It's actually been 1 year 5 months now. My last follow up with Dr Naficy was 3 months ago, he wanted to be sure to give my nose plenty of time to heal before deciding if the bump caused any damage.
First, here's a profile view taken today, and front view taken last week:
First, here's a profile view taken today, and front view taken last week:
AFTER: 1-1/2 years post op, profile view
AFTER: 1-1/2 years post op, front view
And... ready for this? Here's a reminder of what is used to look like, can you believe it?!?
BEFORE: Yuck!
Wow, that is one fugly hump on the nose! I'm SO happy with my new nose, even if the hit did mess things up a bit.
So... the hit to my nose did cause some damage to the healing process. As you can see in the top photo, there's still a very very slight hump, and from the front view, some of the cartilege did shift when my nose got bumped, and pushed upward causing a wider area at the top, and thinner below. It's hard to tell from the photo, but believe me I see it when I look in the mirror. Of course i'm totally obsessed and look at it all the time, so it might not be as bad as I think. Regardless, there is in fact permanent damange from the hit to my nose 1 month post-op. Huge freakin' bummer!
Here's what the doc said.... He said there's no damage to the bone which is great, that all of this is just cartiledge that was pushed up when my nose was bumped, and can easily be moved around. He said it's looking good, and it's pretty much 90% perfect, and the last 10% to fix the injury is a very very easy fix that would get it to 100% (as it would have been, had I not been injured). Apparantly recovery is similar to before, but he said about 70% of the swelling/bruising since we don't need to shave down the bone. Still, it's the whole thing all over again, split for a couple weeks, can't breathe out the nose, swelling, 1-2 weeks off work, 1 year of healing, etc.
Doc's recommendation is to do a revision. However the way he's recommending it, is to keep the width at the top, and fill the area where it gets thinner so it's more of a natural subtle line. What I worry about, is that my whole nose will be wide, which it wasn't before, so then the new "fixed" version won't be what I wanted to begin with. I mean, I know what I've got now, and it's 90% there and I'm really happy with the improvement, so is it worth messing with it again, not sure what the result will be?
I'm SO torn as to what to do! Here are the pros & cons as I see it:
PROS:
- Free / no expense to me, to get a revision
- I won't be looking in the mirror every day staring at my nose thinking "why the #$&% did that hit have to happen, and what should I do?"
CONS:
- I have to go thru recovery ALL OVER AGAIN. Splint, swelling, 1 year recovery time. UGH!
- I'm worried the revision will make it look different but not necessarily better. I know what I have now which is pretty good, and I worry messing with it more will cause more problems or that I won't actually like it better.
So anyway, there you have it.
I will say this for those of you considering rhinoplasty, or who have just undergone surgery, this is one of the best things i've done and i don't regret it one bit!! I look at old photos of myself and can't believe I waited so long. Even with the hit that messed up the healing, i'm still SUPER happy with the results and feel much more confident and happy with things overall. Again, I highly recommend Dr. Naficy. I'm proof that the service is quality high-end, and well worth every penny. As you can see he's actually suggesting I do a revision free of charge to me, and I can wait as long as I want to decide. So that is comforting.
I'm so undecided on whether or not I'll do the revision, as you can see it's been 3 months since that last follow-up appointment, and I still haven't decided what to do! I'd love to hear what you all think, what you would do in this situation, it's such a hard call. But I'm a happy camper nonetheless! Will post another update if/when I decide what to do about the revisions. I welcome any comments or advice. :)
