I wouldn’t say it was a complete removal, but I think it counts as a removal & reconstruction case. My situation is already in the post I wrote before, Anyway, at first I had a first surgery with the septum for the nasal tip, bridge, hump reduction, and Gore-Tex; then a second surgery with Medpor for the tip and silicone for the bridge (I think it was just under 3 mm). My first nose looked natural and pretty, but I wanted it higher and slimmer, so I had a second surgery. Young and reckless back then. Actually, I liked my second nose at first, but it had changed shape without me realizing it This incident made me take a front-facing photo and finally understand.
One day in December, the Medpor was pushing out the nasal tip, and it seemed like the nasal tip skin had reached its limit, because a red pimple-like spot appeared and didn’t go away even after taking antibiotics for a week (I even got one IV injection). I felt like something was wrong, and someone who said they had gone from just one red pimple like me to Medpor almost breaking through in two months told me to hurry to the hospital, so I rushed there - and immediately started going around for removal consultations.
As you can see if you look at my previous post, none of the doctors said anything good From saying the inflammation could be severe to saying everyone thought the shape would look strange... (Especially the bridge... one doctor even said I hadn’t even needed to shave down the hump, but I seemed to have shaved too much, and as a doctor he should replace the silicone, because morally removal was really not the right thing to do... Still, when I showed them photos of my natural nose and went around for consultations, they really did say my nose had gotten shorter. Since 6 out of 8 places said it was contracture, I couldn’t put silicone in thinking it was contracture) Ugh, the crying and all that was really awful... Now even that feels far away. People are so fickle. I hardly even remember it now. It wasn’t even that long ago.
Anyway, I chose a hospital (there were several reasons, but the biggest were that they told me I shouldn’t put artificial implants like silicone or Gore-Tex in the bridge anymore + minimal manipulation of the nose + they could bring in an anesthesiologist.).
They removed the Medpor from the nasal tip and removed the silicone from the bridge too (including capsulectomy). When they removed it, they found that because too much septal cartilage had been harvested, the bridge had already sunken in, and they had transplanted a piece of Gore-Tex into that sunken area (to cover the depression), then placed silicone on top of it. I think the doctor from the second surgery probably put the silicone on without removing the Gore-Tex in that sunken area. So they harvested ear cartilage, spread-grafted it to correct the shape, and they also said they added a little ear cartilage to the front part, but I’m not sure.
Maybe because the cartilage tie-up had been done too tightly, or because of Medpor adhesion, anyway the shape had become pinched, so they rotated the alar cartilage and released the adhesions. They didn’t lower the nostrils, so the left nostril (it’ll be the right side in the photo) was pulled upward because of the deformation, and it couldn’t be fully corrected, so it still looks a bit different now, but I don’t really mind. Even my natural nose was asymmetrical, so that’s probably why.
Before surgery, I was worried it might become a saddle nose, and the doctor said they would remove it first and, if it was only slightly depressed, they would pack in crushed ear cartilage, but if the depression was severe, they would do a spread graft with ear cartilage. It turned out exactly as they said.. Since it had already been predicted, seeing the depression photo didn’t shock me as much.
At first the swelling was so severe that I really lost my mind and lived in a state of thinking this had to be a dream The people who post photos here don’t seem to have anyone as swollen as I was... My two-month point looks like what normal people look like two weeks after surgery Take a look at my nose one week after removal... a human nose can swell like that.. I had nose surgery twice already, but removal was truly the worst swelling ever and it felt strangely swollen..? The hospital even made me tape the bridge for a month As it gradually got better, it still felt puffy and swollen (especially in the morning), and my nose kind of felt like kneaded clay... and the shaved-down bridge looked so broad and weird that I wondered if I should have gone with Megaderm when the doctor recommended it. But it really is true that the swelling keeps going down
People who had removals first comforted me by saying it would keep getting better, and that helped a lot.
I can’t guarantee the future, but if it keeps improving like this, I think I may not need to open my nose again in the future. The silicone had been inserted way too long, so I really like that the starting point of the nose is lower after removal!!! The blunter look, hmm, somehow it seems to suit my face too, or well... my expression looks kinder. I’m just going to live naturally. Now if my nose turns red, I don’t have to think, “What is this, is it inflammation!!!” or “What if something breaks through?” and that feels good. I don’t know when I’ll get another change of mind, but for now I’m trying to calm myself down well. Before removal I was so scared that I thought my nose was going to disappear, and I kept thinking they should just make me a human nose, so it was truly hell. Ah, but honestly, whether it’s selfies or any kind of photo, it doesn’t seem to photograph well Especially when I take selfies, it still feels like a little nose bump Looking at my old selfies or photos taken by other people makes me miss it Still, when I think about the silicone that used to shine on the noses of older people, removing it without lowering it feels like the best thing I’ve ever done in my life, since my skin is thin..
I was debating whether to upload the photos, but I’m posting them for now. Though I might take them down again soon... Looking at the nose before surgery like this, the deformation was pretty noticeable, but even the hospitals were unsure! I have a CD with my natural nose photos, but I don’t have a CD reader, so I can’t even look at them right now. It sticks out a little like a hump (the doctors said this wasn’t a real hump, but a fake hump because the nasal tip cartilage was weak and had sagged. But to have shaved that much off... ugh. And the nose is a bit blunt, and from the side the tip seems slightly drooped?)
If I had done it properly with no implant from the start and then not gotten greedy later, I wouldn’t have gone through this hellish suffering, right..?
I wrote this as thoughts came to me without any structure... I don’t even know how to end it. Anyway, everyone, please wear masks for a while and stay healthy!
—/——/————————-////———-///—-// I’ll delete the photos later