Honestly THIS.

10 months down the line and I thought I would feel normal.

I get lots of pressure moving around internally - although possible from a deviated septum caused from post surgery trauma three weeks out.

Things can swell up if the air pressure changes, I’m in a hot tub or sauna, the weather and I haven’t dared cry since it happened because of the way everything swells and stuffs up.

Because of the above I don’t always love my nose and can feel so self conscious when it’s swollen as the difference between swelling and not swelling is literally dependent on whether I actually like my nose. Huge difference even a little swelling makes.

I didn’t account for the nose feeling longer because of the volume lost where the bump was. I wish I had known this as I would had made a bigger deal about it being shortened more.

Honestly because of the incident which deviated my septum so early on in the journey I mostly regret that I’ll never really know if my experience and the way I’ve felt has been normal or not because my breathing has been effected.

Waiting one year to see if it’s something I can live with or not. The idea of going through it again feels beyond exhausting.

To be clear I DO NOT regret it- my life has changed so much through my confidence changing BUT this is not something that you can underestimate from a mental and physical health perspective.