† Plastic Surgery Story†

† Plastic Surgery Story†

Before this topic begins I want to state that a person should always think things through before considering or going through such a type of operation. Despite how small or big it is you should always consult an expert as well as speak to your doctor.

 Leading Up & Back Story.

This is an old pic of me from years ago when I sued to wear pink. This is one of the only photographs I had that I did not photoshop my growth/mole out from my nose. It is large here but it got bigger afterwards (more photographs below)

When I was about 16 years old a small mole/growth started to appear on the right side of my nose. I was nearing the end of school and during this time period my final exams had begun. I do not know what triggered the growth but by the age of 18 I had a large mole grow on the tip of my nose. I have been very lucky to have been born with natural beauty spots on my cheeks as well as heterochromia in my eyes but when a person is known to have moles on the face sooner or later an unwanted growth/mole may occur and in my case it was on my nose.

It was something I did not like to talk about nor even point out but as I got older I started to realize it had gotten much bigger and was getting pointed out by others. One of this situations was during a job interview at 19 years old (I believe). At the interview the man who was doing my interview handing me a tissue and inform me I needed to clean my nose (he was very kind about it) so I did so and he pointed out where it was. He had mistaken the mole on my nose for "nose gold". Of course the man was embarrassed and extremely apologetic but that was the first time I ever considered the mole on my nose an issue. I did visit the doctor to gain help for this at one point but something happened in my family and I decided not to pursue it.

At 21 years of age I coated my mole in make up to one try and hide it and two keep it covered the bet I could however it was now quite large and something began to case issue. A year after this I spotted that the growth was quite large and whenever I cleaned or pushed my nose a stinging pain shotting up my face. This was new and concerning but at the time my life had taken a different turn and I was "reborn" into my new life and all that jazz you don't really care about (haha~)

FYI. One of the things I used to do for confidence reasons was to reduce the mole size on my nose in pictures. Its a 5 second job in photoshop to reduce the size of something this annoying so for reason of aiding those who may go through with the surgery I am showing a pic of how big it actually was and how obvious it was too. The pic below is actually the size of the growth on my nose and as you can see it ain't pretty. This painful growth/mole was getting huge and swollen.

The nose without make up. Gross I know right?

Consultation & Issues

So about 6 months ago I spotted that the growth on my nose had started to go black in the middle. Whenever I moved to touched my nose the wrong way that stinging pain remained. I had no idea why it did this so I decided to take the bull by the horns and go and see my doctor and a plastic surgeon.

My trip to the plastic surgery building was.... overwhelming and I almost walked out in fear of the staff. I won't name the place in case of legal issues or seeming as if I am trying to soil their reputation because of one pushy staff member. I popped into the building after making my appointment and met with this young women. I explained the issues emotionally and physically to her. I also informed this women that I did not know what to do like "Should i get it removed or do I need rhinoplasty?" Before I could even say that I was inexperienced in this, this young women started tossing all this rhino stuff down my neck. I sat there trying to speak but she kept saying how it'll cost £xxxxx and they would get me a car to Manchester for the surgery and the healing process yadda yadda- Needly to say I blinked wildly and said "I think I just need a growth removal"When she did finally stop she sent me through to see the manager of the facility. This was an older woman (not old just older) who was very calm and very friendly. She took one look at my nose and said "You do not need rhinoplasty at all, a simple removal is all it'll take" She took my details and talked me through everything which I have to say she was so very nice about it all and was the right kind of women you want to meet when deciding on what surgery you want. She herself had had many treatment and so had much experience in the field.

After this I started to save my money to get the surgery myself but when I hit the £250 mark in my savings it started to go worse. The pain in my nose started to become unbearable so I went to my doctor to see if he could provide me with some drugs to ease the pain. My doctor was very kind and said the pain was very concerning. He explained because of where it was on my face that it was stretching the side of my nose causing the pain I had been feeling. He made me an appointment to meet a specialist at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital to look into my nose future.

At the QE plastic surgery department me and Shinji sat in the waiting room to be seen, he came in with me to be assessed and after a few moments the doctor confirmed that they would remove it themselves due to the painful side effects the growth was giving me.A month had passed and I received a letter informing me of my surgery date. Due to the nature of the growth and the pain it was causing the doctor helped me get it removed for free. I was very grateful and soon enough I went to be cut in the face.

