re: So I had a nose job today...

Best medical decision I ever made. I had it done in the late summer of 2000 right before my soph year in college. I had a badly deviated septum. The CT Scan looked like a fish hook. My right side was like 90-95% blocked. They did some work on the Turbinates as well. And while they were at it, shaved it down some. Nothing drastic, just made it a touch smaller. Most people couldn't even tell. I wore the cast for about a week. I had a combo of an ENT and a Plastic Surgeon do mine. The ENT did the septum repair and all sinus work, and the plastics guy finished up and set the cast. Went back a week later and they took the cast off at the Plastics docs office, and went to another part of the hospital to have the ENT remove the packing. It was one of the best and worst experiences, all at once. The extreme pain of having something removed, and the instant feeling of air flow right after.

I woke up in the recovery room, they say moaning i pain. All I remember is waking up groggy, and then feeling a needle in my arm. They gave me a pain shot, knocked me back out for like an hour or so. And it was outpatient, so they released me once I was able to stand up and use the bathroom. On the ride home from the hospital, mom stopped at the pharmacy for some nasal spray and pain meds. I remember feeling really nauseous. We got home, and I walked inside, made it to the kitchen sink, and immediatly threw up a large amount of fluid and blood. My wife (GF at the time) was going to stick around during the day and help out. Both she and my sister saw me puking, immediately left, and I didn't see either of them again for 3 days.

My older sister had a similar procedure done. Hers wasn't as deviated, but she couldn't shower for a week after the surgery, and her hair was looking pretty nasty. So I got my hair buzzed off the day before mine. The saline rinses several times a day helped with the clotting.

Like others have said, sleep propped up, and keep a squirt bottle of water nearby. Maybe not every night, but at some point you will wake up gagging and your throat will be so dry from breathing through your mouth that you will need water fast. I just squirted the back of mine until I could actually swallow some and trying to drink from a cup when that happens isn't going to work. We had an older recliner I slept in. It was in the den of our old house, so I just watched TV and rested. I didn't need too much pain medicine. After about 2 days I was just taking ibuprofen about 3 times a day.