Still have the postoperative depression and I suspect I will have it for a while until I start to see results.
I do see a LITTLE bit of swelling going down as each day passes.
My bruises are like 100% gone. Today was the first day I felt 100% normal (other then the way I looked) I was in no pain what so ever and I don't know I just felt normal. Other then being able to feeeeel the swelling.
I feel like these days I don't have much to say since everything's fine now I'm just waiting for the swelling to go down.
The dissolvable stitches have been coming out because they're healed so thats a good sign.
Thats basically it. Sorry they're getting boring and will get more boring as the days go on lol.
I won't see my doctor again until the end of June so I guess I can blog the day I see him. And I will probably stop blogging in a couple days as there is nothing really new happening or different.
Thursday 12 May 2011
Day 7: Healing
So postoperative depression hit today.
My swelling on my nose was so bad I just didn't even want to look at myself, or go out in public so I basically just spent the day icing my face and putting on the traumeel cream and taking arnica.
Literally nothing exciting about this day, I just spent the whole day really sad.
My swelling on my nose was so bad I just didn't even want to look at myself, or go out in public so I basically just spent the day icing my face and putting on the traumeel cream and taking arnica.
Literally nothing exciting about this day, I just spent the whole day really sad.
Monday 9 May 2011
Day 6: Healing
So today was the bigggg dayyyyy! SPLINT OFF!!
Since I didn't actually have stitches on the outside because I had a closed rhinoplasty not open rhinoplasty then all I needed to do was have the splint off.
Had to drive to newmarkert, ontario for this appointment which is like an hour away from me which sucks lol. So as were almost there we get a call from the place saying my doctor called in sick with the stomach flu. Greeeeeeeat. But then they told us a nurse would take off the splint for me and stuff, so it was all good.
Getting the splint off DID hurt, it might be because mine was taken off pretty close after surgery and my nose was still super tender. It hurt but was bearable, my eyes didn't water or anything. She didn't clean out the inside of my nose because it's SO swollen inside. That was it. I looked in the mirror and my thoughts were "....woah.. so different" I still don't really recognize myself!
My nose is SO swollen. When I say so swollen I mean like SOOO swollen. I opened up photobooth on my computer to look at a picture of me before, then looked at me now and basically my new nose looks bigger then my old nose, thats how swollen lol. But I can see its going to look ammmmazing, the bump is gone and its got this amazing soft curve of a bridge, I also got the tip reduced but you obviously can't tell right now. The tip of your nose swells the most and stays swollen the longest. It will look better in like a week or so, and I will see MOST results in about 6-8 weeks, but I won't see full full results for like 1-2 years.
Since I have a youtube and want it to be a surprise for everybody I will NOT be posting any pictures until I feel like my nose looks nice enough for the big reveal to everybody. So this blog will not contain any pictures until I reveal my nose on youtube in a week or two. When thats done I'll come back to this blog and upload the necessary photos that go with each date for people who are still curious on the whole daily basis process dealioooo haha
My bruises are still super yellow but getting better.
I have a new cream I'm going to be using on my nose and under my eyes for bruising and swelling. I got it from a vitamin and its called "Traumeel"
Not going to lie, the size of the tip of my nose right now is making me depressed and I hope it significantly decreases otherwise I'm not going to be happy and may want to go under another rhinoplasty procedure in the future to correct it. It just looks weird to me.. but I have to keep positive because I know it will change.
As always my nose is hurting again at night, sooo I'm going to try to get to bed because I hate being awake during the pain.
Since I didn't actually have stitches on the outside because I had a closed rhinoplasty not open rhinoplasty then all I needed to do was have the splint off.
Had to drive to newmarkert, ontario for this appointment which is like an hour away from me which sucks lol. So as were almost there we get a call from the place saying my doctor called in sick with the stomach flu. Greeeeeeeat. But then they told us a nurse would take off the splint for me and stuff, so it was all good.
Getting the splint off DID hurt, it might be because mine was taken off pretty close after surgery and my nose was still super tender. It hurt but was bearable, my eyes didn't water or anything. She didn't clean out the inside of my nose because it's SO swollen inside. That was it. I looked in the mirror and my thoughts were "....woah.. so different" I still don't really recognize myself!
