how to sleep and swelling post op!!!

[hilah.hayley]

I got home from the hospital today, but I have no idea which way to sleep to reduce swelling. I'm waking up feeling on fire and it feels like my vagina is about to swell out of my panties! Help! Any advice would be appreciated!

At the hospital, the bed kept me comfortable and they kept it iced properly. I dont have that here!!

[Dinky_Di]

I can't say I ever had that feeling but I remember I did continue with the icepacks for quite a few days.  I would suggest to get some icepacks and keep using them until things start and settle down a bit.

[Karynm8621]

Hmm I never had that feeling. I would get sore frm doing too much too soon but never just laying down and certainly not a burning. Are you sure you dont have an infection?

[Kristyn]

I have to agree with Karyn, you may want to see a doctor.  I had considerable swelling too, but I never had any heat coming from the area.  Generally, heat and swelling are usually associated with an infection.  Don't put this off, it is better to be safe than sorry.  I'm surprised they didn't give you any antibiotics to take home.

[Susan Kay]

Stay as flat as much as possible. Ice packs are a good idea though I didn't use them. Most important, call your surgeon and get advice ASAP.

Susan Kay

[hilah.hayley]

I think keeping as much blood away from the area would be more comfortable. Like when you have a broken or sprained leg/arm and you have to keep it elevated.

Elevation of the area makes sense.

LOL, raising my butt in the air doesn't sound very comfortable at the moment.

[Debra]

As a chronic stomach sleeper, I found I had to get used to sleeping on my back, that's for sure. As for ice packs, they were kind of actually not recommended for too long because apparently you don't want the blood to leave the area for too long.

As some have said, seek medical help if you can.....also, taking ibuprofen may help with the swelling. I ended up taking ibuprofen 2x a day (600mg or more to actually work as anti-inflamatory) up until about 5 months post-op because of pain when I tried going off it.

Hope you feel better soon =)

[hilah.hayley]

Already better sleeping, thanks! I ended up turning my hotel bed in to a hospital bed with a slew of pillows, had a blanket and a sheet ready to cover myself with depending on the heat level I felt and wrapped ice in paper towels put in to a double plastic produce bag and tying it off. That and popping a percacet every 3 hours kept me ok. By now I'm sleeping flat and feeling much better, though yesterday I came down with a fever. We'll see how it goes. Thanks for all the responses.

[Susan Kay]

Already better sleeping, thanks! I ended up turning my hotel bed in to a hospital bed with a slew of pillows, had a blanket and a sheet ready to cover myself with depending on the heat level I felt and wrapped ice in paper towels put in to a double plastic produce bag and tying it off. That and popping a percacet every 3 hours kept me ok. By now I'm sleeping flat and feeling much better, though yesterday I came down with a fever. We'll see how it goes. Thanks for all the responses.

Absolutely Hayley! I'm so glad you are recovering. Welcome to the rest of your life. I'm sure you will love it!

Susan Kay

[stacyjintheway]

Just wanted to add my 2 cents for what its worth. I experienced the same pain that you described after my surgery. Everyone was telling me that it was normal or that i didn't have a very high pain threshold. THEY WERE ALL WRONG. It turned out that my graft had partially necroted and was dying. Had i not been so adamant about there being a problem i may have returned home only to have to fly back for emergency surgery. To make a long story short, i had to have srs TWICE. The second time was via a colon segment.  Oh . . and the doctor and nurses were pretty adamant about sleeping on your back and never on your side.

[Kristyn]

Just wanted to add my 2 cents for what its worth. I experienced the same pain that you described after my surgery. Everyone was telling me that it was normal or that i didn't have a very high pain threshold. THEY WERE ALL WRONG. It turned out that my graft had partially necroted and was dying. Had i not been so adamant about there being a problem i may have returned home only to have to fly back for emergency surgery. To make a long story short, i had to have srs TWICE. The second time was via a colon segment.  Oh . . and the doctor and nurses were pretty adamant about sleeping on your back and never on your side.

YIKES!!!!  Sounds awful!  Hope it's all better now.

I slept on my back for about three maybe four months--I was afraid to sleep on my side to be honest.

