Hello I feel as though it is my obligation to inform all trans women of my experience with Dr. Chettawut. I will start from scheduling the appointment to the very end it a.k.a. departure from Thailand. These are my experiences and I hope that I'm able to help those trying to make a decision in selecting the surgeon and or having the surgery.
Before deciding on doctor Chett I actually researched him for about five years. Constantly googling reviews and results and experiences. It was either between him or Canada. However we all know that Canada is 2 to 3 times the cost of Dr. Chett. However cost was not an issue for me technique and results Is at the top of my list. Finally I decided to contact Dr. Chettawut' office to schedule my surgery. Several days later Som replied with all the information necessary for me to move forward in the process. I immediately sent my 20% payment via wire transfer with my credit union. Which roughly came out to $2000 US. The total cost for the surgery itself is a little over $11,000 US. I felt with his technique and results he was the right surgeon for me. My surgery is scheduled for July 18, 2017. Once you agree upon a surgery date you were asked to choose one of the three hotels. I selected the vertical suite. It is upscale luck Sharee at a very reasonable cost. I was traveling alone and I booked a one bedroom suite. My room number was 8602. My hotel approximate stay was 27 days and the total cost including room service came out to $1500 US. I am traveling from Honolulu Hawaii, so I knew traveling to Bangkok would be a lot of flying hours. I booked my ticket with Korean Airlines with a layover in Inchon Korea then to Bangkok. Total cost for my flight was under $1000 US. Service on Korean Airlines is amazing the food was pleasantly good.
Anyways back to the surgery. I arrived in Bangkok 4 days prior to my surgery as recommended on Dr. Chett website. The very next day you will have a personal consultation with Dr. Chett. He will examine your private areas and tell you how the surgery will go and what to expect after surgery. At that time he will also advise if you need a skin graft. I paid for my surgery on the day of consultation with my visa credit card. If you plan on paying with your credit card there is a 4% fee that is charged along with the total cost. This is also when the office girls collect your letters of recommendation from your psychiatrist and psychologist. You will review some paperwork and sign some documents before meeting with the doctor. After the consultation with Dr. Chett, he advised me that I needed a skin graft because three years prior I had an orchiectomy which shrank my private part a little. There is an additional charge for the skin graft which is roughly $1000 US. So be prepared and have that extra money when you go on your consult with him.
I forgot to mention there is a driver that picks you up from the airport which is why you need to send a picture of yourself. Once you meet your driver at gate number for he will give you an envelope welcoming you to Thailand and advising you of your consultation with the doctor the very next day. Please be prompt with meeting the driver in the morning.
Being that my surgery was on a Tuesday I had to start the ball cleansing on Saturday Sunday and Monday. The entire weekend with no food only clear liquids and clear food a.k.a. clear soup Jell-O. Having selected the vertical sweet you are across the street from two major malls in Thailand. My favorite of the two was paradise mall. They have a farmers market on the ground level along with a healthy food store which reminded me of whole foods here in the states. That grocery store also imports stuff from the United States so if you were unsure of the Thailand Brian it's best to shop at that location. They have some of the best fruits and vegetables that I have purchased. But please make sure you wash them clean. I did my grocery shopping before my surgery because I didn't know what to expect after. My suggestion would be to purchase frozen dinners. The best brand to purchase is S&P. They are located on the ground level as well I purchase eight dinners for 345 bhat which is less than $20 US. These frozen dinners saved my life and they are so flavorful. Honestly I wish they sold it here in the states. The chicken was my favorite. Going in to Thailand to have my SRS nobody tells you to prepare prior to your surgery. To go grocery shopping purchase two cases of water and juice purchase food for you to eat because he will be bedridden for several weeks. I highly suggest you take a taxi and do your grocery shopping the very next day.
The ball cleansing program is not as bad as everybody says it is. Again everybody's experience is different but my experience was normal. Honestly it felt good to clean my system in the three days that I was given. I did not wake up and run to the bathroom in the middle of the night everything just flowed naturally. Just listen to the doctors orders and you'll be fine don't create your own way of doing things.
