Tuesday 21 May 2013

Rhinoplasty, chin augmentation day 13..swelling, tingles and worries!

I am going to be as honest as I can in this post. The last few days have been quite difficult and I wanted to give it time to settle before I commented. Now for those of you considering these procedures please bare in mind that this is my experience only, you may sail through your recovery so please don't let me influence your decision too much. This post is more for those who, like me, have had the procedure or procedures and are struggling with what is normal and what is not.

So as far as bruising goes I still have some very slight discolouration in stripes under my eyes and along the bridge and tip of my nose, nothing too obvious as easy to cover with makeup.

Swelling has been my major issue. I went into quite a low after cast removal as to me my face was unrecognisable. My nose was (still is) swollen at the bridge between my eyes which to me made my eyes look smaller and shrunken into my head. My nose then gets wider and wider as it moves toward the tip like a fat plasticine blob really. I kept thinking that I had made a major mistake and had to really calm myself down allot, my heart would kind of drop everytime I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror.

Every day the swelling has started to improve in small degrees. My bridge has narrowed so my eyes don't look quite so bizarre and I can see tiny details emerge on the rest of my nose too such as nostril shape and a small scar I had is becoming visible again. When I lightly touch my face I can feel probably more then see the improvements and it is most noticeable when I first wake up. I dare say the swelling is worse in the morning then throughout the day but for whatever reason it's when I notice the most change. I am still sleeping with my head raised and on my back I start off with three pillows but often get rid of one at some time during the night! I have noticed that my nose is starting to look slightly assymetrical, this is positive for me as swelling will typically decrease more in one side faster so its visible proof that healing is occurring. Overall I am STARTING to feel more positive about my nose.

My chin is causing me more frustration. I can definitely see that the swelling is reducing again more on one side then the other but the shape is very nice and I think I will be thrilled once all of this has settled. The biggest issue (and its a huge one for me) is that I cannot eat or talk normally yet. My lower lip is completely numb and still seems very swollen. I do wonder if my lip is due to the dermal filler I had injected although this was about 2 years ago I seem to hold onto it for longer and it may be exacerbating the issue. I have a fair amount of tingles in my chin and lip, like the feeling after your leg going to sleep which is apparently positive as its an indication that the nerves are repairing. Right now when I talk I kind of look as though I've had a bad experience with dermal fillers and Botox..not good! There is still some swelling under my chin too which is a bit double chinney but I can see that resolving.

I am on the conference for work so all of this makes life a bit difficult. I have had to restart on the steroidal anti inflamitory to try and help the swelling along a bit. I also read green tea helps so am going crazy on the caffeinated and decaf types! I miss coffee and am starting g to hate this bloody tea! Ive told people I fell down some stairs so no everyone probably thinks I'm being beaten by my boyfriend..

So overall slow improvements but much slower then I was expecting. Here is my advice to anyone contemplating this or going through their own recovery. Most doctors will say 10 days to 2 weeks to be work ready. I'm sure this is the case if you have had one procedure, more procedures mean more trauma so your recovery will probably be longer as in my case, try and take three weeks off at least so feel comfortable. I have a busy, demanding career which doesn't allow for extended periods of leave so this wasn't an option for me and I have found it has caused more anxiety then I would have should I have taken more time off.

Don't panic! I did in the first few days and I still do from time to time and keep trawling the Internet
 for a sense of normalcy. As I've mentioned before this can help or hinder, many people will post in the initial stages when they are scared, once things start to improve they seem to disappear as they no longer need the reassurance of strangers that everything is fine because they can see it, which largely leaves the very few who actually do have real issues continuing to post. Therefore it's easy in your own panic to start to assume that you will be like them and things will never get better, I would look at the number of people who stop posting as an indicator that things do improve as opposed to the few that continue to post to show that these issues are normal early on.

Then there is the flip side to that, the people who do amazing during the first week, have their cast off and love their new look, just love it. All of a suddenly they look like Giselle  Bundchen and are off to go eat in a five star resturant which, if you're like me, will make you a. Sit muttering "oh yeah? Well f' you" at your monitor And b. spend hours in front of the mirror wondering what the hell have you done. That really is a tough aspect of cosmetic surgery, you do this to yourself so you can really start to blame yourself for your decision.

There are many decent people out there though who have been very honest about their results and recovery and will admit that it can be hard. Healing is slow but they did get better, these posts have been very helpful to me although there aren't too many of them. So as I do get better I will keep up with the updates. I've had to take the pictures down for the time being but will put them back eventually and am happy to email if you like.

If you are scared please feel free to ask me any questions although I probably won't answer who my surgeon is right now as it wouldn't be fair to him until I see the final result. I know how scary and isolating this whole experience is so am here to help as much as I can.

Will post more in a few days!

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