Cleft Lip and Palate Surgery Part III

That leads me to my next surgery: Rhinoplasty. A Rhinoplasty is a plastic surgery done on the soft tissue of the nose. In my case, it also will entail structural changes inside of my nose. It will address my collapsed nostril to then be able to breathe out of that nostril fully, and will address the width of my nose to make it skinnier, as well as address the tip of my nose and lengthen it. The surgery will change the way my nostrils look as well as the skin above and below them. Choosing a surgeon for this surgery was very difficult but we decided on a surgeon in Washington D.C. We live in North Carolina and were lucky to have a family member who lived close by. I will always be grateful to that family member; we basically took over their house for a month. The surgery went well though the first time I was myself in the mirror I cried. I expected something other than what I saw and it broke my heart. I wanted to look completely different, and that wasn’t the case. I do remember a funny story though when I was back in North Carolina, one of my friends came over and said “Oh man don’t worry you look exactly the same!” and I remember laughing and thinking to myself “That’s exactly what I didn’t want!” And on top of that, as my recovery went on, I realized through my breathing was better than after my jaw surgery (which collapsed my nostril), I wasn’t too sure my breathing was better than before that surgery. My recovery was very difficult, for example, it was during the summer and I was not allowed to be in the sun even for 5 minutes as well as no activity (not even bending down) for the entire summer. A little over a month after my surgery, I went on my family’s annual beach trip - we usually outside and exercising all day and not being able to participate in almost anything was such a hard thing for me. With that said, my amazing family did everything they could to make sure I had the best time possible while I was there. This surgery was a debilitating one but my support system got me through it and I will never be able to say thank you enough to each and every one of them. Though I am not completely happy with the results, this surgery was my last scheduled surgery and I would definitely call it a success.