Posted by:
Tevai
(
)
Date: January 25, 2015 07:53PM
I had my rhinoplasty when I was 19 years old. I had a VERY good referral (Dr. Berman was one of the top choices of most of the Jewish families on the Westside of L.A.) from a woman I worked with (she was at least ten or fifteen years older than me), who told me that if I didn't feel that my (birth) nose was "me," to get it done sooner rather than later...and by the way, she could recommend this GREAT doctor to me who was on the other side of the mountain (in Beverly Hills). I have been grateful to her and for her advice and interest ever since. (And it was an earlier time in medical insurance: my medical insurance paid not only all of the bills 100%, but I came out a couple of hundred dollars ahead because the doctor always billed the medical insurance for more than his "usual" fee--in order that no one would have to make up the difference out of their own pocket.)
At nineteen, I was the oldest person in the waiting room when I reported to the hospital before dawn at 6:00 AM or so on the day of the surgery. Other than me, the waiting room was filled to capacity with Jewish 16-year-olds (both genders) who were getting their "traditional" 16th-birthday-nose jobs. (You have to be at least 16 because that the earliest that your skull is developed to its adult dimensions.)
Best thing I ever did for the physical "me."
Not only did Dr. Berman (who is now deceased) take off my Grandma's "Jewish bump," he also shortened my nose a bit shorter than called for by my then-chronological age. He told me I would thank him in my later life. I have...and I DO...every single day!!! THANK YOU DOCTOR BERMAN FOR MY WONDERFUL NEW NOSE!!!!!!!!!
(One of the things that makes many people look "older" is that their nose appears to lengthen throughout their adult life, so it gradually, year-by-year, APPEARS to be MUCH "longer" as people get older. My "new" nose was never actually "short," but Dr. Berman created the exact sweet spot where my nose looked fine back then, after the swelling and bruising went down--several weeks, in all--and it has CONTINUED to look youthful throughout all the years since. From my standpoint: Absolutely perfect surgery.)
The doctor counts!!!
True (and tragic) story: I took someone from my New Mexico family, who was visiting for the summer, to Dr. Berman to get HER nose done, because she was a very pretty girl who had a very bad nose for her particular face. She came out looking like a cover girl...and she was blissfully, blissfully happy (and still is). Her younger brother, who also wanted to get HIS nose done, went--several years later--to a local plastic surgeon in Albuquerque. I never saw him again, so I have no idea if the surgery itself was okay or not...but what I do know, is that he got some kind of fungus or virus or infection or SOMETHING from the surgery, and his nose (from what was told to me by the family) was like a "rotting banana." He took all the medications that were prescribed for the complications, but evidently, they either didn't help or they made things worse. At some point, he took all of his money of out his savings account, went to somewhere in the middle of Nowheresville, Texas, checked into a motel with cash under an assumed name, systematically destroyed all of his identification, and then drowned himself in the motel pool. His body would never have been identified except that he had forgotten about a single prescription container he carried with his medication in it and that was the way the local police finally ID'd him. I got a phone call in the middle of the night from his parents, soon after they got the call from the Texas police, telling me that Johnny had committed suicide.
The point of my story is: As wonderful as my own experience with rhinoplasty has been, it was because I got a very good referral to an INCREDIBLY good plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills, who worked in a VERY good hospital with top-notch standards of medical safety, and who had made his reputation by the consistent top quality of his work.
I don't know where I would take someone now, and you need to make certain that whoever does your nose, and the hospital it is done in, are both of top quality, and with impeccable records of safety and achievement.
So far as getting "used" to it: I liked my new nose a great deal even when it was all swollen and my eyes were black-and-blue...and several months later, when the rest of my face was back to normal and the tissues on my nose had shrunk to their then-permanent dimensions, it was obvious that (for my particular face and skull) I had gotten one of the great rhinoplasties of all time.
Finding the right doctor is critical. (And so is the hospital that doctor does his or her surgeries in.)
I wish you all the best. :)
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/25/2015 08:00PM by tevai.