My skin is delicate and I scar easily, so from the beginning I looked into closed rhinoplasty, and at a pretty large hospital in Gangnam (after seeing Instagram ads), I had consultations with both the coordinator and the surgeon for closed rhinoplasty.
I was told about the pros and cons of closed and open surgery. For closed surgery, they said they couldn’t raise the nose very much, and for open surgery, they said it would leave a scar small enough to cover with makeup, but allow for more design options.
I knew I would be stressed if I ended up with a scar, and because of my job I can’t wear makeup anyway, so I emphasized that during the surgeon consultation too. In the end, I compromised on everything else and only agreed to lowering the tip a natural amount, just enough to bring it down if it had been lifted too much. I didn’t even ask for any other design changes; if I were going open, I would have gone for a higher or different design too.
I chose to proceed with closed surgery to correct only the tip, using the septal cartilage inside my nose. Since it was closed surgery, I naturally didn’t even worry about scars and was just waiting to remove the packing while making plans for the next appointments.
While the packing was in, it was taped over so I couldn’t even see anything. But today, when I went to have the packing removed, they were explaining how to apply the ointment and I saw an incision under my nose, along with stitch marks.
The person removing the packing said it had been done as open surgery. I was so startled that I said I had been scheduled for closed surgery from the start, and asked what they meant. Then they said my surgical record says closed surgery, but looking at the incision under my nose now, it is open surgery, and that in order to match the septum, they would have had to open it ;;;
For now, the coordinator in charge wasn’t there, and the surgeon wasn’t there today either, so they told me they would call and asked me to go home. I was in complete shock, and after I got home I spoke with the coordinator by phone.
They said that open surgery was indeed performed. They said something shifted a lot during the operation, so they switched to open surgery. As far as I know, closed/open surgery is about the issue of securing the field of view, so I don’t understand what they mean.
Second, they were supposed to come and explain during recovery after surgery, but they said they couldn’t because they had another surgery while I was recovering. If that’s true, then does that mean the nurses in charge of recovery and discharge didn’t say a single word to me? Closed and open surgery should have different care instructions from the start, so I told them that, but they couldn’t really explain that part either. . . . .
On top of that, even the coordinator in charge apparently didn’t know until today that I had been operated on with an open procedure.
They’re saying we should wait until the stitch removal and hear the surgeon’s follow-up opinion later, but right now the stitches at the tip of my nose are so distracting that I can’t do anything. . . I’m stressed out.
They say they’ll take care of the scar, but I’m also worried that I’ll have to travel 3-4 hours round trip to Gangnam just for scar care.
They want to keep seeing the surgeon next week and decide then, but I wonder what countermeasures they’ll discuss with me in the meantime and what they’ll actually offer.
Because it’s such a large hospital, I feel like they’ll start with the line that the doctor had no choice, and honestly I don’t know how I should respond either.
Has anyone here experienced something like this?
They carried out a surgery method without the patient’s consent. I felt reassured because it was a big hospital, but ; it’s stressful and depressing ahㅡ