Septorhinoplasty Recovery

I recently had septorhinoplasty surgery to fix my severely deviated septum among other things. You can read about that here.

Today I am here to talk about the recovery part. I wrote a bit each day to show the progress of healing and how I felt.

Friday August 10th - 1 day post-op

I was told the night of surgery would be the worst, but I have to disagree. The day after is the worst. All of the anesthesia has worn off, the local pain meds (like lidocaine) have worn off and you are more aware of what just happened.

After waking up, I watched some tv and just laid there. Rory went out to get some coffee (for himself) and some pastries in hopes I could try to eat a bit. I did eat a bit of the pumpkin bread to get something in my stomach.

The bruising really started to come in.

I got dressed and we headed to my post-op appointment at my doctor's office. Once we got settled into the exam room, they laid me back on a movable chair/table. This was rough since I had a hard time laying back. He checked my incisions, checked my stitches, the bruising and made sure my skin hadn't died. Good news, it hadn't. I couldn't take much more, so they made an appointment for Monday and sent me on my way.

On our way home, we stopped for a smoothie with some protein powder in it, so I could get some calories. Then I spent the rest of the day laying around, taking my pain meds, arnica (tablets, which are amazing), antibiotics and zofran as needed. I found when I cleaned my wound, it made me feel sick, so I had to take zofran at that time.

Recovery essentials

The pain was at an all time high and I had wondered why I even went through with this surgery at this point. It was bad and Friday was a very rough day.

I did manage to eat some Indian food for dinner. I only had a small portion, but it was easy to eat.

Saturday August 11th  - 2 days post-op

I slept really well Friday night to Saturday morning. I got 8 1/2 hours of sleep. I only woke up to take pain meds. This felt great. I continued to sit on the recliner and watch tv all day. That is the recovery life. Rory went out to breakfast and to Home Depot while I rested. He brought me home some iced coffee and coffee cake.

While he was gone, I took a bath which was amazing. I set alarms for myself to take my arnica, antibiotics and pain meds. By the time 3 1/2 hours hit, my pain was getting worse and the last half hour was rough.

The girls came home around noon and were complete opposites in how they acted towards me. Sutton was very interested in my surgery. She asked about my bruises, to see the wound, to take off the bandages (over and over again) and said I still looked pretty. Avery on the other hand, wouldn't even come inside the house. She said I was scary. When my father-in-law got her to come inside, she ran into the dining room and hung out with him. She didn't come around me until they left. She was very scared and stayed away from me the rest of the day.

While they napped, I napped. After they got up, they played. Rory set up their pool outside, so they went in that. I came outside and sat in a chair to watch them for awhile, but the heat was a little much for me. But it was nice to get outside and not be in the same chair all day.

That evening, Rory took the girls to get sandwiches. They brought me home one and I ate about half of it. It was really hard to eat since I couldn't open my mouth that much. Since they cut the middle part of my nose (by my nostrils), my top lip and area between my nose and lip was sore, swollen and sort of numb. Plus the more I ate, the more swollen I got.

That night I slept on the couch in an inclined position. I didn't sleep that well and was up watching mindless tv most of the night.

Sunday August 12th  - 3 days post-op

Sunday morning I woke up and the girls were all ready to play, but I had to just relax. The girls had some cereal while they waited for Rory to pick up some more pumpkin bread.

The pain still was awful, but I managed to keep it under control with the pain meds. The bruising was starting to get better and the swelling started to go down.

After taking a bath, we took the girls to the park. I sat on a bench and watched them play for about an hour. We needed some things from Target, but I didn't have the energy to go there, so we headed home. By the time we got home, I was very swollen in my cheeks and jaw. Plus I had lost a lot of color in my face and felt awful. So I laid on the couch and took a nap.

I took this while watching the girls at the park.

The girls ate lunch and then napped. After naps, they went back in their pool. I continued to rest. After the pool, they had a bath and then played with their baby dolls in their room.

You can kind of see the swelling and bruising on my cheeks and jawline.

I didn't do much after the park since it wore me out so badly.

That night I slept on the couch again. I got more sleep than the previous night, but not by much.

Monday August 13th - 4 days post-op

I slept in a bit on Monday morning, but the girls and Rory had work and school. After they left, I slept for a bit longer, but then cuddled Walter on the couch. I had some left over pumpkin bread for breakfast and spent the morning binge watching tv and napping.

