Same-Day Nano Review of Nose Surgery Under Local Anesthesia

I’m writing this for people who are considering this hospital or local anesthesia because there weren’t many reviews for it. It’s not a plastic surgery clinic scam or anything like that. Bottom line: I was a super scaredy-cat who even trembled at the thought of getting my ears pierced, but local anesthesia was more tolerable than I expected. There weren’t many reviews about nose surgery under local anesthesia, so I went into the operating room extremely worried. For local anesthesia, I had about 10 minutes of sedation before the surgery. Today is the day of the surgery, and I still haven’t had the nasal packing removed, so I can’t say whether I recommend it or not. I’ll just write down, as objectively as I can (subjectively), what I experienced for anyone trembling like I was. When I first walked into the plastic surgery clinic, someone with what sounded like a foreign accent, maybe Japanese, greeted me, and when I was anxious they reassured me by saying it doesn’t hurt at all~. That calmed me down a little. They seemed foreign, but their personality was so nice. I changed into the surgical gown. Even then, it didn’t really feel real that I was having surgery. I changed in the recovery room, and since there was CCTV inside, I changed while pressed right up against the wall by the door. TMI, but there was one missing button at the hem of the last surgical gown, which was a little annoying. Next, I washed my face. Is gargling usually done at this stage too? Other reviews said they gargled, but I wasn’t specifically told to gargle, so I didn’t. I took photos. They took a ton of them: front view, then angled shots from 1, 2, and 3, and side views too. I consulted with the director. He showed me about three silicone implants and told me to choose the height and design I liked. I was told that 4 mm would make the silicone noticeable, so I chose 3.5 mm, and I picked a slightly curved shape rather than a straight one. He said cartilage could be taken from the septum or the ear cartilage, but in the end only my septal cartilage was used, and no ear cartilage was taken. My nose is naturally low and small, and even during surgery the director said my septum was small, but thankfully they didn’t use ear cartilage. I filled out the surgical consent form. At that point it finally really hit me that I was actually having surgery, and my hand was trembling as I wrote the words “I agree.” They explained the precautions after surgery and possible symptoms. What I remember now is that around week 1 after nose surgery, the tip of the nose may look white, but that is a normal phenomenon! They explained that the warranty period is 3 years, and that revision surgery costs due to side effects such as deviation, upturning, and contracture are 100 percent free, while revision for cosmetic dissatisfaction would cost several tens of percent after 1 year and several tens of percent after 2 years, but honestly I was so nervous about the surgery that I don’t really remember. I paid, stayed in the recovery room for a bit, then went into the operating room and got an injection on the top of my foot. I had seen reviews saying the foot injection hurts a lot, so I was really worried, but it was just a sharp sting, a little strong. I needed IV sedation, but they couldn’t find a vein in my arm, so the nurse had a really hard time. They said I’d need injections tomorrow and the day after too, so I’m worried... Another TMI: the nurse asked me, “Do you take aspirin?” and I misheard it as “Ice cream?” and answered that, which made me laugh a little. Once the sedation kicked in, the world started spinning in colorful circles, and it seemed like the local anesthesia was finished during that time. When I came to, I could see the operating room lights again, and I couldn’t feel my nose. The nurse asked, “You’re awake, right?” and trimmed my nose hair. I thought they would use a machine to buzz it, but they just snipped it with scissors. I had read reviews saying nose-hair trimming was painful, but it really wasn’t painful at all. It was about as painful as cutting hair with scissors. I had seen reviews saying disinfection, or pre-surgery disinfection, hurts as much as a PCR test, or even more, and that they shove cotton all the way up into the nose and rummage around, so I was extremely, extremely scared and even called the hospital the day before to ask if they could do the pre-surgery disinfection under sedation, but in the end they did the disinfection without sedation, and it didn’t hurt at all.. why was I worrying??? Honestly, I don’t even remember whether they disinfected me before surgery or not lol After the local anesthesia ended, the surgery began.. and time passed faster than I expected. They played the radio, but the sounds from the surgery were louder so I couldn’t really hear it. I remember sounds like shhk shhk, “give me 6,” and zzzzz. I had seen rumors that the anesthesia had worn off halfway through surgery at that clinic, so before