3 weeks post GRS

[fuzzybad]

Hello everyone, my name is Jessica and I had GRS recently with Dr McGinn at Barix Clinic in Langhorne.  Everything went great with my procedure and I seem to be healing fast.  The only problem I had was 2 nor'easters hit the region in one week while I was making my recovery stay in New Hope! 

I'm 3 weeks post-op at this point, working from home.  I'm feeling really great and have plenty of energy, was considering going back into the office next week (4 weeks post-op).  Good idea or bad idea?

[Northern Star Girl]

Hello Jessica aka: Fuzzybad, Congratulations on your GRS.  Your body and your doctor will know when you will be able to get back to work... I see that you are new here and may have questions and concerns, this is the right place for you to be to find out what others have done that may have been in your circumstances.

WELCOME to Susan's Place.  You will find this a safe and friendly place to share with others about your transition and to read about others transition and their trials, tribulations, and successes in their transition journey. 
It is nice that you have signed up so you can share with others and involve yourself with some give and take with other members.
When frustrated or if you have a successful moment in your journey you can share it here if you wish and receive support from others and offer support to others. You might even find that you will make some new friends here.  Please come in and get involved at your own pace.
Again, Welcome.
Danielle

Here are some links to the site rules and stuff that all new members should be familiar with:

Things that you should read

Site Terms of Service & Rules to Live By	Standard Terms & Definitions	Post Ranks (including when you can upload an avatar)	Cautionary Note
Reputation rules	News posting & quoting guidelines	Photo, avatars, & signature images policy	Membership Agreement

[Northern Star Girl]

OH, and another thing, Jessica,
... since you are new here it would be great if you could go to the Introductions  Forum and tell us about yourself and about more of your transition goals so that the other members here can be aware of your arrival here at Susan's.

[TechGirl]

We must have just missed each other!  It took me and the family almost a full day to get home to southern Virginia because of traffic issues shutting down I-95 that day.

I'll be 4 weeks post op tomorrow, have started with the green (#3) dilator this weekend (never was the patient type).

Welcome to Susan's!

Emily

[Northern Star Girl]

Jessica, as more and more members here read your postings you will certainly get more responses to your questions and concerns...  again, welcome to Susan's and looking forward to your involvement in the Forums.
Danielle

[Rachel]

Hi,

Congratulations, I had my GCS with Dr. McGinn 11/15/2016. I tried to go back to work after my 3 week check up when I had my discharge papers. I was on bed rest for 3 weeks. My work did not want me to come back. I came back the middle of the following week. I think 3.5 weeks. I received a call from employee health at about week 5 while I was at work. They wanted to know particulars about dilating and finding an accommodation and that it may take a while to find something. I told them I returned to work at week 3.5 and they wanted my return to work papers. I walked over and gave them a copy. They wanted to know what I was doing for dilation. I told them I have chucks and paper towels and a cleaning solution for my dilators. They asked where I do it and I told them in my office.

The first week back was a little rough, it got better from there. I tired easy and when I got home I still had to dilate 2 more times. 1 before work, 2 at work and 2 when I got home. The first week back took a lot out of me.

Driving was ok. Sitting took some getting use to ( sitting can become a bit painful). I have a comfortable chair. The campus I work at requires some walking to get to meetings so I had to be careful to not overdo it. You do not want to overdo it at any cost.

I have a lot of scar tissue. Something Dr. McGinn will remove on 4/4/18. I quickly was able to get to orange. I was dilating with orange at week 5 I think. At week 6 is when the scar tissue began to shrink. The pain was extreme to dilate. I would have tears rolling down my face and take a lot of time to get the dilator in. The red hot pain subsided 5 minutes into the dilation. Then removal was very painful. I dare not miss a dilation and have not missed a single dilation. Today dilation hurts going in and out. I go slow. Hopefully when all the scar tissue is removed I will not have pain dilating.

