No more bump-Washington, D.C.

I've been self conscious about a bump on the bridge of my nose ever since my high school years. It's not really something I've been teased badly for, I've gotten a few comments on it here and there that were uncalled for but it never particularly hurt my feelings. It merely proved that I wasn't being overly critical or seeing something that wasn't there.

This is something I'm doing for myself, not for approval from anyone else. I had my very first consultation with a DC ENT doctor and certified plastic surgeon Dr. Chaboki when I was only 19. I was very comfortable with his expertise and personality, but I feared judgement from my peers for getting plastic surgery. It scared me out of doing it. Here I am three years later and I still dislike my nose. I've tried my very best to learn to like it, change hairstyles, etc. but I find myself shying away from cameras, certain angles...

I'm still a bit nervous about people judging me, but I've decided my opinion of myself is what matters most. I've only told my mother and my boyfriend. My mom seems rather neutral to the whole thing, telling me I'm fine the way I am ( what mother wouldn't say that?) but she isn't trying to talk me out of it either. My boyfriend has known about it since we first started dating 2 years ago. He tells me the same thing my mom has, but he wants me to whatever makes me happy and that he will do all he can to help me through the recovery process. His support has meant the world to me and it makes me feel better with my decision to have the surgery.

For the rhinoplasty, Dr. C plans to reduce the bump on the ridge of my nose that is composed of bone and cartilage and will narrow the bridge by osteotomy. We want nothing changed with the tip and my septum is fine as well. My procedure is pretty standard and he said it should only take and hour to complete, 1 week with a cast, and he thinks my swelling will be minimal due to a closed approach. I plan to have my surgery in march 2014. Specific date won't be set until February.

I'm really excited but also nervous because I've never had surgery before! I'm also hesitant to post photos...but I want to share my story with all the awesome people on this site... We will see :)

Profile view before and after simulation, the frontal view will have very little change.

I couldn't wait until march guys. I asked the staff at the office if they could squeeze me in for a week in January that I can take off work. They emailed me later and said I was wait listed, which is basically a yes, but I won't have a time for surgery until the 9th. The fact that I'm probably having surgery in less than 2 weeks is so exciting and I cannot wait!

Things I plan to have at home before the surgery:
-- prescriptions
-- gauze pads
-- medical adhesive
-- q tips
-- saline nasal spray
-- arnica montana, bromelain, multivitamin including vitamin c
-- frozen peas
-- neck pillow
-- body wipes to freshen up
-- dry shampoo
-- moisturizing Chapstick

Things to have for the car ride home:
-- bucket in case I get sick from anesthesia
-- water bottle
-- crackers

Foods to help the healing proces:
-- pineapple
-- broccoli
-- carrots
-- kale, greens
-- cashews
-- tuna


Any suggestions welcome!

LOL, LOOK at that nose!! it has got to go. I can't even believe that picture!

I find out today whether or not I go for surgery on the 16th (I'm on a wait list). I have my phone right next to me and my email open :). I'm still in the excited phase of everything but once I get a confirmation and a time I'm expecting the nerves to set in!!! I've never had surgery and I'm scared of the anesthesia and the nausea that comes after! But it will all th worth it in the end I hope!

My boyfriend bought me a neck pillow :) so sweet.

I am now confirmed for surgery in exactly a week from now. I was definitely right about the nerves! When I got off the phone with the office assistant I was so giddy and then I literally got a vision of laying down and being put under and now I'm so scared! Again, I've never had surgery and that's really the only reason for my nerves. I completely trust my surgeon.

How can I deal with these nerves? I get sick to my stomach when I feel like this and it's not going to help me a week from now! I know this is what I want, but how can I calm myself? Or do I just have to deal with it lol. Agh!

I paid for everything today and its final, guys! Ahh I'm stuck between excitement, anxiety, impatience, and a little bit of guilt. I do feel vain for doing this, but I talked to my mom today and she basically said how everyone has insecurities and its no big deal to actually get up and do something about it, and how if she could pay for a facelift she would do it. And then I think of other people that have told me similar things about wanting a boob job or whatever.

I just want to fast forward to Thursday and do it already! It's been a long time coming and at the end of the day I am happy with my decision.

So I have to get to the hospital at 5:30 am (dear god.) and have surgery at 7:30 am. My surgeon has estimated to the surgery taking only an hour, maybe two. He is going to shave down the hump on the bridge and then narrow the bridge by osteotomy. That's it, no tip work.

