This week I'm having full removal of autologous costal cartilage from my nose. I'm so nervous

This week I'm having full removal of the autologous costal cartilage from my nose. There isn’t much information about removing autologous rib cartilage, and I also got a lot of help here, so I want to leave a review of how I chose the hospital. I’ve had three surgeries already, and if I remove it this time, it’ll be my fourth surgery, so I was desperate. I stayed up several nights and read every post and comment from this year and last year in the nose-removal forum, over 100 pages. After reading everything, what I felt was this: there isn’t a single hospital specializing in removal that has no complaint posts at all, and there are also occasional posts about serious complications.. Choosing a hospital was really hard. Still, I chose the hospital that suited me best among them. The reason for removal is the discomfort from the autologous rib cartilage.. More than 10 years ago, I had been living comfortably with ear cartilage and septal cartilage, but after more than 10 years one side of my nose felt pinched and the asymmetry became severe, so I wanted to go back to my original nose. At that time I wasn’t thinking about this community, so I didn’t even know there were hospitals specializing in removal I went to consultations at five famous hospitals specializing in revision surgery and said I wanted to return to my original nose, but they all said that if I only removed it, the nose could collapse, and if I wanted it strong I absolutely had to use autologous rib cartilage.. Since they all said the same thing, I thought of course I had to reinforce it with autologous rib cartilage Among them, I had a revision surgery early this year at a hospital that said it would make it as close as possible to my original nose... Honestly, the shape itself isn’t bad. But I said I wanted to go back to my short original nose, and it ended up longer than after my second surgery.. On top of that, I got discomfort from the rib cartilage leaning to one side + pulling at the nasal tip and philtrum every time I smiled (it’s been 6 months and it still hasn’t gone away) + because the columella was brought down too much, I ended up with a witch nose when smiling + a horizontal line on the philtrum as a side effect. But before surgery they acted like they would handle aftercare well, and then when problems actually came up they said, "It looks fine to me, it’s only how you feel, other people can’t tell" and "If you remove the nose, medically it will contract and collapse. Tip lowering (15 minutes) aftercare is possible, but the support structure cannot be removed." So I gave up on aftercare. There are the so-called top 3, top 5, and top 7 hospitals for nose removal here, but I don’t know who decided them; one of the top 5 seems to change every time, but the top 4 seems fixed. Top 3: ㄱㅇㅅ ㅅㅅㅇ ㅍㄹㅁ Top 4: ㄱㅇㅅ ㅅㅅㅇ ㅍㄹㅁ + ㅅㅇ Others: ㅈㅅ ㅊㅁ ㅇㄱㅈㅇㅇㅂ ㄷㄹ ㅇㄷㅇㅇㅇ Everyone here will probably be thinking about which hospital to choose among these nine. If you, like me, set your desired criteria clearly, it’ll be easier to choose. My conditions were: 1. full removal of autologous rib cartilage 2. restore my short original nose 3. shape the nasal tip 4. be responsible and offer aftercare if problems arise 5. use ear cartilage if there is any indentation (not dermis, not Megaderm) My first-choice hospital, as you can see if you read my other posts, was ㅅㅇ. But I had two issues with it. My columella has two incision lines total: one nasal incision line + one philtrum reduction line. What bothered me about ㅅㅇ was that they absolutely insisted on making a new columella incision, but the biggest problem was that they wouldn’t operate because of the risk of columella necrosis in people who had philtrum reduction Please keep that in mind.. sigh My second choice was ㄱㅇㅅ, but they wanted to leave the rib cartilage in place, and the surgery fee was the highest... more than twice the cost of ㅅㅅㅇㅠ For ㅅㅅㅇ, they said to leave the rib cartilage in place, and if I removed it I should give up on the nose shape I didn’t want to go back to a bulbous nose The price was the cheapest, but there would be no aftercare. I gave up on the top 4 and looked elsewhere. ㅈㅅ was good too, but I gave up because of the issue of dermis reinforcement being absorbed. Other hospitals may also be good, but once I decided on a hospital I didn’t look further. There were lots of photo reviews here, and above all there were several reviews from people with the same case as me: removal of autologous rib cartilage + making a witch nose short again. I think each hospital has different strengths. I decided here because it seemed especially good at restoring a short nose. The place I chose is a hospital with six letters. I went for consultations twice, once in June and once in July. The first consultation was rather curt, but the second one was much, much better, so I made my final decision. I brought my materials. Original nose photos from multiple angles + photos and records from the third surgery hospital. They immediately caught that my nose had gotten longer than my original nose and the second surgery, and that the right cartilage had been placed larger (the third surgeon said there was no asymmetry, which was infuriating); + full removal of autologous rib cartilage possible, short-nose restoration possible, tip shape can be refined through cartilage repositioning, if there is indentation then ear cartilage will be used, and the doctor said that with nose removal, aesthetically you should not give up on the nasal tip just because you want the shape fixed, so not to worry Also, if it’s not just dissatisfaction with the shape but the nose is too upturned or too droopy, aftercare is possible. If you read the nose-removal forum a little, you’ll see reviews keep coming up about severe indentation at the tip or problems with the nose, being ignored, and arguments over aftercare... Here, there were no posts about fighting over aftercare, and there were posts saying they handled problems responsibly, which I liked. Also, I was worried that if they had much less experience than the top hospitals, what would happen. But I was surprised because there were a huge number of patient folders on the computer for surgeries they had done. When they saw my record, they said the surgery method used by my third surgeon, who had been a private clinic owner, was unusual, then looked up the website and saw the hospital that had been there before. They said, "Ah, this style has done nose removal before," and dug through the computer files to show me several nose surgery photos from cases similar to mine. (No faces, only the inside of the nose after incision) That was good. I didn’t have to worry about my face being exposed either Since this is my fourth surgery, the cost is in the mid-5 million won range, and if they open it up and find indentation, they’ll use ear cartilage, with an extra 500,000 won. If there is already ear cartilage inside the nose, they’ll use that instead. (No extra cost) And I asked them not to discard my autologous rib cartilage, but to preserve it in my body. Because if there’s a problem with my nose in some distant future due to an accident or other issue, I’m scared of having to harvest rib cartilage again (general anesthesia). Fortunately, they said they would put it back in my body for only a small additional fee, so I was very grateful. For the harvested rib cartilage area, they recommended the area next to the belly button, saying that if you cut into the same place twice the scar gets bigger. Other hospitals seem annoyed by it or just say to leave it inside the nose, but the nose is too uncomfortable I was glad they agreed readily. Honestly, I’m not not worried about having surgery this week. Is my choice really the best one? Even when I went to the third-surgery hospital, I researched dozens of places online and carefully chose among five in-person consultations, but it failed. I do regret that I can’t go to ㅅㅇ because of the philtrum reduction.. Still, I chose the next-best hospital that matched my needs as closely as possible. I never want nasal surgery again after this. Please wish me luck.. I hope my post can help someone even a little. I’ll also post photo reviews after my surgery this week or next weekend. Everyone, please choose a good hospital. Let’s all graduate from nose surgery, fighting!