Before <revision surgery with rib cartilage, alar base lowering, and tip lengthening> before before before before before* I’m summarizing in case long posts are hard to read. 1. A hospital staff member removed the intranasal supporting splint after surgery. 2. They treated my complaints as trivial even when I told them I was uncomfortable. 3. After the AS consultation, on the day of surgery a month later, the reservation had not been properly made. I had clearly communicated everything, but the manager who listened half-heartedly had not checked anything about the surgery during the phone call the day before. 4. Even the surgical materials that had at least been reserved were suddenly not used on the day because they “didn’t recommend them,” but I was charged the same price. 5. The doctor’s attitude and speech were the complete opposite of the first surgery
Hello. I can’t sleep, and I’m so frustrated and hurt that I don’t have much talent for writing, but I needed somewhere to vent, so I’m writing a long post. (Long post warning)
I visited a clinic on Sinsa Station where there is said to be a director famous for nose revision surgery, praying that this would be my last surgery. I had surgery with rib cartilage at another hospital, but my nostrils looked pointed and I didn’t like the shape, so I decided on revision surgery. I wanted silicone and donated rib cartilage or AlloDerm, but they said I had to have surgery with rib cartilage and ear cartilage, so I went ahead with that, and the result after surgery seemed okay.
But on the day I went for postoperative cleaning after surgery, the usual staff member was off and a different staff member was there. Because my swelling was severe and I looked obviously as if it had been less than a week since surgery, I was told that they would remove the supporting pillar stitched inside my nose and the things placed inside my nostrils. I found that odd and asked them to check the chart again.
But they said the chart was correct and removed all the intranasal supports. In the middle of removing them, perhaps realizing the mistake late, they went out for a moment and came back with the director who had performed the surgery. The flustered director, with a stiff expression, said they could not anesthetize me again because of this, and told me to endure the pain. Two nurses held my arms from both sides while I struggled, and while I was lying there, they forcibly opened my nostrils, which were still very swollen only three days after suturing and would not stretch, and shoved in two supports about the size of a 100-won coin, larger than my nostrils. By then I was already out of my mind... The incision areas stitched with sutures hurt like crazy, my whole body tensed up, and the rib cartilage harvest site and the ear cartilage harvest site hurt so much I felt like I was going to lose my mind.
But that wasn’t the end. For the supports inserted into both nostrils to work and support each other, they had to be connected, but there was the nasal columella in between;;; They said sorry, but this time I absolutely must not move, and without even giving me time to catch my breath, they immediately started stitching my nasal columella. It was truly torture.. I had lived my whole life without ever screaming, but for the first time I screamed my head off at the hospital while watching blood spurt from my nose... It was so scary, painful, and horrifying, and even though it’s already been half a year, I still tear up just thinking about it... Sigh.
After that, while wiping away the blood that was flowing, they scolded the staff member who had made the mistake right in front of me.. But everything that had already happened had already happened, and scolding them in front of me didn’t make me any better. I was only worried whether my nose would end up wrong, and I was so upset that I didn’t even want to hear or look at it, so I told them not to scold her..
After that, they said sorry, and all I got for aftercare was lying down for a few sessions of swelling laser treatment. I did think they were making a big deal out of a service that everyone gets after surgery, but I’m also the type of person who thinks it’s better to keep things pleasant, and if I spoke badly I was worried they might not take good care of me if the result turned out badly later. You never know what will happen in life, so I quietly let it go hoping only that the later result would be good.
Ah, they did give me an injection of something called stem-cell extract.
But the problem was that, during the process of the swelling going down and recovery progressing, there were uncomfortable things for me.
First, it was hard to breathe, so for a while I kept waking up repeatedly because I couldn’t breathe even when I was sleeping. So I looked inside my nose, and near the nasal columella I could see something with a slightly ivory-colored, cream-like texture. Around a month later, when I asked the hospital during a follow-up visit, they brushed it off by saying it might be because the transplanted skin color was a bit pale, so I endured it thinking that must be the case. I thought I was just uncomfortable because it hadn’t fully healed yet, and after a few more months I became used to breathing through my mouth, so I lived with tonsillitis and tonsil stones and was in pain all the time. For that reason I visited an ENT clinic, and they said there was a scab inside my nose that was large and thick, and removed it. After they removed it, breathing was much better, but the nasal columella had been hollowed out and was bleeding. They also took photos and said that afterwards the inside of my nose had adhesions and was sticking together. They explained that this could make it hard to breathe and could happen after nasal surgery, and told me to visit the hospital where I had surgery or an ENT clinic that could handle surgery. After that I came home and checked inside my nose again. But the ivory-colored cream I had seen when it had been a month since surgery was still there. I thought it was inflammation.