My nose is SO swollen. When I say so swollen I mean like SOOO swollen. I opened up photobooth on my computer to look at a picture of me before, then looked at me now and basically my new nose looks bigger then my old nose, thats how swollen lol. But I can see its going to look ammmmazing, the bump is gone and its got this amazing soft curve of a bridge, I also got the tip reduced but you obviously can't tell right now. The tip of your nose swells the most and stays swollen the longest. It will look better in like a week or so, and I will see MOST results in about 6-8 weeks, but I won't see full full results for like 1-2 years.
Since I have a youtube and want it to be a surprise for everybody I will NOT be posting any pictures until I feel like my nose looks nice enough for the big reveal to everybody. So this blog will not contain any pictures until I reveal my nose on youtube in a week or two. When thats done I'll come back to this blog and upload the necessary photos that go with each date for people who are still curious on the whole daily basis process dealioooo haha
My bruises are still super yellow but getting better.
I have a new cream I'm going to be using on my nose and under my eyes for bruising and swelling. I got it from a vitamin and its called "Traumeel"
Not going to lie, the size of the tip of my nose right now is making me depressed and I hope it significantly decreases otherwise I'm not going to be happy and may want to go under another rhinoplasty procedure in the future to correct it. It just looks weird to me.. but I have to keep positive because I know it will change.
As always my nose is hurting again at night, sooo I'm going to try to get to bed because I hate being awake during the pain.
Sunday 8 May 2011
Day 5: Healing
*sigh* I hit my nose AGAIN last night while I woke up in the middle of the night repositioning my pillow. My poor nose.
One of my nostrils was super ooey gooey grossness this morning, but after I cleaned it out it was fine for the rest of the day.
I get annoyed with dabbing my nose every few minutes because it drips with mucus so I just still keep a drip pad on because I'm lazy lol
Little to no pain today, haven't had to take a pain pill :) It only hurts when I touch it so I obviously avoid touching my nose at all costs.
Getting my splint off tomorrow which means he is probably going to clean out my nose too. Super nervous about both of those. I hope the cleaning doesn't hurt and I hope I like the results that I can see. I know it will get better with time but I still hope I like it.
Don't really have much to say today. I woke up swollen again, but it went down throughout the day.
I wore a bit of concealer today to cover up the bruises since it was mothers day and I wanted to look a little more presentable for my dear mother :)
Thats basically it! Oh also, I don't know if I've mentioned this but my top lip is basically stuck in place because of the swelling and my doctor said I should be able to move it normally again in 2 weeks. It's so funny though because I have THE most awkward smile now haha which is why I don't smile in these pictures haha.
**This picture is WITH makeup on** My bruises are still yellow !
One of my nostrils was super ooey gooey grossness this morning, but after I cleaned it out it was fine for the rest of the day.
I get annoyed with dabbing my nose every few minutes because it drips with mucus so I just still keep a drip pad on because I'm lazy lol
Little to no pain today, haven't had to take a pain pill :) It only hurts when I touch it so I obviously avoid touching my nose at all costs.
Getting my splint off tomorrow which means he is probably going to clean out my nose too. Super nervous about both of those. I hope the cleaning doesn't hurt and I hope I like the results that I can see. I know it will get better with time but I still hope I like it.
Don't really have much to say today. I woke up swollen again, but it went down throughout the day.
I wore a bit of concealer today to cover up the bruises since it was mothers day and I wanted to look a little more presentable for my dear mother :)
**This picture is WITH makeup on** My bruises are still yellow !
Saturday 7 May 2011
Day 4: Healing
I haven't taken any pain medication yet today and it's 4 pm. Bruises are quite yellow today.
I feel like I might have an infection in my right nostril on the inside, I'm seeing my doctor on Monday so he will tell me what it is.
Nothing out of the ordinary today, I put some saline solution on two cotton balls and put them in my nostrils for 10 minutes in hopes that the saline would help loosen up the scars. It helped a little bit in one nostril more than the other. But I still can't breathe.
I took off my gauze moustache today because I stopped bleeding. But I still have this annoying dripping of like mucus or discharge of some sort.
