Supplies you may want

Prior to my own tumor recision and loss of nose, I had no idea what I would be doing for aftercare, so it was hard to know what to have on hand to take care of the wound.

I came home with a section of special bandaging called Xeroform wrapped around the excision site and a bandage taped over that. In addition, you may have other corollary wounds that are part of the prep for reconstruction, if you are going that route - in my case this was a skin graft donor site on my thigh and a long incision in my forehead. So often it's not just the nose wound you're taking care of.

Below is a list of supplies I've found useful in a variety of surgeries, including the initial amputation.

1. Good surgical scissors and tweezers The ones I got were actually handed to me by a nurse, so if you can nab some from a hospital, do so. If not, head online and look for something like these:
   

2. Post-op sponges, gauze and tape... lots of tape. Often you can get a lot of these from the nursing staff on your way out of surgery, including extra Xeroform - so if you can, that's great. Both post-op sponges and gauze can be good for "mustaches" to catch blood dripping down, especially at night, and you'll find yourself having preferences for how you want to cover / care for your wound. For tape, paper tape is the way to go; grab yourself a roll or two in advance if you want to get ahead.
   

3. Q-tips and long-swabs These are all-purpose for both cleaning in/around the wound and applying things like Aquaphor to the site or Xeroform. Q-tips are better for cleaning, long swabs better for applying. I have been buying these: Speaking of Aquaphor...
   

4. Aquaphor This is something my surgeon has recommended for helping heal just about everything he has done to me. It really seems to be a catchall product to help heal some of the wounds you get, from stitches to exposed flesh. Grab some.
   

5. Non-adhesive bandages These are good for covering areas like a skin-graft donor site, and placing on top of Xeroform, if you have that covering your wounds (you can cover the Xeroform and change the non-adhesive bandage without it sticking). I used a bunch of them right from the start
   

6. Sprayable saline and/or a NeilMed sinus rinse bottle Listen to your doctor here, but mine wanted me to be spraying saline directly into the nose cavity just a few days after surgery - to keep it moist and help stop blood/mucous buildup. I started with a spray can of saline, but moved to the NeilMed rinse kit after a bit, based on what my surgeons wanted me to do. Again, go with your doctors' orders here, but that's what I ended up needing.