Hi! This is a place where people use casual speech, so today I’ll do the same I’m someone who had alar cartilage tying + ear cartilage grafting surgery 2 years ago, and as of today it’s been 6 days since I had the whole thing removed. I kept thinking every day from right after the nose surgery until the 2-year mark... whether I’d have to go under the knife again, whether the upturned nostrils might 내려오 a little over time, whether I’d regret it even after removal...
Because it’s only been a few days for me, and my nose is still closer to my pre-removal operated nose than my original nose, with swelling that still looks severe, this is not a post that’s trying to recommend or pressure anyone into removal. I want to share my condition in detail and comfort people who have had removal surgery or are about to have it, while also comforting myself. I kept searching for removal reviews and got a lot of help myself, so I hope this post can also be a comfort and be useful.
For reference, if you ask me about the hospital, I can answer, but in the end it’s your own body and your own choice, so I really hope you choose carefully Even hospitals that are famous and said to be good can have bad cases, and even so-called blacklisted hospitals can end up with cases that go well.. I read the bad reviews of the hospital I chose before going, so I hope you judge carefully enough. And for posts where there is no real reason to write privately, I’ll answer publicly as much as possible. There will be more date-by-date updates added at the bottom.
<Story up to my first cosmetic surgery> My original nose had a slightly visible nostril, a somewhat present bridge and alar base, and a high tip. I was satisfied with the overall shape of my nose, but I thought if the tip were tied just a little, it would become slim and pretty.
On the consultation day, I even edited photos on Photoshop showing in detail but clearly what I wanted and what I did not want, and brought them with me to explain. 'I do not want the nasolabial angle to be raised more than now so that the nostrils show more, and I do not want the columella to protrude downward. I like the current shape of my nose, so I’d just like the alar base to become slimmer. Since I’m pursuing something natural, it’s okay if you reduce it just a little without making it look overly pinched or changing the nostril shape into a triangle.'
The doctor kept nodding and only said things like 'ok, ok,' 'I’ll make it pretty for you by myself. Alar cartilage tying is easy. If we simply add a little ear cartilage here, it’ll get slimmer and look prettier.' Did he understand? Was he just brushing me off? Compared with how confident he sounded, his expression felt oddly lifeless and expressionless, with a mechanical vibe. I should have stopped when I felt something was off...
For reference, I’ve spent a long time teaching children, and because I understand kids well, I thought I was explaining things to this adult as clearly and easily as I would to children
The day of the surgery and when the splint came off. Dun dun.. my nostrils were completely pinched and stuck too far up, turning into a triangle, and because of the swelling my nose was crooked so the two sides looked different. One side was straight. The other side was semi-curved. Some people look pretty from the day the splint comes off.. I tried hard to pretend the truth wasn’t true, thinking maybe I’m just someone with severe swelling..
Until the day the stitches came out, I thought it was ruined hundreds of times a day. I kept thinking, how am I supposed to live with this nose? 'Director, the crooked nose and triangular nostrils will go down in a few months, right? Also, my columella wasn’t protruding originally, and you said you would make it not protrude, but it’s come down a lot. Is that swelling too??' The director and the doctor said let’s wait and see after the big swelling goes down. They said it was all swelling and not to worry. On the way home, when I told the director by KakaoTalk that I wanted an early removal, they told me not to get anxious by looking up random internet posts and said I probably felt that way because I was overly sensitive right after surgery.
I went back for a checkup 3 months later. You said the swelling would go down... but it was still the same shape. A vertically stretched isosceles-triangle nostril that was thrust high into the sky. A nose that was crooked so the two sides looked like a straight line and a semi-curved line. Since the alar cartilage tying itself had obviously been done wrong, the inner nasal cartilage stuck in on one side and protruded on the other, and I could feel it when touching it. The ear cartilage at the tip was so absurd that even from the beginning it looked like someone had drawn a red circle and left the middle white, as if it was visible through the skin. And since the doctor was a cosmetic surgeon but couldn’t even do scar closure properly, the columella scar was also large and severe at around 2 mm.