Took a bath today as well which was nice, and well needed!
Swelling is not as much as yesterday but I'm still pretty swollen.
Sleeping realllly sucks. I can never get comfortable really easily. Certain ways you position you head put pressure on your nose which hurts. I basically always wake up at like 9 am now because I just can't sleep, and I used to be able to sleep in til like 1 pm haha
Also, never realized this til today because I always had the moustache on which covered my top lip but it's like as if my top lip is frozen in place lol. When I smile it looks so silly because the top lip just kinda stays whe way it is haha, my doctor said this is natural though and it will go away.
I think I've also gotten a few bumps on the skin above my upper lip from the hydrogen peroxide. I'm sure they will go away eventually. I'll put some polysporin on them tonight.
Hit my nose today when I went to go hug my boyfriend and boy did that hurt.. ended up taking a pain med for that :( Hopefully tomorrow I won't have to take any!
Also, ended up putting the drip back on around 9 pm because I kept dabbing my nose when the mucus or whatever it is would drip and I didn't want to irritate my nose so I'd rather just keep the drip on for as long as needed.
I feel like I might have an infection in my right nostril on the inside, I'm seeing my doctor on Monday so he will tell me what it is.
Nothing out of the ordinary today, I put some saline solution on two cotton balls and put them in my nostrils for 10 minutes in hopes that the saline would help loosen up the scars. It helped a little bit in one nostril more than the other. But I still can't breathe.
I took off my gauze moustache today because I stopped bleeding. But I still have this annoying dripping of like mucus or discharge of some sort.
Took a bath today as well which was nice, and well needed!
Swelling is not as much as yesterday but I'm still pretty swollen.
Sleeping realllly sucks. I can never get comfortable really easily. Certain ways you position you head put pressure on your nose which hurts. I basically always wake up at like 9 am now because I just can't sleep, and I used to be able to sleep in til like 1 pm haha
Also, never realized this til today because I always had the moustache on which covered my top lip but it's like as if my top lip is frozen in place lol. When I smile it looks so silly because the top lip just kinda stays whe way it is haha, my doctor said this is natural though and it will go away.
I think I've also gotten a few bumps on the skin above my upper lip from the hydrogen peroxide. I'm sure they will go away eventually. I'll put some polysporin on them tonight.
Hit my nose today when I went to go hug my boyfriend and boy did that hurt.. ended up taking a pain med for that :( Hopefully tomorrow I won't have to take any!
Also, ended up putting the drip back on around 9 pm because I kept dabbing my nose when the mucus or whatever it is would drip and I didn't want to irritate my nose so I'd rather just keep the drip on for as long as needed.
It's 11 pm and I took the drip off. Going to try sleeping with it off tonight.
Friday 6 May 2011
Day 3: Healing
So I've heard that day 2 and 3 are always the worst anddddd so far I agree.
Yesterday sucked, a lot. My eyes were a bit sunk in underneath my eye but then were very swollen around my cheek area, but today EVERYTHING is swollen. The hollows are filled in to be swollen and I just feel like a balloon face.
I've been icing it in hopes of it to come down a bit and I guess it's helped a little bit.
I hope that today is the peak of the swelling and that it won't get worse tomorrow.
Still have my moustache on, I'm hoping today will be the last day for that. It's not bleeding a lot at all, but here and there. I'd rather just keep it on and have it catch the blood. I also feel "safer" with it on. I've kind of just gotten used to it. The first day it would need to be changed every like 15 minutes, but today I could get away with changing it every few hours but I'm a pretty sanitary person so I'm going to change it about every hour or so.
Still cleaning the outside and just slightly inside of my nostrils with a q-tip and hydrogen peroxide (3%)
kind of too scared to use saline or something on the inside. I don't know it just worries me.
No pain at all except for a pressure/pulling feeling still on where my stitches are on the inside. Bearable pain though.
I plan on forcing myself to eat all my meals today because I don't want a redo of last night.
Can't wait for the moustache to permanently be off though because it's what is preventing me from tasting any food. Which sucks haha cause I loveeeee food <3
One thing I've got to say is pretty frustrating is you're not supposed to put your head down, which is so hard because I never realized how often I did tilt my head down! so when you're going down the stairs make sure you really hold onto the railing because you can't look down at the stairs, etc.
