Posts by rustygardener172

slymoose95 said:did you actually go through with the surgery yet???😉

Not yet... I just can't step away from work right now. I'm aiming for late June or early July. I know everyone says it’s way better when the weather cools down, but I can't push it off any longer, and honestly, I don't have the patience to wait until next winter... 😉

copperangler89 said:I’ve got a question. I’m heading in for a checkup this Friday, followed by blood work and all that good stuff.
BUT, about two months ago, I was experimenting with some drugs, which means there might still be traces in my system.
Are they going to deny my surgery if they find anything?

Honestly, it's pretty unlikely they'll catch anything in your blood after two months have passed. The only way they'd really know is if they went looking for hair follicle tests, but that's expensive as hell and nobody actually does that unless there's a major investigation. I wouldn't sweat it too much. ☕

Jamie Ruiz said:Can someone break down why some nose jobs involve an incision inside the nostril while others require a cut right under the nose and the lip? I’m wondering if the specific surgeons or even the hospitals make that call. Also, does anyone here actually know the deal with Dr. Smith over at Mayo Clinic?🙂

Oh man... seriously? Have you even bothered to glance at the last page of this forum? Or better yet, have you actually read the specific thread we’re stuck in right now? 😁 I've already covered this... check my comment #2655... I was actually replying to that question Brandon Moore4 posted. Besides, we’ve been beating this dead horse for a while now anyway. 😲

Ashley Young34 said:I gotta take a selfie first, I'll post it once I've got the shot 😁
mwahhhhh 🙂

So, have you actually taken any more photos? 😁 😉 Come on, drop a few shots in this thread... or if you're feeling shy about everyone seeing... then please 🙏 🙏 🙏 🙏 just shoot me a private message... honestly, I feel like I'm constantly bouncing between three different doctors... including Dr. Smith, 👍 the guy you're always raving about... so it’d be great to see some actual recent work from him, instead of just staring at those same old stock photos on his website over and over again... 😍 thx

Chloe Watson35 said:I’m not a fan of Fanny's nose either—it looks way too tiny and fake. Honestly, maybe a slightly larger one would suit her better because right now her eyes look like huge donuts.

Alright, I really need someone who actually knows their stuff to weigh in here. I was browsing Dr. Smith's website again and stumbled upon this photo: If that's what they’d do to me, I’m out. No thanks.

Here’s the deal: Like I mentioned, I have a pretty wide nose. In profile, there's a bump, then a dip, and then the tip is just rounded off. To put it bluntly, the whole thing looks like a potato. If I had bigger eyes, I probably wouldn't even bother with surgery, but mine are small, so I end up looking like one of those lead actors from *Avatar*.

So, basically, they’d need to break my side bones and fix that bump to reshape everything. My big question is: to get results like the picture, DO THEY HAVE TO DO THAT INCISION UNDER THE LIP? Is there any other way? I am terrified of that. Look, I don't mind if they mess with my nose, but there is zero chance they're going to be hacking away at my mouth area.

Has anyone else dealt with a nose similar to mine? How did you handle it?

Here’s a photo that looks exactly like my nose: http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/1603/yo20.jpg

And this is more like what I want (maybe even a bit narrower): http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/7188/yo1rr.jpg

Please, someone help me out with that question above. Thanks! 🙂

Don't take this the wrong way... but it would be helpful if you actually read the whole text instead of just glancing at the pictures. 🙂 Check out this snippet from Dr. Smith's site: "Additionally, the nasolabial angle (the angle between the nose and the upper lip) needs to be measured to determine if the nasal tip droops during facial animation." This means they don't just do that to everyone—only to patients whose nose tips tilt downward when they talk. Try talking while looking in the mirror; if your nose dips down, you might fall into that group where they have to adjust those muscle fibers. Again, I'm repeating myself: it doesn't necessarily mean they'll do that to you. You won't know for sure until the first consultation when they look at your face in person. All in all... even if they do have to make an incision, it's really not a big deal, it's not painful, and you can't see the scar afterward.

