Rhinoplasty

idk why but when I read the title of this, I thought it had to do with attaching rhino horns to your face o.o

 

That's great !!! (No sneezing BTW!!) :eusa_liar

 

Pictures!!! No? Ok. Congrats anyway!

 

Congrats!!! Happy for ya!

 

Ha! No pictures, I guess. I can't say I blame him. But he's not chiming in, so I guess everything is cool.

So I went through this. During the first year of college, I was walking across the quad like space and ran into a girl I knew who had a few bandages on her nose. I asked her what happened, as if she had gotten hurt or something. Being that she was a bubbly open book, she said "I got a nose job." I thought about her old nose. It wasn't big, but slightly bird-like. Her new nose had a nicer shape. She seemed real happy. I then thought about how many kids I knew, of both genders, who had one done. In an urban area with a lot of ethnic types, nose jobs sell like hot cakes. Also, most kids have them done between high school and the beginning of college or beginning of going off to a job. I asked her for her doctor's name. I then got another recommendation.

My parents were against it, and my dad was livid. He even made a scene with the doctor's office. This was one of our big fights and it lasted for months. First of all, I came to learn that the nose had been fractured, and I remember when and where it happened. Then, both doctors were able to show me I had a deviated septum. True enough: I slept with my mouth open at night and drooled onto my pillow. The old nose was a combination of my the higher bridged nose that runs on dad's side and the nose with a fleshier base which runs on mom's side. It wanted it gone by the end of the year, so I took on an extra part-time job to pay for it, since one had to pay up front. I was partially rebated that amount through my insurance. I told all my friends I was going to do it. In fact, the weekend before, a couple of my friends took me out one night to give the old nose a going away party.

All right, so I didn't pick my friend's doctor, but picked the other doctor. The operation went fine and lasted slightly less than an hour. I went under a local and was deeply sedated. In about 20 seconds, I was out, but I do remember the doctor breaking the nose. I got home. My dog was freaked out for about an hour from the smells of the hospital being brought home, but then stayed next to my bed when I was laying around the house for a week. All my friends came over to visit. You are not to be exposed to the sun. There was no pain or anything weird. I just remember that I couldn't blow my nose and that my hair got greasy from not being washed for 1 or 2 weeks until the bandages came off. When they came off, I was not happy. There was a lot of swelling, particularly around the tip, so I was in the 3% that had a complication, which was minimal scar tissue. I personally think it probably should have been splinted and more firmly held down. After about 6 months, I started getting a few intralesional injections of Aristocort, diluted with saline, into the area. They didn't hurt. It seemed to get it to slim up some. I then got busy and stopped going for the shots. Fast forward: it took about 2 years to see the final result, and I'm happy I did it.

There is still some miniscule scar tissue underneath and the tip is slightly asymmetrical. It bothers me a little, though no one notices it. I've gotten opinions years later, and they range from "leave it alone" to them wanting to do a minor revision to take out a minor amount of additional cartilage. They said that the bridge and the base, meaning the nostrils, were handled very well. I would gladly go the route of more injections of Aristocort into the tip, which a highly respected doctor I talked to when I was in grad school was willing to do, but I had my plate full.

I've read a lot about the process, both physically and psychologically. One thing is that males make worse candidates than females for this operation. They are less likely to be happy with the result. I don't know why that is. Here's another thing: more men can carry a larger or less than perfect nose better than a woman can. That's why more women have nose jobs and more plastic surgeons will take them on as viable candidates. I think that some men might be turned down for the operation, but they can always find a surgeon who will do it. Another thing is that a face grows, and acquires more definition, until 25 or 26. That's why they want for teens to at least finish puberty until making this decision. I met the kids of some relatives for the first time. They were in the 28 to 30 age range and, with slightly larger noses, were real good looking guys. Their grandmother had a picture around the house and I learned it was those kids at about 15. At that age, and with odd looking hair, it was hard to believe that those 30-ish guys looked like they did as kids. However, nothing could help the older of these two guys, who was an attorney and had a very combative personality. So, some guys develop a different facial structure that offsets the nose and don't even need the operation. Women tend to wear this operation better. Finally, the artistry of this procedure has changed. They have moved away from the more chiseled look to a more natural look, and will endeavor not to have the nostrils look so pinched like they did decades ago.

It's an adventure and a rite of passage that's hard to forget.

 

Give it time. It should get more symmetrical. The thicker parts of the nose, like the tip, take the longest time to heal. The nasal passages were narrower for months because of the swelling, and after a year or so, they were much larger, partly because the septum was now centrally placed and because almost all the swelling had subsided. Also, keep in mind that the goal is improvement, and not perfection. Very few people get a score of 99% on their nose surgery and less than 99% are fully happy with the result. For me, the clarity of my voice improved and I have since slept with my mouth closed.

 

Ok, so this open wound was the one that undid itself inside a nostril, right? Meaning the bulging is inside the nostril? That's not a big deal. It will shrink, or the surgeon would have proposed something. It doesn't sound like it's showing outside the nostril.

Yeah, the stitches sort of do that. I barely remember their removal. There was definitely no pain there.

Also, keep in mind that a rhinoplasty where they are seeking to build up the nose is much harder to do than one where the are seeking to make the nose smaller. If you got a nicely proportioned nose and it's somewhat pointy because your nose was slim to begin with, be happy. I bet it looks fine, but that you're hard on yourself. While some results take a LONG time, some are finalized in about 1 to 3 months. Good stuff. Enjoy.