I had alar reduction surgery yesterday, and I’m posting this in case it helps anyone.
First, I had originally made a reservation somewhere else, but based on the date I booked, it was scheduled for about a month and a half later? I wanted to get it done quickly, so while looking into other places, I wanted to check the earliest available date at the hospital where I ended up having it done. For now, I made an online reservation for two days later, and the reservation actually went through. Since it’s a famous hospital, I thought it would be similarly backed up, but maybe it was because it was a weekday.
I had never had a hospital consultation before and just went after looking up reviews. But I had some plans next month, so I wanted to do it as soon as possible. Before going, I paid the deposit, booked the surgery, and decided to have it done right after the consultation. Thinking back, I did go very impulsively without properly looking into much.
In this community, I think I had occasionally seen a few comments saying the hospital was kind of factory-like? and that the director didn’t do very detailed consultations, so I was a bit worried, but it wasn’t like that. I talked with the consultant for maybe 5-10 minutes? And although I had gone only for alar reduction, the consultant did recommend a few times that I also get cartilage tying together with it. Also, unlike what I saw here, I had a longer consultation with the director. In my opinion, it didn’t feel like he was annoyed; I think that’s just his way of speaking, so I didn’t think much of it. At the time I went, there were about three people? sitting outside, so maybe it was a more relaxed time slot. It was so different from the consultation reviews I saw here. (There were quite a few comments saying they went for a consultation, but it was done so carelessly that they had surgery elsewhere.) I did go in expecting that to some extent, but it was actually good.. I haven’t gone to consultations at other hospitals, so maybe I don’t have anything to compare it to, but by my standards, it was the opposite of what I had seen in the disappointing reviews.
In the end, I decided to do only alar reduction, and before the sedation medication went in, he asked if reducing by 4 mm would be okay. My eyes were covered and I was lying down, so I felt a bit disoriented, and I just said yes and fell asleep right away. I had sedation and local anesthesia together, so it didn’t hurt until about 1 hour after it was over. When I looked at it right after it was done, before any swelling, it seemed like it had turned out really well. But maybe because it’s swollen, thinking about it now, I feel like I might be mistaken in thinking I should have reduced it a little more. Still, when I saw it right after coming out, I really liked it, so I think this much means it turned out well. Also, there was no bleeding, so they didn’t even attach gauze and I just came out. When I read other people’s reviews, they said they bled a lot, so I was like, huh, is this normal? But if there’s no bleeding, that means it went well, I guess. And after it was over, the consultant took really good care of me and packed a lot of various things into a bag for me, so I felt reassured.
Right now it’s day 2, so it’s pretty swollen and feels similar to my original nose, but even with the swelling it’s better than before. For the first 5 hours? it hurt a bit, so I took the medicine I got from the pharmacy and also took Tylenol, and then it was okay. Even after the medication wore off, it didn’t hurt at all in the evening. It was just enough that the pressed feeling and tightness bothered me a little? Today it doesn’t hurt at all, but when I smile or eat, the stitches feel like they’re pulling, so that makes me a little uneasy.
Anyway, if you have anything you’re curious about, ask me.