Patient journey
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Twelve months of a rhinoplasty, honestly divided
Draft body, not yet adapted
Recovery from a structural rhinoplasty is a year, and dividing it accurately is the difference between a patient who is reassured at month four and a patient who is frightened. Week one is the splint, congestion and the worst of the bruising, and it is the part everyone anticipates. Weeks two to four you are presentable and the nose is noticeably swollen to you and largely unremarkable to strangers. Months two and three the bulk of the visible swelling resolves and this is when most people relax. Months four to eight is the stretch nobody warns you about: the tip is still firm, it looks slightly wider and less defined than it will, and it changes so slowly that you cannot see progress week to week. Months nine to twelve the tip skin finally softens and the definition arrives, and thicker skin runs longer than this. Photographs before twelve months are photographs of healing, not of surgery, which is why the standardised series here is taken at twelve. Judging the nose at month five is the single most common source of unnecessary distress in this operation.
Call to action. The twelve-month timeline is given in writing before surgery. Ask for yours.