Rhinoplasty: Experiences and recovery tips?

Jerry Myers3 said:Does anyone know the current wait time for surgery through Medicare?

My first appointment was set for two months out, but I ended up caught in a strike, so they pushed it back another month and a half.

Had surgery with Dr. Tony on January 14th and everything went smoothly 😁 I'll send photos via DM

frozenwalker44 said:Has anyone here gone to Pocket Clinic over on Main Street for a rhinoplasty? What was your experience like?

I actually went to see him for a consultation... He came off a bit cold—and honestly, regarding my specific issue, he seemed a little unsure of himself. That said, even if he’s a private practitioner, he’s still the only one I’d actually trust with my face! But for now? I've decided to hold off. 🤷

briskmason42 said:I went to see him for a consultation... He was a bit cold, maybe, and honestly seemed a little unsure about my specific issue. Still, he's the only private specialist I actually trust enough to let operate on me! But for now, I'm passing. 🤷

You're looking at a secondary rhinoplasty—what kind of issues are you dealing with?

crimsonpanther8 said:My first appointment was supposed to be in two months, but then I got caught up in a strike, so now everything has been pushed back by about six weeks.

I've already had three checkups. During the last one, the doctor told me they would mail out my surgery date and all the details, but I haven't received anything yet. That was about a month and a half ago. 🙂
I’m under Medicare, so I suppose I don't know if the wait times are tied to the specific hospital or how that whole process works.🤷

The mold is off, and I’m satisfied with the result. 😁 Everything looks flat and smooth—though, if I'm being honest, one side is looking a bit more swollen than the other...
I just hope this thing settles properly and doesn't end up looking crooked. 😲

Jerry Myers3 said:I've already had three checkups, and at the last one, the doctor told me they'd mail out my surgery date and all the details. But I haven't received anything yet, and it's been about a month and a half since then. 🙂

By the way, I'm currently under Medicare, so I'm not sure if the wait times are tied to the specific hospital or how the whole process works. 🤷

They definitely do.

Jerry Myers3 said:Does anyone actually know what the wait times look like for surgery through Medicare?

Honestly, it’s hard to say—it really just depends on where you live and how backed up the patient list is at any given clinic.
I ended up breaking my nose right before the New Year, went in for an exam at the end of January, and they didn't even give me a date for the procedure until October 30th. Can you believe that? Just a massive wait.
😢

frozenwalker44 said:Has anyone here actually gone through with a rhinoplasty at the Pocket clinic over on Vukovar Street? What was the experience like?

If you're talking about Dr. David J.....
So, I went to see him first for a consultation. He struck me as an ENT who just happened to do plastic surgery, which made him my top pick since I needed a secondary procedure.
The guy is super polite and explains things well, but man, he is incredibly indecisive. Like, really unsure of himself. It was this whole thing where he’d be like, "Well, this could work..." or "Actually, that might be a bit complicated." He was basically interviewing himself and answering his own questions as he went. Even though all I wanted was to finally be able to breathe properly—no cosmetic bells and whistles requested—he just seemed way too hesitant for my liking. So, yeah, I ended up passing on it.

Just my two cents based on what I went through.

Laura James11 said:It really depends on the situation—how many patients are in the waiting room, what the current backlog looks like, and all that. I guess it varies from place to place.
I broke my nose right before New Year's. I went in for an exam at the end of January, but they didn't give me an appointment until October 30th. I guess that's just how it goes. Maybe they're just backed up.
😢

Thanks.

So, I guess I shouldn't be holding out any hope for surgery this year. 🙂

hollowgardener14 said:Had surgery with Tony on Jan 14th, everything went great 😁 check my PMs for pics

Check your inbox! 🙂

I have a question for those who might know more about this than I do. I’ve been diagnosed with a deviated septum, but I also want to address the aesthetics of my nose since it's a bit larger than I'd like, regardless of the structural issue. Does this mean I’ll be billed separately for both a rhinoplasty and a septoplasty, or can they be bundled into a single procedure? I really don't have any intention of dropping $0.00 30k
on nose surgery.

Chris Moore3 said:If you’re talking about Dr. David J...
I actually went to him for my initial consultation. He struck me as a specialist who thinks like a generalist—basically, he felt like my first choice for a primary surgeon when, honestly, he should have been the secondary option.
He’s incredibly polite and explains things clearly enough, but there's this glaring lack of confidence. It was like he was treating me like a test case—constantly second-guessing himself, saying things like, "Well, I could do this," or "That might get a bit complicated." He was essentially interrogating himself while trying to answer my questions! Even though all I wanted was simple breathing relief and had zero other demands, his hesitation made him seem way too unsure of his own hands. In the end, I walked away.