The Face Cutting/ Surgery

My face after being tagged and told to put these robes on. Sorry for weird contrasted low quality pics the room was super dark and I used my crap mobile for photographs.

WE waited 2 hours to be seen for my surgery and I sent Shinji away after an hour to entertain himself until it was done. When I was taking into the department floor I was in a room filled with 6 other mini room hidden by cloth rails. The nurse informed me to take off all my clothes (wat) and to put on the medical garments. I was allowed to keep my knickers on thankfully but covered myself in the robes provided including these weird half shoes half socks. As I waited I was visited by a nurse who took my details and kept my company for a short while as I waited for the doctor. We spoke for awhile about Japanese culture (he spotted what I was wearing as I came it an got curious) and then left me to wait after he put the medical bracelets on me. The doctor performing my surgery came in about 15 minutes later, marked my nose with an arriw and talked me through what he was going to. I then was guided by a nurse to the room where they were going to perform the removal. 

I can assure you this is an extreme close up of my huge beak of a nose and is not as big as it seems. Unless you want it to be then yes I have a beak, not a nose haha~

They informed me that I could not take my camera into the room as it was a phone camera and it may effect the equipment so I have no photographs or film of what they did to my face until after.

 
 
!!WARNING !!

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IF you are screamish or do not like to hear about gore skip this bit of information as I am going to be talking through what happened to me! After the "*" the graphic details will have ended and it will be safe to read again.

As I got into the room it was huge and filled with about 6 nurses with the doctor. Some of them were trainees and I did not mind them learning. As I was a cocky little so and so I sat there thinking that the surgery would be a breeze. I had ripped off a mole on my shoulder some time ago and yes it stung but it did not seem to be an issue but boy did I eat my words. The radio was playing in the background as the sat me on the medical bed. As I lay down the head nurse walked to the other side of me and said "Would you like me to hold your hand? This bit with the injection is going to hurt quit a bit" again cocky little me looked to the side. The needle was huge the doctor laughed and said "Don't look" so I turned away but I was more curious. I thought that this whole time I would watch everything and it would be fine. 

Then he put the needle in. I.screamed. NOT a little scream I mean holy f***ing mother of god that hurt like a b****! They explained to me after that the needle was larger due to how tough the skin on the nose actually is. The nurse grabbed my hand and I held onto it for dear life. The doctor told me to try to breath as I held my breath from the pain (being tensed up makes it worse) but I could not help it. Tear streamed down my face as he put the needle around the growth at least 10 times, making sure the numbing solution was in deep enough for him to do the surgery. When he pulled the needle out my nose stung awfully and blood dripped out down the side of my face but at this point the numbing had begun so after a few seconds my nose felt nothing. The nurse laughed as I said "WELL, that escalated quickly" and she gave me a tissue to wipe my tears away.

I lay down again. They cleaned the blood off of my face then coated my face in 3 sheets as they put the blinding giant light on me. Eyes shut and feeling nothing he worked his magic. He explained I would feel only tugging and pulling but no pain would effect me. He coated my nose is medical solution to avoid infection. All I could think of was HOW PAINFUL this would be without that painful injection. It was simple realy. Firstly he use a scalpel to cut the growth off of my face, he then took this tiny shaver then removed into inner growth to stop it growing back and to smooth the area out to give me a normal nose again then he finished it off by cauterising (to seal the area by burning it) the area and it was that simple! He then put a plaster on my nose and sent me off in a wheelchair to the recovery ward.

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I felt the wheel chair was unnecessary but as the nurse took me to the recovery ward the after effect of the injection hit me like a brick. I was exhausted and quite dizzy. They took me into this curtained room and let me get changed. They actually told me to sit in for an hour to recover and have some tea but being the stubborn person  that I am (and because if your okay enough to walk you should not waste a space in a ward due to someone may need it more than you) I shoved on my clothing and after finishing paper work I walked out with the nurse. Shinji waited for me outside and took me to his house to rest. I was so dizzy, I struggled a bit to get into the car but after we got to Shinji's he made me go to sleep on his bed. He was so nice in taking care of me after the surgery and I slept like a brick until the drug wore off properly.

