Hey everyone,
Thought I would post about my orchi experience with Kaiser Permanente Woodland Hills Socal. I apologize for the long post but I tend to enjoy the longer post other members make about experiences they have had with life. A lot of the decisions we make dealing with transgender issues and just basic life decisions can be people anxious if its something new just because you are never sure if its right, reading other peoples experiences help even if the circumstance's are not exactly the same so here hoping this will help some one else along the way in some small way.
I had my orchi 3-1-19 surgery was schedule for 9:30 am.
I arrived at the hospital about 6:40am about 30min early and went to admitting to start the process. The admitting Nurse used my legal name for the check in and on my wrist band I was not exactly pleased with that but I present androgynous fem so I figured maybe they have to since it was a surgical procedure. After was done with admitting was sent upstairs to pre-op which is done with a center nursing station and curtained beds areas around all the walls for people waiting for surgery, there was about 30 beds. When I went to the desk the nurse there asked if I had a preferred name, I had just went thru this downstairs so I thought about it a second and figured I was supposed to legal name so I gave that name. He walks over to another desk and gets a white out pen and goes over may name Quinn and writes in my legal name. Now im a little irritated at this point but I just wanted to the surgery over with so I just go to my assigned bed and get undressed put on the sexy outfit they provide where my butt is exposed get into bed and lay there waiting looking at the clock I have about 2.5 hours until time. From where I am I can see and hear the nurse that checked me in with the next person that came in. For the next 2 hours everyone that came in to check in He asked is Joe, Claire, steve on and on your preferred name. The only one he did not say the name was me . Hmmm well ok lets just get this done and go home.
About and hour goes by and another nurse comes in to go over a check list of items because Im getting a sterilization procedure. I told her that i have already done everything needed and have had 5 different doctor therapist and this went before the trans care board for approval before they ever even schedule the surgery. I again told her its already taken care of . I could tell she was a little irritated but i was very polite when explaining it to her but she did not want to hear it and was a little but rude in the way she asked her first question :Have you went to the trans classes? Now with the nurse with the name issue and now her and im a little nervous about a surgery in a little while i retorted back to her : No i have not been to transgender classes , i had no idea you have to be trained in how to be transgender. She looks at me gets up and walks across the room and disappears into a office. Now im laying there wondering what is going on.
About 5 minutes later she comes back out with a form i have to sign stating that i know the risks of sterilization and to give the approval for the procedure. I sign it and tell you i want a copy , i had already at this point packed up my eye glasses and could read the form. she comes back and hands me a copy i stick into my bag.
About 45 minutes later she comes back out and says i didn't need to sign that form because everything was already approved. I smile politely and say nothing .
Now another nurse comes in to start the iv in my hand, he looks at the veins on the back of my hand and starts to slap them, i know he just trying to have the vein show up better. Must have slapped me 20 times its starting to hurt at this point. He stops and leaves and come back with all the items needed. Puts a tourniquet on my wrist and guess what starts slapping the top of hand again proceeds for another ten or so slaps then stops picks up the needle and then starts to slap me again .At this point i said its enough its hurting to much told him to stop it. He does gets up and goes and gets a machine that makes the veins glow but again after picks up the needle he got a few more slaps in. Im 5'6" i do not have big wrists. He finally gets the iv in and leaves. The next day after surgery the top of my hand was bruised from my fingers to my wrist .
SO on to the surgery.
9:15 they came and got me for the surgery
I woke up and was nauseous but the did not want to give me anything because it would make me fall asleep and they wanted to bed for someone else. I didn't want to stay any longer than i had to so i agreed but was really still trying to wake up. They would not let me leave until i ate something drank something and urinated. I was still really groggy at this point but ate some crackers and some cold water. The young women that was there said if i drank some warm water it would help promote urinating, so again i say ok she comes back and hand me a styofoam cup i put it my lips and take a drink still really out of it it burns me trying to get it away from my mouth some spilled on my hand also burns me. My bother is the room at this point and takes it out my hand the cup was full of boiling water. He told her she needs to be careful handing patients something that hot. She made herself scarce at this point.
I left a little while after this and went home.
Recovery
I was in immense pain but not from the surgery but from when they put me in stirrups during surgery they tweaked my back somehow. Day 1 , day 2 and the morning of day 3 , all my pain was from my back i kept getting up and trying to just lean from side to side a little to relief some of the pain . The morning of day 3 i Lean to one side and my low back made this sucking and popping sound and i felt it just slide back into place and all the pain went away. Now i could feel the surgery locations but it was not bad at all. I did a midline incision in the scrotum.
I had to wear a tightly guaze packed supporter for the first week so it kept pressure on the area and kept it from swelling or having a hematoma. The second and 3 week i was able to get of rid of the supporter and just use a heavy flow pad so it kept some pressure on there and was still bleeding a little. week 4 now im just using a panty liner but the last few days there has not been any blood so can probably stop soon if i choose.
Now i had some experiences by some others here where they had some issues of the sperm cords fusing to the sides of the scrotum or staying in there for a long time.
When i went in at 3 weeks for my post-op appointment the doc checked me he checked me on the abdomen. He said that although he want thru the scrotum the cords were tied off way up almost as far as the inguinal procedure and that is why i had no pain except for little bit of stinging on the scrotum as i changed the bandages and covered it with Neosporin.
I did take a week of work and for me needed it, was kinda out of it for a few days. It took about a week to be able to do everything except lifting. I was sore for the 3 weeks but nothing extraordinary. if it wasn't for my back agony it would not have been bad at all.
Want to conclude that everything that happened in the pre-op and post-op was in about 4 hour period so not that big a deal in the scheme of my life.
I also want to say that i have had great support from people at Kaiser Permenente with all doctors and care that are familiar with trans patients . the only issue i have ever had was the support staff in the hospital during this surgery.
I also only had to pay $125.00 for my part for the surgery
I personally would recommend Kaiser for trans related health issues and transition. I had the option to go to West LA were they are all trained for Transgender paitents, i wanted it to be closer to home to chose to go to that location because it was only the orchi all the next procedures i will travel a bit farther and have them done in West LA.
Hope everyone didn't fall asleep and there was something interesting in there for you
