Actually, I’m having (pardon my bad spelling) rhinoplasty, septoplasty and turbinate surgery.
My nose was broken when I was 7, it’s decidedly crooked and has a little bump. Most of the time I can only breathe through one nostril. I’ve wanted to do it for a looooong time and am finally getting it done on October 12th.
I believe I’m as prepared, knowledge-wise, as I can be. I have no qualms about the surgeon, the procedure, or my care.
*My Mother (an RN) works at a private surgical center, so her good friend and collegue will be doing the actual surgery. My mother really respects her work and loves her to pieces…says she’s a perfectionist. My Mother won’t be working the surgery, but will sit in. I know I will be in the best of hands.
I will be recuperating at my Mom and Dad’s house, Dad is a PharmD (so will take care of my medication), I’ll be very well taken care of there too.*
Here’s the rub: I am terrified of the aftermath. How horrible will I look? How bad will the pain be? How long will I need pain medication? How long does it take the black eyes to go away? Will I be laid up for a week? Ten days?
I KNOW everyone is different, but can anyone help me with some personal experience? I don’t know anyone who’s had a nose job, so I don’t have any points of reference.
If a blind monkey on acid attacked your nose with a chisel and an eggplant, he might manage to make you mildly unattractive. Luckily, I believe you are wise enough not to trust a surgeon who fits that description. No worries, girl. In working with beauty such as yours, the surgeon will end up feeling like freakin’ Michelangelo when she’s finished. Your indomitable fairness will easily withstand a bit of adjustment, so be brave.
I do not envy you the pain of recovery, but I am pleased to know that your life will be better in the end. Good luck.
Sue, kudos for getting a rhinoplasty for non-cosmetic and superficial reasons. As long as it doesn’t obscure your beautiful eyes, do whatever you want with the rest of your face.
OK, I looked after a friend when he had his nose bobbed, so this is what you have to do: HAVE SOMEONE HOLD ICE ON IT. You’ll be too out of it from painkillers to do that yourself, so have someone sit with you for about six hours after the surgery and hold ice on your schnozz (20 minutes on, 20 minutes off) for about six hours.
I did this for my friend, and he had very little swelling and no black eyes.
Good luck—are you going for local or general anesthesia?
I’ve never had surgery, but I have had my nose broken 4-5 times. It usually takes about 3-4 days to get it where it “looks” normal, about 9-10 days before it “feels” normal. Of course, that is me, YMMV.
I had a rhinoplasty done several years ago. I couldn’t breathe out of my nose either. They whacked off the bone spurs and straightened my deviated nasal septum(sp?). I never had black eyes. I don’t remember feeling too much pain either. The worse part for me was when they took the packing out. I had to learn to sneeze out of my mouth until the stitches were gone. It was very weird.
So… what do I think 10-15 years later? It was the BEST thing I ever did! I was no longer a mouth breather! You won’t regret it.
So long as they don’t TOUCH your eyes, and your cheeks don’t get too badly maimed . . . good luck. BTW, this is probably a good excuse to eat ice cream.
I knwo you’ve got the medical equivalent of a small country thinking on this, but just b/c I can I’ll talk to my father (RN) and see if he’s got anything to say beyond “she’s very pretty:)”
As I e-mailed to you, I’ve had facial surgery after running into a telephone pole face-first on my bike ( I do not recommend running into telephone poles). My first reaction when seeing my face in the mirror was “Gee, my face looks dented! Nahhh, you can’t dent a face!”. It turns out I was wrong. I had plastc surgery to lift my Malar Bone (cheekbone) back into place. I had a very black eye, surrounded by blue and green highlights. There were very visible sutures underneath. That portion of my face looked very literally like Frankenstein’s monster.
It all disappeared in a month – even the suture lines! The only remnant is that my face is slightly asymmetrical (All that effort, and I still looked like Me! Hardly seems worth it.) The main result, the freeing of a pinched infraorbital nerve, was a resounding success. I no longer feel as if I’m permanently on novocaine.
I don’t know how this relates to rhinoplasty. I had a black eye because they were screwing around with one eye. The other eye didn’t turn black at all. My guess is that nothing will happen if they don’t have to go near your eyes. Even if they do, it’ll be over in a month. I, myself, wore mirrored shades for a month, like Arnold Schwartenegger in The Terminator.
“I do not envy you the headache you will have upon awakening, but meanwhile, sleep well and ream of large men”
Sue, you’re beautiful as you are, but I can understand wanting to breath more freely! Good luck to you, hon!
Sue, I’m going to be blunt, as in, “You’ll feel like you’ve been hit in the face with a blunt object.” Ha ha ha ha ha!! But I kid; I kid.
I had surgery for a deviated septum and sinus polyps when I was 17. When I woke up, I felt a dull pain in the center of my face, like I had a brick embedded in it. My nose was swollen up huge, and I had what appeared to be a Kotex stuck underneath my nostrils. The rest of the day, I slept a lot, even passing out while friends were visiting. I don’t remember if I stayed at the hospital one or two nights, but I do remember that when I went home, the swelling had gone down significantly and I was feeling much better. I think by the fourth day things were pretty normal – I was eating solid foods and just generally hanging out – although my nose was still large from the gauze packing and still had the Kotex thing underneath, so I wasn’t exactly spending a lot of time in public. About 7-10 days after the surgery, I had the splints and packing removed. This part really sucked. The packing seemed to go all the way to the top of my head, as deep as the doctor was digging and as much as he was pulling out. The splints were the worst; it felt like he was pulling my eyes out through my nose. As he was removing the splints, my ass actually defied gravity as it levitated from the chair and curled toward my face. It was a phenomenon worthy of a Weekly World News story. When it was all said and done, I felt a little ill because of what I had been through, but there was absolutely no swelling in my nose and I soon felt normal again.
Sorry I haven’t been too comforting here, but at least I’ve been honest.
I hope this works out well! I’ve been thinking about it myself. I’ve had my nose broken - get this - 13 times. Between Football, Boxking, Judo, and the occasional adolescent streetfight, I’ve got a crooked schnoz. I can usually only breathe through one nostril, and if you look at me hard, my nose will bleed. I would like your feedback, so that I can evaluate whether or not I’ll go through with it.
[gratuitous compliments]
Of course, I find you to be a paragon of classic beauty as you are.
That tiny imperfection, microscopic in my eyes, calls the rest of your grace into clear resolve, and you are a sight to behold.
[/gratuitous compliments]
Good luck Sue - to cheer you up:
one of my friends broke her nose when she was about 5 on a plate glass window. It healed crooked & she had terrible sinus problems but they wouldn’t do anything because she was still growing…
Recently, she got married. the day before the wedding (not being a girl to learn from experience…) she broke her nose on a plate glass window. She has some really interesting wedding photos, but we’re still not sure who invited the panda!
She’s had her nose done since & she was fine - and less black eyed than for the wedding!
Thanks dear, but go look at my picture again (http://www.geocities.com/sdpeoplepages/sue_duhnym.html ). Notice that my head is turned to the right. Now look at my nose…it’s dead on. It’s really crooked, I just compensate for it by never facing anyone dead on.
