My Rhinoplasty Operation

I'm finally feeling well enough to write about my experiences from the last 3 weeks.  There isn't a lot of information on rhinoplasty operations on the internet, so I thought that sharing my experience would help others who might want or need the operation.  This post will probably be a bit wordy but I have snuck in a few photos :)

I never noticed I had a bump on my nose until I needed glasses when I started college.  It was fine for a while but I started to get pain where the glasses sat.  A trip to the doctors ended up being a waste of time as they had no idea what I was talking about and gave me painkillers that made me high.  The pain started to get worse; I had awful headaches and shooting pains up my nose.  About a year after being messed around I changed doctor and within 5 minutes he said I needed an operation!

I had to go to the hospital 3 times to convince them I needed help.  The surgeon came to see me and gave me stronger painkillers that ended up stopping me from driving.  In the last appointment I pretty much pleaded to have the op done and he reluctantly agreed.  After 6 months I was finally in the hospital with a bag of belongings and Dan keeping me company.  It was a really strange experience as after changing into my hospital gown I was led into the anaesthesia room and told to lie down.  I could hear my heart going a bit crazy on the monitor and it was pretty scary because it was all happening so fast!  When the Dr told me he was then putting me to sleep I can remember thinking 'hmm I don't feel sleepy at all and I thought this was supposed to hurt?', then I was gone.

I woke up in the recovery room and was wheeled onto the ward where Dan was waiting for me.  I had packing all over my face and could only breathe through my mouth.  I had packing up my nose and it was really painful when they removed it as it seemed to go on forever D:  I was still a bit high from the anaesthetic.  Dan told me the first thing I said to him was 'I'm Bane. Now is not the time for fear. That comes later', then I went to sleep :')

I don't know when it started but I had a reaction to the anaesthetic and started throwing up :( The first time it was blood which was awful, and the 2 times after that was just water as it's all I could get down.  When I was offered food I asked for a sandwich and a yogurt.  I was expecting fresh food but the sandwich was a packaged one and was stale.  The yogurt was all I ate until my parents snuck out and bought me a muffin at 10pm.  I was very lucky as I got my own room in a private ward so I could have visitors whenever I wanted.

I had to stay overnight and then got to go home the next morning.  I had to change the packing under my nose regularly as there was fluid draining from my nose.  I remember it being difficult to change it as my nose was a solid block of pain and touching it was painful.  I had to sleep upright for nearly 2 weeks, and kept waking up in the night because my mouth was so dry.  The skin around my eyes became really swollen and I got really awful bruises that started off black then went greeny yellow.  Worst of all my skin broke out and my whole face was covered in deep painful spots that wouldn't budge.

(Sorry the photos are so rubbish!)  I took my cast off after 10 days and was shocked at how different my nose was.  The bump is now gone and my nose isn't as wide.  Best of all I don't get any pain from it anymore!  When I first took it off my skin was still really bad and I still had my bruises but they're starting to clear up now.  I now have blue tinged under-eye shadows all the time now though and they're really hard to cover up.  I had a check-up at the hospital recently and the surgeon said it'll be another 2 months before everything starts to settle down properly.  

Overall I'm so glad I had this operation.  I was really worried that my nose would be ruined and I would regret it.  I hope this hasn't been too boring to read haha!  I've tried to keep it short but if you have any questions I'd be happy to answer them, and if you want to keep it private you can email me too :)