Is the SRS hideous painfull?

[trannyboy]

I agree cindy. I would say my pain levels have been higher then most but I don't have a reference point to say that for sure. I do know that I use much larger doses then other people need without toxcity so that says something but until these procedures are done in the larger community it is hard to say for sure that I am overly sensitive as opposed to it being a more painful procedure. The person most likely to benefit from my advice is the original poster who mentioned neurological pain. I still list my most painful surgery as my tonsillectomy so that gives you a reference.

->-bleeped-<-boy

[cindybc]

Hi ->-bleeped-<-boy, both are very complex surgeries not to mention it is major surgery and can possibly have serious complications. Although with the expert care we have now, implications are pretty well to a minimum, and many a times it can be accounted to something a patient has neglected in their post-op at home care. I know that both F-M and M-F SRS are extensive surgeries and that any type of phallus implants is a fairly new procedure, so I would have no idea or reference just how much pain would be involved in such a procedure and how long the recovery. Anything you could inform us with would most probably be new and useful to many of us.

Cindy

[Rachael]

i wonder if anyone told goingdown they use anasthesia?

[goingdown]

I know that. However the pains after has been describe very painful. But that seems not a big issue. I will not know would I need FFS afterwards.

[Rachael]

if you think you need ffs, get it, but if the pain of recovery is worse than the pain of needing to transition, dont bother, its better for you in the long run hon.

[goingdown]

I am sure that I need SRS. However I am not sure will I need FFS. When I started my RLT I passed enough good for myself. Then I lost some weight and now I have been outed because of my face once. Should I be a little bir overweight all time?

[trannyboy]

Right now I am in the clitoral relocation phase and have thus far dissected all connective tissue down to the crura; the next step is the crura and external modding. I have had major swelling which accounted for almost all my pain after about a week. During the first surgery the deep clitoral vein was lacerated and I nearly bled out. This resulted in a large hematoma and a second op to stop the bleeding. The next one was successful but my body couldn't handle the trauma and started swelling. The combination of that and my overly sensitive nerves meant this last surgery has been much harder then the first. It has been nearly 5 weeks and I am starting to feel better but I still have 1.5" by 2" seroma which is about a 1/3 of the size it was. This was what I referring to when I said "crushing genitals". Because of the previous damage to the deep vein I developed necrosis where there wasn't enough blood flow. That is healing slowly but it has almost completed it's healing by secondary intention and the labia barely fused to shaft (yeah) because of constant care.

I would like to say that I have had three open wounds with necrosis that have healed or are almost healed without infection or antibiotics in the hospital or out; just proper aftercare. I have discovered undiagnosed hypothyroidism and adrenal fatigue from the stress of surgery. I am now being treated and can take the medication to prevent future problems. Each step we are learning new things about how the clitoris can be changed. Currently I am about 3" long but I have lost length with retraction which will be fixed with the next surgery. My next surgery will leave me with an anatomically correct upside down penis but that will slowly change. I am about a week or two from another surgery. If we go sooner it will be to remove the mass putting pressure on the deep clitoral vein otherwise I should be up to another surgery in 2 weeks.

->-bleeped-<-boy

[Kate]

The pain is not as much of what I'm worried about anymore... Its being able to feel and make out your insides carved up. Does it just hurt a ton? Or is there actually feeling of specific pains that you might be sickened by?

It's not like that at all. At least not for me.

I had very little pain, more like just soreness... and even that was from the sutures pulling and catheter, not from the "insides" or feeling "carved up." Yea I know, considering how they create a cavity and all for the new genitals, you'd think you'd feel pain from that trauma. But nope, I didn't feel anything of the sort. I refused pain pills the day after surgery, as I hated feeling so drugged all the time and simply didn't need them. I was walking around the block and through the park next door within a few days (which apparently I wasn't really supposed to do, lol).

I was actually more sore as the postop week progressed versus right after surgery, as the suture sites started getting annoyed. And once home a week later, the whole area was pretty sore for a few weeks. Nothing bad, nothing even approaching "hideous," but it was uncomfortable... especially since it was a 24/7 soreness. And I felt occasional twinges of pain for a few weeks, sorta like electric shocks while things healed.

But overall no, the pain wasn't an issue.

What IS an issue is all the "stuff" surrounding the process. Peeing through a catheter ain't no fun, lol. And it's uncomfy. And when they pull it out.... eeee owwww. I do NOT want that experience again.

And when they remove the stent... omg... OK, THAT hurt like heck... but for all of about 5 seconds. I have an inkling what it's like to give birth now, lol.

And you'll bleed. You'll only have one period in your life, but it makes up for the ones you've missed.

And your life reorients itself around dialating. How long you can stay out, what time is dinner, when to do things... revolve around finding time to dialate for awhile.

~Kate~

[deviousxen]

How much do you have to dilate after surgery? Is it like... For a year?

