Okay! So! Susan's went down briefly and lost some data, including my one week postop update. SO luckily I had typed it all out on my iPhone notes and then just copied and pasted into here, so I'm just reposting exactly what I posted before.
Here she is boys! Here she is girls! Here's my one week update :-).
So firstly, here's a picture:
The upper left hand photo was the day after my surgery. Then the photos move in clockwise order finally ending at today which is the bottom left hand photo.
So, firstly, energy wise I feel pretty back to normal. I'm staying at Jenny's Nest (which is wonderful, and if you get FFS with FT I highly recommend staying here). Yesterday we went to the old city of Malaga. I was able to get through an hour long bus ride both ways, climbing through a twelfth century Moorish fort, walking through the old city, and climbing through a sixteenth century castle no problem. We were out for a total of 11 hours. Obviously I was tired at the end, but I don't think I was any more tired than I would've been preop after an 11 hour very active day.
In terms of pain, the first few days, my forehead, front part of my scalp, and my chin were COMPLETELY numb. So while I was on heavier doses of pain killers, I wasn't feeling much of anything anyway. I am slowly but surely regaining feeling in those areas. My forehead is almost completely back online now, and my scalp and chin have sensation, though it's still dulled. But every day is more and more.
I'm not so much in pain as I am in occasional discomfort. Especially when I near the end of a pain killer period. When I'm set to take my next dose within the next hour, I start to get kinda a dull generalized ache all over my face. It's really more of a nuisance than anything else and at this point I could probably just deal with it if I had to (which I do in two days when I'm supposed to stop taking pain killers). The weirder part is that as nerves come back online, you get random shooting pains in otherwise numb areas of your face, or sometimes extreme itchiness. I am told this is totally normal and will stop once I regain all my feeling, which they said takes 2 weeks to get most of it back and then you may have a few lingering numb spots for a few months post op, they said usually along incisions.
Normally, when they do hair transplants to feminize the hairline, they cut out a strip of flesh from where they made the forehead incision and harvest the hair from there. Since I didn't need to do hair transplants, my incision got sutured right back where the flesh was. So I actually already have all feeling back along the scalp incision already, cause I think my nerves just went back to their old place and then only took a few days to come back to life.
In terms of swelling and bruising, the swelling has gone down HUGELY over the week (as you can see in the pictures). My jaw and chin are still quite swollen, I can feel the pressure and pockets of fluid in it, but it's gone down enough where at this point I don't think a stranger would think anything of it other than I just have a wide jaw. I HIGHLY recommend if you're doing your nose and you start to bruise, invest in some thrombocid. It's a topical cream that's supposed to help break up and flush out bruises. It has worked wonders for me. At this point I have almost no bruising at all around my right eye, and only a small line at the bottom orbital ridge and right on the water line of my eyelid on my left eye. I was skeptical of using it, but it REALLY works. I apply it 2 or 3 times a day.
As part of the cost of surgery, you get two lymphatic drainage massages with their massage therapist Antonio... Who, if you like boys, is just oh so dreamy haha. I have such a crush on him... As do all the straight girls who come through here :-P. The massage was another thing I was slightly skeptical of, but I think it really really helped the swelling in the initial days after my surgery. I think the difference in the second picture (taken before my massage) vs the third picture (taken the day after) is a testament to that.
Generally, I have found FT to be a well oiled machine. Everything runs so smoothly. They send taxis to pick you up for every appointment you have at the hospital and then drop you back off again when you're done. The taxis are always impossibly on time haha. They also give you a phone when you arrive, so if any changes are made to any of your appointments, you'll immediately get a text to your phone with the time change (and they don't change any timing of appointments with less than 24 hours notice). Also, some surgeons can be cold and clinical. FT is the complete opposite. It feels like a warm family that you are being brought into. They are so wonderful at patient care and making sure you're comfortable both physically AND emotionally.
I'm looking forward to my postop appointment on Monday so that I can finally see what's under this nose cast! I didn't do much to my nose, just reduced the width a little, I had a SMALL bump which I had reduced (though not totally removed, because I *personally* think that perfectly straight noses look unnatural), and I had the tip of my nose turned up ever so slightly. From what I can see of the tip of my nose, it's exactly what I asked for and it looks perfect.
Generally, I'm ecstatic with my results, even through all the swelling. FT is known for doing naturalistic work (because they typically only work with bone). I'm only 27 (only a month ago), and one of my BIGGEST FFS fears was starting to look plastic surgery-y in my 20s. My results already look so natural and I'm thrilled.
So! I think that's all for now :-). If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask!!!