[stacyjintheway]

Everything's fine now but at the time i thought i was gonna die. If you wanna see what it was like at the time you can watch a video i made while i was doped up on morphine: [][/] . . a few hours after the video is when i go to the emergency room and find out that the graft is dying.  Then 2 days after that (i think) i underwent a sigmoid colon segment . . in fact i think i had the graft removed the day before the sigmoid (honestly i was so high on morphine at the time that my memory of the events is pretty foggy). The sigmoid was unbearably painful in terms of recovery. I suffered for about a week in the hospital after that. They cut your abdominal  cavity open when they perform this procedure . . which leaves a c-section[like] scar . . . but it also makes it horribly painful to move or twist your abdomine immediately after surgery. So you would think the story ends here . . i wish - lol . . . After the sigmoid i was having horrible problems with my bowel movements. I was also taking loads of antibiotics. It turns out i was taking too many antibiotics and i developed a potentially fatal side-effect known as Cdif (basically it occurs when you kill off all the good bacteria in your stomach). Upon returning home i had to be admitted to the hospital because my iron level had dropped so much. I even had to get a blood transfusion - YES!!

Ok . . fast forward to about two months after surgery . . everything is healed up and working great. Cosmetically (minus the scar of course) everything looks unbelievable and i also have nearly 9" of depth. I am 6 months post-op as of yesterday and i am in awesome shape. I feel great and i am completely healed.

Anyway . . i hope this made some of you feel better about your own experiences with srs. But let me add that i wouldn't change a thing . . honestly i am so happy now and the results are better than i could have ever imagined. Well, i haven't had a full orgasm yet but its been close. I wasn't very sexual before the surgery so this is not an issue. 

[hilah.hayley]

That whole entry was all very disturbing, except for the part about 9"! WOW O.O

I'm glad that you're feeling much better!

[stacyjintheway]

i'm really not trying to scare anyone and i can assure you that my situation was a fluke . . i would imagine that 99.9% of women who undergo srs these days experience little if any discomfort. I was expecting srs to be a breeze. I had ffs with Dr. Ousterhout in 2005 and i experienced ZERO pain! But then again, Dr. O puts you on a self triggering demeral pump for like 5 days. I actually enjoyed my ffs and got tons of rest. But srs was a much different story. Oh - and i had my chin filed down a little bit more on August 4th of this year and that hurt like crazy. I went to an awesome surgeon, Dr. Eppley in Indianapolis, who is a chin expert. I had the surgery under twilight and i was in serious pain immediately after. But Dr. Eppley gives you plenty of pain killers so i was able to adequately mask the pain.

My local ABC news affiliate did a story about my transition 2 nights ago if you're interested: http://www.carolinalive.com/news/story.aspx?list=195106&id=663536#.TnPFWuzQDwm

http://www.carolinalive.com/news/story.aspx?list=195106&id=663536#.TnPFWuzQDwm

[Kristyn]

i'm really not trying to scare anyone and i can assure you that my situation was a fluke . . i would imagine that 99.9% of women who undergo srs these days experience little if any discomfort. I was expecting srs to be a breeze. I had ffs with Dr. Ousterhout in 2005 and i experienced ZERO pain! But then again, Dr. O puts you on a self triggering demeral pump for like 5 days. I actually enjoyed my ffs and got tons of rest. But srs was a much different story. Oh - and i had my chin filed down a little bit more on August 4th of this year and that hurt like crazy. I went to an awesome surgeon, Dr. Eppley in Indianapolis, who is a chin expert. I had the surgery under twilight and i was in serious pain immediately after. But Dr. Eppley gives you plenty of pain killers so i was able to adequately mask the pain.

My local ABC news affiliate did a story about my transition 2 nights ago if you're interested: http://www.carolinalive.com/news/story.aspx?list=195106&id=663536#.TnPFWuzQDwm

http://www.carolinalive.com/news/story.aspx?list=195106&id=663536#.TnPFWuzQDwm

Hey!  I know you!    Good story.

[stacyjintheway]

no way - do you live in Myrtle?

[Kristyn]

no way - do you live in Myrtle?

Facebook   

[stacyjintheway]

awesome!!! We're all incognito on Susans - lol. I even have a fake name here because i was so paranoid of being discovered when i first joined. I actually want to change my username but i don't want to mess things up.Hmm

[Kristyn]

awesome!!! We're all incognito on Susans - lol. I even have a fake name here because i was so paranoid of being discovered when i first joined. I actually want to change my username but i don't want to mess things up.Hmm

Discovered?  You were just on TV!!!  That's like using the Batmobile for surveillance!    Actually, you only have 15 posts--why not just create a new profile by killing this one and signing up again?

[stacyjintheway]

you have a point there . . but i've decided to keep this account. Who knows, maybe i'll change my real name to "Stacy" (kidding of course - it took like three months to get my named changed the first time) . . maybe i will see what happens if i change my login name???

BTW - which friend of mine are you on FB?  Are you really Kristyn?