As for those two nose photos... honestly, it looks like the exact same nose to me. 😁 Maybe my perception is totally off, but it looks like one nose photographed from two different angles and distances. The first shot is a close-up, fairly centered, and the second is taken from further away and more from the side. I feel like I'm rambling now, so I'll stop. 🙂 😁

placidscout25 said:Hey everyone, here’s another update🙄
I’ve been scrolling through these threads so intensely my eyes are actually starting to fail me—been glued to this computer screen for hours now.🤣
Anyway, after deep-diving into all the details, I’ve decided Dr. Miller is the one. But, naturally, there’s a catch. I really need to get this over with ASAP because my allergies to freaking ragweed are killing me; I can't deal with summer if my nose is constantly stuffed up, otherwise, what's even the point of the surgery? Plus, I’m a student, so skipping lectures isn't exactly ideal. Does anyone know how long it takes before I can actually head out into public without people staring at me like I’m some kind of alien?🤣🤣
Thanks a ton😁

Honestly, it’s different for everybody depending on the specific procedure... but if I were you, I'd budget at least two weeks. Based on everything I've read in these posts, that seems to be the standard. When I had my first one, I was able to step out the moment they pulled the tampons out on day five since I didn't end up with any bruising... just a little swelling in the nose. Still, I stayed cooped up at home until the stitches fell out 😁 and the swelling finally went down... maybe around ten days.

Hannah Long36 said:Look, don't get mad at me, but the doctor is absolutely not to blame here! He asked you straight up if you wanted aesthetic work done, and you said no. He isn't some freaking mind reader who should have known you actually meant you wanted the cosmetic part fixed too...
God, seriously, when it comes to stuff like this, just think through what you actually want and then clearly explain it...

Nobody’s mad, honestly—I actually totally agree with you, that was my own screw-up. I really should have done my homework beforehand. I had no clue that fixing the lower septum fell under "aesthetic" surgery... in my head, I thought we were just talking about correcting the deviation. When he asked if I wanted cosmetic work, I said no because, at the time, I figured "cosmetic" meant changing the actual shape of my nose... you know, making it smaller, shaving down a hump, slimming it out, etc. My nose isn't big and it's actually pretty cute, so I didn't see the point in messing with its look. But still... isn't the doctor supposed to explain this stuff to us? It's not like I spent years in med school to be an expert. And honestly, nobody at the Mayo Clinic even bothered to talk to me. They give you that classic line about "just call your nurse if you need anything," but the second you actually need something, they vanish. Just gone. I got so sick of that little fold under my nose soaking up blood until it was literally dripping over my lips... having to drag myself out of bed just to hunt someone down in the ward to change it... Thank god a nurse from a different shift came on day two—a girl I actually recognized from before—and she brought me extra gauze and told me to just do it myself once they got soaked. You feel like nothing more than a product on an assembly line there... just another number, exactly like the person before you and the one after. That's why this time I'm going private. I'll pay the premium, but at least they actually talk to me.

brightotter21 said:rustygardener172, where was that? Somewhere in Indianapolis??

Nah, was down in San Diego a few years back.

Scott James2 said:Hey everyone. I'm from Indianapolis and I recently went in for a nose exam because I can't breathe through my nose and my throat is constantly inflamed. I've been scheduled for surgery on May 7th. The report says "septoplasty and potentially turbinoplasty, septal deviation, and hypertrophied right inferior turbinate." I just want to know if this septoplasty includes fixing the shape of my nose, because it used to be straight until I got hit by a tennis ball, and now it has this bump on it.😁

Look, all I can give you is my own experience. I dealt with the exact same thing—crooked nose, deviation, the whole nine yards. I had my surgery at the hospital, and honestly, I had zero clue what they were actually going to do to me. Nobody bothered to sit down and have a real conversation with me. Right before the surgery, the doctor popped in to see me, and our entire interaction went like this: him asking, "Do you want us to do some cosmetic work on the nose too?" and me saying, "No, just fix it so I can breathe normally, but I want it to still look like my nose." He just goes, "Alright," and walks out. An hour later, the nurse came by with some sedative, it knocked me sideways, and a few minutes later I was being wheeled into the OR. I remember feeling that chill in my arm, counting backward from ten—"ten, niiiine"—and then blackness. I woke up with those nasty packing tampons stuffed up my nose, sitting in a hospital room... and that was my life for the next five days. (Not much pain, though.) On the fifth day, some other doctor pulled the tampons out and finally gave me the green light to head home... at last!🙂 But once I got home and looked in the mirror, my nose was still crooked.😕 I was totally lost. I had a follow-up appointment about two weeks later, so I asked him point-blank why my nose was still crooked, and he just gave me this super blunt answer that I hadn't opted for the aesthetic part. I seriously thought that correcting the deviation (which is basically just the curvature) would automatically straighten the nose, but apparently, that's not how it works. Long story short... I still can't breathe great, and my nose looks even more crooked by the day... so I honestly have no idea what they actually did to me in there.🤷
Seriously, talk to your doctor about every single little detail before you go under! As for me, I know one thing for sure... until I know every final detail regarding the procedure, nobody is putting me to sleep.🧐