I do not follow rules well .


I have seen Dr. McGinn 13 times since my GCS and have vaginal work scheduled 4/4/2018. She has taken extremely good care of me. On 4/4/2018 She will reposition my urethra, fix a little opening on my hood, perform labiaplasty ( I had a very different procedure. I had no penile tissue so I have no labia minora and labia majora needs a bit of skin on the one side. I need another graph and the bottom of my vagina finished. My graph had little vascular support and the bottom part died.)

How did you like the Barix Clinic?  I live in the area and will be taking uber there and my sister (if she remembers) will be driving me home.

Lower Bucks had very nice staff and I really felt they cared about Dr. McGinn's patients. How were the staff at Barix? One thing I like about Barix is that there are no sick people there and as such it makes a huge difference in lowering nosocomial infections. 

[Dena]

I would say it's likely to be a bad idea. Between work and your commute, that accounts for about 10 hours a day. Dilation and self care, maybe 6 to 7 hours a day. If you currently need 8 or less hours of sleep a day, then your ready to return to work. I normally recommend people plan on 6 to 8 weeks of recovery in order to ensure they are able to be able to endure a normal day. In my case, I returned to work 4 days out to the hospital risking my surgical results and losing my job because I still need well over 8 hours of sleep a day. I was only getting two dilations a day and meals were pretty much limited to breakfast and lunch because I was crashing during my evening dilation.

Fortunately I didn't damage my surgery but the month before I lost my job constantly pushed me beyond my limit.

[fuzzybad]

We must have just missed each other!  It took me and the family almost a full day to get home to southern Virginia because of traffic issues shutting down I-95 that day.

I'll be 4 weeks post op tomorrow, have started with the green (#3) dilator this weekend (never was the patient type).

Wow, it sounds like you were one week ahead of me!  My surgery date was 2/27.  I'm looking forward to using the #3 dilator next Tuesday, lol

How did everything go for you?  After reading so many horror stories online about GRS recovery I was concerned, but I've been pleasantly surprised with mine.  It hasn't been bad at all, I was up and walking the day after surgery.  This Tues I felt well enough to visit the office for a few hours and talk to HR about getting a private space for dilation, and Weds I went to an electrolysis session.

The weather in eastern PA has been crazy!  The first nor'easter hit on the day I was released from hospital, I had rented a cottage outside New Hope, we were there for 10 minutes when the power went out.  We spent the night there with no power, no heat and no running water, it was miserable!  Next night was spent at a Holiday Inn in Langhorne.  We returned to cottage on Sun and the power was back on, fortunately we didn't lose it again when the second nor'easter hit on Weds.  They did lose power at the Papillion Center and had to reschedule my second checkup. 

Glad you were able to get home safely.

[fuzzybad]

I would say it's likely to be a bad idea. Between work and your commute, that accounts for about 10 hours a day. Dilation and self care, maybe 6 to 7 hours a day. If you currently need 8 or less hours of sleep a day, then your ready to return to work. I normally recommend people plan on 6 to 8 weeks of recovery in order to ensure they are able to be able to endure a normal day. In my case, I returned to work 4 days out to the hospital risking my surgical results and losing my job because I still need well over 8 hours of sleep a day. I was only getting two dilations a day and meals were pretty much limited to breakfast and lunch because I was crashing during my evening dilation.

Fortunately I didn't damage my surgery but the month before I lost my job constantly pushed me beyond my limit.

Thanks for the feedback.  I checked with my surgeon's head nurse, she says I can return to work if I feel up to it, as long as I maintain my dilation schedule.  HR is checking to see if a private, secure space can be made available to me for this purpose.

I've been working from home since I was 2 weeks post-op, that's been going fine.  You do raise a good point, if I were to go into the office I have to get up extra early for that first dilation, which will cut into sleeping time.. it's probably best for me to just work remotely as long as I can.