[pennyjane]

my surgeon recommeded that i just get used to it.  since i wasn't going to be sexually active i should just plan on doing it forever.  it varies though.  i know some girls who just quit and have had no problems.

i still do, probably will do it 'till i forget how.......

[Kate]

How much do you have to dilate after surgery? Is it like... For a year?

Each surgeon has their own recommendations, but you can expect something like four or five times a day at first, tapering over the months to once a week after a year postop... which you continue for the rest of your life. Most surgeons count sex as a dialation, for what it's worth.

~Kate~

[deviousxen]

Well... Assuming anyone would date me, thats not the worst thing...


I've been worried a bit more about it all recently. More squeamish and stuff.. Its like my brain stopped bracing for this brick wall and my brain is now going, "What? Hahahah. I don't see a wall"

I should start popping the Wellbutrin again...

[pennyjane]

i think that squeamishness is pretty common.  when the nurse brought my first set of stents into my room my eyes almost popped out of my head....once i was considerably calmed down i became squeamish.  but, like eveything else, once you do it enough it just becomes second nature....

funny story.....when my wife walked in and saw the stents on the table she said...."hey, they got little black polka dots...how cute!"   the end.

[Laura Eva B]

SRS - no pain ... honestly... tiny bit of discomfort and soreness, that's all ...

Brassard kept you on morphine drip for two days, and then three shoulder injections per day for your next two days hospitalisation.  In the clinic / residence you get 60 Demarol tabs to keep you happy (yes they get you high especially if you save a few for your return hotel & flight and take with alcohol !).

Sure some women rejected the narcotic pills and sleeping tabs, and stuck to Tynenol ... more fool them as they obviously had a much harder time.

I believe that a lot of the Thai docs are far less generous with painkillers and that the experience there can be really agonizing, hence the "SRS is painfull" myth ... but its not the case with N American / European surgeons who don't skimp with meds.

For me SRS was a breeze, hardly like even getting a tooth pulled, worst of it was migrane headaches I got on 2 / 3 nights possibly as a result of all the drugs !

Laura

[MCMCyn]

Uncomfortable, sure. Pain, I didn't think so.

I'd much rather  have the discomfort of SRS again than another root canal, any day.

[pennyjane]

hi kara...i guess it's probably got a lot to do with what's apt to cause nausia in you personally.  pain doesn't usually lead me there, drugs do.  coming off the anisthesia and then the pain meds kept my tummy a little upset for a few days.  i got over it though....frankly, the pain was worse then the nausia for me.  i know some girls have relatively no pain, i envy them that....it was very painful for me...but again....i'd do it again in a heartbeat.  God bless.

[Jeannette]

I can answer from first hand experience now. Mine wasn't as hideous painful as I thought it'd be. I had little discomfort or no pain at all. Started walking on the third day & I'm healing quickly.  Marci & the nurses say it's different for everybody. No Grs is the same. I feel lucky that everything resulted the way it did for me. I was worried I'd be incapacitated for weeks but it's nothing like that.

[cindybc]

The most uncomfortable thing I experienced was that darn stent thing, do you know how big those things are? Anyway the most uncomfortable part of the whole thing was the last two days before they removed the stent yea like giving birth to a French Poodle, *without the claws* Gads I hated that dang thing, like Kate I'm an active person and like to move about a lot, I was walking about the day after the surgery. The big problem was was trying to sit for any length of time, forget it. The favored positions were either vertical or horizontal.

This time when I went to Montreal with Wing Walker I was sicker then she was with the stomach flue. I came down with the flue at the recovery house. Well I am certainly glad that was all I had and I did have fun with the girls there. They all got to meet my pet Critter, a stuffed animal of a fury seal. I saw your name in the Fairy book Kate. 

Cindy

[peggygee]

As they say, your mileage may vary.

As I recall, mine was fairly painful at points, but not unbearably so.

Two things that I do recall that gave me pause for cause were;

The sutures in my vagina. At times it felt like I had barb wire in
there.

The other thing that made me apprehensive, was when I first
started to dilate. I was afraid that I pop a stitch, or in some
other way do harm to my neo-vagina.

Other than that, with some OTC pain pills, and it was palatable.

[cindybc]

I Like that description, barb wire. The first couple weeks back at home at least I could sit for short intervals, but not for to long a stretch at a time, it gets awful uncomfortable down there after while. I walked around a lot in the house and outside some, then came back in and sat again for a while to do some typing, then get up and move about again then come back and sometimes did the typing standing up.

I was restless as a lion pacing it's cage. I can't be idle for long I get bored. But thank goodness for the Internet. I was a member on a popular sci-fi forums in the UK back then so I spent a lot of time there and did a lot of online research but I was never so happy then to go back to work again when I was able to. My job as a social worker was mostly on my feet, very little of the day required sitting.

Gee if I'm gonna kill a thread I may as well stay on the job.

Cindy