Wow, I had no idea of this. I had a nose job in 2005, and I recall having to get repeated cortisone injections for months to make the swelling subside. I'm half-Italian (with quite a bit of Middle Eastern DNA), and I'm also part-Ashkenazi. When my surgeon informed me that my nose skin was "thick," I had no idea that was an ethnic thing. Very cool to learn! Now it makes sense. :)

It's interesting to read about your satisfaction with your surgery. I, too, have mixed feelings about mine. My nose went from being large and convex to still-large, no-longer-convex, and now having a bit of a bulb at the tip (which it didn't have before). I'm not thrilled about the result, but I also know that rhinoplasty has the highest rate of revision among plastic surgeries, for having the lowest rate of satisfaction. So I never made a priority of re-doing it; I, too, still prefer my new nose to my old one.

I'll also add that, in my case, the surgery took a LONG time to recover from: while the bruising in my face subsided very quickly, the pain lasted for at least half a year. As in, 6 months later, I lightly bumped the tip of my nose on something, and I saw stars. My rhinoplasty pain was worse than the pain I had after breast surgery. I'm guessing the nose gets less circulation than the breasts, so maybe the slower healing is not such a mystery.

Thanks for sharing your experience. I'm sure it's helpful for people who are considering surgery, and it's validating for those of us who've already had it. :)