I took another bath around 10 am and then went back to relaxing. I felt like the pain was getting better, but I was still taking the pain meds every 4 hours.

I had some avocado toast for lunch and then took a nap.

You can see how much the bruising has diminished and can sort of see the bruising along my jaw line.

At 3 pm, my dad came over to take me to another post-op appointment. I made sure to take a pain med an hour before my appointment, just in case he was going to remove any of the packing, splints or stitches.

At my post-op, my doctor told me more in depth of what he did to my nose, how bad it was and the plan for the appointment. He laid me back in the chair again, and took a look inside my nose. He started on the right side which is the side that had most of the work done to it. He tried clipping the stitches but I started crying from the pain. He went to the other side. While that side hurt a lot, it just didn't hurt as much as the right. He clipped the stitches and then pulled out the splint that was inside. Now I don't have a picture of my splints since I was in pain, but here is what the typical ones look like.

image via

Then he went back to the right side. The problem was, my stitches had blood clots that formed on them, so it was painful to remove those, then clip the stitches and then pull the splints out. After a lot of tears and a few breaks, he removed the splint from the right side and finished taking the stitches out. I still have the stitches on the front of my nose and the cast on until my next appointment.

I had to sit in the chair for awhile since I went really white and my chest went really red. I had to calm down and let the blood flow again.

My doctor said everything was looking good, to take some decongestant and get some rest.

My dad took me to the store for a few things for myself and the girls and then we headed home. I didn't take another pain pill until that night since I can't get a refill. I want to make sure I can sleep, so I just took advil for the rest of the day.

Rory brought home pizza with the girls and we didn't do much. I slept in my bed with many pillows propping me up, but it took awhile to get to sleep as every time I started to fall asleep, I would try to breathe through my nose and would wake myself up.

Tuesday August 14th - 5 days post-op

Tuesday was my first day back at work and it was awful. Not only was I off all pain meds, but sitting at a desk looking at a computer is the worst when you are recovering. I had a deliverable due, so I didn't have much a of a choice. Plus we are in the midst of planning our big work trip.

So I went to work, sat at my desk miserable, answered a ton of questions from my co-workers on my surgery and tried to make it through the day.

Once work was over, we headed to the girls school for a meet and greet for their new classroom/pre-school. This pretty much wore me out. By the time we got home and Rory bathed the girls, I was ready to pass out. I way overdid it for the day. My upper lip had swelled so much that I couldn't close my mouth all the way and the bruising moved down to my lower right cheek.

I went to bed early to try to get some rest. Though sleep hasn't been great other than one night since post-surgery.

Wednesday August 15th - 6 days post-op

I felt a lot better Wednesday morning. I went to work, did all the things and then left at 3 pm to get my cast off. I was pretty excited about this.

My doctor took a couple of stitches out of the middle part of my nostrils, but it is still very swollen, so he couldn't get them all. Then he gently pulled off the cast, but it wouldn't budge. He had to slowly work each side up. Once it was off, it felt amazing, but weird. Then he had to clean off all the tape and glue which hurt a bit since he had to lightly rub my face with the cleaner.

Then my doctor examined the nose. This meant pinching the area where he broke it to see how much swelling was there. He also moved the tip around and it was all uncomfortable, but not too painful. Way less painful than the splints coming out.

I snapped a photo in the car to commemorate the cast coming off. Though I was warned that the next day, it would probably swell up a lot and look weird (spoiler: he was right).

Other than the still very swollen tip, I was pretty happy with the shape, slope and straightness of my nose. Plus my right nostril (left in the photo) will widen a bit which is good.

One thing I did want to mention about that night was I took my antibiotic and then had some avocado toast immediately after. The avocado toast didn't taste that great and it left me mouth tasting awful all night. Even after I brushed my teeth. I wasn't sure if my avocado or bread were bad, but the bread had no mold and the avocado was ripe and green inside. It wasn't until I went pee later that my pee smelled just like the way my mouth tasted. Ugh. Not eating right after I take my antibiotics again. Anther thing to note was that at the end of the night, I brushed my teeth to get rid of that taste and smell and right after I got a pretty big bloody nose (on the left side). It stopped pretty quickly that I didn't need to do anything other than sit with a towel against my nose for a few minutes.

I plan to do another follow-up in the coming weeks as the swelling and bruising really start to go away.