. Taking Tylenol that I brought from the US since I only have 2 oxy/acet pills left and I want to use those on Monday, when I go back to get my stitches removed.

So far, the experience has been rather unpleasant. Since the worst parts already done... I can only wait until stitches removal and see how my nose now looks.