Why did you want the procedure?
The question of why I wanted to go ahead with a nose job is always a tricky one to answer. To a lot of people, I may look like I have everything. I have the supportive parents and little brother, the amazing friends and boyfriend, a job etc. But life wasn’t always so amazing!
Growing up with a big nose was hard; kids are mean and started to point out my imperfection from the age of 8, which then carried on until my current age of 24. From the age of 16 I had always dreamed of having a nose job, I never ever believed this dream could come true until October last year.
Were your friends/family/partner supportive?
I sat down and had a chat with my Mam and explained to her that having a nose job was still something I really wanted. It was the one thing I really disliked about myself, no matter how many times people would tell me that there wasn’t anything “wrong” with it. She was so supportive, straight away she told me to get online and research as many surgeons and companies as I can, book as many initial consultations as possible.
During this research I found that there was a lot of girls/guys on Instagram with dedicated Rhinoplasty pages, it was amazing and so helpful! There was one account in particular, I completely fell in love with her nose. Which to anyone who has the same insecurity as myself will completely understand, to someone who already has a “perfect nose” this will sound CRAZY! I needed to find out exactly who her surgeon was and how she found the whole experience. I instantly reached out to her and she was so lovely and supportive.
I went straight onto the MYA page to find as much information as I could. There were pages and pages of girls/guys singing the praises of Dr Andrea and from there I booked my initial consultation! Eek! I was pretty open to my work colleagues and family and told them straight away what my plans were. Everyone was so supportive I was actually really quite shocked! I had been putting this procedure off for so many years now, in fear of what people around me would say, but I got nothing but supportive words and reassurance.
How was your consultations?
So it all began on the 11th October 2017 at the MYA clinic on the Quayside in Newcastle, where I went for my initial consultation and I met my personal co-ordinator Julie. During this whole appointment I was put to ease, I was shown Andreas previous work and Julie made sure everything I wanted to ask was answered and my dream finally started to look like a reality! We both agreed with the work I wanted done, Dr Andrea was the guy for me, so I booked up to meet him on the 15th November 2017 @ 10:30. From here this is where I created my Rhinoplasty dedicated page @rach_rhinoplasty which I would highly recommend anyone creating, whether you are considering it, going through it or post operation! The support of this little nose job community is amazing, as you are all going through it together.
15th November comes, and I am nervously waiting in waiting room for my name to be called and to finally meet the “nose god”. He was absolutely lovely, he had a sense of humour he completely put me at ease and told me “I can only make you a better version of yourself”, funnily enough I never actually had any expectations as to how I wanted my final result to look as this as I said was only ever a dream to me! Straight after my consultation with Andrea I went ahead and booked my operation for the earlier date possible - 7th February 2018.
How did you fund your procedure?
Although this procedure was always something I wanted, I never thought I would have the confidence to go ahead with it so when it came to pay for it I hadn’t actually saved anything up. Everything was going so quick and I was completely on a high that my dream was becoming a reality. With this, my Mam agreed to pay for my operation - she knew how much I wanted this and couldn’t bear to see me saving for months or years to fund this myself. I will forever be grateful!
January came, and this is when I met Louise, the lovely nurse based at the Newcastle MYA Clinic who followed out my pre-operative consultation. I explained to her that my only fear out of this whole experience is getting my bloods taken (embarrassing I know, but I am a little softy really). Louise was so understanding and made it as relaxing as she possibly could (considering she was taking a tube of blood from my arm be haha).
It was all a waiting game now from my pre-op to my op on the 7th February- during this time there was one little hiccup! Without getting into anything too much, I attended a couple of counselling sessions at work a few years back. This was mentioned in my medical summary which was filled out on the MYA app before my initial consultation. I received a call from Louise stating that Dr Andrea was not happy with operating on me due to concerns on my mental state. Having said this, Louise advised me to go to my Doctors and get a confirmation letter from them to state that I am “sound of mind” and I was all good to go. As soon as I could, I got this arranged with my Doctor and the letter was faxed to Louise who passed this over the Dr Andrea. During the period of waiting for a reply, Louise kept in touch with me to make sure I was ok and reassured me she was keeping on top of this (I couldn’t thank her enough for this support).
I got the call at work to say Dr Andrea was happy to go ahead with my op! EEEKKK - I may have cried and screamed with joy a little!
How was the day of your procedure?
7th Feb was finally here after the longest 3 months EVER since booking my operation! I stayed in a local hotel in Preston, which was only a 5-minute drive to the First Trust Hospital. My admission time was 8am. The whole day is a little bit of a blur; I was taken to my room where I changed into my super stylish and attractive hospital gown, stockings and hair net. I met the anaesthetist and a couple of other people who checked my blood pressure, weight etc and helped the day my day go super smoothly. Dr Andrea came in at around 9ish and went through what he was going to be doing to me again (I have a deviated septum, so he explained how he was going to straighten that, take away my bump, reduce my nostrils with an alar base reduction). Again he was lovely and we had a laugh. He told me there was one person in front of me and then we were ready to go.
Around an hour later, the nurse came for me, I gave my Mam a quick cuddle and pretty much skipped my way down to the theatre. Once in the theatre room I got up onto a bed. There was sticky heart monitors placed on me and then the cannula was put into the back of my hand and there was a couple of things injected into it and I was off to sleep!
How was your recovery?
I am now 15 weeks post op and I’m still on such a rollercoaster - I am completely over the moon with my results. My packing was taken out post op day 2 and the stitches a week after - none of these appointments need to be worried about at all, they were both such a breeze! Cast off day was post op day 7 OMG I have no words to actually explain this day, just like my operation day it was a complete blur, I think I sat in the car for about 45 minutes just staring at my reflection in the mirror wondering when I was going to wake up! Right now, swelling is up and down. I was told in my surgeon consultation that I had “thick skin” so where some girls' swelling/healing will end at 12 months post op, I am to expect mine to take 18-24 months but that just makes it even more exciting.
Any advice for future MYA patients?
There are just a couple of things I want to add which you may find helpful in the first 6 weeks after your operation; boiled salt water and cotton buds are going to be your BEST FRIENDS; the relief of clearing out your nose after getting the packing out is a feeling you can never ever beat. For the first 3 days you are going to drink the most amount of water you ever have and probably will do in your life but the downside of this is the amount of time spent going from your bed to the bathroom! Take photos of every single possible angle before and after your op, every day, with makeup, without make up! Comparison photos are LIFE post op. Last bit of advice ENJOY the whole experience! My next step in this journey is meeting up Dr Andrea again for my 3-month post-operative consultation.
Having a Rhinolastyprocedure has changed my life has changed completely! I am so much more confident! I can’t say my boyfriend and friends are as happy because selfies and candid photos are my life now.
I feel like I have waffled on enough here, I just wanted to get as much information in as possible as I know how much it helped me to read other girls/guys experiences!
Love Rachel xo
