What Can I Expect During Recovery From Rhinoplasty?
I am having a rhinoplasty on August 30th for non cosmetic reasons (it’s been broken twice and breathing has become a problem). What can I expect during recovery? Is it truly a week of down time? What is the best way to get the swelling and bruising to go down? How painful is it when you first come out of anesthesia? I’ve gone under anesthesia before for a tonsillectomy, so I know it’s effects, but how painful will my nose feel?
I meet for my pre-op appointment tomorrow, but I wanted any insight from people who have had the surgery before. Thanks for your help!
November 14th, 2009 at 3:04 pm
I had a rhinoplasty and must admit that it;s a quite invasive procedure. During the surgery my boyfriend who was in the operating room with me, said that there was a lot of tugging and twisting and pulling. For the actual infracture (breaking of the bones to narrow them) the doctor held a chisel thing called an osteotome and he would instruct the nurse to tap with this mallet. He would say, “tap tap…tap tap…tap tap” I think it took quite a few times.
Then my tip was ‘nipped and tucked’ by skewering some cartilage and twisting it around and around and then cutting it off. Now, at this point I woke up and said “Owwww it hurts.” Last words I heard were “give her some more…” Now, they inject quite a bit of a solution of Lidocaine (pain reliever) and epinephrine (a vasoconstrictor which lessens bleeding) into your nose to impede swelling and bleeding during the procedure so I was told that that is mostly where the bruises come from. Although I don’t know how this can be since I have watched a few rhinoplasty surgeries on tape (both open and closed procedures) and only saw the injections placed within the nose and not around the eyes. But I guess there is minute vessel rupture during the procedure.
After putting a cast on my nose my surgeon then put a pressure-dressing on my eyes and I was brought to the recovery room. I was very disoriented, I think emotional from my anesthesia as well. I remember shivering too from the epinephrine which is like a quadruple espresso on crack or something. But the worst part was not being able to see! I had to keep that pressure dressing on for a few hours!!
After I felt better and my vitals were all in check they sent me home. I was wheeled out of the office in a wheelchair and could not see a thing!
The recovery from the surgery was somewhat difficult. The swelling and pressure is relieved by icing and I strongly recommend it. I was instructed to keep it iced for 48 hours and then thereafter for comfort. The best thing to ice it down with is, get this, a bag of frozen peas.
My cast was removed on the 7th day. The swelling moved down and I could actually feel it throb and move south until the area between my top lip and nose was swollen and felt stiff.
Some patients will lose their sense of smell, temporarily. I did for a short time, but only regained half of my sense of smell after several months. It took about 9 months to get my full sense of smell back. Your nose may be swollen and for up to a year. Good luck!
November 14th, 2009 at 8:26 pm
post opeartively there will be pain and swelling which can be controlled by analgesics and antiinflamatory drugs
November 15th, 2009 at 3:24 am
This is just my experience…I had it done for medical issues as well. They put me to sleep and did the surgery and I had 2 tubes/splints about 2 to 3 inches up my nose that were stitched together thru my septum. The tubes were for drainage. when I woke up from the surgery I immediately felt the pain, it was horrible. They gave me morphine right away but I could still feel it. And I was extremely sick to my stomach and I could not throw up b/c of empty stomach. The first day was horrible for the pain, the 2 weeks following were no so bad for the pain, but those damn tubs up my nose and I had to keep gauze taped over my nose because my nose bled and oozed for about 2 weeks!!!! I could not breath thru my nose and when I slept my mouth would dry out so bad that my tongue felt like leather and hurt! I felt like i was severely stopped up until they removed the tubes. It was a releif but it hurt like hell when they cut the stitch. Now yes it does sound scary, but it is so worth it, I can breath sooooo much better now. Make sure you take the pain meds every 4-6 hours like it says, don’t wait til you start to hurt.