Tension Headaches

These are still happening when I get 8+ hours of sleep. I'll wake up with general tightness/swelling feeling in nose and forehead/front of face. It seems to go away within an hour or so of getting up.

Scar visibility

The scar is doing pretty well. I don't bother covering it with concealer anymore but I am still using the scar/sunscreen cream on it daily. I'm also seeing a massage therapist still for both scar tissue massage and lymphatic drainage. That being said, I do still notice it very much in selfies with certain lighting....esp (weirdly enough) car lighting. Also after a massage, it tends to be an angry red for about a week.

Swelling

I don't feel like there is much if any swelling at this point. The tip of the nose maybe? But it's hard to tell. The only feeling of swelling I get is the tension headaches in the morning.

Jowels

After surgery, I noticed I had some handy skin at my jaw line (i.e.: "Jowels"). After a 3 month checkup and seeing those jowels indeed exist before the surgery, I assumed they had always been there. The doctor told me that since we only did upper face, lower face shouldn't have been affected. Maybe i'm getting used to them but the jowels are not as noticable or I don't care as much.....they definitely weren't as visible before the surgery but all I can think is that setting back features of upper face may just end up shedding more light on the lower face issues. I don't think I plan on messing with fillers or face lifts for another decade if I can help it.

Wide Bridge of Nose / Nose bump

The bridge of the nose has come down a lot but it still is very much wider than it used to be and does still pull at the skin at the inner corner of my eyes creating a sort of 'webbing' of skin in the corners. It's a different look, maybe different ethnically too but it doesn't look weird or inhuman. I'm not sure it'll come down much more and the doctor admits it's what happens when taking out so much of the bone in the brow ridge/orbital rim; the skin has less of an incline to cling to for projection so the bridge of the nose ends up wider.



At my 3 month checkup, the doctor pointed out midway down the nose there might be a slight bump forming. I don't feel like it's currently all that noticeable and even though he has offered to fix it without charging any fees, I want to be careful about how 'perfect' I want to try to make my face. Every surgery has consequences (this one definitely did!) at some point I need to be satisfied with what I got and what did improve instead of worrying about perfection.

Eyes smaller, eyelids droopy

The eyes definitely seem smaller. The issue is really that my eyelids want to droop more than they used to. It's like maybe they didn't get pulled up enough to compensate for the loss of bone to wrap around maybe. I've been learning to open them slightly more when taking pictures.

Scalp numbness

Surprisingly enough, feeling is starting to come back to the scalp! I can sort of feel pressure points in all areas of the scalp.

Hair loss

Haven't had any more problems with hairloss and now I feel like enough has grown back in that I don't experience as much issues with hair thinning , esp when pulling my hair back. Also hair is growing in and around the scar itself too.

Wow it's been 6 months! It's hard to believe that just 6 months ago, I was struggling with recovery and couldn't wait to get the face mask/cast off. If you've followed my other posts on forums, you know that the recovery has not been easy. That being said, the first week or two was way easier than I thought it would be and way easier than a lot of surgeon's recoveries (from what I've seen). But I did experience a few unexpected issues. Anytime you touch something so complex as the face, there is a lot of potential for dissatisfaction and/or nit-pickiness. I mean we look at our faces in the mirror everyday.What did I have done?with Dr. Deschamps-Braly in San Francisco. I essentially only did. It included a slight brow lift and not really a scalp advance as much as a 'keep the hairline in place' (which may as well have included some sort of scalp advance to make that happen). For the rhinoplasty itself, I asked for a 'cute' nose with a slight turn up at the tip.I'll go through each category of concern I came across throughout recovery and tell you what the status is.All-in-all, I look back on pictures 6+ months ago (before the surgery) and I'm often amazed and surprised to see how much my brow ridge and nose stuck out. I guess I've already become accustomed to my new face and I definitely feel like FFS helped to feminize and soften things and I've been much more confident without it. Add lash extensions and microblading and I now wear little to no makeup on an everyday basis.What's next? Well 6 more months and I'll be 1 year post-op. I am hoping that the nose continues to come down and that the bump doesn't get worse. I'm also still kinda hoping the bridge wideness and eyelid drooping effect will go down more too and that the tension headaches will start to fade. I guess we'll see. ;) I'm leaving it up to "Future Debra" to decide whether I'll want a nose revision but right now I feel pretty good.