Prices. I paid $150 for 2 consultation fees ($75 each) and that was put towards surgery. I then had to pay $4,350. So it was $4,500. Anesthesia fee is $425. Hospital fee is $725. Grand total of $5,650. Pretty reasonable compared to most.

I am very confident in my surgeon. He is a certified ENT and only performs plastic surgery on the face. He does not completely transform noses, he makes them a better version of what they are naturally, and I want a subtle result. He also performs many complex reconstructive rhinoplasties for college students that get sports injuries at GWU located closely to his office, so he has a lot of varied experience. I've also messaged several people on realself that had nothing but positive things to say about their rhinoplasty experiences with him and that secured my decision.

I could go on forever about this since I'm so excited. Now is the hard part: PATIENCE!

4 days and 6 hours til surgery (yes I have a countdown app lol). Having trouble sleeping because i'm so excited, like a kid waiting for Christmas morning haha. Nerves are completely gone right now and I hope it stays that way!

On a different note, my surgeon has a Pinterest and he has a lot of funny stuff and informative stuff on there about plastic surgery. He seems like a cool guy. By my standards at least lol. :)

Less than 2 days until my rhinoplasty!

Feeling excited and less nervous as time goes by. Ready for the new and improved version of my nose!

Waking up in a few hours for surgery. I'll update afterwards to let you guys know how my first surgery ever goes!

Hey all. I'm super tired from anesthesia. Eyes are already a little bloodshot in the corners and they burn kind of like getting soap in you eyes. Bridge of my nose is hurting too. Super dry mouth. That's probably the most annoying part. Feeling weak and pathetic lol. I'll update again tomorrow :)

The nose is completely bearable but my eyes are burning and watering like crazy and I have to calm myself down so that I don't cry even more. On a scale of 1 to 10 the pain is an 8. I may have pink eye, not just because of the pinkness and swelling but I literally woke up with my eyes glued shut with sticky goop. Surprisingly, the pain gets better if I leave my eyes open, but it gets worse when I blink a lot or close my eyes to try to sleep, so obviously I didn't get very much of it last night. Anyone else experience this? I had to clean out my mouth a lot too because there was some kind of white mucus like build up in there too?

I'm sorry if this is TMI lol! But I didn't read anything like this in other people's posts and thought I'd mention it. Anyone else go through the eye burning? How long did it last?

As soon as I laid down on the bed to get hooked up I could NOT stop shaking! It got better when my surgeon came to talk to me but I was mostly worried about anesthesia. My anesthesiologist was amazing! He talked to me the whole time and made me feel much more relaxed. When they wheeled my bed to the operating table he put the mask over my face and instructed me to take deep breaths. Since i was already out of it from whatever they had me hooked up to on the way there, I took maybe 3 breaths and I was out! Lol. Easy.
Then I woke up. So uncomfortable! Nose tampons in, lip in pain from the pressure of the breathing tube, and the dry mouth was the worst! The nurse was so nice and caring. She got me 3 ice cups and it helped immediately. I didn't get nauseous either! Just cramping that I later found out to be my period. Really life? Lol. My periods always come early if I go through high stress.

Now I'm home. No bruising that I can see yet, and these anti inflammatories are no joke. When I take it, I look like my pre op self in 10 minutes. It's pretty amazing. I've also been rotating frozen peas around my face. I go from forehead, right eye, left eye, right cheek, left cheek and I count to 100 at each position and I do it twice. I think it's helped.

Bleeding hasn't been a lot, but it hasn't stopped or notably slowed down either. We shall see. I get my packing out today thank god, I can't swallow properly with it in? I can only take small sips or else I start coughing.

I'll update again later!

Obviously this shows nothing of the underlying structure since there's so much tape on top. But I think it's going to be a nice subtle result that we both envisioned.

Thank god. It felt so good to get those suckers out and it didn't hurt I was just scared it would move things around in my nose. Absolutely no bleeding today, just wearing gauze to catch mucus.

Doc showed me how to clean my nose. I asked him how my nose looked after surgery and he said he was very happy with the end result and that the anesthesiologist and nurses in the room just kind of watch the whole time and actually make comments during the whole process! Lol. It actually is embarrassing that my nose was the center of attention for an hour lmao. He said everyone loved it and he thinks I will too. He said my nose was actually very very wide and there will be a definite change in that area, but not too narrow of course. I had an expander when I was younger for my upper jaw and I'm sure that's why it got so wide, I remember feeling the pain in my nose and I didn't understand why but now I do. So technically I should end up with the nose width that I was actually born with prior to the expander. Pretty cool.