Ashley Young34 said:Hey guys, so I 😁
actually made it through my surgery yesterday. Heading in today to get those tampons pulled out. Everything went fine so far, except now I’m dealing with massive bruising and I feel completely swollen up like a balloon. 😲
Later! And hey, big hugs to you, Paul Sullivan88! 😍

So? How's the nose looking? 🎉

Lawrence Ortiz8 said:Basically, they did the surgery under local anesthesia. It’s honestly a little creepy when you can hear the mallet and the retractor and feel someone tugging around in there, but it doesn't actually hurt—you're just wide awake, kind of like you're in a dream state...
The actual surgical part wasn't even the worst part; it was the recovery time. Last night, I swear I thought I was experiencing the most agonizing pain on the planet. No pill in my cabinet could touch it—it was enough to make you lose your mind! Eventually, the Ketoral forte kicked in after about two hours and gave me some relief, but I didn't sleep a wink. Then, by morning, everything went south again. Now I'm dealing with this intense pain and total irritability; my nose, teeth, face, palate, even my scalp—everything hurts! Ugh! I'm back on the Ketoral, and it takes another two hours to settle down. I'm starting to wonder if my pain tolerance is just bottom-of-the-barrel low, or if everyone else goes through this and just keeps their mouths shut about how much it sucks?

Honestly, it's different for everyone. That goes for both the intensity of the pain and your individual threshold. After my first surgery, I didn't get a single bruise; I barely felt a thing, absolutely nothing. As for the swelling... my nose was the only thing puffy, and even that cleared up in a week or two. I didn't sleep the first night, but that wasn't because of the pain—it was because the lady staying in the room with me was snoring loud enough to wake the dead (I'm pretty sure people in the next rooms over were struggling too 😵).
I'm not sure if you've caught up on all the posts in this thread... if you had, you'd see you aren't alone in this. Plenty of people have dealt with pain just as bad as yours. While it obviously depends on how heavy the surgery was and which surgeon you got... personally, I think it mostly comes down to your own body and how it reacts.
Bottom line? This isn't a permanent thing. Just grit your teeth and power through these next few days. Once you can finally breathe through your nose normally again, you'll realize the struggle was totally worth it... you'll probably forget the whole thing entirely. Hang in there! 👍

Rebecca Gomez37 said:Reading what you wrote, I’d honestly suggest seeing an ENT who also specializes in maxillofacial surgery rather than just a standard plastic surgeon—this sounds like a much more complicated mess.
I know plenty of people who ended up struggling to breathe through their nose after cosmetic work, and let's be real, those famous surgeons we see on TV are basically just selling smoke and mirrors—claiming they "just happened" to fix breathing issues while they were touching up the aesthetics.
Based on just your photo, they can only really see the aesthetic side of things, but an endoscopic exam and a CT scan are what actually show the full picture of what's going on inside you.
Good luck👍

Exactly! That’s been weighing on my mind too... which is why I’m planning to go to someone who prioritizes actual health over just looking pretty. I’m leaning towards... Dr. Baker... he’s a top-tier specialist for a reason. I’ve already been in for surgery once before using my insurance, and as you can tell (since I have to go back in), even those big-shot specialists don't always get the credit they deserve if things don't go perfectly. 🙂 Nowadays, there are zero guarantees for anything... maybe if you pay enough...

