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