I'm feeling ok, but I look way better then I feel. Eyes still burn and water randomly, bridge hurts, just overall completely exhausted and I can't be bothered to eat. It takes a lot of energy to get up and prepare stuff.

Eyes feel a bit better today. Bruising is practically invisible and the swelling has stayed in the nose area, little bit on my forehead. Feeling really tired and weak probably from all the meds. Better appetite today too. Doc has called me a few times to check up on me and see if I have any questions. Overall, looking and feeling pretty good for day 2!

I still look basically the same as before so I'm not going to post a photo unless I see some kind of notable change. But I do however have some things to say on here.

If you're thinking about having rhinoplasty, don't think that reading the recovery blogs on here can possibly prepare you for what's ahead. Everyone's recovery will be different and you might experience things that others did not.

My surgeon was obviously very gentle in his technique and this is why I have had very little swelling and bruising. But I've been in a ton of pain and experienced things I had never heard of.

1) this was my first surgery and my first experience with anesthesia. I had no nausea, but it was very debilitating and robbed me of all my energy. I felt so weak and frail an I'm usually a very fit an active person so I found this very uncomfortable.

2) if you get packing, it's very very uncomfortable. All I wanted to do the first night was sleep, but I couldn't because of the amount of discomfort I was in. I had to take small sips of liquid to avoid choking when swallowing pills. It was scary to start coughing just from drinking water.

3) I had searing, burning, excruciating eye pain for 2 days after my surgery. I hadn't read about this on any one else's blogs. Most people look pretty banged up, but admit to feeling better than they look and I happened to have the complete opposite experience. I was terrified that my eyes wouldn't get better, but they did.

4) I honestly thought I wouldn't mind being cooped up inside for 6 days. It gets boring really fast! Tv gets boring, movies get boring, even the Internet gets boring! So you might tell yourself there's no way you'll go out in public with the cast. I told myself this too. But here I am on day 3 expecting to go out and see a movie later today because I feel like I'm missing out on life.

5) all the meds I've had to take have made me a bit of a zombie. I'm a very small girl so it might have something to do with that, but just thought I'd mention it.

I've felt very helpless throughout this ordeal and I hate having people take care of me so I've felt guilty an had some regret.

All that said, I am glad I went through it, I just wish I didn't let myself think that recovery would be some vacation or walk in the park. It's been very hard and I just want everyone that's thinking about this surgery to hear my story because its slightly different from what I've read on here.

I think I'm over the worst part of the recovery, thank god!

Thanks everyone who has commented and given me some helpful info and support. I appreciate it!

I went out to see a movie and no one stared or said a thing. People get too worried about being noticed for staring and immediately look away when they get caught lol. So if you get stir crazy just suck it up and go out. Have fun, it won't be as bad as you think! I get my cast off Wednesday.

Apparently this convo happened in the middle of the night with my boyfriend:

Him: You're sliding down again, you need to sit back up straight.
Me: We'll, I guess that's that.
Him: Huh?
Me: Never mind. I give up.

Apparently I'm sassy when I'm sleeping and I don't make sense lol.

So glad I only have one more day of feeling like a hermit.

Cast off tomorrow at 11 am eastern time!

I'm both excited and nervous.

What if the bones didn't heal straight?
What if the bones shift or spring back once the cast is removed?
What if someone decides to punch me in the face!? Lol

I'm just curious as to how 'set' the nasal bones are at this point. I know from doctors answers on here that it takes about 6 weeks for them to heal enough to withstand minor bumps and a few months to regain their original stability. So after only one week of healing I imagine things must still be very spongey and could bounce back. But what do I know lol. I'll definitely be asking my surgeon tomorrow!

Cast is off!!!!

Holy cow.

I love it!

It feels SO WEIRD running my finger down the bridge and it being straight!!!

Pics posted!

Guys, yesterday, the day after cast removal, was very hard. My nose looked completely different. It definitely swelled up and looked nothing like before. I was very upset. The swelling made my tip retract into my face so the whole nose looked really snubby and too small(never thought I'd say that!) the bridge from the front view is so wide but it's narrower at the base so it looks like its going almost straight up. It looks better today and I know that this is just from the swelling. I stupidly didn't expect my tip to change shape since I only had bridge work done. Well everything swells! When the swelling is on the bridge it has a shortening and pulling effect on the tip. As the swelling travels down the bridge will get more defined and then my tip will be stuck with all the swelling and will probably look larger than it should. Then hopefully all the swelling will subside and they will be in proportion.