I got a saline spray today for my nose. There's so much dried blood high up in my nose that I have no idea how to get it out because I don't want to touch my nose too much. So I'm gonna try to soften it by using saline spray a few times a day. After I used that I used a bit of polysporin on a q-tip around the nostrils and I bit inside because they are getting dry. If you are allergic to polysporin you can also use vaseline.
It's just about 8 pm today and I've only taken one T3 today which is awesome, I'm in like no pain at all! I hit a stitch earlier which put me in some pain, but I didn't take pain medicine for it, and then the pain went away in a bit :)
It's getting harder and harder to breathe everyday becauuuuse of all the dried blood which just adds to the frustration of the way you look. This process isn't a painful one its just ANNOYING. lol
You take for granted how awesome it is to be able to breathe, or to blow your nose when you can't do either!
Took off the moustache to take a picture of you guys of what it looks like underneath :)
Yesterday sucked, a lot. My eyes were a bit sunk in underneath my eye but then were very swollen around my cheek area, but today EVERYTHING is swollen. The hollows are filled in to be swollen and I just feel like a balloon face.
I've been icing it in hopes of it to come down a bit and I guess it's helped a little bit.
I hope that today is the peak of the swelling and that it won't get worse tomorrow.
Still have my moustache on, I'm hoping today will be the last day for that. It's not bleeding a lot at all, but here and there. I'd rather just keep it on and have it catch the blood. I also feel "safer" with it on. I've kind of just gotten used to it. The first day it would need to be changed every like 15 minutes, but today I could get away with changing it every few hours but I'm a pretty sanitary person so I'm going to change it about every hour or so.
Still cleaning the outside and just slightly inside of my nostrils with a q-tip and hydrogen peroxide (3%)
kind of too scared to use saline or something on the inside. I don't know it just worries me.
No pain at all except for a pressure/pulling feeling still on where my stitches are on the inside. Bearable pain though.
I plan on forcing myself to eat all my meals today because I don't want a redo of last night.
Can't wait for the moustache to permanently be off though because it's what is preventing me from tasting any food. Which sucks haha cause I loveeeee food <3
One thing I've got to say is pretty frustrating is you're not supposed to put your head down, which is so hard because I never realized how often I did tilt my head down! so when you're going down the stairs make sure you really hold onto the railing because you can't look down at the stairs, etc.
I got a saline spray today for my nose. There's so much dried blood high up in my nose that I have no idea how to get it out because I don't want to touch my nose too much. So I'm gonna try to soften it by using saline spray a few times a day. After I used that I used a bit of polysporin on a q-tip around the nostrils and I bit inside because they are getting dry. If you are allergic to polysporin you can also use vaseline.
It's just about 8 pm today and I've only taken one T3 today which is awesome, I'm in like no pain at all! I hit a stitch earlier which put me in some pain, but I didn't take pain medicine for it, and then the pain went away in a bit :)
It's getting harder and harder to breathe everyday becauuuuse of all the dried blood which just adds to the frustration of the way you look. This process isn't a painful one its just ANNOYING. lol
You take for granted how awesome it is to be able to breathe, or to blow your nose when you can't do either!
Took off the moustache to take a picture of you guys of what it looks like underneath :)
Day 2: Healing
Hi guys :)
So last night was the first night sleeping with this fun stuff on my face haha, and you have to sleep on an angle (at least have 2 pillows under your head) I tried to create kind of a wedge shape with a few pillows so I wouldn't strain my neck. I also put 2 pillows underneath my legs so that it would help circulate my blood so I would have less swelling and bruising.
I took arnica the day of surgery and my bruising has gone down SO much already because of it!! I'll take a picture of the arnica I'm using in case you want the same one. You let this one melt under your tongue and it tastes like sugar yum :)
So the sleep was not the most fun, especially not being able to breathe from the nose because of the "moustache" so I woke up with the sahara desert in my mouth hahaha. Make sure to keep lip chap and water right beside your bed because you will for sure want to apply it and drink water every single time you wake up in the night lol.
I woke up nauseas this morning and I think it was from all the medication I was taking basically on an empty stomach because I hardly ate anything at all yesterday.
