GRS and FFS with Dr Ley / Meltzer Clinic on Jan 11 2019

[jill610]

Today is POD 6

Which means :drum role: my vagina got unpacked and for the first time liberated.

It's there. It exists. It's ANGRY and it's mine!

First round of dialation is done and now onto that schedule.

Dr Let came in today and took out the sutures in the scalp, removed the trachea shave suture and pulled out the remaking drains.  Oh boy was that a fun time! Those drains are not pleasant coming out but don't walkways hurt. But sometimes they do. It's hard to describe.

I was scared of dialation but it was a nonevent, it went in just fine, stuck around for a bit helping be move gas around and then it came out. Hopefully they are all as uneventful

Face is super swollen. Hoping today is peak Day for that

[BritneyX]

Today is POD 6

Which means :drum role: my vagina got unpacked and for the first time liberated.

It's there. It exists. It's ANGRY and it's mine!

First round of dialation is done and now onto that schedule.

Dr Let came in today and took out the sutures in the scalp, removed the trachea shave suture and pulled out the remaking drains.  Oh boy was that a fun time! Those drains are not pleasant coming out but don't walkways hurt. But sometimes they do. It's hard to describe.

I was scared of dialation but it was a nonevent, it went in just fine, stuck around for a bit helping be move gas around and then it came out. Hopefully they are all as uneventful

Face is super swollen. Hoping today is peak Day for that

Good to hear the recovery is on par.   How much longer do you have there at the hospital before you are released?

[jill610]

Drs Ley and Meltzer both keep you for 9 night. So I will be discharged on Saturday, spend a night at a hotel then some final sutures out Sunday morning and on a 5pm plane home.

Today was some big highs and lows. The swelling in my jaw is more than I was emotionally prepared for and I am having a hard time keeping a positive attitude.

Getting the packing out and the so far positive experiences with dilating helps pull me back up, but my body has been really beat up this week and I didn't fully appreciate how much.

I am however so glad I did bottom and face together and cannot imagine doing BA at the same time as bottom. Physically I had the hardest recovery from BA. I suspect emotionally that the face will be hardest because I'm currently ugly with all the swelling and that's crushing on me.

[jill610]

Discharge day!

Very good spirits but already low on energy. They finally found an combination that is keeping the pain in control and helping with the swelling and sleeping. I have had a hard time finding sleep and now that I'm dialating that is even more difficult.

Almost all of the pain I still have is in my chin, which has been having a quagmire "giggity" minds look to it with all the swelling. That seems to be subsiding somewhat.

Dialation has been easy with #1 going in all 6.5 with no issues consistently.

Today the catheter comes out which I look forward to... and also learning which direction I will pee until the labiaplasty in July.

[Kendra]

Jill you look GREAT, barely more than a week after GCS and less than a week after full FFS procedures.  I hope you continue to feel better and I know you will.  It all gets easier from here. 

[jill610]

Jill you look GREAT, barely more than a week after GCS and less than a week after full FFS procedures.  I hope you continue to feel better and I know you will.  It all gets easier from here.

Thank you Kendra!

I am struggling a lot with my appearance. After they did forehead (1/11) and a before jaw (1/15) I had a few days to see that work alone and was very very happy with it. The swelling from the chin/jaw has me a bit depressed. I feel like I cartoon joke.

[Rachel]

Jill I am very happy for you. You are much braver than I am for doing FFS and GCS at the same time.

When I took the FFS bandages off in the bathroom of the extended stay hotel in Boston I cried. I had blood and sutures everywhere. I think traumatic is not overstating it. I had sutures everywhere and I said to myself I looked like Frankenstein. I was swollen and bruised and the stitches and staples were so exposed from lack of hair.

You look fantastic. You have come a long way in a short time and just need to know you are experiencing the worse right now. Every day it will be a little better. My jaw and chin work were by far the worst pain from transitioning.

I hope you heal fast,
Rachel

[BritneyX]

Jill, don't sweat the looks right now.  You body is just doing its job to heal and adjust.  It will be over before you know it.  We are all here to send you our positive Love to keep your spirits up. 

[jill610]

Thanks everyone

@Rachel I think I might need to agree on the chin, that is where I have the most persistent pain. I think the most pain at once was the submuscular BA.

The flight back yesterday was a bit challenging but I finally made it the airport Marriott in Philadelphia at 1am, dialated and them passed out.

Unfortunately the swelling is still pretty significant and I was unable to pee before leaving. So after two straight caths in the hope it would resold, I can home with a catheter that I will need to remove in a week. I was a bit mortified, but if that's the only complication then I'm doing good I guess.

My chin still hurts and my face is very swollen but on my first day back I had a vision appointment, went shopping at BJs to restock the house for the week, and am staying the night at my parents, who were with me in scottdale for half the trip.

Face is starting to come down a bit in swelling.

Yesterday at the airport



This morning

[Rachel]

Jill, you look great.

