I spent a week trying to remember what that surgeon told me about my nose

The memory of that consultation in Daegu

It is funny how you can walk into a clinic thinking you know exactly what you want, only to leave feeling like you have forgotten half the conversation before you even reach the subway station. I remember visiting a plastic surgery clinic in Daegu—I think it was the one near the main intersection, maybe it was BL Plastic Surgery—to ask about fixing my nose. I had been thinking about it for months, mostly because my nostrils felt too wide whenever I looked in the mirror. I walked in, sat in the waiting room for about thirty minutes, and then the consultant sat me down. They mentioned a price, something around 3 million to 3.5 million won, but honestly, my brain just drifted off once they started talking about cartilage and bridge heights. I keep trying to recall if they said the nostril reduction was included in that quote or if that was a separate headache entirely.

Why I fixated on the bridge and the nostrils

I guess I just got tired of how I looked in photos. It is not that I wanted to look like someone else, but my nose just felt… heavy. I considered fillers at first because I heard they were cheaper, maybe around a few hundred thousand won, and the recovery is basically nonexistent. But then I read that fillers do not really fix the structural issues, and eventually, you end up needing a real surgery anyway. I thought about the difference between just lifting the bridge and actually narrowing the base. People talk about the ‘flower boy’ look, but I just wanted my face to feel a bit more balanced. It is annoying how one small feature can make you feel like your whole face is off-center.

The reality of medical consultations

Looking back, I probably should have brought a notebook or asked them to write it down. I just nodded and felt embarrassed that I was a guy asking about nose aesthetics in the first place. You see all these commercials and forums talking about ‘nose jobs’ as if it is as casual as buying a new keyboard, but sitting in that chair felt different. The air was dry, and the clinic smelled faintly of disinfectant. They were very polite, but the information came at me too fast. They brought up the septum, too. I remember them asking if I had trouble breathing, and I mentioned I sometimes get congested, which led to a brief talk about whether it was just a cosmetic thing or if I needed an ENT checkup. I have heard some people go to Hwawon Otolaryngology for sinus stuff, but I was not sure if I should combine a functional surgery with the cosmetic part. It sounds like a lot of work to deal with both at once.

Small doubts that remain

I am still hovering around the idea of going back, but now I am worried about the recovery time. I work a normal schedule, and the idea of showing up with a splint on my face for a week sounds like a social nightmare. I keep wondering if 3.5 million won is a standard price or if I just got a ‘first-time visitor’ quote. I haven’t checked any other places because once I start looking, I feel like I’ll end up obsessed with every clinic’s website. Sometimes I think about just leaving it alone and getting used to how I look. It’s not like it is ruining my life, but then I catch my reflection in a store window and the annoyance comes right back. It is a strange cycle of wanting a change and being too tired to actually commit to the pain of recovery. I guess I am just not ready to be that person who schedules a surgery yet.