So I went for my 6-month follow-up, explained all the things that had been bothering me, and asked them to please take good care of it. Following the clinic’s schedule, I paid for the materials and had revision surgery on August 18, one month later. But seeing the gap between the manager and the director when I had surgery that cost over ten million won and when I had surgery in the million-won range made me feel so disconnected from reality........ It was a surgery scheduled a month in advance, but they said the things I requested had not been booked, so there was only one hour for surgery, and that I would have to make another reservation and come back, asking what I was going to do. They insisted they had never said such things. Wow. I had even fasted and came 40 minutes early....... The month of waiting was already awful. Then they asked if I wanted to rebook because surgery would only be possible at the end of August. To someone who had fasted, was too worried to sleep, and had come from far away. It was so hurtful
So I said that if I had surgery today, then after the swelling went down and I got back to daily life, September would not work with my schedule, so couldn’t they do it today? Then they said, "The doctor’s time is money," and asked what I had been so busy doing all this time. Come on. They told me that even though I was busy, sick, and had to undergo surgery, the time they had set aside for me was only 30 minutes to an hour........
They kept making mistakes, but instead of giving a proper polite apology, the hospital simply scolded someone in front of me as a substitute. They said things like, this was something the customer had not mentioned. It was a decision to be made after consultation on the day of surgery. I really didn’t know what to do........
I was so upset that I only cried, and while holding back tears I was thinking in my head that maybe they were in a bad mood today. But before I knew it, the words came out before I could even think. I asked whether the director was in a bad mood today, and in front of me, to a customer who was already upset and also a revision patient who needed surgery, he said that plastic surgeons who just do whatever customers ask think of customers as dogs and pigs, and that if it were his family he would beat them if necessary to make them listen, but patients only make the doctor raise his voice because they don’t even know what they themselves are saying, and why he had studied medicine at all. He said it was because he liked me since I was kind and had a good personality, and after hurting me in every way he twisted his words at the end.
Then he went out and told me to think about it, and he took out the AlloDerm from among the AlloDerm and ear cartilage that were originally going to be used for the revision surgery. He said it was not recommended, and that from the very beginning, even during the first surgery, he had said we should add more later, and when I came for consultation a month ago he had also said to use AlloDerm and ear cartilage, but his story kept changing, so I suspected he was just doing things according to his mood. So I asked whether, since my nose had shrunk so much, they could just add to it, and he said in that case he would not be responsible no matter what the result was, in a scary tone. Then I asked how much the material would cost, and they said the price would stay the same, which was really puzzling, and that AlloDerm had originally been something they would provide as a service.
Maybe they had planned to offer it as a service from the beginning, but it still felt bad. They had not informed me in advance. I just felt like they thought I was easy to deal with....... And when the director said, why don’t you think about my nose first, and whether I was going to keep talking while looking at the disgusting photos, I no longer had the mental strength to endure it, so I gave up and had the surgery the way the director wanted, but... it was a nose I didn’t like, not a disgusting nose...
After the surgery, which only added two pieces of ear cartilage to a nose that was much flatter than the first surgical result, even though I was covering it I could feel that it didn’t seem to have been lengthened much and that my nose was small..
Even if I generously assume that the surgery result was like that because my nose was in bad condition..
Anyway, I think I developed trauma in a lot of ways. Before, just thinking about surgery wasn’t so frightening that I would cry, but now even thinking about it makes me cry. I used to have a bright and positive personality, but I’ve become much more withdrawn and passive.
Sigh....... I can’t sleep and have nowhere to vent, so I’m writing here. Only wounds have piled up everywhere.. I’m hurt and upset.