GCS with PAI, November 20th

[xFreya]

Dr. Sutin told me to use betadine solution for two months. You should probably ask Dr. Burin, maybe the nurse misunderstood the question.

[Cyndaquil]

So a little bit of an update, I have been discharged from the hospital since Saturday, I didn't have much to add until today so I'm updating now. On sunday I noticed a white flap in my vagina that look kinda like a deflated and chewed gum, and I noticed an open wound on the left outer of my vagina. It wasn't painful or anything, but I waited patiently and did my best to sleep my worry away until I saw Dr. Burin on Monday. Dr. Burin didn't comment on what the white flap was, but I assumed it was just probably dead skin or like the left over of blister of sort, he yanked it out with the grip thingy (no pain and no blood) and that seem to  be the end of that. The open wound was just a minor wound, he said I would be okay, just apply disinfection powder and keep it closed. My fiance's opinion was that probably a stitch that dissolve a bit early, and also think that it going to be fine. I finally started dilating, and my depth was 5 inch. I'm not complaining, I'm 5'3, I think 5 inch is okay for me (I walked in telling myself I would be happy with even just 3 inch). Dilation was surprisingly not painful, and not even the wound get into the way (the wound wasn't inside the vagina, just on the outer left wall). I am very surprised at my dilation schedule though. I half expected it to dominate my life for a while, but right now my schedule is 15 mins in the morning and 15 mins in the evening everyday with the smallest dilator. They told me i can go to the second smallest after a week or two depend on how I feel, but this is a surprisingly easy schedule (I expected it to be like, use these 3 dilator, 15 mins each, swap out, dilate 3 time a day for about 3 hours each day). I mean I wasn't complaining, but I'm definitely going to ask Dr. Burin just to be safe "That's all? 15 mins?" and if he think that all i need to do, then fine. I mean I can't tell if I'm not dilating much because I'm recovering or something.

I do have some questions for you guys though (although this is the kind of things I should have asked Burin, but I guess I wasn't really thinking this morning, I will ask him next Monday when I see him):

1. I'm oozing a lot, like, not bleeding, but straight up a lot of liquid come out of my vagina that usually doesnt end up on my pad since I lie down a lot.  Like I notice my panties was really dirty and stained on the back many time. It probably a mixture of blood and maybe just pus discharge in liquid form. It doesn't smell bad (or atleast I can tolerate it), but it come out a lot. Is this normal?

2. I haven't been on painkiller, but I have been experiencing some pain, not sharp pain or anything, just occasional short bush of rash pain that are bearable. This is to be expected right? How long will it take before it go away?

3. I don't think a lot of my sensation are back yet, it still feel weird to the touch even just the outer vagina down there. Everything still feel a bit numb (dilation didn't feel like much other than something was in me). When should I expect to begin feeling things?

4. When could you properly walk again, as in like when you can walk like you normally walk, not slow pace walk or wobble through like a penguin like I do If I remember correctly someone said I can do that after about 1 month or so, but I can't remember for sure.

That all the questions I can think off at the moment, if I have more I will ask. I won't see Burin again until next Monday so I can't ask the doctor himself till then.

Thank!

[Cyndaquil]

Okay, it is now Friday, about 11 days since surgery. I can't believe it have only been 11 days, recovery felt like it been forever.

PAI have been really great, I emailed them with my concerns, and they usually get back to me asap after they asked the doctors about what to expect. Like when I asked about discharge in previous post, Dr. Burin told me that is to be expected and I should expect discharge for about 2-3 weeks or so.

Recovery been slowly taking its toll on me. It starting to sink in for me that recovery suck. I was naive walking in, thinking I can take on the world "pfft pain can't be any worse than what I been experiencing". Don't get me wrong, I'm happy, life is good, but I won't deny that post op care is a pain in the neck sometime.

It had become a routine for me now, I wake up, take a shower, pour betadine and saline water together, use cotton ball to clean the outside of my bottom, dilate, insert douche in to clean the inside, make things dry and apply disinfection powder. It mundane, a little bit painful, and time consuming. Dilation too have become a bit of a chore, the worst part is to insert the dilator in, and I don't know why but it make me feel scared, but regardless I marched on.

The pain are worse now, or at least I think it worse. Most of it come from the nerve issues, and I'm assuming it because the nerves are healing so I'm experiencing pains as they are reconnecting to the brain. The actual vagina itself don't hurt so bad, it mostly concentrated in one part. Pain usually come in wave, it hurt a lot for a short burst, then I will feel fine until the next wave come. The discharging is pretty bad, it not painful but it a lot of work to deal with. I go through about 3-4 pads a day if I actively wear them, and when I lie down I have an underpad sheet to soak up the discharge.

I can walk okay, still walk slow, I went out for lunch on Wednesday and took a trip to the mall on Thursday. It mostly sitting that get to me.

I can't say I regret this though. I am very happy with my result, even with a minor wound. This had been an one in a life time experience. It getting worse to deal with, yes, but I remain positive forward when I don't have to excessively clean myself and can go out and enjoy myself. I can't wait until that day.

[Dena]

I am a little slow in seeing this for some reason. As you haven't received any responses yet, I will respond.

1. Oozing will continue for 1-2 months. Dilation tends to reopen the healing so you get a little bit of blood, a little blood plasma and the jelly you use for dilation all mixed up. Put in a good stock of feminine pads because you will need 2 or 3 a day for a while.

2. You could be having nerves waking up and reconnecting. It can be a pin prick or an itch as they are described differently. They can continue up to a year after surgery.

3. Healing time is variable so full sensation could return in a couple of months to a year. You will start getting feeling early but it will take a while for the final results.

