I taught English in Taiwan from about 2004-2006. I had surgery on my nose back in 2006 in Tainan, Taiwan. My nose has been broken a couple times from sports related injuries. And since it has been broken it didn't heal perfectly and I couldn't breath well through both sides of my nostrils since the first break. I did a little looking around in Thailand for a surgeon, but ended up doing it in Taiwan.
I spent the night in the hospital the night before the surgery. That was the way I had to do it. That was different and I definitely got some cold feet about it. Here I was in a foreign country about to get surgery. But it was my choice and I knew it would be way cheaper there then in the US. The next morning they came to my room and took me to another room where they trimmed my nose hair.
After that they took me to the operating room. That was pretty freaky. They zipped me up head to toe and strapped me to the table. I couldn't move my arms or anything. They were buckled down with some velcro straps. I felt very claustrophobic. Even my eyes were covered and the only thing that was exposed was a small hole for my mouth and my nose. I had to really focus on my breathing.
They gave me a shot of something like Novacaine in my upper gum near my nose. And then they went to work. I was awake and I couldn't feel any pain, but I could feel and hear them working around. You could really feel them digging and sawing at the cartilage. As they were cutting cartilage out of my nose, one piece dropped into my mouth. That was rather disgusting.
It didn't seem to take long. After they showed me the cartilage that they cut out of my nose and then they wheeled me back to my room. They propped my head up and put a bunch of cotton under my nose. I was pretty immobile for a while. I think I stayed there for at least one more day or maybe two.
Aside from stitches that was pretty much the only surgery I ever had. And there I was in Taiwan. I think it took awhile until my nose got back to "normal". There may have been a small one, but I can't say that there was a significant improvement. Had they done the more major septoplasty things may have significantly improved. But that would have involved breaking the bone.
Taiwan like other places in Asia has pretty cheap health care. I think that surgery only cost around $200+ or so. If you need healthcare there then you might want to take advantage of it while you can.
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