I posted this on the Yahoo FFS group. I know most of y'all don't have membership there so I'm reposting it here.
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WARNING - This is a long post, but I have a lot to write after being a member for over 10 years. :-)
Well, after being mostly a lurker for the last 10 years I finally did it.
The full list of procedures:
Type III forehead reduction ( coronal incision )
Outer orbital rim reduction
Brow lift
Upper Blepharoplasty
lower eyelid fat transfer
cheek fat transfer
upper lip lift
face lift (upper,lower)
neck lift
rhinoplasty including reconstructive nasal valve
Back story
I transitioned over 30 years ago I did what little feminizing surgery was available at the time; rhinoplasty ( 2 of them ), trachea shave, breast augmentation and finally SRS. Surgeries started when I was 24, finalized with SRS on my 27th birthday. :-) I started HRT when I was 23, first black market birth control, within 6 months started injection, under endocrinologist supervision. I have lived happily as a tall, athletic, tomboy lesbian for years. At 40 I was still getting stopped on the streets by people who thought I played on the local D1 university women's basketball team, that made me a happy girl.
I first heard about FFS ~ 2004, when I 45. It had to be from a National Public Radio morning or evening news show. Being the good lesbian I did not own a TV :-) . Some quick research turned up this group, I joined immediately and began my long lurking phase. This was such a vibrant group for many years, I learned so much. Then Yahoo redesign of Groups to be more mobile friendly, made using Groups such a PITA. The result was this Group became very quiet. Because no one was posting, I stopped visiting this group. Fortunately I'd learned so much from my sisters who had already gone down the FFS path and posted copious amounts of info I felt like I knew what I needed to know. I just needed the funds.
Move forward to 2015 and time was taking it's toll on this old lady. After thirty of years of outdoor activities; softball playing, motorcycle riding, hiking/camping and more recently farming I was no longer a tomboy lesbian, but an old lady with a prominent brow. At my place of employment, 16 years, my co-workers knew me as female, but strangers stopping me in the hall to ask a question occasionally addressed me as sir. That was a shock, I had to do something. So, I finally pulled the trigger and booked FFS with Dr Rossi ( Buenos Aires ) on Sept 16.
I chose Dr Rossi for a number of reasons, one his relationship with Amanda Rosenfeld. I remember her initial posts here. Telling us her travails in finding an FFS surgeon in Buenos Aires. Long time group members will remember her, more recent one's only know of her through the business she created, T-change. She doesn't post here any more because she is associated with a specific surgeon, Dr Rossi. She previous brought MdM to the community. The other reason was the positive results I was seeing on
susans.org FFS sub forum. Putting it all together in June I scheduled surgery for Sept.
I arrived on Monday afternoon, Amanda met me at the airport. She took me to the apt, dropped off my things, then we went on a walk so she could show the close by area. The apt is in the CBD, lots of cafes, shops, people bustling around every where. She showed me the local quick stop grocery, a buffet and a mall with a food court. We bought some food items I would need post surgery at the grocery, items to make liquid meals; yogurt, soy milk, bananas, dry soup mixes. Tuesday morning Amanda picked me up and took me for a series of medical checkups, blood work, EKG and X-Rays ( profile and straight ahead ) . She returned me to the apt, I drank a smoothie, the first of many. She came by early evening for my meeting with Dr Rossi. She told me all the medical results were good. We met Dr Rossi, he took a look at the X-Rays and immediately commented about the size of my frontal sinus. They were the largest he had ever seen, both in projection ( 2.5 - 3 cms) and height. He said I was going to be a challenge, but he liked challenges. Then he described the other procedures, including the decision to go with coronal incision. I had originally requested a hairline incision, but I had also discussed with Amanda about getting hair implants while I was in Buenos Aires. During the meeting Amanda and Dr Rossi explained the hair implant doctor, Dr. Bruno Szyferman, thought the implants would have a better environment to succeed without the local stress of a hairline incision. I'd seen his previous work on a June Dr Rossi patient and her hairline is now growing out well. I agreed with everything he said he was going to do. By the way, Dr Rossi and Amanda both speak very good English. My surgery was surgery was scheduled for the next day, at 11am. I was told not to eat or drink anything after 12midnight. Amanda took me back to the apt. I then walked to the Mall food court and had my last solid meal for awhile, greasy, salty fried chicken. :-)
Surgery day Amanda picked me up at 1000am and we headed to the hospital. I checked in, went to my room, changed into hospital gown. With my 6'3" (190cm) height body it barely covered to my crotch, chuckle. I setup my laptop computer to the hospital WiFi, plugged it into power and left it on a radio station stream from my home city. A short time later they wheeled me into the OR, I met the Anesthesiologist he inserted the needle and I was out. I woke up in my room, someone told me everything went well. The T-Change provided interpreter, Charlotte, was there explaining what the nurse was telling me en Espanol. I was breathing through my mouth, and my lips and mouth were dry as hell. They make you wait a bit before they allow you any water, but they could moisten my lips. Charlotte started the radio stream, and I laid there, taking long slow breathes through my mouth. At some point they came in and told me I could start having water, from that point on Charlotte was not only an interpreter but also a provider of water and conversation, for little I was able to provide. Sofia came in to relieve Charlotte, who knows when. In my view Charlotte and Sofia were more than interpreters, they were the companion I needed in the hospital room that night. Without them I could not imagine how lonely it would have been. At one point the radio stream turned to an electronic dance mix, something I listen to rare occasion, but not appropriate for my situation. Charlotte for a nature background stream and I spent the rest of the stay listening to bubbling stream, birds, animals, conversation with Charlotte and Sofia and the occasion barking dog outside my window. The barking dog was actually quite soothing as it reminded me of home and my two dogs.