[fuzzybad]

I have seen Dr. McGinn 13 times since my GCS and have vaginal work scheduled 4/4/2018. She has taken extremely good care of me. On 4/4/2018 She will reposition my urethra, fix a little opening on my hood, perform labiaplasty ( I had a very different procedure. I had no penile tissue so I have no labia minora and labia majora needs a bit of skin on the one side. I need another graph and the bottom of my vagina finished. My graph had little vascular support and the bottom part died.)

Oh my gosh, you've had a lot of work done!  I hope 14th time is the charm for you.

Things are still healing for me, obviously, but so far it looks great and I'm very happy with the outcome.  A few days after they removed the dressing, I had some red bumps appear on the edge of one labia, up near the clit.  Is that granulation?  I've been putting triple antibiotic ointment on that and it's settled down a little bit, not gone away though.  I also had some wound breakdown in the perineum area but it's slowly healing (with antibiotic ointment applied daily).

How did you like the Barix Clinic?  I live in the area and will be taking uber there and my sister (if she remembers) will be driving me home.

Lower Bucks had very nice staff and I really felt they cared about Dr. McGinn's patients. How were the staff at Barix? One thing I like about Barix is that there are no sick people there and as such it makes a huge difference in lowering nosocomial infections.

I would highly recommend Barix Clinic, the nurses were all wonderful, I had a private recovery room, the place was clean, the food decent and as you say it's nice there are no sick people there.  The last thing GRS patients need is to enter healthy, and catch something in the hospital!  Also, the staff consistently got my pronouns right, which was a refreshing change from my last hospital stay.

[softbutchharley]

Congrats !!!! Glad you are feeling well....lame as it sounds, that call would be yours and your doctors.
I took about 3-3.5 weeks off and returned light duty for a week. Was good for me.
YMMV so I always would advise a good connection with your doc and make sure you are ready.
Congrats again !!

[TechGirl]

Wow, it sounds like you were one week ahead of me!  My surgery date was 2/27.  I'm looking forward to using the #3 dilator next Tuesday, lol

How did everything go for you?  After reading so many horror stories online about GRS recovery I was concerned, but I've been pleasantly surprised with mine.  It hasn't been bad at all, I was up and walking the day after surgery.  This Tues I felt well enough to visit the office for a few hours and talk to HR about getting a private space for dilation, and Weds I went to an electrolysis session.

The weather in eastern PA has been crazy!  The first nor'easter hit on the day I was released from hospital, I had rented a cottage outside New Hope, we were there for 10 minutes when the power went out.  We spent the night there with no power, no heat and no running water, it was miserable!  Next night was spent at a Holiday Inn in Langhorne.  We returned to cottage on Sun and the power was back on, fortunately we didn't lose it again when the second nor'easter hit on Weds.  They did lose power at the Papillion Center and had to reschedule my second checkup. 

Glad you were able to get home safely.

Yep, just one week ahead of you.  We stayed at a bnb just over in NJ, was real nice.  That first nor'easter was when we drove home.  Pain in the but, literally.  Didn't get home until early Saturday morning, and that was with me in the driver's seat the last two hours!

I'm sorry to hear the weather was so uncooperative for you, but glad to hear it worked out.  I shudder for the pain of your drives back and forth after surgery.  That ride from barix on PA roads was a hell ride.  I was afraid I broke something down there!

Everything is healing nicely.  Crystal said the grafts were healing very fast, and everything actually looked nice at second post op appointment.  Dr. McGinn did wonderful work.  I've really nothing to complain about.  If it weren't for the dilating, I'd probably be working right now.

I worried a bit at the drain points healing shut, but needn't have, as the closed up early last week.  Sooo nice only having to worry about leakage "only" from the vaginal opening with all the surgery wounds healing :-)

My next follow up appt is already set for next month and I don't anticipate any issues driving the 6-8 hours to get there on my own.

All in all, very satisfied with Dr. McGinn's work :-)