Of course I couldn’t possibly look happy... At the hospital, maybe because I had complained only twice before, they started treating me like a troublemaker, and as soon as I visited they pulled me aside separately.. then several people, including a more experienced older director and another nurse, started handling me. 'I think the big swelling has gone down, but will this crooked shape, the pinched triangular nostrils, and the columella that came downward change? It doesn’t seem like they will. I think I may need removal or nostril lowering. The scar is also too severe,' I said,
and the doctor’s expression became worse too.. He said the shape looked pretty and the surgery was done well, that I was now in the stable phase, so removal couldn’t be done right away anyway, and nostril lowering also couldn’t be done right away but could be done later, though that would cause more swelling again.. and that nose swelling can take up to a year to go down, so I should wait. As several people kept taking turns saying how pretty my operated nose was and treating me like a troublemaker, I felt like they wouldn’t listen even if I said more, and I thought I couldn’t do removal at this hospital, where trust had already dropped completely.
After that, until another 3 months passed, I only looked into hospitals for removal.. went around for columella scar treatment.. (for reference, I tried many different scar treatments for a long time, but they didn’t work, so I hope I had saved the money) I kept coming in and out of this community that I happened to find, regretting everything.. I only worked, didn’t meet people except close friends, and at least could go around with a mask in the COVID era, crying every time I looked in the mirror. As 6 to 7 months passed, the overall shape that had looked pinched and upturned seemed to improve a lot, so I gradually drifted away from this community too, but I still didn’t like it, and I kept missing my old nose. Even after a year passed, and then until this July, when it was almost 2 years later, I still missed my nose. I was really afraid of lying back down on the operating table...
At the time, I had spent every night searching endlessly and looking at every bad and good review, and I had already narrowed it down to two hospitals that seemed like a good fit for me. If I were to have removal surgery.. it would be at one of these two I wanted to consult both places, but at one of them even booking a consultation took almost a month, so when I finally made up my mind, I ended up choosing the one that fit my timing.
<Removal surgery consultation> Even without looking around the entire interior, the hospital felt small and cozy, and because it had been established in one place for a long time, it actually felt comfortable. I’m not saying all large plastic surgery clinics are bad, but I was exhausted by the overwhelmingly large number of staff and directors at the factory-like large hospital I had gone to before, and by the feeling that they were almost mentally fighting with the patient.
The consultation went in the order of director first, then doctor. To be honest, neither of them felt especially warm and friendly. But although they might have seemed cold, I felt the doctor was focusing on my story, writing things down while listening, and that there was some warmth in his sharp gaze. I saw someone in a review call him a nose expert, and I really felt like he had dived deeply into noses only. It was kind of like a university hospital professor vibe.
When you go for the consultation, you need to know exactly what you want and what you do not want, and explain that clearly. He also said the more clearly I could explain those things, the more he would try to reflect them. To explain it well, it helps to study the basic anatomical terms for nose surgery first. Columella, nasolabial angle, bridge, alar rim, nasal ala, tip, dorsum, cartilage, septum, cartilage rearrangement, etc. For reference, I watched this doctor’s YouTube and almost all of the text on his homepage several times before the consultation, and I used the terms he often used when making my request. The doctor writes all of that down in the surgery plan one by one, and explains clearly what can be done and what cannot. He said a full 100% match is difficult, but that I could probably return to about 70 to 80% of my original nose, which made me trust him more. Oh, and I heard he does one surgery in the morning and one in the afternoon.
Right after the consultation with the doctor, I thought, 'Ah.. I should get my removal done here.' So I actually made the reservation first and went home.
<Tips before and after surgery> 3 weeks before surgery: I only took all supplements, juices, red ginseng extract, etc. once every 2 to 3 days. I had already been someone who gets sick easily, so I had been rotating things like olive oil, omega-3, and evening primrose oil, which are good for inflammation and circulation and help blood flow. I was worried that if I suddenly stopped, my immune system would drop too.
2 weeks before surgery: I stopped all other supplements completely and only took probiotics. With 1 week left before surgery, of course I stopped everything, and even when I had a severe migraine in between, I endured it and didn’t take anything.
But maybe because I had not taken anything for 2 weeks, or maybe because removal is just like that, or because of the doctor’s skill, I had almost no bruising or major swelling around the eyes, glabella, or bridge right after surgery, or on the 2nd and 3rd day when swelling is said to be the worst. So even my family said I looked the same and they wouldn’t know I had surgery unless the stitches were visible.. I’m even confused whether only the nose itself is swollen now, or whether the bridge and tip are also not swollen at all. Also, since I already had an esophagus pillow from before, I slept comfortably for 4 days with my head elevated above my heart this time.
