Before <before surgery> After <after surgery> After <before-and-after difference..!> I honestly wrote down what I felt after non-implant rhinoplasty using autologous costal cartilage. I hope it helps everyone who is about to have autologous costal cartilage surgery or recently had it!
-Before surgery I was concerned about nasolabial folds, had a somewhat bulbous nose, and because my nose looked short from the side, I came to prefer a more three-dimensional nose shape. So I started looking into rhinoplasty, and when I searched for where people with noses similar to mine had surgery and looked up reviews of hospitals I thought were decent, I kept looking at post-op photos of people with similar nose shapes to mine. I went for a consultation at a hospital I found through those reviews, and they calmly explained, without being excessive, what kind of surgery would suit me and went through the surgical method slowly and step by step, so I decided on this place.
-Day of surgery After fasting, I went to the hospital, and until the moment I got on the operating table, I couldn’t stop my hands and feet from shaking.. My body was trembling so much, but the director kept talking to me, saying the surgery would go well and not to worry, so I started to calm down little by little.. I didn’t know my heartbeat could sound that loud. I was told that if I felt sleepy, I could sleep, and when I opened my eyes, I was in the recovery room.
My mouth was completely dry and I was extremely thirsty. It felt so dry and cracked that I think I looked for water first. The nurse brought me water. It was hard to breathe normally, so without realizing it, I opened my mouth and breathed through it. The anesthesia still didn’t seem to have fully worn off, so I didn’t even have the capacity to pay attention to the autologous costal cartilage donor site.
When I looked in the mirror, there was less immediate swelling than I expected, and because I felt hazy, I was just dizzy. Tired.. I was in good enough condition that I felt I could go home and sleep right away. The nurse said I could rest a little longer before leaving, so I rested more in a private recovery room, and when I felt better, I came out, took a taxi, and went straight home..
That day, I slept at home and didn’t really eat anything. Just soy milk and porridge.
-Until splint removal Breathing was uncomfortable, so I couldn’t sleep properly until the cotton was removed. I think everyone who has rhinoplasty experiences this. And from the evening of surgery day, the autologous costal cartilage area started to feel a little stiff and sore. I don’t know if it’s okay to describe it this way, but it felt like menstrual cramps. About the level of pain people with slightly severe menstrual cramps might feel? Since it is, after all, a surgery that cuts into the skin,, I thought it couldn’t be completely painless. There are definitely differences depending on skin and tissue type.. so thoroughly researching the hospital itself may be one way. Ex) minimal incision (about 1-2 cm), a director with extensive experience in autologous costal cartilage surgery, and whether the incision site is sutured neatly. Washing my hair was obviously not easy, and at first even holding a spoon to eat was a little difficult. I ate by picking food up with a fork. It was because of the autologous costal cartilage area; I was surprised because my condition was so different from people I had seen in vlogs who said their nose hurt or their intraocular pressure went up. My nose didn’t hurt, and even on days 2-3, when swelling is said to be the worst, I didn’t have trouble opening my eyes. I had heard that as swelling moves downward, the hands can swell too, but it wasn’t to that extent. Rather, my lower face swelled because of the area where the nasolabial fold implants were placed.
I ate the leftover porridge, boiled and ate scorched rice soup, and ramen was the best. It was tasty, easy to slurp down, and easy to make. To take medication, you have to desperately eat something.
-One month The nasolabial folds I was concerned about - after placing the implants, it naturally felt like the area had filled in. As for my nose, I wondered, is this really a nose without silicone.. Only the nasal tip was raised with autologous costal cartilage, but the nose shape came out exactly as I had imagined, so I was satisfied. Major swelling was going down, so I expected it would become slimmer from there, but even at one month it looked fine. It was a time when I just had to manage foreign material well, and the autologous costal cartilage area was no longer stiff or sore. The scar was smaller than expected, and when did it stop hurting? My recovery was on the faster side, to the point I don’t remember. There was some itchiness. I guess it was because the skin was healing.
-Recent condition It has been a little over two months, and when I went for a follow-up, the director said the surgery went well and the swelling would go down a bit more from here. He told me not to worry that it would become too pointy. He said he tends to operate while accounting for swelling going down, so it would come out according to the design we discussed before surgery. I managed foreign material until the two-month mark, and after that I just lived comfortably. These days, there isn’t anything in particular about my nose that bothers me; I just apply ointment to the autologous costal cartilage donor site and go to the hospital every so often.. That’s how I’ve been living. They told me to come in whenever I wanted to check the progress, so if I had questions, I casually asked the consultant on KakaoTalk.. If something bothered me, I called and communicated with them. (A hospital with good communication really seems the best.. From the perspective of a patient who had surgery, every little thing can feel bothersome, worrying, and anxiety-inducing)
The funny thing is, after rhinoplasty, I didn’t eat properly or in full portions, so I lost weight. I’m trying to maintain the weight loss with the mindset that it’s actually a good thing lol.. On top of that, because of swelling, I didn’t eat spicy, salty, or irritating foods, so it feels like the swelling and fat that had built up in my body went down. Thinking this is my chance, I’ve been exercising lightly too, and if it weren’t for the autologous costal cartilage, I think I could do everything after one month post-rhinoplasty. But I think it’s better for me to give it a little more time before doing active things, so for now I’m walking and doing things like the stair climber lol.
This review is a surgery review pursuing a natural-looking result.