July 18, 2017 day of surgery. The driver pick me up at 1 PM. Dr. Chett likes to schedule his surgeries in the afternoon or early evening to better prepare. I arrived at the surgical center and was greeted by Dr. Chett and his team of professionals. You were then escorted upstairs into a room where you will just roll and put on a hospital gown and a hairnet. You will then be escorted into a weight room where you'll be able to watch TV and the nurse will go over with you the after affects following surgery. Dr. Chett Will visit with you one last time as we wait for the anesthesiologist. My surgery actually commence around 3 PM. I was then walked into the surgical room and I met the entire staff including the anesthesiologist. My IV was started on my left hand and the anesthesiologist will speak with you introduce himself and then tell you he will be putting you to sleep now and to relax. Once you are a sweep the anesthesiologist also put in the epidural block for after surgery. It is a small pump that will be placed on your right hand shoulder filled with pain medicine. You do not need to press it to get the medicine it is a slow continuous flow of pain medication for after surgery.
Upon waking up you will hear the anesthesiologist tell you to take a deep breath. You will continue taking deep breath's throughout the evening to get the excess gas out of your stomach. He does give you something so you don't get nauseous upon waking up. I was then wheeled into my recovery room and my legs spread apart with my nurse sleeping right next to me. C the nurse that spent the night with me after recovery was so pleasant. Dr. Chettawut team works so hard to make sure that we are taking care of after surgery. Some don't even see their families because they choose to stay and care for us. The very next day after surgery I had to walk down several stairs into my actual recovery room which I will stay for an additional three days. Also upon me waking up I noticed that I had a catheter in me which doctor said would happen. I felt no discomfort to the catheter in fact I got spoiled having the catheter because you don't need to go up and use the bathroom. Noi was the nurse taking care of me and she was so pleasant. Extremely dedicated to your well-being and Care after surgery. With Noi by my side I knew that I would recover even quicker. She was that ball of sunshine that I needed during my recovery.
The three days that I spent in the hospital I felt absolutely no pain. Upon waking up after the surgery I felt absolutely no pain. A little discomfort, a little tightness but never a pain. Pain was managed so well after surgery. I had an opportunity to sleep on my side which felt extreme good being that you are in bed for several days. Most of the time you are sleeping and you only wake up when they give you your medication and your breakfast lunch and dinner. Which consists of soup and hot chocolate.
The day that I was released from the surgical center and sent back to my hotel the vertical suite was the only day I felt actual pain. You are in bed for four days. And when the nurse gets you up in the morning and tells you to get ready the driver is here. You need to gather all your belongings the nurse will assist you. Get dressed and you were put into the drivers car with your donut pillow. The ride was so painful. That is the only pain I have ever felt during my entire stay in Thailand. No pain with the SRS the only pain was when I was in the car LOL.
Once you arrive at your hotel you are greeted with the wheelchair. The driver will assist you with getting into the wheelchair and it will take you up to your room. You were then tucked in and will be sleeping for the rest if the day. Until your nurse comes the following day. Doctors nurses work from 9 AM to 1 PM. Please be patient there are an extreme amount of patients that they need to see and it is only one nurse most of the time. So just please be patient. The nurse will come she would check on you make sure that you were taking your medication. She will also make sure that you were eating and you're hydrated. Not much to check being that you have your packing in place and your catheter.