I had a catheter for two weeks. Make sure the tube does not impinge upon your clitoris. Use gauze under the tube and make sure it goes to the side of the clitoris. Use tape to hold it in place.

It took a good 3 months for the swelling to go down and a year for the final results.

[jill610]

Jill, you look great.

I had a catheter for two weeks. Make sure the tube does not impinge upon your clitoris. Use gauze under the tube and make sure it goes to the side of the clitoris. Use tape to hold it in place.

It took a good 3 months for the swelling to go down and a year for the final results.

2 weeks after you got home? I will have it until sometime over the weekend, though I am nervous that I'm just going to be driving to the ER to have another one installed.

[jill610]

POD 13

Still quite a lot of swelling in the vaginal area but am happy with depth so far at 6.5", which is pretty spot on what they told me to expect. Still on the #1 at 4x a day and supposed to step up to #2 on the 31st.

The catheter is still in and I made an appointment with the urologist I saw in the fall for Monday to have it removed. I have the stuff to remove it myself but want to avoid an ER trip if things are still swollen too much. Easy math $30 vs $900.

The swelling in my face is coming down but boy is it weird getting used to my forehead and top of my head being numb. It seems every day there is slightly less numbness but could totally be in my head.

Here's my POD12 selfies (I have a bi-daily post on fb with selfies)

[BritneyX]

Looking great!

[jill610]

So today had a perineal dehiscence during a bowel movement leaving about a .75-1" opening along the perineal incision line. Dr says it's common and it'll close by itself over the next few weeks and just to keep it clean and apply bacitracin.

I am definitely not a fan of having this open wound but boy did looking down and seeing all this blood freak me out. I'll admit, I was a bit scared and called my mom while waiting for the return call from the surgeon.

Eek!

[jill610]

Catheter came out today!

Happy Dance all around!

Still dealing with the perineal tear but the bleeding has reduced significantly to just an ooze now.

[ChrissyRyan]

Catheter came out today!

Happy Dance all around!

Still dealing with the perineal tear but the bleeding has reduced significantly to just an ooze now.

Yay!   


Chrissy

[jill610]

A couple updates

I am still on 4x daily for another week, but stepped up to #2. Here's where it gets fun, in the expanded directions it has you using both for a while *if* the depth is less with the larger one. So I am 15min on #2 and 10 min on #1. I am fortunate that I did not need the tapered dialator  to get pst the pelvic muscle. The next step up will be in 2 weeks.

Swelling in my face has started to come down pretty good.  Here's a pic from yesterday at the Philly auto show, where I managed to talk ford into letting me and my club behind the ropes for a club and board pic. Being the president of the largest ford club in PA for the last six years makes that an easy phone call

[Rachel]

Jill you look great. It took me a while for the face swelling to go down 100%. I think it was 6 months to a year. I have about 90% of the feeling on top of my head now, maybe 100%. I forget how it felt pre-ffs.

I am glad you are doing well dilating. It will take time for the swelling to go down there too. Be carful walking around too much. You need to move but take it easy. 

I was closed up 6 days post op. There was a plan B if the graft died. I had my catheter in 13 days total. The packing was removed at day 6 (new packing was reinstalled) and I started dilating with no pressure at day 13 when the catheter was removed. Most of my graft survived and I had a revision a year later and I have another in April.

[JudiBlueEyes]

What a wonderful result Jill!  Looks like you had fun at the auto show.  Great smile!

[jill610]

What a wonderful result Jill!  Looks like you had fun at the auto show.  Great smile!

I do enjoy the auto show, but it's a lot of ho him done that after 8 consecutive years of forced attendance.

So it's been a week or so, and lots of changes. Had a some meetings in NYC so here's my in my power bitch, don't mess with me suit. Certainly more feminine than before FFS. Still some scabbing on the incision, though easily covered with makeup now. Both pics from same trip, opposite directions with and without makeup.



Numbness is improving daily though swelling is fairly static now. On the scalp, I have full sensation in the back and the side for the most part. The forehead I see small improvements but is mostly numb though I can feel the nerves healing at all times.

For bottom, the perineal dehiscence is improving. The leakage has mostly stopped and it is fully healed about 25% of the length. I see small improvements daily and am still using bacitracin twice daily along that line.

Swelling is down considerably and the sharp shooting pains of healing nerves has come on in full force. My brain is starting to remap location but twice this week I have had an unscratchable itch on a body part that no longer exists and once reached down idly in the shower to scratch ... I had to laugh when I discovered that I did that. I am finding humor in this whole experience.

I stepped up in dialator size again over the weekend and am now on #3. I havnt had much need for the tapered dialoators though it is a bit sore initially, I have had no real problems getting through the pelvic muscle and maintained 6.5" depth with all dots disappearing.

Tomorrow I go from 3x daily to 2x daily, so ima little nervous about things stiffeningup. We'll see.