4. A month to 3 months depending on your healing. I normally tell people be careful about returning to work until 6 to 8 weeks after surgery in order for you to get over most of your healing. One of the big problem I had was sitting in a chair because my bottom was sensitive to pressure.

[Cyndaquil]

Okay,

I think this post is gonna come to the end for now, at least for a few more month where I have healed more. I checked in with PAI again this morning, and Dr. Burin told me that I'm healing well, no tear, no infection, and that I'm good to fly back to the US. I have to say, I'm actually going to miss the PAI staff there, even though I only know them for a few hours at most, they seem like really nice human beings, and I'm going to miss them a lot (Bune, if you are reading this, this is Jackie!). Their services have been superb, and even though with an open stitch wound that I have (in which Dr. Burin told me it will be fine and heal), I'm extremely satisfied with the result and the care I received from both PAI and the Payathai hospital have been outstanding.

As far as post surgery recovery go, there isn't much to say. I still have a lot of pain, but that is to be expected of surgery, I mean I only been recovering for 2 weeks. Dilation is still difficult, but I have been doing it diligently. Everything have became a routine and that's really all I have to say. Maybe in a few months after I healed more, I will came back and add more, but as it stand, everything is well and I think as long as I keep doing what I'm doing, I should be good.

Thank you all for reading, this was an experience.

[mm]

Cyndaquil, do stay around and let us know who everything is going for you.  You have had major surgery and as you said there is pain and take times to recovery.

[Cyndaquil]

Obligatory update:

I flew back to the US yesterday, roughly a 24 hours flight including layover. I'm telling you right now. Request a wheelchair. PAI give you a fit to flight letter that request a wheel chair for you, I assure you you won't regret it.

As far as the flight go, I was asleep for a lot of it so it wasn't bad. I took 1 sleeping pill on my longest flight and slept for about 5-6 hours or so I can't remember, and I was also asleep for another 3-4 hours on my other smaller flights combined. Surprisingly as far as jet lag goes, I actually slept well when I got home last night. I slept at about 12 am and woke up around 7 am today back in California. As for the pain, most of my pain was clitoris pain, but having a donut cushion really helped. I was basically on tylenol 24/7 during the flight, and I tried to pee often since from experience (even before I left Thailand), i woke up with lots of pain everyday, then after I go pee and when back to bed, the pain really subside, and I think it because the need to pee put pressure on my vagina so yeah.

Dilation was... painful. I think it was about 36 hours since my last dilation when I dilated last night. PAI told me that I don't need to dilate on the day of flight, but I think it might have helped if i woke up maybe a bit early to clean and dilate the morning of the flight.

Either way, I made it through hell I have another 6 hours flight coming up next week, but next time I'm definitely waking up early to dilate and then when i arrive I will dilate again.

[Kendra]

Best wishes on your continued recovery.  I haven't had this surgery yet but I can imagine how rewarding it is to return home and know your healing will improve each day. 

[mm]

Cyndaquil, glad you got back fine.  I would expect after 36 hrs dilating would be hard to do and would be sore.  Try to get back to your normal routine and everything should go better.  Where are you going on a 6 hr flight so soon?

[Cyndaquil]

I'm flying to another state @mm

I'm staying with my family for 2 weeks and visit all my doctors since I'm on my family insurance plan and they stay in CA.

But I'm a university student in another state

[mm]

Cyndaquil, good luck in your recovery and keep us updated on how you are doing.

[Cyndaquil]

Since it been about 2 month and a half now, I figured I would update the thread a bit, just to let you guys know what to expect.

It have been quite an adventure. I went through a lot. It was an emotional roller coaster, but all thing considered I'm very, very happy with what I have. I no longer have a lot of pain down there, and at most occasionally I get a random pain that disappear within a second or so, I think that is because the stitches are still dissolving. I have been able to go through my day at ease since maybe week 8-9, and I started working out again about 2 weeks ago. Things have been going really well for me, and I was able to achieve the big O actually at around week 7 or 8 I believe. Things feel normal again as if I didn't had surgery and I'm in a good place.

As far as hair issues go, surprisingly, none. I haven't have any hair issues, or at least not that I can see. To be fair, I'm Asian, so I'm not very hairy, don't know if that change anything. Smell have become a problem though. I stopped douching around week 7, and to combat the smell, recently I started taking probiotic supplement and an insertion that do the work really well. It does make dilating a little bit harder since it can get sticky, but so far so good. As far as dilation go, it been great. I switched from PAI's dilator to Soul Source's and I haven't looked back since. Currently I can do #2 (31 mm) followed by #3 (34 mm). I don't think I can insert #3 without doing #2, at least not yet anyway, and I might or might not consider going to #4 (Big Orange) when I can do #3 well.

PAI have been neglecting their email responses though. I sent them 2 emails, 2 weeks apart and they never replied back to me. Since I got back to the US, I sent them 4 email (it really only 2 emails but the other 2 was asking "Hey I send you an email about 2 weeks ago I was wondering if you seen it. This is what I said etc") and they only responded to me once.  It not a big deal to me, as I didn't really have any serious questions. I asked if they have a recommended time as to when I can do #3 (which I didn't do yet at the time, but I do now) and when I can dilate less. The nurse did told me that after 2 years I can do less but I couldn't remember if it was 1 time everyday or 1 time every week. I sent PAI an email asking for clarification, and they told me "After 6 months if you have regular sexual intercourse then you can do 1 time everyday or 2-3 time a week", not exactly what I was asking, but I will take it.

But yeah. Life is good.

[Kendra]

Glad you posted an update, I was wondering how you were doing.  Sounds like great news overall - and congratulations!