A nose nightmare.
Drs. Terry Dubrow and Paul Nassif have certainly encountered their fair share of nose jobs gone wrong, but even they were surprised to meet new patient Melissa, who lost half of her nose from a simple filler injection, on the latest episode of Botched.
Yes, a non-surgical procedure left the Rhode Island local with what she described as "cooked cauliflower" for a nose.
To give the Botched docs a better idea of what went wrong, Melissa recalled her entire plastic surgery experience, beginning with her reasoning for wanting to be operated on in the first place.
"I grew up in a Filipino family and in our culture, there's a really large emphasis on beauty," she explained during her consultation. "I had a much flatter nose bridge than anyone else in my family, and that eventually started to really affect me. Fast forward to 2017, I came across non-surgical rhinoplasty and I thought I could finally have my nose fixed."
Immediately following the procedure, Melissa thought she had succeeded in doing so. But within the next 24 hours, she found herself in the E.R. after experiencing pain and the formation of little bumps around her new nose.
"The doctor told me that there was an occlusion—that some of the filler had blocked blood flow—and right away the doctor started the treatment which involved 20-30 injections of hyaluronidase for five days," Melissa told Drs. Dubrow and Nassif. "And it felt like hell."
"I slowly watched my nose die," she added, describing the necrosis before going on to explain that for the next year, her nostril continued to shrink.
The Botched duo was shocked, with Dr. Nassif chiming in at one point with, "Can you imagine being that doctor that did this?"
The situation with Melissa's nose ended up affecting both her physical and mental health. She described waking up every morning and "a little part of" her feeling "like a monster."
Melissa's husband Matt added, "Over the last few years, I've seen Melissa go through significant changes in her personality. She used to be so outgoing and now she's always thinking about the negative."
As it turned out, Melissa was so ashamed of the operation in the first place that she had it performed when Matt was deployed with the U.S. Navy.
"It makes me cry because I make it harder for him," Melissa said, ultimately apologizing to Matt for keeping this from him for so long. "I try my best that I can but I know that he gets a lot of the crappy end of the stick just about how down I feel about myself."
Luckily, Drs. Dubrow and Nassif were ready to help—it just wasn't going to be easy.
The specific goal, Dr. Nassif told the Botched cameras, was to try and match each side of Melissa's nose: "Our goal is to create some type of crease and definition, where the previous doctor just basically moved over some cheek tissue into this area, which left Melissa with zero shape to her nose and nostril."
In the operating room, it appeared for a moment that Dr. Nassif was buckling under the pressure.
"I don't like that. I just don't like it," he said. "Something is scaring me about this."
More specifically, Dr. Nassif was struggling to sculpt Melissa's skin when it had "already been through so much."
However, all was well in the end. Dr. Nassif gave Melissa's nose more shape and contour, adding that in the following weeks, she'll continue to heal and get even better.
"Week by week, it's getting smoother. The swelling is going down," Melissa said following her operation. "I know it's still a little bit uneven but I completely understand that it's gonna take a lot of time."
"I now have the bridge I've always wanted," she added. "I know my nose isn't perfect, but I'm hoping over time it will only look better and better."
Watch the full Botched episode here.