My "Why" Behind My Rhino/Septoplasty
- Abby Mae
- Mar 7, 2019
- 3 min read
I’m going to be straight up, honest. I’ve always been a person that has believed if you don’t like something… change it. I’ve been raised in an environment where I was taught that instead of complaining, find a solution.
For as long as I can remember, I hated the way I looked when I turned my head and caught a glimpse of my profile. For as long as I can remember, I really really hated when people asked me, “how did you break your nose”? (I never did, by the way). For as long as I can remember, I grew up insecure about the thing in the dead center of my face.
I have grown up basically my entire life feeling like I could never breathe “right”. I can remember getting 5 - 7 sinus infections a year and feeling like I was on my deathbed when my sinuses were inflamed. I’ll never forget my sophomore year of high school I was probably in the best shape I had ever been in. I was dancing 4 - 5 days a week and cheerleading 5 days a week. Yet, after rehearsing or going to a competition and performing a 2 minute dance routine I would hop off stage and feeling like no air was circulating in my body. I would double over and simply couldn’t talk because well, I couldn’t breathe. It was at that moment that I realized what I was feeling wasn’t right. The air I was getting solely from breathing from my mouth, wasn't enough. After a really bad year of getting sick multiple times and missing some school, my mom decided I needed to see an ENT physician.
Fast forward to September where I am 22 years old and walking into a different ENT after many failed attempts of trying to fix my septum without surgery. Name any non invasive “fix”, and I am sure I tried it. We tried inhalers, antibiotics, steroids, essential oils, everything. The truth was my septum had me obstructed and if I wanted to try to breathe better, surgery was the only way to fix that.
For the record, I was never against getting this surgery. I just tried to minimize elective surgeries if I could. I’m young and just didn’t want to put my body through something like that if something less invasive solutions would work. So in September I decided to go to Ohio State University ENT and see a specialist there. This was the day I met Dr. Farge. Long story short, after a few scopes, test and scans Dr. Farge told me my septum was leaning quite towards the right side of my face. After looking at scans of my passageways and septum itself he told me, “I don’t know how you’ve been breathing out of your nose”. I replied, “I really don’t think I am”.
Finally, some relief because I could actually see a physical image/scan that showed me this was real, I really was struggling..Doctors have told me that I have the narrowest nose they have ever seen but it really rendered when I saw scans. During this September appointment I mentioned to Dr. Farge how insecure I was about my bump as well. I told him it’s something that has always bothered me. This was when he told me how convenient it would be to meet with his colleague Dr. Nogan (Ohio State ENT Plastics Physician). I was hesitant at first but he informed me if I ever wanted to do this in the future, the time is now. He informed me how they could use my own cartilage from my nose (versus later down the road pulling it from my ear). It would be one less recovery and it would just all be done at once. He informed me how it would be triple the price down the road, still hesitant I decided to at least meet the guy, with no expectations.
Fast forward to October where I meet Dr. Nogan. When this man walked through the door and shook my hand, I instantly felt at ease. During this consultation I opened up to Dr. Nogan about all my insecurities and he took his time and really listened to me and as someone who sees doctors everyday at work, I loved and appreciated this so much. Dr. Nogan did this test where he used a tool and opened up my passageways and asked me “does this help you breathe better”? At this moment I felt so many different emotions and felt tears rise to my eyes. I realized how much I wasn’t breathing. When talking about how he would fix the “bump” on my nose I almost cried then too. I never realized how much these insecurities were just eating away at my confidence.
I didn’t like something, so I changed it and I’m proud of that.
thanks for reading,
xoxo,
abby
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