The Story You've Been Waiting For

I believe I mentioned a few posts ago about having taken the plunge and undergone some facial surgery.

Plunge is a very apropos word here.

I briefly covered how rough and overwhelming the whole process was. Not that I was completely unprepared for it, or something awful happened.

It just was, as they say, major surgery. Even though I was back on my feet quickly and getting around just fine, starting the day after. It really took nearly two months to feel normal, or feel like I had some energy.

It truly was like battling quicksand. The more I struggled to get out the more I sank back in.

My body, and more so my mind, needed time to recover.

I can say that in recent weeks I am feeling my old self again. My energy levels are way up, I am exercising again and I just feel good.

So let this be a warning to anyone who undergoes something like this. It will impact you, harder then you think. Take me, I am a notoriously quick healer but there is more than just the surface that needs to heal. Just take your time and let your body and mind guide you.

Now with that important public safety message out of the way, and with my spirits up, how do I feel about what was done.

Well for the most part really good.

Honestly.

We successfully flattened out my adams apple, and while you cannot get rid of it, it is hard to see. They only way I know it is there is when I feel it. Mine just had a sharp point to it that made it obvious so I am extremely happy it is gone.

What else?

My hairline has been moved forward quite nicely, he even was able to go back into my hairline at my temples and pull that up to reduce the size of my recessed corners. He was the only one to mention he could do that and it worked better than I imagined. Now I don't have a perfect hairline as I knew this was a two part process. The second being some transplant work to fill everything in. I will say I see a lot of potential in my hairline now, where I didn't before and I am excited to see it once that second step is able to take place. One has to let the scalp heal for several months to ensure an adequate blood supply to the hair to support the transplants. Plus with how it turned out it isn't going to take a much hair to accomplish this.

The only side effect is the distinct lack of feeling in the top front half of my head. I have read about this but it is really a strange sensation. You don't even notice it until you would need to notice it. For example I as getting into my car recently and was trying to lean over to reach something on the other seat and could not fathom why my head wouldn't move. Only to discover my head was pressed against the overhead console and would not allow it. I didn't know because I couldn't feel it. This should return to normal sometime between six months and a year. I am not too worried as I said it causes no discomfort at all.

Moving along.

My forehead.

This one amazes me for two reasons. It was the first thing I noticed when the bandages were removed and the one people notice the least. I kid you not. Paired with a gentle lift of my brows it looks great. I just think it so subtle that if you haven't seen me in a while it doesn't look different or they can't put their finger on what it is they are noticing. I love this change the most and can't wait to pair it with the second part of the hairline work. The work here was excellent and most important to me looks great and everything is still working. I am a very facial expressive person and I never wanted to not be able to use my facial features.

Next was the chin.

This was simply a small reduction in squareness and shape. Now I can't comment on this one fully just yet. He did tell me it would take the longest to be visible. I can say with some degree of certainty this is true. My chin is a little puffy and sore still. I know I mentioned the eating issue in the past. However I am eating normally again today with just a mild reminder that things are a little stiff and numb still in there. With the lingering swelling it is hard to say what the final look is but I will say that so far I really like it so far. I think he fit it to my face very well but only time will tell for sure.

I have heard it can take up to a year to see you jawline but i imagine that is in the case of those that get a lot of heavy work done. Mine was all up front and mostly under the chin. I'll let you know for sure.

Which brings me to my nose.

This is the one part of the whole event I have been mildly disappointed with. Now there is nothing wrong, or broken with my nose. Quite the opposite in fact. I have never been able to breathe through it better in my entire life. I didn't realize how bad it actually was until I could actually breathe through it.

He did a great job straightening out the sides along the bridge. The first time I put my sunglasses on I had to immediately adjust the nose pads as they slid almost right down my nose.

No, the issue is the overall shape. I feel that the angle of the bridge was left much too strong. Which when you see the forehead work is bit of a disappointment. A gentle sloping of it would have probably made all the difference in the world.

The tip is the other issue and while I may have failed to realize or communicate how or allow him to alter my bridge (mostly because I didn't know it would need to be changed more until after the fact). We did have a long discussion on lifting the tip and reducing its size and as of right now I don't feel any of that happened.

I don't know why it came out this way. I do have an appointment setup(long distance) to discuss the matter. I am just bummed out a bit because if I wasn't transitioning I think 'he' would have been happy with the results. However that isn't what I wanted.

This played into my mood recently. Though there were many things this has kind of poke the hardest. Which only caused me to question everything else and doubt things even more.

I don't know what I will do yet, but I imagine I will look into a revision in the future. Not something I really wanted to do but there is nothing I can do about it now.

Again, everything else has turned out really well. I don't have any complaints about the work done overall or the quality. Everything is healing well and even my nose looks fine. There is nothing broken, healing weirdly, or just flat out messed up.

It really is all coming along well and other than missing the mark in one area everything is fine.

As for who did the work, if you really want to know please email me. I don't want to start any issues in the comment section. What went wrong is also my fault. Either not understanding what he was explaining to me or not explaining what I expected clearly enough. I love all the rest of the work done and I would recommend him to others considering work. The care was excellent and the support of the office staff wonderful. Is any surgeon perfect? No. Then also consider that any surgery is risky no matter who is doing the work. Being disappointed about the shape is a lot better than having a botched or strange looking nose.

I happy with the results so far and how everything is healing and looking. I have stated previously I cannot wait to tie it all in with filling in the leftover rough spots in my hairline. Sadly I will probably revisit one area and change it a little more, but I could leave it and still have a straighter nose that works sooo much better than it did before.

And that is the rest of the story.