My mom is the sweetest person ever and cut up some food into really small pieces for me today to eat and I already feel the nausea gone :) Make sure you eat foods that don't require chewing, or minimal chewing. And if it's a solid food then cut it up small because chewing, opening your mouth up a certain amount, sipping on a straw and even eating from a spoon all move your mouth a certain way and tug on the stitches which is uncomfortable. It takes a while to get used to what comfortably works for you.
Last night I took two T3's before I went to sleep because the stitches started to hurt a little bit and the T3's would help me get a better sleep. This was at about 10:45, at 5 am I woke up and changed my gauze moustache and took two more T3's. I swear those things just knock you out when you take two haha.
I feel no pain today just a little discomfort from the stitches since they are constantly slightly being tugged on by moving my mouth.
My nurse recommended that when I don't need T3's anymore because they're too strong that I just get tylenol extra strength from the drug store.
Keep in mind that when you feel a little bit of pain, don't try to tough it out, take the pain medicine right away because you'll need less because you caught the pain early and it takes like 1 hour to kick in (for T3's)
Still changing my gauze moustache, I honestly hate doing it, it makes me feel sick to my stomach. I get grossed out REALLY easily so yeah.. no fun. haha. I can't wait til I stop bleeding so I don't have to do this anymore.
So I just changed my gauze moustache and decided to clean a little bit of the dried blood up with a q-tip VERY lightly and the q-tip had hydrogen peroxide on it. My bruises have got better directly under my eye but when I removed the moustache and tape I realized that the bruises are very swollen further down where the tape is and my nose is very swollen as well. You can only take arnica for 3 or 4 days after surgery so hopefully it helps in these next few days that I'm allowed to take it. I don't think I'll be taking a picture without the gauze today because I'm still bleeding so the picture will look quite similar to yesterdays.
I've been icing my face with a big ziploc bag full of frozen blueberries. Anything you have in your freezer will work, peas, corn, blueberries, etc. It helps when they're small and round because then you can cover a lot of your face, I cover my forehead and both my eyes with the bag. You don't want to put it directly on your nose. Also, with the splint on its pretty much pointless lol. You want to ice for 20 minutes on, 40 minutes off, every hour.
I booked the appointment to get my splint off, it's this monday :) so 5 days post-op. I'm pretty nervous and excited to get it taken off. Nervous because I feel like my nose won't be as well protected, and more susceptible to getting hurt. But excited to see SOMEWHAT what my nose will look like, it will of course still be super swollen as it's only 5 days post-op.
I've been writing this post all day long (as I will be for all the posts so I don't forget anything) it's like 6 pm now and post operation depression is kinda kicking it. It's just scaring me the way I look and I'm just nervous I made the wrong decision if I don't like the way it looks. Make sure you surround yourself with really positive happy people during these days because they will help you by re-assuring you everything will be okay.
So I didn't upload this last night because I got sick and threw up. I think it was because it's hard to eat to so I haven't eaten much the last 2 days and then all the medicine in my stomach made me sick. So I threw up and ate some crackers and drank some gingerale and went to bed.
Wednesday 4 May 2011
Day 1: Day of Surgery
Hey guys!
So this will my blog on my road to recovery from rhinoplasty (a nose job)
If you have no idea who I am and just found this blog by chance and want to hear my story you can find it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1so4m5a1_s
Well I'll stop boring you with my story because most of you probably already know me from my YouTube channel!
SOOOOO today was the dreaded day of surgery dun dun dun! haha
I was so beyond nervous you have no idea. I've never had surgery before so I had no idea what to expect. I also researched the heck out of rhinoplasty and saw the "day of surgery" pictures and was like mortified thinking it would be so painful. I was wrong!!
I'll start from the beginning:
I woke up at 4:30 am because I had to be at the plastic surgeons for 7 am. My mom and I planned to be on the road at about 5-5:30 am because the drive is about a 45 minute drive and we didn't know what the traffic would be like from people going to work early. So we left at 5:30 am and got there at 6:05 am, they didn't open until 7 sooo basically we slept in the car haha.