Food was brought at some point the day after surgery. I don't remember what it was, but somehow I ate it. The afternoon of the day after surgery one of Dr Rossi associate surgeons came by to check on me. He removed the head bandage and the nose packing, voila I could breathe through my nose again. They took me out to the cab and headed back to the apt with Amanda and Sofia ( I think Sofia went along, I was pretty out of it at that point) . Once at the apt Amanda showed me how to put on the compression garment, then put it on for me. She gave me two types of pain killers, NSAID and Opiod, and the antibiotic. She told me their schedules, but the instructions were also printed in large font on the boxes. She explained I needed to be applying ice packs as much as possible, then she was gone. I somehow managed to email my partner I was back in the apt and doing well, setup a radio stream again, then laid down on propped up pillows in bed, with and icepack around my chin, closed my eyes and breathed. I laid there, periodically getting up to drink water, use the restroom, change ice packs. I don't believe I ate anything on the first day back in the apt, just lots of water. My lower lip was blistering badly, it felt like all the flesh was gone, it was one big scab. I've had herpes simplex outbreaks for over 35 years. I never had an outbreak until after my first rhinoplasty. I was concerned I was getting a cold sore from all the stress so I started taking the anti-viral I brought with me. I took the antiviral until it just ran out.
Friday I started eating again, smoothy and another smoothy Amanda came by at some point, brought some items to help clean my incisions, alcohol, cotton and gauze, asked me I wanted anything.I asked Amanda to get me something for my lips, and some potatoes. I know a strange combination, but I was already getting tired of smoothies. My life was lay in bed, ice packs applied to different parts of my swollen head, listen to radio stream or watch Netflix streams, drink lots of water, restroom breaks, drink lots of water, oops, I said that already.
Amanda came by again on Saturday, with the items I requested, asked me how I was doing, with my okay, she reminded me she would not be by on Sunday. She would be available via cellphone in case of emergency. I was okay with that and she left. The apt is located in multistory older building, most of the condos were used by businesses as offices, because of this it was very quiet on Sat and Sun. In addition the CBD was very quiet on the weekend, I heard very little traffic.
I haven't mentioned anything specific regarding swelling, well here goes. Amanda told me on Thursday or Friday the swelling would continue to increase, and not peak for several days. Hence the repeated directions to use ice packs and compression garment. She obviously knows what she is talking about, my eyes were almost completely swollen shut. I could see well enough to get around the apt and make food, but I could not read with my glasses. Fortunately I had brought along a magnifying glass so I could work on a small electronic project during my stay. The magnifying glass was a godsend, anyone going through FFS should bring one along. Let me repeat, BRING a MAGNIFYING GLASS. Without I would not have been able to txt updates to my partner the first couple days. Finally on Sunday the swelling decreased enough to where I could use my glasses for short periods of time.
By Sunday I decided to try to wash my hair, I'd already taken a shower a day or so earlier. You loose track of time. I tried to slowly, lightly brush out my hair. That is when I discovered two matted areas, on either side of my head. I ended up wetting them, applying conditioner and slowly tried to work them out. I was able to salvage some of the hair, but ended up with two balls of hair hanging by a hair or too. I clipped them off, not something I wanted to do, but hair grows back. I then proceeded to enjoy a nice hair washing. An aside, after my first shower I realized how tiring it was taking a shower and asked Amanda if she knew where she could by a small plastic step stool so I could sit on it in the shower. She did not know of a place, fortunately for me the landlord had asked if it would be okay if he could come by on Saturday to fix some small things. While he was there I posed the same question to him and he said he would buy one for the apt. I did not have to buy it, he brought it by later that day. It makes it so much easier to sit while you wash your hair. I've taken to separating bathing and hair washing to two separate showers.