Just my personal experience with him.

I had the exact same experience...

Hey everyone🙂

Does anyone happen to know what Glumicic charges for nose surgery, and how they handle payments? Thanks a bunch😁

Hey everyone. I’ve been dealing with some pretty scary breathing issues since back in 2011. Looking back, I realized then that there's this constant physical blockage making it impossible to breathe properly. It’s been a domino effect—losing my ability to work, being unable to relax, losing focus, just completely unable to concentrate. Everything has just spiraled downward as the years pass. My hormones are all over the place, my appetite is shot so I’m getting thinner, and my sleep has been a mess ever since I spent three months in the hospital. Even now, the days feel like they're blurring together too fast. People tell me I look pale, and honestly, after even a little bit of exercise or a decent walk, I’m totally wiped out, like someone drained every ounce of energy straight from my legs. Then the next day, I’m just a wreck—moody, zero motivation, and basically always dealing with headaches and whatnot.
The headaches actually forced me to drop out of college because the stress was just too much to handle. Since then, finding a job has been a nightmare, and my girlfriend ended up leaving me because she said my life was becoming too heavy to deal with—though I doubt she would've stayed if the roles were reversed. I don't blame her, though; she was kind of an immature, intolerant kid. I haven't worked in three years, which means years of my life have just vanished into thin air while I sit here wondering what to do next. I've tried everything, but man, when your health is trashed, you're stuck. And the help I've gotten from these "hospitals"? Absolutely nothing.
That’s why I’m posting here for some advice, because it feels like my problems are endless. To be honest, last year I wasn't even sure if I’d make it to my surgery; I was literally counting down the days until the first one, and now I'm facing a second...
The only thing I really care about right now is whether anyone has dealt with correcting a deviated septum or a crooked nasal pyramid at the Mount Sinai clinic and who they saw . I was scrolling through forums last year and saw a girl with the exact same issue, and that’s the doctor who sent me for a CT scan, only for him to claim everything was fine. He basically had to check with his colleagues to confirm the CT looked okay, but nobody else could see the problem except me when I got home and looked at the actual scans. Well, except for the other doctor from my previous surgery—he noticed it, but he clearly didn't have the guts to fix the nasal bone. You can find videos on YouTube of Chinese specialists fixing that stuff in 45 seconds flat.
I don't even know what to say about the American healthcare system. It’s basically the Medicare for Zahebancija!

So, for two or three years, I’ve been bouncing from specialist to specialist, and every single doctor tells me a different story. It’s obvious they either have no clue what’s going wrong or they just don't care because they're just doing the bare minimum they're paid for. Honestly, I feel like I know more about nasal anatomy than these "PhDs." None of the ENT specialists seem to be any better than the last; they all have their own agendas. I haven't found a single one who actually listens to the patient or makes a definitive plan for what needs to be done. They’re all so conservative. Even my primary care doctor figured out the main issue and encouraged me to get it fixed, but I still haven't. I’ve spent countless hours sitting on waiting lists like everyone else, only for it to be a complete waste of time every single time. One doctor wouldn't touch it, another wanted to perform surgery on a Rib, but waiting nine months was just too long for me. At Mount Sinai, one guy sent me for a CT and told me everything looked perfect—like my sinuses were fine and nothing needed to be done—even though I showed up with a written opinion from a female doctor stating otherwise. I knew exactly what was coming, because before that, he had told me the entire middle section and the nasal pyramid needed to be straightened out, which is exactly what should have happened in the first place. Then another guy told me I was breathing straight, implying they couldn't see where the other turbines were heading toward the upper sinus passages, etc. I've seen four or five different doctors, starting with a private specialist back in July 2012 who charged about $27 $0.00 "for 45 minutes of work," and later when I Googled him, I saw plenty of people complaining about him too. So, in the end, my only option left was the public hospitals. Around that time, they had scrapped the supplemental coverage for the unemployed, so now I’m paying out of pocket for insurance that I've been paying for for two years (-$413 for NOTHING) out of the tiny scraps of my old paycheck. It's all just going down the drain.
Anyway, I finally had my nose surgery early last year, and predictably, it didn't help AT ALL because they didn't even touch the actual problem (the "vertical shift of the entire septum," according to the private doctor—the crooked nose is obvious to anyone with eyes, but hospital doctors just look for ways to do the least amount of work possible, which seems to be the rule everywhere).
Now, this year it's rhinoplasty, and it's the same story. This doctor also refused to touch the external appearance, saying, "I know exactly what needs to be done." On the day of my hospitalization, we had this tense little argument about discharging me on the third day and the crookedness of my nose, as if he thought he had to start sawing through bone. I asked him if the headaches would stop if he didn't touch that part, and he said, "they should," but of course, they didn't.

