I only had a UTI once, shortly after I returned home from Thailand. It was entirely my fault, because I did not clean my vagina after dilation, for several sessions in a row. I was lazy after returning home. I only wiped with toilet paper, but did not rinse with water or betadine. Since my UTI, I learned my lesson and I always rinse the area after every dilation with a water + betadine solution as originally instructed by the nurses in Thailand. Since then I have had no UTI. I think the risk for a UTI is higher in the weeks and months after colon SRS because of all the frequent bowel movements and loose stools.
I've noticed a few differences in recovery from M.Sharon and me. Other than the blood clots, I had almost no bleeding during my recovery in Thailand and at home. Sometimes I would see a tiny one or two drops of pink blood (mixed with other lube) on my pads, but it was very minimal. I also had very little pain in my first dilation after surgery and very little pain throughout all my dilations since my surgery. I have a little bit of pain and a tiny bit of blood when I increase my dilator size to a new larger size, but the pain and blood goes away after a few days. The main issue is that the connection point between my vaginal tissue and colon tissue is still quite tight. It stretches with dilation without any pain, but the default is to be quite tight. I hope it will become less tight with more time and more dilations in the months to come. It is not painful, just tight and needs to be stretched.
Recently I had a bit of an issue when I went to a bigger dilator size and had some more blood and pain than usual. Nothing serious, just very minimal few drops of pink blood, nothing to fill my pads or even close to it. But the pain wouldn't go away after using this larger dilator size, even after a week. (it was not serious pain, I didn't need to take any pain medicine, maybe a 1 or 2 out of 10 on the pain scale, so almost nothing, but still it was a little bit of pain when previously I had no pain, so I was a bit worried). I went to a LGBT clinic where they have a doctor who has examined many post-op transgender women. She gave me a full exam and said everything looks healthy and fine. She said the connection point of vaginal/colon tissue is very secure and healthy. No tearing or bleeding or granulation inside or outside my vagina. She said everything looks perfect. It was a relief, and sure enough after another week or so the lingering pain from using a larger dilator size went away, and now I am using the larger dilator size without any problems. I think at this point after 4 months post-op, it is safe to say that my surgery was a complete success and that Dr Burin did a wonderful job of creating strong sutures in my colon/vagina that has held strong and healed nicely with very little pain throughout.
Regarding the catheter, when I had my colon SRS, Dr Burin removed my catheter at 5 days post-op, while I was still in the hospital. Maybe M.Sharon has to keep her catheter inside longer because she had more procedures done with external genital work and urethral fistula correction from her previous surgery. But since I only had the secondary colon work done, the catheter was removed quite early. It is also interesting to note that when I was coordinating my surgery in the months leading up to surgery, Peera (the patient coordinator at PAI) told me that Dr Burin was going to use a newer technique on me that would allow removal of the catheter earlier than usual. So maybe that was a factor too.
As for breast implants, I think another interesting point of difference there. Dr Burin urged me to get textured implants because they are safer in his opinion. It's interesting that Dr Sutin advocated for smooth implants for M.Sharon. In my research, I have learned that the overwhelming majority of breast implants used in the USA are smooth implants. But in every other part of the world - Asia, Europe, Australia, etc - the overwhelming majority of breast implants used are textured implants. You can see the difference in the "textured implant look" vs the "smooth implant look" when you look at the breasts of porn stars from the USA vs the porn stars from the UK or Asia. They look different and the breasts also move differently. I think it is a matter of personal preference which is better. I am happy with my textured implants.
As for size, I am ok with my 375 cc implants. But... if I had it to do again, I would choose 300 cc instead. I think I should have gone with my initial instincts and done 300 cc, but I listened to my real-life friends (who also got implants) and also what I read on breast implant forums telling me that 300 cc is considered to be too small. (for example if you go to
JustBreastImplants.com, discussion for 300 cc implants is in the 'small' implants subforum, haha). I know that many, many women would be happy with 375 cc implants or even larger, but I think my own personal preference is for smaller breasts. But oh well. 375 cc isn't huge either. I am consistently fitting in 34C or 34D bras - I am kind of between the two sizes. And I think that's not considered to be too big by almost any standard. And again, many women would be super jealous to have breasts in this size range.
Now the part about my bowel movements. At almost 4 months post-op, I think I am still healing. But doing better. I can eat anything I want and even eat big portions at meals without any problems. Bowel movements are still a bit annoying though. Sometimes I will go 10 hours or more without any bowel movements, but rarely sometimes I need to go twice in 1 hour. And sometimes I need to sit on the toilet for a while because not all of the poo comes out at once. Another problem I sometimes have is that I cannot pass gas easily without some poo coming out with it. This makes sense because it is the function of the sigmoid colon to allow gas to pass without releasing poo. I am hoping that this will get better over time as the rest of my colon adjusts to handle this job, but for now it is inconsistent. Sometimes I pass gas and nothing else comes out, but sometimes a little bit of poo comes out with the gas. Because sometimes it works fine, I have hope that this problem will eventually get better and go away completely with more time healing.
I think these are side effects of losing the sigmoid colon in the digestive tract (although I did not lose all of the sigmoid colon - the total length of sigmoid colon is about 15 inches, and the surgery only cut out 6-7 inches of it). Although it's the least important part, it still has a function unlike the appendix. The ability to pass gas easily, or the ability to store poo and release it all at once - those are things that the sigmoid colon does. I am noticing that over time, the rest of my colon is learning to adjust as these issues are decreasing in frequency, but I am not sure if it will ever be 100% like normal. I have hope though. After all, 4 months is not enough time for the body to heal completely from major surgery.
Oh, forgot to mention about discharge and smell. I forget when exactly, maybe it was a few weeks ago. But there is almost no smell at all anymore. There is still a little bit of discharge, but it is easily taken care of with a light maxi pad. Maybe with more time, the discharge will stop completely, I hope. It has only been 4 months post-op after all. But the smell (which wasn't that bad to begin with) is really just gone now. It doesn't smell like anything anymore.
