Today is finally day 5 after surgery,
the day I had the bandage, splint, stitches, and gauze all removed.
When I had deviated septum surgery before, the feeling of removing the gauze was so intense it made my eyes water, like pulling out a huge snake, to the point where I wondered when they had stuffed that much gauze into my nose.
For better or worse, on day 1, after the bleeding had stopped, I sneezed because of allergies and the gauze that had been placed inside my nose came out. (The director who performed my surgery saw it when I visited the clinic on day 1, and was about to put the gauze back in, but since it had nothing to do with maintaining the shape and the bleeding had stopped anyway, he said it seemed okay not to put it back in. Thankfully, I happily agreed and did not have it put back in.)
So today, since there was no gauze to remove, they removed the tape that had been attached across my whole face in an X shape, removed the stitches from the area where ear cartilage was harvested and from the suture marks under my nose from the open surgical approach, and removed the splint.
Aside from the slight stinging pain when the stitches were removed from the suture marks under my nose, everything else was over quickly.
A woman, either a nurse or nursing assistant, did the removal, and in the room next door, the director who had operated on me was there, then came over and looked at me briefly as if he was a bit busy,
and said, "You need to come in tomorrow. You know we placed AlloDerm, right? We’ll shape that."
After all those things were removed, I went to the skin-care room inside the clinic, received a laser treatment for bruising and swelling for about 15 minutes, and went home.
Now, I’ll talk about what you are probably most curious about: my first appearance on the day the bandage came off.
I looked in the mirror with an excited heart.
As expected, just as the director who consulted with me and performed the surgery had said, immediately after surgery, because the crooked nasal bone had been shaved, the hump had been rasped down, and donated dermis had been placed on top of it,
the glabella between my eyes, coming down from my forehead, had an Avatar/fish-person kind of feel.
Expecting a dramatically changed, completed look on day 5 would be greedy, and since it is only day 5, just after removing the bandage, I’m currently taking it easy for 2 weeks to a month, waiting for the swelling in my nose to go down and for the donated dermis to be absorbed to some extent.
For the nasal tip, because my left ear cartilage was used when I had septum surgery before, donated costal cartilage and some of my right ear cartilage were used. The tip of my nose also had a somewhat artificial look. Right now it feels like the nasal tip is slightly lifted, like Seo In-young during We Got Married. It is not an upturned nose, but as it comes down from the nasal bridge, the tip feels slightly raised upward. The director also told me about this part in advance, saying that for a while immediately after surgery, the nasal tip can feel like it is lifted. He said it would gradually come down after about a month.
And on the outer skin over the area where the hump was rasped and shaved down, there is a purplish-red bruise.
To summarize, I’m going to watch the Avatar nose, the high nasal tip like Seo In-young from We Got Married, and the bruising over the shaved hump area for about 2 weeks to a month and see how things progress. Since these were all things I was told about in advance, I’m not resentful or worried yet. I believe time will take care of it.
The one thing I’m worried about is the AlloDerm that he said he would adjust the shape of tomorrow.
I’m really curious whether, with the doctor’s godlike hands, he’ll press it firmly with his fingers and adjust it like kneading dough, or how he’ll do it.
I guess I’ll find out tomorrow.
I’ll write another review.
There are a small number of people who keep asking me to continue writing reviews, so I can’t not write them ^^;;
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