Here’s my situation:
1. My nose is crooked toward my left side—the septum basically runs straight down to eye level (you can Google images of nasal bones if you want a better visual)
2. These headaches are making it impossible to sleep or feel rested. I am beyond exhausted—like, way past the point where most people can function, let alone notice they're tired. It completely trashes my sleep, keeps me constantly tense, and honestly, I hit my breaking point last year, so I started taking sleeping pills just to drift off early. I have these dark circles under my eyes; they aren't right under the lids, more like between the eyes where the ethmoid sinuses are. I assume those aren't ventilating properly, so maybe the skin turned dark from the pain, or maybe it’s just the chronic lack of sleep. Who knows.

Has anyone dealt with this exact mess or had any luck fixing it?
Which doctor should I see over at the Mayo Clinic area? The other hospitals around here are a total joke...

-If anyone knows a specialist who actually fixes severely deviated noses—they fixed my nasal pyramid and the deviation, but the septum is still blocking my sinuses vertically. For example: //\ is how my /|\ looks compared to a normal one.
I really don't have the stomach for another surgery after the second one, and I'm not sure I could handle a third round of general anesthesia. Does anyone know if this can be fixed under local anesthesia?
Also, I am absolutely not planning on staying in a hospital overnight again. I stayed eight days after each previous surgery just so I wouldn't cause trouble for the staff, but during this last one, they took four days just to shorten the packing because they thought it wouldn't be an issue over the weekend. And man, the discomfort when air starts circulating around the packing while all that mucus is trying to get out... it’s a maddeningly ticklish sensation that drives you crazy. Having to deal with the packing being shortened is even worse, especially when you have to go through the whole removal process twice.

To be fair, for about four hours after that second surgery, I could breathe so deeply and easily it was actually a relief. I could even smell the food much stronger when lunch was being served. I felt significantly better during that window, until things just started going downhill again and by evening, it was back to square one. I thought maybe the mucosa was just swollen or there was extra drainage and I needed time, but eight days later, nothing has changed. There's no swelling. The septum probably just shifted due to the packing and snapped back because the core issue wasn't actually addressed. I’m dying to see what the doctor says when I tell him at the follow-up that nothing feels any better.
Just to be clear, me venting about my misfortune doesn't mean you won't have a great outcome. I'm clearly a special case, and I'm happy to spend the time and words if it helps someone else recognize their own symptoms or learn from my mistakes. They never bothered to fix the "outer part"—the slanted nasal bone—because that’s apparently too much work for them, and frankly, nobody cares how much effort I had to put into getting all these tests done. That bone is what holds my septum centered, and I think I knocked it out of alignment when I was a kid back in 2009, colliding with some girl and then wiping out on a bike face-first onto a sidewalk—I might have even been unconscious.
If anyone is interested in swapping info, photos, or links, I'm totally down to chat. I'm on Skype, or Facebook if you don't use Skype (but please, someone with a similar situation so we can figure this out together). I'm away from my computer right now, but I'll be back on April 10th around 10 PM, so I'll check messages then, or any other day. Just click my username and send a message.
That's all from me. Cheers!

Man, you are paranoid as hell :O

Just wanted to let you all know that I pulled the mold off today, and my nose looks absolutely perfect!😍

Hi, I'm new here, so I'd really appreciate some guidance from the veterans. I'm planning to have nose surgery covered by Medicare, but could someone walk me through the whole process 😕—from visiting my primary care doctor for a referral all the way to seeing the ENT? If anyone has been in this exact situation and has a moment to spare...

Casey Kelly2 said:Hi, I'm new here and would really appreciate some advice from the veterans. I'm planning on getting nose surgery through Medicare, but could someone walk me through the process 😕—from visiting my primary care doctor for a referral all the way to meeting the ENT. If anyone has been through this and has a moment to spare...

Is this for a functional issue or purely cosmetic? You head to your GP, explain what’s bothering you, and get a referral to a specialist. Personally, I always get my scans done beforehand so when I finally see the specialist, they already have the imaging ready to review. They'll determine if you actually need the surgery, then you take their diagnosis and medical history to the nurse. She’ll schedule the procedure, usually about 6 to 9 months out, and give you a list of all the pre-op tests you'll need to complete.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy

I have a question for those who might be more experienced in this than I am. Basically, I have a deviated septum, but I also want to address the aesthetic side of things because my nose is a bit larger than I'd like. Does this mean I’ll be forced to pay separately for both a rhinoplasty and a septoplasty, or can everything be bundled into a single procedure? I really don't have any intention of shelling out 30 $0.00 for a nose job
.