Also on Sunday I started microwaving a potato, make soup from a dried soup packet. Putting it all in a blender, after it was good and blended it was a meal. I wish I'd brought some spices from home, all I have is white pepper.
Monday, it was just more of the same. Upside, the a lot of the scab on my lower lip came off while brushing my teeth on Monday, a new scab reformed, but it was smaller. It looks like I did not have herpes simplex outbreak, what a relief. The only real issue was I had yet to have a good night sleep. I think I might have gotten 3 hours of sleep one night, then would take breaks from trying to watch Netflix things with nature sound stream, intermixed with outside street sounds. When I listened to the nature sounds I'd have it as dark in the room as possible, maybe I drifted in and out of sleep, if so I was not getting much sleep. I saw Amanda on Monday, she told me I would see Dr Rossi on Tuesday afternoon. She asked me if I needed anything, nothing I said so she was off.
Tuesday I went outside the building for the first time, I took a walk around the block at 6am. The city was just starting to wake up. I'm sure to anyone I met I looked like I'd been in a bad accident, if they had only seen me 3 days earlier. :-) More ice, drink water, restroom, Netflix, radio stream, Skype with my partner. Also I bought some Skype credits so I could Skype Out to my 80 year old parents. I'd told them the weekend before I left I was going to Buenos Aires for surgery, they did not quite understand why I was going out of the country for major surgery, but I think my pseudo explanation was enough for them My partner and I had already got them used to leaving the US for the dental implants she went to Mexico for. I had a nice conversation with my parents, though they did indicate the technology side of things were very confusing to them. I love my parents immensely, they have supported my life decisions almost completely, We just had to go through a 12 month estrangement 2 years post transition to get there. :-) Late in the day Amanda came by for the trip to see Dr Rossi, the ride was short. The visit with Dr Rossi was quick, he looked at all his work, said everything looked good. I asked him how long the surgery was, he said 8 hours. It was one of his longer surgeries, because of the number of procedures. I'm scheduled to see him on Thursday evening to get some of the stitches and staples out, the remainder will come out in a week. Back at the apt I continue the same repetition. Oh, yeah, I forgot, there is a very small section of my forehead where the swelling has subsided, I can actually feel my fingers touching it directly, in contrast to the numb feeling I have on the rest of my head. I told Dr Rossi about this and he said this was normal, the swelling would move around. The area that I can feel right now might get swollen again in the future.
Today, Wednesday, I woke up around 230am to use the restroom, after going to bed around 1030pm. This was the longest I'd slept since I'd been here. I tried to go back to sleep, but when I started to think about work I decided I was awake, setup a Netflix stream, went and got an ice pack, came back to bed and almost immediately fell back to sleep. A couple hours later I woke up, Netflix was stopped, my ice pack was warm. I was pretty surprised at the sleep, but figuring I was up for good I got another ice pack, started Netflix and promptly fell back asleep. I finally woke up around 730am, just in time for my morning antibiotic. Even with all the sleep I wanted to go back to sleep, damn, I think my body finally figured out I could sleep on my back, propped up in bed. From experience I knew I should get up and move around, that much time in bed would just make me achy. I got up, brushed my teeth, a normally simple procedure until you have jaw and chin work, trust me. I dressed, went outside to a light drizzly Buenos Aires. I headed over to the Starbucks I'd spotted on Monday morning, Dressed in my normal shorts, t-shirt and jacket attire. I wear shorts year around, at least as long as it's above 0F/-18C. I'm sure the locals thought I was crazy, but no one was overtly staring at the 6'3" women who looked like she'd been in an accident. Grabbed a latte at Starbucks, a place I would never go to in the states. I headed over towards the area that was formerly the main waterfront dock area of Buenos Aires, it has been completely rejuvenated,after lying derelict for 30 years. My walk was cut short by an intensifying rain and wind. The poor locals kept having to deal with umbrellas that kept popping up in the wind. By the time I got back to the apt, my shorts were drenched on the front, my hair was soaked and I felt great. I changed out of the wet clothing, sat down and started writing this post.
I will get post x-rays after the last stitches and staples are removed. I will get FUE hair implants in a little over a week.
Conclusion:
My brow bossing is gone, including outer orbital reduction. I will post pre and post x-rays so you can see the change. The soft tissue work and hair implants will take months to reveal their true effect. It will be an interesting next 12 months.
My Soapbox:
I doubt I will post photos, I think the x-rays are a good representation of a surgeons bone reconstruction skillset. I transitioned at a different time, once you transitioned all you wanted to do was go back to the shadows and be treated like any other woman, what ever their life style choice. In the Facebook era people want everyone to know what is going on in their life. While I am a technology person, one of those people who got us to the Facebook era, more so than I can tell you, I don't embrace the public airing of my life.