I had it done at a private facility which was AMAZING (highly recommend if you want to spend the little bit of extra money) hospitals just make me feel so uncomfortable and sick to my stomach. But this facility was made to look like home so you would feel really comfortable :)
I was greeted by a really nice nurse at the door and she brought me upstairs to my room where booties, a robe and a medical gown sat on a bed. This room reminded me of a hotel room it was comfortable :) It had a tv, chair and bed (with heated blankets OH YEAH! haha) and they had a tonne of magazines :)
My mom and I fell asleep in there for a little bit waiting for the nurses to come ask me questions. One nurse came and said she was going to be in the operating room with me and asked me a few questions, she was extremely nice and made me feel at ease about the IV because I was really nervous about it. (I'm a huge baby about needles)
About 15 minutes later the guy who was going to give me anesthesia came in and asked me a few questions as well. The whole staff was EXTREMELY nice. :)
Then my plastic surgeon came in for a quick re-cap of what we were going to be doing that day and if I had any questions.
He left and I waited about another 10 minutes until the nurse came to get me to bring me to the operating room. She was really nice and put her arm around me on the walk there assuring me that everything was going to be okay.
I was brought into the room which one side was the operating room and the other side was the recovery room where you would stay for about 2 hours while the nurses watched to see if you were okay.
So I walked into the operating room which was terrrrrifying. I laid on the bed and they instantly started to have a conversation with me to take my mind off of everything because they knew I was extremely nervous. They asked me about school and such. It was time for the IV (ahhh!) and the male (nurse?) was extremely nice and first gave me a needle in my hand to freeze it (which didn't hurt!) and then the IV which also didn't hurt! I was extremely surprised and relieved. It was a good start :) He was very vocal and would tell me exactly what I would be feeling; for example that my arm might feel a little burning when the medicine went it. But it didn't :)
Then I was given the mask and was told to take deep breathes, I remember my eyes were starting to shut and feel really heavy and then BAM I was asleep. I didn't even remember falling asleep. It took like literally 30 seconds. I just remember waking up to them saying "stephanieeeeee it's done you did great!!! :)" Always so positive. I was so tired and I started to feel the pain of my nose. I'm not going to lie it DID hurt. Not like a throbbing pain, or sharp pain or anything like that. Just sort of like pressure. They asked me how much it hurt from 1-10 (1 being least 10 being most) I said it hurt around a 6. I was then given morphine and since I was sooo stressed out I was like shaking that they told me to calm down otherwise the morphine wouldn't work as well. I then calmed myself down by taking deep breaths and then the morphine kicked in :) I was also given a T3 to ease the pain as well. Also your mouth and throat are SOOOO dry when you wake up and your throat may not hurt right away from the tube down it but it will eventually. And you can't have a sip of water for like 45 minutes until you wake up a little bit more. Which was tooooorture hahaha
Surgery was about 2 hours I'd say, and I was in the recovery room for about 2 hours.
I had one nurse that was like "my" nurse and she was always there for me. If I had questions she would answer them, she would always ask me how I was feeling. I felt like I was in really good hands :) You get a gauze "moustache" they call it underneath your nose the first day to catch blood thats dripping. She changed mine for me like 4 or 5 times (you bleed quite a bit) I'm not sure if I bled more because my doctor didn't put packing in my nose. Which I'm glad for because I didn't really want packing. I can still breathe through my nose now which is awesome :) I've changed my gauze once at home and I'm about to change it again once I'm done writing this blog.
Once the pain killers kicked in it was pretty much smooth sailing from then on until I had to sit up and get dressed. The nurse helped me get dressed because you're not supposed to bend your head down because it brings more blood to face which means you bleed more and swell more. So I sat up for a little bit and was feeling extremely dizzy from the morphine. She then helped me get into the wheelchair and I just felt SO sick, I was so dizzy, my face went white as a ghost and I felt so nauseas. This MAY of also been because I hadn't eaten since 11 pm the day before because you're not allowed to drink or eat after midnight the night before. So she brought me a little cup of gingerale to bring my blood sugar level up, as well as these cold ice packs and a cold towel. It made me feel a lot better and I was ready to go home after about 15 more minutes of sitting there.