About four days later you're packing will be removed and the gauze that is in your new vagina. I was very nervous on the packing removal and the removal of the gauze. C kept telling me that there will be no pain to the removal of anything. She kept telling me remember I told you the most painful part to the surgery is the removal of the drainage. Which to me was not painful when she remove them. So I took her advice listen to her voice as she slowly peel back the layers of gauze. Now for the moment of truth taking off the packing. There is a lot of packing in there and it felt like I was trying to fart. As odd as it may sound it felt like a little farts with no pain. Once everything was removed and both nurses cleaned my new genitalia it was discovered that the bottom of my vagina the skin did not have enough blood supply. The nurse will put dilator zero in to check your depth. She will put some lubrication on the dilator and stick it all the way in. Do not panic this does not hurt it just feels like pressure once she hits the wall. This happens if you were previously overweight or do you have little to no skin to work with. So during recovery I had 2 bright red sores at the bottom of my vagina right near the entrance. To me it didn't mean anything because the nurses assured me that Dr. Chett Will have to do a revision once the swelling goes down. The very next day the nurse will return and you will start your dilation with dilator zero. There is absolutely no pain to dilation I don't care what anyone says. There was no blood after dilation. All it is is just tightness and pressure no pain. Dr. has a very vigorous dilation schedule that you need to make sure you do daily. Three times a day. He will start with dilator zero then you will work your way up to dilator number one. So a week and a half later on August 4 was my postop visit with the doctor. He then explained to me that he will be doing the revision and I will be under local Anastasia. Meaning you are up while he fixes the problem area. Honestly my nerves got the best of me I started crying for no reason. But I told myself to listen to the nurses and my doctor is extremely talented there is nothing to worry about. Dr. cleaned my genitalia removed the old stitches and numbed me. The only pain I felt was the needle. During the revision I felt absolutely no pain no nothing. Noi held my hand laid next to me and told me that I was a good patient and I have nothing to worry about she told me I was beautiful she made me feel like my mom was right next to me. She made me feel like God was in the surgery room passing on that specific message. About an hour and a half later the surgery was over. I had to have the catheter put back in because I had new stitches. Honestly I don't know why people are freaking out about the catheter. Upon them putting it in did not hurt. I also forgot to mention when they removed the catheter it did not hurt either. On both occasions it just felt like you were urinating and it was burning a little. People need to relax about this catheter problem. Are you sure you it is not painful at times it was uncomfortable but for the most part enjoy it you don't need to use the bathroom and stand up all the time just go with it.
Once my revision surgery was complete I was taken back to the hotel talked back in and slept the entire 24 hours. C came to check on me the following day. She removed the packing once again and when she showed me my new lady parts I felt to tears. It was absolutely beautiful. The revision was so successful that I just couldn't stop crying. I had to leave the catheter in for another day because my surgery is too new to have any bacteria on it from urinating. My flight was scheduled to leave on August 8. I was very confident that I will have enough energy to make it through my long two flights. Whatever airline you choose please make sure you make arrangements with them to have a wheelchair service prior to you showing up at the airport and checking in for your flight to come back home. It is very important that you have wheelchair service and please make sure you tip them. The airport is very big and imagining myself walking that distance would be so painful.
My flight back home consisted of two flights Bangkok to Inchon Korea, with a three hour layover. Tenn from Inchon Korea to Honolulu Hawaii. My flight from Bangkok to Incheon was extremely uncomfortable. Make sure you have your donut pillow with you. I just keep telling myself it's a 5 1/2 hour flight take a pain pill go to sleep. Easier said than done the entire flight from Bangkok to Inchon was so uncomfortable for me. However my flight from Inchon to Honolulu was nine hours and was very comfortable. I took two pain pills on that last flight and I took one more foreign a half hours later and I was all good. The moment I got home I took a shower I ate some local food and went right to sleep. Both my parents helped me in so many ways. Oh I forgot to mention I lost about 15 pounds having done my SRS.
Today is one month postop and everything is working perfectly fine. Urinating works perfectly fine especially the spray when he comes out. It tends to leak on my left ass cheek but I understand everything is still trying to mold. My stitches from my revision is almost completely dissolved I have started with dilator number two. So currently I dilate 20 minutes with zero 20 minutes with number one and 10 minutes with number two. This is three times a day. To this very day I have no pain no discomfort and no regrets. It is extremely time-consuming a lot of washing a lot of lube a lot of dilating a lot of resting. Allow your body time to rest and recuperate. Would I do it all again yes I would, Would I recommend Dr. Chett Hell yeah he is the best surgeon that I know of. This is my opinion of course and my results is of a natural woman. And those words came straight from my mothers mouth. She cannot believe the outcome of the surgery.
Please forgive me for my grammar and the spelling of words. Being that this was an extremely long review I am using Siri to type my message. And we all know Siri is not perfect and she spells words wrong. So please read between the lines I don't have time to go back and edit everything. I just wanted everyone to know my experience and what to expect if you were getting SRS with Dr. Chett.
