Except for the last 6 photos, the left side is 1 week after removal and the right side is 1 month after. At 1 week, it was my dream line, but now I feel like I'm gradually becoming uglier. The swelling between the eyebrows seems to have mostly gone down, but from the middle toward the tip of the nose, the swelling still feels hard and puffy like a waxy nose. Overall, my nose seems a bit shorter, and as the tip height has come down a lot, my nose feels slightly upturned. I thought that by 1 month the shape would be roughly settled and would get a little softer, but the columella and tip are still hard and swollen, so I think the swelling still has a long way to go.
Looking at the photos, my nose keeps getting lower and uglier, but honestly I don't really look in the mirror much or think about it much these days. It's so hard to take photos while trying to match the angle on purpose The inside-nose photos actually make it look more swollen now, but when I look with the flash on in the mirror, it seems like the space has gotten a little wider than before. It is even harder to photograph the inside of the nose, and honestly there isn't a big difference.
Right after my revision surgery, I couldn't breathe well through the right side of my nose right away, so compared to before removal, breathing is so much better. After going up stairs or walking fast, I used to hear a wheezing sound when breathing through my nose, and I couldn't breathe through my nose in front of people, so I had to breathe through my mouth. But now, in the same situation, I catch myself just breathing through my nose, and I think, oh, this has improved a lot. Still, I don't think I can go back to the nose that let me breathe comfortably before the revision. It still feels a little blocked when I breathe.
I put a lot of front-facing shots in the last photos on purpose, and as you can see from the photos, the bridge that was extremely crooked during the revision surgery became completely bent the opposite way after removal, so I'm showing it as a reference. This may have been the doctor's mistake, or it may have been the best the doctor could do. It could also be because the narrow osteotomy on one side and the pinched nose on the other side caused different swelling. (But based on my past experience, regardless of swelling, it just ended up bending like that.) Or maybe it's because I slept on my side right after surgery. I don't really know the cause, but in the end this one point is very disappointing to me.
Still, before removal, the columella was crooked, the bridge looked crooked from the front, and it was crooked from the top and from below too. Now it only looks crooked when viewed straight from the front, so I'm trying to take comfort in that. Compared to my first surgery photos, I can see why the middle of the bridge bulges out to the side in both the revision and removal cases. Setting aside that curve, that part has become very thick and bulky. It feels like the septum itself has become thick and swollen, as if scar tissue formed inside the nose. Still, as you can see in the very last photo, depending on the angle of the light it can look okay, so I'm just accepting it and living with it.
People kept asking me about the hospital, so I'm telling you honestly without sugarcoating anything. I'm not going to have any more surgeries, so I'm just living with the thought that 99 things got better and this one thing is disappointing, while being grateful that there are no other side effects. I think every surgery comes with side effects that neither the doctor nor I could have predicted, so just don't get surgery in the first place. I'll come back with photos in a year.