shinangel wrote:As some of you know, I was to have revision rhino under dr. Hsu on 28th December. After rescheduling my flight for professional reasons, a flight cancelled due to heavy snowfall and a second rescheduling of my flight, a train cancelled, an unforeseen 2 day stay in HK due to my sisters passport issues, a third rescheduling of my flight, I finally arrived in KHH, a.k.a. Kaohsiung. Yep, nothing could have stopped me from my revision this time.
Because of all the bad luck that had been pursuing me lately, I was a bit scared of the outcome. The short and the long of this story is that the revision turned out to be a great success. I can finally look at myself in the mirror and recognize my Oriental roots and some of the good old facial features which are characteristic of our family. Praise the Lord!
Dr. Hsu is an extremely kind surgeon, very caring and honest as well, oh and last but not least, of course: skilled. Despite my failing to arrive on the scheduled day and after several phone calls, he managed to squeeze me in his agenda, i.e. on 31th December. There are admittedly better dates to undergo surgery, but I really had no choice. Any other person, or at least I, would just have told me to f*ck off for rescheduling that often.
Dr. Hsu spent about 1h on the face-to-face consultation. We were pretty much on the same wavelength, as we had already thoroughly discussed my concerns through e-mail and I immediately liked the frontal profile simulation which he had previously sent to me.
Summary of what had to be corrected:
- removal of goretex graft which was too long (caused my supra-tip break to disappear), too thick and which had shifted on top of that
- removal of stitches which had made my tip and nostrils look pinched
- removal of spreader graft that mad my tip overly sharp, over-projected and hard as wood
- correcting uneven nostrils
If you intend to go for rib graft, I strongly suggest you take somebody along, because post-surgery can be bloody hardcore. As soon as I woke up, I had one of the worst nauseas that I had ever experienced. So I puked twice – mainly blood that I swallowed during surgery - while still lying on the transfer bed which I was laid on right after surgery. Mind you that I would not have found vomiting disturbing if it did not hurt my costal wound that much each time that I had to throw up. Because of the nausea, I had no appetite whatsoever and could not eat, which was rather annoying because I was supposed to take in meds with some solid food so as to avoid ulcers. Fortunately, my neighbor bought some energy jelly drinks which she was as kind as to share with me, realizing that I would never make it if I was unable to charge my batteries. So bear in mind that a stock of jelly drinks would do the trick when feeling too sick to eat.
Also note that the nurses barely speak English. I was lucky that the girl who had shared the hospital room with me had a fair command of English and was able to translate for me. Nurses and doctors would also walk in every now and then to check my post-op state, which bothered me tremendously because I only wanted to be left alone to sleep for the next 3 days. I was asked several times to pee, but felt so dizzy and just incapable of standing up, let alone going to the closet for a pee. Nurses would frequently inject something in my forearm, which was extremely painful. My neighbor could not help moaning whenever she got the injection.
Dr. Hsu visited me in the evening following surgery and the next day before dismissal as well. I was allowed to leave hospital around 4pm, after the last injection. Since I was sick as a dog, he told me that I could stay a bit longer, till 7-8pm–ish, if necessary. He removed the packing from my left nostril and would remove the one from my right-hand side only a couple of days later (do not ask why he proceeded like that, I have no idea).
I went to Dr. Hsu s clinic 4 times: first time for a face-to-face consultation, the second one in order to have the rest of my packing removed and blood clots and snot sucked up by a fantastic vacuum cleaner for nostrils. I also got the gauze on my chest wound replaced by a new one. Because I always asked whether I could take showers, Dr. Hsu applied a piece of water-repellent tape over the gauze on my chest wound. The third time I went for the removal of cast and part of the stitches, and the renewal of the gauze on my chest as well. The last time I saw him, he would cut the left-over stitches and vacuum out my nostrils again (definitely something to experience, the device is just awesome, I wish I had the same at home to get rid of stuffed-up nose). He replaced the water-repellent tape from my chest with a non-repellent one, explaining that showering could do no harm anymore. He furthermore gave an extra stock of pills for the 5 next days and some more ointment.
A few days after surgery, Dr. Hsu expressed his concern about my uneven nostrils. He said that he had done his utmost best to make them more symmetrical without cutting more tissue off (as I told him I did not want any more nostril skin to be removed), but he feared that the result might not be satisfactory. So he kindly proposed to cut the larger nostril on Friday (day prior to departure) after removal of the cast, so I wished. Recalling all the trouble that surgery had entailed so far, I replied that, if it was necessary, I would rather have it done next time that I would travel to Taiwan again.
I do not know if the Arnica Montana, which I had started taking about one month prior to surgery, helped, but I had no bruising this time. Although I am still slightly swollen, most people would not notice. Swelling was at its worst up till 4 days after surgery. Nose would bleed till 3rd day following surgery, however decreasingly. After that, only very minimal bleeding would occur, basically every time that I would stick a swab in my nostrils in order to clean them out and after removal of stitches. Chest wound hurts most. Every sneeze, cough, single movement affects the rib area. The pain is not really unbearable, but there is definitely no way of moving freely without feeling the wound. I hope this does not scare off the ones who intend to go for rib surgery, though. It should rather be called a slightly uncomfortable sensation than heavy pain.
I have not taken any pics yet, but will not fail to do so and upload them very soon. If you have questions, feel free to ask. Phew, sorry for the long post.
Hello Shinangel - it is now June, and I am wondering how your rib revision rhino is looking and feeling at this moment. Are you happy with it? How much do you feel has resorbed? Does it look and feel natural at this time? Any opinion on this would be great. Also why did you pick Dr. Hsu over Dr. Kao? From all the readings it would seem like Dr. Kao was better with using the rib, and Dr. Hsu was great with the ear cartilage for rhino. Just my own feeling so far.