Am i crazy be honest
I’m 10 months post-op from an open rhinoplasty + septoplasty (surgery was September 17, 2025), and I honestly don’t know what’s normal anymore.
I’m attaching photos. The left photo was taken before I went to the gym (basically after waking up), and the right photo was taken immediately after about an hour of lifting weights and cardio, so my nose was definitely more swollen. Literally tell me if im 100% crazy idc anymore lol wont be offended whatsoever!
The weird thing is… I actually like my nose more after working out. It looks fuller and more like how I wanted it to look.
What concerns me is that:
I feel like there’s a noticeable dent/indentation on the left side of my nose.
On the right side, I have what feels like a hard area that sticks out. To me it looks and feels like scar tissue, but I honestly don’t know.
It started becoming noticeable around month 3, and since then it has gradually gotten worse. It doesn’t seem to fluctuate much. It doesn’t really shrink and then come back—it just slowly progressed to where it is now.
Could it be scar tissue? Could it be swelling? Or a combination of both?
Does it look like the swelling is mainly on the sidewalls of my nose? That’s what I think I’m seeing, but maybe I’m imagining it.
Another issue is my breathing.
I can barely breathe through my right nostril. Looking inside, it almost looks completely blocked from the entrance all the way back.
My left side isn’t normal either. It looks fairly open if I look inside, but it feels blocked much higher up, almost toward the bridge. Sometimes it opens a little, but it’s never what I’d consider normal breathing.
A couple of months ago (around 8 months post-op) I got sick and started using Afrin. Unfortunately I developed rebound congestion.
I stopped using it on the left side about a month ago, but I kept using it only in my right nostril because otherwise I couldn’t sleep.
Here’s the confusing part:
Even though I only spray the right nostril, it feels like my left nostril also breathes better afterward.
Does that make any sense? Is there an explanation for that?
Today I finally stopped the Afrin completely, and now my right side is basically impossible to breathe through again. My left side also isn’t breathing well, even though I haven’t been spraying it for about a month.
That makes me wonder:
If Afrin improves my breathing, does that mean my problem is mostly swelling?
Or can Afrin temporarily improve breathing even if scar tissue is the underlying issue?
Does Afrin working basically rule out scar tissue, or not?
Some other questions:
Does this look like scar tissue, persistent swelling, a deformity, or something else?
How can doctors actually tell the difference between scar tissue and swelling?
Are steroid injections actually effective for scar tissue this far out? is it even worth the risk? Im so scared of getting that and making it worse because my surgeon doesn’t do it and recommended nothing and is very dismissive. Am i crazy or am i being gaslit because he says he doesn’t even see what im talking about.
If it is scar tissue, what treatment options are there? Will it go away on its own even if it will take 5 years?
At 10 months post-op, is there still any chance this improves on its own?
For context, I have very thick skin and a boulbous tip.
Also, my nose looked completely different when my cast first came off. Those photos are still on my profile if anyone wants to compare. I actually loved how it looked during that first week. It looked fuller, larger, and more balanced to me.
Over time, it feels like my nose has gotten smaller and smaller, especially the tip, even though the hard area I’m feeling doesn’t seem soft at all. That’s another thing that’s confusing me. If it’s hard like scar tissue, why does the nose seem to have shrunk so much compared to my early post-op photos?
Unfortunately, my surgeon has basically been no help. He doesn’t perform steroid injections, doesn’t do revisions, and hasn’t been responsive, so going back to him really isn’t an option.
I’d really appreciate honest opinions, especially from people who’ve dealt with thick skin, scar tissue, steroid injections, breathing issues, or revision rhinoplasty.
Does this look normal for 10 months? What would you do if you were in my position? Will it keep getting smaller? I know it could take 2 years for final results since im thick skin.