Quote from: confused_very on July 21, 2016, 06:12:02 AM
Hey Debra
when you say you sent pictures of noses, how did you go through them, did you just find random noses from the internet, how did you assess them to work with your face?

Yes i scoured the internet for both front and profile shots of what I considered 'cute and feminine noses'

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how do you know they would be ok in proportion to your other features?

In talking with the doctor, we agreed that whatever was done, it would need to be proportionate to my face. The main thing is bringing the bridge down (feminization) and a slight tip up at the end. He said he asks for pictures because it's easier than trying to describe an exact angle of the 'tip up'.

So it won't look EXACTLY like those noses but it helps give him an idea of the general shape to contour my own nose with.

Debra Congrats on the FFS

I have just finished having FFS with DR D and am about 8 weeks into the healing process. The profile pic I have up is Pre surgery I'm not healed enough to put a new one up yet.  I had the break the bank treatment, Chin, upper lip, scalp advancement, rhino, fat grafs, type 3 forehead, jaw taper, 1800 hair grafs.  the surgery was 2 days and over 20 hours of surgery.  I met Dr O at my surgery at the hospital, he has a good book that goes over every type of procedure in good detail and was a big help to me.  It's downloadable as an ebook.

The Ret-A and Micro-Needle treatment and other instructions are real important to success, Dr D uses a lot of modern techniques that some others do not.  The short of it is this 3 days after the surgery I was walking 5 miles a day.  I never needed any of the prescription pain meds given, and only needed OTC pain meds for 4 days, till the nose packing came out.

I had trouble swallowing with the nose packing in so you may want some foods available that are easy to swallow.
The sun is your enemy after your surgery they gave me some special sunblock for the incisions.  In frisco it's cool enough I had a light windbreaker with a hood to keep the sun off my face and head or and umbrella works.  I was told hats were out and a scarf did protect the nose/face from the sun. If your inside then no problem there.

Dr D's team nurses, assistants and staff were all A list and I had no problem getting help immediately for even my silly requests or concerns I would send a picture and the nurse and DR D would look at it and respond right away all turned to nothing but normal healing, hence the silly part. 

After 4 weeks of healing with all I had there was only faint bruising by my eyes and concealer worked fine to hide it.  I agree with others about using makeup on your incision too soon I waited 8 weeks before I did everyone heals differently but I am paranoid that I would get permanent pigment in my incisions.  I'm certain if you shoot betty an email she can find out that for sure.

I hope some of this helps out with some questions.

Hugs 

Wow thank you so much Samantha. Lots of great info.

WOW that's a lot of surgeries, break the bank treatment for sure. Hope it works well for you when it's all healed.

It does make me glad I'm only doing forehead and nose though.....I'm hoping upper face alone for now will make recovery much easier than if I'd done lower face too.

Yeah he mentioned a lot of walking....did you get a lot of stares?

I'll be interested to see your pics when you are at a good point to show them. If you don't mind, I wouldn't mind seeing pics of your recovery as well though (feel free to PM me). I want to know the bad parts of things too haha.

Yeah the nose packing seems to be a big crappy part so I'll be glad when that gets out.....and I am a bit afraid of the micro-needling part.....I hope it doesn't hurt too bad =/

Good to hear about 4 weeks post-op because I am hoping to go back to work about that time. Just gotta figure out what to do about the hairline incision =/

I'm still waiting for the Ret-A and other stuff they're supposed to send me but surgery is still 4 months out too.

Thanks again for all the info! =)

I got lucky and didn't have to have the nose packing, but that may be because my Doc didn't do anything with the tip of my nose; I did have to wear the cast for almost 3 weeks though. It was awesome when the cast came off and I could see my new nose, and the bridge had the subtle "ski slope" look that I always wanted ⛷ 💕

Quote from: kittenpower on July 24, 2016, 01:44:34 AM
I got lucky and didn't have to have the nose packing, but that may be because my Doc didn't do anything with the tip of my nose; I did have to wear the cast for almost 3 weeks though. It was awesome when the cast came off and I could see my new nose, and the bridge had the subtle "ski slope" look that I always wanted ⛷ 💕

awww I bet! I can't wait for that part haha

Debra,

The Micro needle treatment for me was tolerable to quantify that it hurt less than laser on my face and more than electrolysis on the cheeks.  It does a great deal to improve skin healing and will reduce chance of prominent scarring.  It was worth doing for me.