Yesterday I was really regretting getting a rhinoplasty but today my nose looks better. This is a day by day process. Although obvious changes can be seen right at cast removal, final and true results take time. I just can't wait until the bottom half of my nose looks like it used to look (I had no tip work) As long as I can feel the tenderness there I'm just going to assume that I'm swollen.

I'm still going though the same as mentioned above. My tip has no definition or projection anymore and my nostrils still flare. It takes away from any improvement from the bridge reduction. Also my nose is so narrow now. I'm having problems breathing. When I breathe there is a lot of resistance and I just don't get as deep of a breath as I used to. My nose used to be incredibly wide at the base and narrow on the bridge, now it practically oes straight up and it looks weird on me. I have very wide cheekbones and wide set eyes so a narrow nose doesn't fit my face. I think this might be my biggest concern because I'm optimistic that the tip will change, but obviously the nose isn't going to get wider again. I'm going to wait it out for a month and then if I still don't like it I will mention it to my surgeon.

Sorry for the repeated updates.

Just to be clear, I have the upmost respect and trust in my surgeon and I think he did the best he could with the nose he was given and what was requested of him. I've relayed my concerns to him via email about the changes in my tip and he responded very swiftly and was very reassuring. It's only been 10 days and there's a lot of swelling left to resolve. It's not that my nose is too narrow now, I'd say its probably the average person's width. It just looks narrow on me because of my wide set eyes. It could also be that I'm just not used to it yet. Time will tell.

Today I love my nose and its getting less tender! I like it more in the mornings than at night. I suppose my swelling gets worse through the day and that has something to do with it.

Anyways, just thought I'd share my feelings. If you're thinking about rhinoplasty, don't expect to love it right away. You will probably go through ups and downs like most have described on this site.

My nose looks so much better now. The bump is gone and now it brings more attention to my delicate features. It used to be the defining point of my face but no longer :) it's still a very high bridge which I think looks elegant on me. I can tell its still swollen and it'll get more refined with time and that excites me!

A couple days ago I was so worried I'd be regretting this for the rest of my life. I was also pissed that I'd be paying it off for years and for something I regret. I'm so relieved that's over. I've lost 8 pounds through this ordeal, from not wanting to eat during recovery and then afterwards when I was too depressed to eat. So now my main concern is gaining it back lol.

I love turning to the side now too. My profile looks very feminine now.

Thanks everyone for the support, it really helped me when I was feeling low. I only hope my story is as helpful to all of you as you all were to me :)

So I had McDonald's for dinner, just a burger but it had pickles and ketchup and bacon (sodium galore!)...my nose looks like a sausage LOL! No more McDonald's for this girl! Darn! Actually I don't care if it looks like this after dinner because noboy will see me, but I definitely will be having low sodium breakfast and lunches for the next few weeks!

It's almost been 3 weeks since my surgery and it is sort of a distant memory already. The swelling gets better with each passing day, and I saw absolutely no sign of it today! I've even been exercising vigorously and it has no visible impact at all.

My confidence has improved because of this and it's definitely been worth it in the end! I'll admit my nose looked different every day (just to myself of course) for the first week after cast removal but this week it looks so good :)

This has been such a positive experience overall and I'm so grateful to my surgeon who has been nothing short of amazing and informative throughout this entire process. The hospital staff was also great, and my boyfriend went above and beyond to help me stay comfortable during the first week after surgery. I also thank all of you here on realself that helped me stay positive!

I feel so blessed to have had such a great experience and I can't wait to share official before and afters when I meet with my surgeon in a few weeks! :)

Hi all! I'm sorry for the lack of updates, work has been very busy and I've been going out of town nearly every weekend for work.

I wanted to address something that I've heard a few people mention here before- dents on the sides of the nose after rhinoplasty. I had these, you couldn't see it but you could definitely feel it. I have no idea where they came from, perhaps the compression from the cast? Anyways, they are gone and the sides of my nose are perfectly smooth now.

I'm really looking forward to seeing my doctor again, just trying to find the right time, hopefully next week!

Good luck to you all and happy healing!

It's been over two years since my rhinoplasty and I'm still loving my nose. I can't say enough positive things about Dr. Chaboki. If you are considering rhinoplasty and want a subtle, natural result and are in the DMV area, I highly recommend him. His aftercare was fantastic and answered ALL calls and emails from me very swiftly. Happy healing!