Make up had be cried off. I was KO'd.

After Care & Healing

 Before I continue there are two annoying points I want to add about this sort of surgery and is one of the main points of after care. Also do not eat before your surgery at least 12 hours. Due to the nature of the job you can not get your bandage wet for at least 24 hours but I was informed to try and wait at least 3 days before washing my face because the chemical may irritate the burn. They informed me if you want to wash your face use cold water only. This was a nightmare. Not only do I usually scrub my face with lots of stuff but I use hot water and steam to clean my face as I have a huge issue with pours on my nose. After these 3 days my pour were horrid but I am back to scrubbing my face now and it is much better. ALSO the second thing was no foundation of any kind of the face.

Derp face in lolita with new bandage.

Had tea with Ophelia using her amazingly cute tea set

The after care was actually pretty simple. It mainly consisted of changing my bandage, applying savlon quite often and making sure it got air as soon as I came home. I did have to leave the house a few times with the dressing on and let me tell you, walking around town, in frills with a bandage on your face makes you look like your either a frilly boxer or your trying to recreate a guro lolita look but stopping at your nose like "nailed it".

Gross pic but looking much better already

After the first like two days a huge scab formed on my nose but due to how fast I was healing it fell off quickly. I also spotted that when I am concentrating I touch my nose alot which does not help when it feels like someone has just performed the scene from Alien when Sigourney Weave kills the alien queen in that giant robot suit after just setting fire to the queens eggs. So half way through the healing process the mark of my nose looked just like a burn but my heart lifted as soon as that scab fell off. It shocked me how symmetrical my nose actually is.

My face looking worse for wear but healing. (not well in this photograph)

For the longest time I always thought my nose was crooked when actually it has just been the growth the whole time. I am quite happy with the result and now that it is basically fully healed the pain is gone. There is no more pulling of my skin, no more agitation heck there is not even any sign (other than the healing dot left over) that I have even had surgery. It feels amazing and it was totally worth the pain.

Gross pic of the healing process

As you can see it has taken some time (a littler quicker due to I heal really fast) to heal but it has also played hell with my face. I am the sort of person that if you stop your cleaning process you have to do a complete overhaul after to rejuvenate your skin.However the end result are fantastic! I feel so relieved to have a normal face again and it has been a funny positive joke in the household. My mother keeps forgetting its gone and get a nice shock when she looks over at me to see it is gone and i know its silly but I even let Shinji kiss and touch my nose now. I never used to like him doing that but now we can perform our vomit educating romance to the world without a care. Its also lovely to touch my nose and for it not to be there. I often use to touch the growth on my nose in hopes for it to go away but now that it is gone I can not help but feel overjoyed. I can take photographs from other angles now without worry too! No more photoshopping my growth smaller because its f***** off! Its funny how something so small can make you feel so bad and it has also changed my opinion about plastic surgery~

Results & Final Thoughts

Oh so serious photo but results are clear now.

Today was my first meet up after the surgery and I could not be more happy. It feels like a new me and more so it a huge weight lifted from my shoulders (or my face tbf haha).

So the last question of all this and final thought is "Would you consider getting plastic surgery again?" I guess I would given the choice. It is in our nature as mere mortal to strive for certain levels of perfection. Whether large or small we crave for some level of attention with a need to be referred to in a positive light. As women we are surrounded by photo manipulated media images of the ideal "perfect woman" but at the same time we have been taught that "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" So which is it? Is the out look of a majority more important than the opinions of the few? For me there are things I would like to change, after all I am only human and as a human I have unrealistic hopes and dreams of ideal beauty.

However if there was things I would change it would only be things that I consider "unnatural" or an issue to my health such as scars, skin tags or growths/moles like the one on my nose that is now gone. I am actually considering looking into breast reduction as these things case my a lot of spinal problem. Over the years I have learned to accept myself for who I am and have taken so much time realizing that being myself is more important than trying to be something everyone else wants you to be. So yes I would but nothing too drastic. I know that what I have gone through is only a small thing but it had build my confidence up massively. I hope that if you feel you need to change something you can without worry~

Thank you for reading my little story. Please feel free to share your thoughts on plastic surgery.

† Pleasant Dreams †