I can't say ENOUGH good things about the doctor and nurse. The surgeon came to check on me twice while I was in the recovery room which was really nice to know he really did care. And the nurses constant attention was amazing. They would joke around with you too to make you feel comfortable and make you smile :)
The nurse wheel chaired me to the back of the building where she and my mom helped me get into the car and she blew me a kiss goodbye it was super cute haha
SO, my experience so far is wonderful! I can't wait to take off the splint and see the results. I can't take it off til I see my surgeon again in a week to remove the stitches and splint (and packing if I had it)
You shouldn't really eat anything that requires a lot of chewing on the first day, so I'm eating some pineapple in tiny pieces (which I heard helps decrease swelling), as well as some ice cream and popsicles for my sore throat.
I will try to make a blog everyday, and to take a picture everyday to show you guys the healing process. BE WARNED: It looks so much worse then it feels. Don't be scared if you want it and these pictures scare you. I promise you it's okay!!
Sorry this was long the rest probably won't be this long it was just that a lot obviously happened today as it was surgery day.
ALSO, incase you're interested in a rhinoplasty surgeon in the GTA area I highhhhhly recommend mine.
His name is Dr. Rival and this is his link http://www.rivalcosmeticsurgery.com/
He is a face only specialist which is AWESOME because you really want to go to a surgeon that basically specializes in rhinoplasty because it's a very difficult and tricky procedure. I also highly recommend spending the $500 extra to get it done at the private facility in Forest Hill (on eglington)
Thanks so much for reading!
Happy healing :)
- Stephanie
*also, the circle on my chest is from where those circle things they put on you in surgery was and it pulled of my spray tan hahahah
So this will my blog on my road to recovery from rhinoplasty (a nose job)
If you have no idea who I am and just found this blog by chance and want to hear my story you can find it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1so4m5a1_s
Well I'll stop boring you with my story because most of you probably already know me from my YouTube channel!
SOOOOO today was the dreaded day of surgery dun dun dun! haha
I was so beyond nervous you have no idea. I've never had surgery before so I had no idea what to expect. I also researched the heck out of rhinoplasty and saw the "day of surgery" pictures and was like mortified thinking it would be so painful. I was wrong!!
I'll start from the beginning:
I woke up at 4:30 am because I had to be at the plastic surgeons for 7 am. My mom and I planned to be on the road at about 5-5:30 am because the drive is about a 45 minute drive and we didn't know what the traffic would be like from people going to work early. So we left at 5:30 am and got there at 6:05 am, they didn't open until 7 sooo basically we slept in the car haha.
I had it done at a private facility which was AMAZING (highly recommend if you want to spend the little bit of extra money) hospitals just make me feel so uncomfortable and sick to my stomach. But this facility was made to look like home so you would feel really comfortable :)
I was greeted by a really nice nurse at the door and she brought me upstairs to my room where booties, a robe and a medical gown sat on a bed. This room reminded me of a hotel room it was comfortable :) It had a tv, chair and bed (with heated blankets OH YEAH! haha) and they had a tonne of magazines :)
My mom and I fell asleep in there for a little bit waiting for the nurses to come ask me questions. One nurse came and said she was going to be in the operating room with me and asked me a few questions, she was extremely nice and made me feel at ease about the IV because I was really nervous about it. (I'm a huge baby about needles)
About 15 minutes later the guy who was going to give me anesthesia came in and asked me a few questions as well. The whole staff was EXTREMELY nice. :)
Then my plastic surgeon came in for a quick re-cap of what we were going to be doing that day and if I had any questions.
He left and I waited about another 10 minutes until the nurse came to get me to bring me to the operating room. She was really nice and put her arm around me on the walk there assuring me that everything was going to be okay.
I was brought into the room which one side was the operating room and the other side was the recovery room where you would stay for about 2 hours while the nurses watched to see if you were okay.