surgery I begged the director, please please give me as much anesthesia as possible, but thankfully it didn’t wear off. Maybe I worry too much? Other reviews said they even talked with the director during the surgery, but the only sounds coming out of my mouth were just uuuuhh... If it hurt, I said ah; if it hurt more, I said uuuuhh.. Anyway, time flew by, and the most unpleasant part during surgery was the septal cartilage harvest stage.. It stung, and it felt like they were drilling a hole in the nasal bone and forcibly pulling it out. Since they had to go through that process twice because there was septal cartilage on both sides, I was sad. Ah, that feeling is hard to express in writing. The most painful thing was the disinfection at the end stage (the cool disinfectant trickling down the back of my throat, gulp gulp) and stuffing cotton into my nose and squirting water in. I think it hurt more because it was unexpected. As the surgery neared the end, the director pressed on my nose saying he was massaging it, but it wasn’t that painful, just felt like a splint was placed on top of my nose and pressed down firmly. Near the end of the surgery there was a time to check the shape, and once the silicone was inserted, the nose line definitely came alive. My nostrils were quite visible from the front, but that was how my nose was naturally shaped, and before surgery they explained that if they lowered it more, it would make breathing through the nose uncomfortable, so I just thought, well, there’s nothing to be done. Before the surgery ended, there was a 10-minute break, and after that I could smell something like burning squid, and I felt a thread passing over the philtrum. After surgery, the most painful area wasn’t my nose, or my left arm and left leg where I got the injections, but my right arm.. I must have been tensing up a lot. Right after surgery my nose throbbed a little, but it quickly subsided, probably thanks to the painkiller they gave me in my butt, and even now it doesn’t really hurt except for a somewhat empty feeling where the septum was. In the recovery room, I alternated cold compresses on my left and right eyes with the ice pack they gave me.. One tip would be not to let the ice pack go above the eyebrows. While I was lying in the recovery room, the director personally came by several times to check on my progress and answer my questions, which was touching. But I thought it was funny from the surgery itself that they called me not by my name, not even patient, but “customer.” Other reviews said they couldn’t open their mouths, so as someone currently undergoing Invisalign treatment, I was very worried, but I could open my mouth just fine and ate the porridge deliciously. During the whole surgery, instead of thinking it was scary or painful, I kept thinking I was hungry, so I wolfed it down.. even the part for tomorrow morning... Because of my job, I usually don’t have time to drink water, so my mouth wasn’t that dry after surgery and I just took a sip when I got to the hotel. Even now I brought lip balm but haven’t applied it. I’m drinking water through a straw as the director recommended, and he said I wouldn’t need to buy Tylenol and that medicine to reduce swelling wouldn’t be effective, so besides the prescribed medication I didn’t buy anything else. Blood keeps coming out of my nose, and you can change the gauze when it’s about 80 percent soaked. By the time I’m writing this, I’ve changed the gauze twice. This is absolutely not a post recommending nose surgery, so please think carefully before deciding on it. This morning, the day I had nose surgery, I was thinking I should love my own nose more... I should have done love myself, but I’ve probably looked down on myself too much in everyday life, and now I feel sorry and regretful.. even now, after the nose surgery is over. Once the cotton is removed, the splint is removed, and about 3 months pass, I won’t regret it, right? Anyway, even though I’m the world’s biggest worrier and drama queen, I made it through local anesthesia surgery safely and feel relieved.. I probably won’t be able to sleep tonight because of the nasal packing though haha Ah, I don’t know if I’m allowed to write the price. If you search a little in a community, the price comes up, so I won’t write it. I booked surgery on the consultation day and got it for 10 percent off the original price, I think, and even the consultation fee was less than 10,000 won. Still expensive... (I’ve decided to become a plastic surgeon in my next life) For those from out of town like me who need to book lodging, the clinic visits are on the day of surgery, day 1, day 2, one week later, and 3 months later. They said a day 4 visit might also be possible depending on the progress. I saw in reviews from a community that if there is blood accumulation, they suck it out with a syringe, and that pain is supposedly hellish.. I’m already worried blood will pool, but they also put a straw in with the nasal packing, so I believe it’ll be less bad. Please