For reference, during my previous nose job, my glabella, eyes, bridge, and tip all swelled right after surgery to the point that I couldn’t open my eyes. So for people about to have surgery, I’d recommend a small tip: stop supplements for 2 weeks instead of just 1.
And from the 5th day when warm compresses were recommended, I’m taking evening primrose oil and omega-3 again because good circulation is needed for swelling to go down faster and for regeneration to go well. I’m also taking propolis again.
<Day of surgery> Since I’d probably have a hard time going around during the day and would want to lie down right away, I scheduled the surgery for the afternoon. The nurse who gave instructions that day and the operating room nurse were so friendly and kind that even though I was very tense, my mind relaxed. But I’m not sure whether it was the same nurse or two different nurses. I went wearing glasses that day, then took them off, so I couldn’t see well.
After cleansing, I sat and waited for a while, then had another consultation to go over the surgical plan in detail with the doctor, and went into the operating room. Since I couldn’t move, they tied my hands and feet, and the two nurses were busy preparing and moving around. Lying there staring at the ceiling, I had every possible thought.. Did I make the right choice? Should I say I can’t do it now, run out without getting a refund, and leave? I’m scared.. What if I wake up during anesthesia..
The doctor came in wearing the surgical gown, and that nurse from before(?) said, 'From now on the patient will also get the anesthesia injection~', 'Yes~' and I felt the sensation of something like cleaning out my nose for about 2 seconds? Then I was in the recovery room lying down on an IV drip. (For reference, I chose local anesthesia and could have stayed awake during the operation, but because the surgery would take an hour and a half, I had no confidence in myself at all, so I paid extra for sleep anesthesia.)
When the surgery was over, my mom was sitting beside me, and a few minutes later the nurse explained the precautions and gave me a paper, and soon after the doctor also brought out the removed thread, ear cartilage, and capsule to show me. But they said ear cartilage had been crushed and placed into the columella area? At the previous hospital they just said it was swelling and acted like nothing had been put into the columella! I got angry for a moment, but anyway I felt relieved just from having it removed. They said the surgery went smoothly, so not to worry.
<Date-by-date review> Removal surgery 8/7: For reference, I only had taping, without a splint or nasal packing. There seems to be no bruising or swelling on the face outside the nose at all, and only the left nostril is bleeding a little. 8/8~9: Still no swelling on the face outside the nose, same as before. The nosebleed stopped, and there was only taping without packing. Half of each nostril is visible, but breathing is still uncomfortable. Every minute, there’s a sharp, stinging feeling inside the nose. 8/10: The tape came off. The nasal flare looks severe. The nostrils are still lifted just like after the first surgery. The skin is very rough and flaky. Two blackheads came out, leaving holes My upper lip kept lifting until this day.
8/11~: The nasal flare and the lifted nostrils seem a little better as the nostrils become slightly rounder, but.. because I had removal after 2 years rather than early removal, and there were adhesions, it feels like the shape of my nose from the stable phase after the first surgery, with only more swelling added on top of it. The protruding columella is still the same for now too. I’m really curious whether people who had removal can relate. I’m still worried On top of that, it still hurts if even slightly touched, and the feeling is strange, like I’m touching someone else’s nose. It feels numb, like when blood doesn’t circulate during a cramp, and hard.
8/14: Stitch removal. There is still a rounded swelling on the bridge. They said they reduced the columella scar as much as possible, but it still looks like a scar of about the same size as before. Because the columella scar got big after the first surgery, when I looked into scar-specialist clinics before, they said modern scar lasers work best if done right after stitch removal, so I’m wondering whether I should look into scar treatment again..
+++Also, they definitely brought out everything they removed right after the surgery for confirmation, but strangely, maybe because the body wants to keep the previous shape, it keeps showing a round visible outline several times a day, like it did when the ear cartilage was showing.... Has anyone experienced this?? The good thing is that they said it would eventually become almost invisible, like the old nostrils, but I think the reason it still looks lifted is the same as the stable phase after the first surgery..