I'm at 10 weeks post op and I have new hair growth below (these are transplants) and through the incision line so hair may grow at and through the incision.

You wanted to know the bad so for me the bad was my hair is very sensitive and the tightening of the scalp and blood flow disruption cause about 40% on the crown area to come out.  Thus read carefully make sure to follow the instructions (buy a wide tooth comb). Don't rub your head or use fingernails when you wash your hair.  Anyway be very gentle like the instructions say I perhaps fell short in this and now have to wait a year for my hair regrow to where it was:(

Quote from: Samantha C on July 28, 2016, 11:46:21 AM
The Micro needle treatment for me was tolerable to quantify that it hurt less than laser on my face and more than electrolysis on the cheeks.  It does a great deal to improve skin healing and will reduce chance of prominent scarring.  It was worth doing for me.

Oh good. How long does the actual needling take?

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I'm at 10 weeks post op and I have new hair growth below (these are transplants) and through the incision line so hair may grow at and through the incision.

You wanted to know the bad so for me the bad was my hair is very sensitive and the tightening of the scalp and blood flow disruption cause about 40% on the crown area to come out.  Thus read carefully make sure to follow the instructions (buy a wide tooth comb). Don't rub your head or use fingernails when you wash your hair.  Anyway be very gentle like the instructions say I perhaps fell short in this and now have to wait a year for my hair regrow to where it was:(

WOW 40% of your overall hair fell out? Or just 40% at the incision line? That seems very drastic either way.

Thanks for sharing and warning.

Thanks so much Riya! =)

Good luck with your November surgery girly    I am planning to have FFS in September 2017 and while that seems so far away I haven't even begun HRT yet, which is on August 15 of this year. But I just know that I want FFS, granted at the target date, I will have been a year on HRT so perhaps I will look more feminine than I think I will look, or perhaps not. Only time will tell. Either I'll get FFS on that date or I'll just be $34k richer from savings 

Quote from: SerenaOhSerena on July 31, 2016, 09:47:19 PM
Good luck with your November surgery girly    I am planning to have FFS in September 2017 and while that seems so far away I haven't even begun HRT yet, which is on August 15 of this year. But I just know that I want FFS, granted at the target date, I will have been a year on HRT so perhaps I will look more feminine than I think I will look, or perhaps not. Only time will tell. Either I'll get FFS on that date or I'll just be $34k richer from savings 

Good for you for waiting. It helps to see what HRT will do for you first

So I told my Aunt and Uncle about my surgery and I'm happy to say they are taking a week off to fly up and be with me for the first week of the surgery along with my bestie's mom.

It feels good to be loved even if the bio parents are worthless.

In other news, I'm still waiting for my package from the surgeon with Retin-A and stuff that I'm supposed to be using up until the surgery.

Ok finally an update.

I got my labs done yesterday for both my doctor (I'll see him 2 weeks before surgery) and the surgeon.

Other than that, I'm sitting at a month and a week away about. I've been using the Retin-A product every other night until it gets really flaky and then backing off for a couple days and then starting it again. They confirmed today that was the right thing to do.

Birthday coming up this month and last few events before surgery. Can't help but feel like 'these are the last events with this face' haha. Hopefully that's a good thing.

I'm super excited for you! Keep us posted pleaaase. <3

Nothing like signing a $20k check over to someone. eek! haha. Still owe about $6k to the medical facility and anesthesia but won't have to pay that for another 2 weeks.

It's getting close though!

That sound like a good consultation indeed - quite long I imagine - usually most surgeons only spend 30 minutes or so in a consultation, it seems.

