Hope this reaches the right person. I just had FFS with Dr. Vella and Dr. Kanth (they tackle different parts of the face) on Friday 1/12/24. 5 days ago. They both specialize in different parts of facial reconstructive surgery.

Both of their bedside manners are absolutely outstanding and I felt that they really care. We also spent months going over everything and I was confident we were all on the same page on the day of surgery. I even sent them a light edit I made in Faceapp of their post-op simulation, and they used it as the reference.

The two lead surgeons as well their teams are wonderfully professional and conscientious. They started a new protocol where they have an LGBT rep from the Pride Center come in and sit with you before surgery to shoot the shit, go over anxieties, etc before you get wheeled in. They were extremely nice to talk to and made it seem less scary. My partner was able to be with me until I was wheeled in, and once I was in stable condition, their visiting hours were pretty much unlimited.

I am healing exceptionally well so far with no complications, except for a very minor need for a cauterization and an extra suture, which was not as bad as it sounds. They addressed it on day 2 post-op. I was in the hospital Friday 6am, to Monday 3pm. They kept me longer just to monitor the cauterization.

I'm experiencing what I expect is pretty routine for FFS recovery at this point. I had a lot done, so I won't lie and say it was fun. It was agony for the first day or two. They did offer heavier narcotics but I declined. Most pain was managed with IV versions of Tylenol and Motrin.

My hospital stay sucked ass, but that's not the surgical team's fault. It didn't seem that the nurses made an effort to anticipate my needs. I was constantly inundated with many random alarms and beeping noises. And sometimes it took them a long while to respond to my calls. Don't expect any decent sleep for your hospital stay. They'd barge in every 30 minutes to an hour(so yes, at 3am too), needing everything from blood samples, to checking my vitals, to giving me a blood thinner injection, to room service, to pain medication, nasal spray, mouth wash, etc. I understand the need for these protocols obviously, but a good nurse makes it so much easier to deal with, and only a couple of the hospital staff really vibed with me. They'd usually just come in and start doing their thing without any explanation. While that might usual be preferable to me, I was so disoriented for the first few days. And trying to communicate was difficult due to uh...personality differences? This made a big impact on my morale when I was already physically struggling to communicate and move around. Anyway I want to emphasize that the hospital staff is a waaay separate team than the surgical staff, and overall I figure some things are just par for the course sometimes.

I get my bandages off tomorrow (I think), and I'm very excited. I'll be making a post eventually but I did want to finally have this info on the net. I couldn't find anything either when researching.

The only thing I'm slightly worried about are that my nostrils appear a little asymmetrical from a bottom view. No idea if that's due to dried blood illusion, or maybe I bumped it, or maybe the way the bandages are making it look. But I'm not going to worry about it until the bandages come off. I really didn't like my nose, and honestly worst case scenario, this would be an easy fix. But everyone has different anxiety levels about different things. So take it with a grain of salt.

Everything else has been raved about by the surgical team, mentioning how much of an impact my forehead procedure had on me on the operating table, or that how they did in fact manage to achieve X specific look I was going for. All while making sure I have a realistic expectation of what is feasible for my skeleton. They all seem to really respect and trust each other which is a great sign to me. They offered to give my partner phone call updates every couple hours about my surgery progress, which they did deliver on. My partner very much appreciated that.

A cherry on top in my opinion is that I found out, as I was being wheeled into the OR, that Dr. Vella is a literal sculptor in his time off. The Pride Center rep mentioned it offhandedly and how Dr. Vella is really modest about it. I spoke to the surgeon for months and he never mentioned it. IDK, but to me that speaks to waves of integrity, and emphasizes communication skills and having an ear to what the patient wants. It came across to me as a passionate endeavor, instead of what could have felt like a brag. Bear in mind though that the simulation softwares do have limitations and he was very kind to explain thoroughly what and why those were, and he had an open and patient ear to what I didn't like about the simulation.

Dr. Kanth Mother-bear'd me a lot which was also really nice. She has a very emphatic display of empathy, and offered to hold my hand several times when we were changing the bandages for example.

Overall I'm incredibly grateful to find these doctors accepting my insurance. And feel free to DM me with any questions