Recovery process record for using ear cartilage in nose surgery

When I was looking into nose surgery, it was hard to find information about how ear cartilage is harvested, how recovery goes, and when things heal, and it was also hard to ask people about it, so I’ll write this as information sharing for those people, and also as a record of my own process.Before surgery, my ear conditionOn my right ear I had 5 piercing holes, and on my left ear I had 3 piercing holes, but they said it was fine and took it from the right sideI think that was just because that doctor was used to taking cartilage from the right sideWhat was interesting is that even now those piercing holes are still open, so I wear the same piercings again without issueThe incision was made long toward the back, and there was quite a large bruise in the front, near the inner conchaAlso, there were small stitches in the front. It didn’t seem like an incision there, more like it was fixed in place (?)The bruise disappeared completely in about 10 days!For care, every morning and evening I simply washed it by spraying on cool water, then dried the moisture with a hair dryer + lightly applied the ophthalmic ointment from the hospital once with a cotton swabAs a note, they told me absolutely not to pick off the scabs on purpose, so I applied the ointment over the scabs..!I didn’t have any molding or retention deviceMy stitches healed well and there were no problems, so I think there was nothing visibly noticeable from the outside starting in week 2However, wearing a mask was still painful until before month 4Also, until month 3, when cold air touched it, the stinging, numb, poor-circulation, and cold pain sensations were severe, and that was the hardest partActually, I hadn’t thought about that at all when I chose ear cartilage;;;;It wasn’t a sharp sting, but it felt like I had frostbite, and it was extremely painfulAnd strangely, after a little over 2 months, when I slept and the side where the cartilage had been removed got pressed, the numb, poor-circulation feeling mentioned above became severe, so when I wanted to lie on my right side, I developed the habit of covering my ear with my palm before lying downThankfully, around month 4 I felt that the cold sensitivity had clearly decreased, and my ear got strongerEarly on after surgery, it really felt strange to touch it, but now even if I touch it, I can't tell that cartilage was removed, and the feeling is completely the same as the side that wasn't operated on!If you have any more questions, leave a comment.I'll answer everything I can.