But the price is quite steep - I estimate its about double what most other surgeons charge. What part of his work makes it worth spending so much more? What made you decide for him instead for any of the other surgeons? Sadly there are no pictures of patients of his available and he also has no email contact for international patients, so I basically ruled him out from my list, although Dr O was on it when I first started the list.

Quote from: anjaq on October 10, 2016, 03:19:04 AM
he also has no email contact for international patients

Right? What's up with that..

I was told one can only do phone calls - which due to my time zone is not really that easy to do - plus flying from Europe to California for a consultation is quite an endeavour - financially and in respect to the time spent. But then I guess compared to the actual FFS pricetags, those expenses are not that important.

Quote from: anjaq on October 10, 2016, 03:19:04 AM
What part of his work makes it worth spending so much more? What made you decide for him instead for any of the other surgeons?

- I liked his attitude, his experience, his tutelage under Dr. O
- He's close, I live in Seattle, short flight to San Fran
- The pics he had in his office were very good and every girl I've talked to that has gone to him has had good results as well.
- I was able to save the money necessary for Forehead/nose myself (with 401k loan)

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Sadly there are no pictures of patients of his available and he also has no email contact for international patients, so I basically ruled him out from my list, although Dr O was on it when I first started the list.

Yeah the pics on the website thing was annoying but as a patient, it's kinda nice too. Again, it's convenient for me. He's close. I can understand from Europe how it might not be the case. If was In Europe maybe FT would be more convenient.

Quote from: anjaq on October 10, 2016, 04:47:02 AM
I was told one can only do phone calls - which due to my time zone is not really that easy to do - plus flying from Europe to California for a consultation is quite an endeavour - financially and in respect to the time spent. But then I guess compared to the actual FFS pricetags, those expenses are not that important.

  8 pm in the evening in Europe is about mid day in San Francisco.   Is that really a show stopper ?

  Also,  in the past he has done consultations in Europe when he traveled there.   

Quote from: Debra on October 10, 2016, 05:13:42 PM
Yeah the pics on the website thing was annoying but as a patient, it's kinda nice too. Again, it's convenient for me. He's close. I can understand from Europe how it might not be the case. If was In Europe maybe FT would be more convenient.

Well I would hope for sure that all other surgeons ask for permission before putting up photos. I was asked for permission by Yeson before they put my voice on youtube and I only agreed after blurring the video picture.

Convenience is not my game - I travelled to Korea to get voice surgery because I consider Dr Kim to be the best to do it, so travelling for surgery is not an issue for me, what is more important is the quality of the work. So if FT and Dr Deschamps are playing in the same league regarding the results of the surgery, I would of course prefer the short way, if I had the impression that Spiegel or Deschamps are much better, I would not mind travelling for the surgery. But I am a bit reluctant to fly all over the world to get an hour of consultation everywhere, which frankly does not really tell me much about the quality of the work, as every surgeon claims to be really great and shows really good hand picked pictures. In my case so far they all also suggested the same procedures with variation in technique and bascially what I got out of the consultations was mostly if I had a good feeling or liked the personality of the surgeons.

Quote from: oneoftwo on October 10, 2016, 07:16:26 PM
  8 pm in the evening in Europe is about mid day in San Francisco.   Is that really a show stopper ?

That is actually rather manageable. But still, a phone call will not go further than making an appointment for a face to face consultation in California, which is for me a bit of a stopper to spend 1500 EU and two days just for a one hour conversation. I saw some time ago that he was visiting Paris and gives consultations there, that is easier to reach but still takes at least a day and two flights plus consultation fee. It would be manageable, but what stops me so far is that he charges twice as much for the surgery than for example Facialteam, but I do not yet see any specific reason for why he is better, except maybe that he has learned it from "the man", Dr O himself. So before I make a consultation with him, I need a reason why I would consider him in my list, given that he is massively expensive (looking at my funds, choosing him over the other surgeons on my list would almost completely drain all the funds I have, not giving me any reseves in case I need other surgeries or need a replacement for my car or other worldly needs)