New York painter Conrado Estrada, 57, embraced the face mask when Covid hit after spending years trying to hide his bulbous nose.
"They would stare at me," Estrada told the New York Post.
"Children would ask their mothers what happened to me — and I would get around it by using a face mask all the time."
His enlarged nose also had a physical effect, obstructing his breathing, causing snoring and just getting in the way of everyday activities.
"It had reached my lips and whenever I took a bite when I ate that would touch the spoon," he said.
Estrada suffers from rhinophyma, a condition that leaves sufferers with thick and pitted skin on their nose due to enlarged sebaceous glands.
There is no known cure and Estrada spent fruitless years seeking treatments from doctors.
That was until he found himself part of a crew painting the home of top New York plastic surgeon Dr. Thomas Romo, the director of facial plastic reconstructive surgery at Lenox Hill Hospital.
Romo told the New York Post he had to approach Estrada when saw the scale of the problem, which he described as a "smouldering infection" that would have just kept going and looked like "a penis on his nose".
Romo, who often does pro bono work to help children with facial deformities, offered to help Estrada out.
"He saw me, and he gave me a hug," Estrada told the New York Post. "He said, 'I'm going to help you.' "
Estrada was under the knife within days and was back to work within a month, with a brand-new nose and a new lease on life.
Romo said the change was obvious in his patient, who he said was now walking confidently and looking like he'd just won Olympic gold.
Estrada was full of praise for the surgeon, saying his was a case of divine intervention.
"I believe God sent an angel to take care of me — and that's how I see Dr Romo."
