I feel like horse shit. I look like a raccoon. I cannot wait to get the packs taken out of my nose tomorrow. BLECH!
What is that - a nose job?
Why did you get a rhinoplasty? I need to know so I can decide whether your life actually does suck or not.
DO NOT look at the packing. DO NOT.
I’ll bet it itches. Sorry.
Ahh, but undergoing rhinoplasty is like getting braces. Short term grief, but long term benefits. Just concentrate on those long term benefits and trust that they’ll arrive.
You didn’t happen to get it done at Tom’s Rhinoplasty, in South Park, Colorado ? Cuz if you did, I think you’re screwed. Be prepared for a lifetime of cartoon-ish features and humiliation.
I looked at the packing, aka Giant Tampons when he took them out. Pretty gross. My nose is still pretty much swelled shut and I want to blow my nose SO BAD. It is awful. I don’t mind the splint so much but my nose keeps on draining out the front and its driving me batshit. It is coming out REAL slow. I can’t wait to be able to breathe out my nose. I wake up every hour or so because my tongue is so dried out that it feels like it is going to crack or something.
BTW, I got a rhino because I was born with a badly deviated septum and can only breathe out of about 80% of one nostril and the other is closed off almost completely. I am going back in the AF (hopefully) in a couple months and I wanted to get it fixed so I could breath in my gasmask. I didn’t want to let the AF do it, even though they offered, because military medical never impressed me too much. So now that I have good insurance in the civilian sector I decided now was the time to do it. I also got it straightened out and shortened etc… while I was under the knife, but I had to pay about 1K extra for the cosmetic stuff beyond what the insurance was already paying.
Whatever you do, do NOT take aspirin. It can cause bleeding which is really difficult to stop in there.
Sleep is difficult, breathing is difficult – but only for a little while. Think of it as a multi-day space station emergency simulation, except that it will get better with time.
Lessening your crossectional profile in an attempt to reduce chances of a successful target acquisition?
giggles Good one, Zen. I am sorry that it’s so tough on you, Stinkpalm. I hope you get much better, very soon.
hugs
Perhaps it would help if you slept proped up? To facilitate speedier drainage?
I dunno. I hope you feel better.
Do a subject-line search on “clefties” and you’ll know I speak from experience.
Pin a handtowel to your bed pillow. It will feel good on your face and it will absorb all the blood and ick. Go do it right now so you don’t forget at bedtime.
Gargle with warm salt water several times a day. All kinds of funk is glopping down your throat. You want to get rid of that.
Make sure the AF knows about the surgery. High altitude will feel uncomfortably groovy for some time. And you may bleed.
The splint thing on your nose is a two-parter. One part is glued to your nose. Velcro holds it to the second part. The doctor will rip them off your face one after the other. It will be more pressure than pain. Keep breathing.
When the stitches come out, go home and look up your nose with a flashlight. Make sure all the stitches are gone. Look ALLLLL the way up. If you find any, I’ll tell you how to take them out yourself.
Mercy, Mercy! You’ve got the procedure down pat!
Stinkpalm, I’m planning to look into getting surgery to correct my own severely deviated septum in a couple of months. I have to say, your OP is not exactly getting me excited about it. How was the surgery itself? Be sure to post a followup thread in a month or two to let us know how you feel about it when it’s healed up.
I hope you feel better soon.
I had my deviated septum corrected about 10 years ago. I think you’ve been through the worst of it now. I remember that the removal of the packing was about the worst thing in the whole procedure (other than the pain of just having had surgery). It felt like there was 50 feet of cotton coming out of each nostril. Ugh. Just horrible.
Mercy Street has given you all the right advice. Really. Don’t forget the towel on your pillow.
Feel better soon, Stinkpalm. The oozing won’t last too much longer. In a couple of months, once it’s 100% healed up, you won’t believe how damn good you feel.
I don’t know anything about it but it would seem like a humidifier or 5 would make sleeping easier.
Sorry to hear about your discomfort.
Good show, kanicbird, on the humidifier front. Stinkpalm, just make sure the doc says it’s OK to have a moist environment. If you don’t keep the humidifer super-clean, it’ll hurl evil ick all over the place. The last thing you need is evil ick up your schnozz.
Elephant Shoes is right. The worst is over. It’s SO weird to have packing shoved that deep into your head. When it’s being removed, suddenly you’re feeling parts of your body you’ve never felt before and hope never to feel again. Does that make sense?
Kalhoun, I’m a gold medalist in the Craniofacial Olympics. If it involves tissue rearrangement from the jaw up, I’m your source. Ickily enough.
Ditto on all that when I had mine done. Painkillers were my friend.
Thanks for the encouragement guys. The pain is not too bad, but the congestion is driving me bat shit. I am not sure what is normal or not. I had an open rhino so my face is pretty bruised and I cannot breathe thru my nose at all. I got my packs out yesterday and there have been a few 2-3 hour periods where one nostril has cleared up and I was able to breathe thru my nose for a short time.
How much longer will I have this intense congestion? I am taking Keeflex antibiotic, dexamethasone which is a steroid, and of course vicodin for pain. Should I be using a nasal spray or some sort of decongestant at this point?
Also, the stiching area is somewhat sore. Is this normal?
All in all the procedure has been far less painful than I had expected. I needed 2 breaks in my septum and I had the tip reduced while he was in there as well as the bridge rounded out. The only part of my nose I can really see is the nostrils and they most definitly look different right now. They are much rounder and even. I had one nostril that was squished nearly closed and it is now round. I feel like Daryl Strawberry right now.
How much longer on the congestion! ARGH!