Just wanted to check in and give you guys an update... I finally sent out those inquiry emails to Dr. Miller, Dr. Smith, and Dr. Thompson regarding my surgery. I made sure to attach a super clear photo of my nose so they actually knew what they were looking at 🙂. Well, they all got back to me. Dr. Miller kept it pretty short and sweet—basically just said it’s best if I come in for an initial consultation first so we can hash out the details. On the other hand, the other two doctors really went above and beyond, taking the time to write out thorough responses to every single one of my questions. Interestingly enough, they were all on the exact same page regarding the diagnosis: a subluxation of the lower edge of the nasal septum... which apparently makes this one of the most complicated nose surgeries out there. Because of that, they all agreed I’ll need to be under general anesthesia; there's a huge chance I'd feel too much pain if they just tried to do it with local numbing. As for the damage to my wallet, Dr. Smith quoted me $13 $0.00, while Dr. Thompson came in at $15 $0.00.
Anyway... hopefully this info helps someone else out there navigating the same mess.
Later 🙂

Kate Thompson45 said:Yeah, finding a decent doctor is always such a massive headache. I totally get it. 🤣

I know from personal experience that Dr. Smith is actually pretty quick when it comes to replying to emails. I haven't reached out to the other ones you mentioned, so I have zero clue how fast they are! 😁

Have you had a chance to check out any of the nose results from the doctors on your "shortlist"?

Thanks so much for the heads-up!! I actually saw the nose of a girl who’s also on this forum—brightotter21. We happened to cross paths and hung out for a few days, and if she hadn't mentioned she'd had surgery, I honestly never would have suspected a thing. She went to Baker... and man, I gotta say, her nose is perfect... it fits her face shape so naturally, it's like she was born with it. Because of her, Baker actually made it onto my shortlist. Before meeting her, I hadn't even heard his name. Plus, nobody on this forum has said a single bad thing about him. But then again... her procedure wasn't quite the same as mine... I'd really love to see some results from someone who dealt with the exact same issue I did... you know, a normal size, perfectly straight from the profile, but slightly upturned at the tip 😁 I've been scrolling through all these different doctors' websites... and like someone else already pointed out: Miller has been doing this for almost a decade now (though he could probably use a little refresh 🙂), and everyone else just posts side profiles... except for Dr. Smith, who's the only one showing front views... which is what I care about most... but even he doesn't have any examples of a crooked nose 😠
Honestly, I'm losing my mind here... I feel like the more I overthink this, the harder it gets to actually pick someone 😢

Hey everyone!
I’ve been lurking here for a while now... honestly, I’ve read pretty much every single post in this thread. Some of you have been a lifesaver, but I’ll admit, some of the info has just made my head spin even more. 😁 It shouldn't be a mystery why I'm finally jumping into the fray... I'm planning on getting nose surgery myself, obviously. 👍 Look, the actual surgery doesn't scare me one bit, and the recovery process is even less of an issue... My massive headache is just finding a specialist who actually knows what they're doing so I don't end up hating my reflection. I had one procedure back in the day through my insurance... I can't recall the exact year, but I vividly remember lying in that hospital bed watching the USA-England soccer match—you know, the one where we basically got lucky thanks to a fluke goal? The guys on here probably remember that mess. 😁 My nose isn't huge or particularly bumpy; it's just crooked. I had surgery once before to fix a deviated septum because I could barely breathe. Sure, the breathing part worked out fine after the operation, but they didn't touch the aesthetics... in fact, it’s been the opposite. As the years go by, it's getting progressively more crooked... if it keeps going like this, my nose tip is going to merge with my earlobe. 🤣 And the breathing situation is just getting worse and worse. I've been doing some deep dives online... the specific thing I need is called rhinoseptoplasty. On Dr. Ostojić's website, it says that's the "most demanding type of rhinoplasty" because it handles everything—both the look and the function.
To cut to the chase... my question is this: since I'm living in San Diego... before I even bother scheduling a first consultation... do any of you know which of these doctors actually bother to reply to emails? I was thinking about sending over a few photos and using their response to decide who's worth an actual appointment. After scrolling through all your posts, I've "narrowed down" my list to Bastajić, Ostojić, and Tončić... though I haven't completely crossed Glumičić and Glušac off yet. So, you see why I put "narrowed" in quotes... it’s not exactly a short list. 😕 🤷
Thanks in advance for any help you can give.