So I walked into the operating room which was terrrrrifying. I laid on the bed and they instantly started to have a conversation with me to take my mind off of everything because they knew I was extremely nervous. They asked me about school and such. It was time for the IV (ahhh!) and the male (nurse?) was extremely nice and first gave me a needle in my hand to freeze it (which didn't hurt!) and then the IV which also didn't hurt! I was extremely surprised and relieved. It was a good start :) He was very vocal and would tell me exactly what I would be feeling; for example that my arm might feel a little burning when the medicine went it. But it didn't :)
Then I was given the mask and was told to take deep breathes, I remember my eyes were starting to shut and feel really heavy and then BAM I was asleep. I didn't even remember falling asleep. It took like literally 30 seconds. I just remember waking up to them saying "stephanieeeeee it's done you did great!!! :)" Always so positive. I was so tired and I started to feel the pain of my nose. I'm not going to lie it DID hurt. Not like a throbbing pain, or sharp pain or anything like that. Just sort of like pressure. They asked me how much it hurt from 1-10 (1 being least 10 being most) I said it hurt around a 6. I was then given morphine and since I was sooo stressed out I was like shaking that they told me to calm down otherwise the morphine wouldn't work as well. I then calmed myself down by taking deep breaths and then the morphine kicked in :) I was also given a T3 to ease the pain as well. Also your mouth and throat are SOOOO dry when you wake up and your throat may not hurt right away from the tube down it but it will eventually. And you can't have a sip of water for like 45 minutes until you wake up a little bit more. Which was tooooorture hahaha
Surgery was about 2 hours I'd say, and I was in the recovery room for about 2 hours.
I had one nurse that was like "my" nurse and she was always there for me. If I had questions she would answer them, she would always ask me how I was feeling. I felt like I was in really good hands :) You get a gauze "moustache" they call it underneath your nose the first day to catch blood thats dripping. She changed mine for me like 4 or 5 times (you bleed quite a bit) I'm not sure if I bled more because my doctor didn't put packing in my nose. Which I'm glad for because I didn't really want packing. I can still breathe through my nose now which is awesome :) I've changed my gauze once at home and I'm about to change it again once I'm done writing this blog.
Once the pain killers kicked in it was pretty much smooth sailing from then on until I had to sit up and get dressed. The nurse helped me get dressed because you're not supposed to bend your head down because it brings more blood to face which means you bleed more and swell more. So I sat up for a little bit and was feeling extremely dizzy from the morphine. She then helped me get into the wheelchair and I just felt SO sick, I was so dizzy, my face went white as a ghost and I felt so nauseas. This MAY of also been because I hadn't eaten since 11 pm the day before because you're not allowed to drink or eat after midnight the night before. So she brought me a little cup of gingerale to bring my blood sugar level up, as well as these cold ice packs and a cold towel. It made me feel a lot better and I was ready to go home after about 15 more minutes of sitting there.
I can't say ENOUGH good things about the doctor and nurse. The surgeon came to check on me twice while I was in the recovery room which was really nice to know he really did care. And the nurses constant attention was amazing. They would joke around with you too to make you feel comfortable and make you smile :)
The nurse wheel chaired me to the back of the building where she and my mom helped me get into the car and she blew me a kiss goodbye it was super cute haha
SO, my experience so far is wonderful! I can't wait to take off the splint and see the results. I can't take it off til I see my surgeon again in a week to remove the stitches and splint (and packing if I had it)
You shouldn't really eat anything that requires a lot of chewing on the first day, so I'm eating some pineapple in tiny pieces (which I heard helps decrease swelling), as well as some ice cream and popsicles for my sore throat.
I will try to make a blog everyday, and to take a picture everyday to show you guys the healing process. BE WARNED: It looks so much worse then it feels. Don't be scared if you want it and these pictures scare you. I promise you it's okay!!
Sorry this was long the rest probably won't be this long it was just that a lot obviously happened today as it was surgery day.
ALSO, incase you're interested in a rhinoplasty surgeon in the GTA area I highhhhhly recommend mine.
His name is Dr. Rival and this is his link http://www.rivalcosmeticsurgery.com/
He is a face only specialist which is AWESOME because you really want to go to a surgeon that basically specializes in rhinoplasty because it's a very difficult and tricky procedure. I also highly recommend spending the $500 extra to get it done at the private facility in Forest Hill (on eglington)
Thanks so much for reading!
Happy healing :)
- Stephanie
*also, the circle on my chest is from where those circle things they put on you in surgery was and it pulled of my spray tan hahahah
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