Sorry to be a little late after five weeks since my surgery but here's my experience of gender reassignment surgery.
I thought I would put finger to word today and share my experience of my reassignment surgery.
Day 1. I arrived at the hospital and felt rather chilled out and looking forward to the surgery. After registering at reception I was taken to what would be my room for the next week. I was shown all the fun gadgets of the bed which could be electronically moved by me to a comfortable position (so glad after surgery that I had that). The specialist nurse talked through the procedure for the next day and then the surgeon came in and I had to read and sign the consent form for elected gender reassignment surgery. A few minutes later a lady came in and showed me what I could have for diner (It was restricted low residue diet because of surgery). I got settled in and had a comfortable night. A big day to come so I watched some TV, read some of my magazines and some of my book. Went off to sleep around midnight.
Day 2 Woke around 6am watched some news on the TV, had a bath and breakfast came around at 8am. Surgery was to be late afternoon at 5.30pm so I had all morning and most of the afternoon to freak out, lol. Well there was also a lot of stuff going on. I was allowed to have breakfast albeit a low residue one and drink up to 11am. From 11am it was nil by mouth. More TV, more books, lol. Began to think am I doing the right thing, what if something goes wrong. Anaesthetist came in around 10am and talked to me about the anaesthetic and asked my weight and if I had ever been allergic to anaesthetic, I said I had not to my knowledge. Left to my own devises until 12.30pm when they gave me the dreaded enema. I felt so bad about 15 minutes later and light headed and sick. I felt like that for the next hour even after having bowl movement. More TV and by 4pm I was a little freaked out and worried. At 5.15pm things began to move and lots of people came into my room and moved me down to the pre op prep room. The journey took about 5 mines. When in the pre op prep room I had the anaesthetist telling me everything they were doing to me, sticking tubes into me and attaching me to monitoring equipment. In a couple of minutes I had faded out, no dreams that I can remember just coming around in my room again and being violently sick and all these people around me again letting me I had had the operation and that I had had a reaction to the anaesthetic, within a few seconds of coming around I was violently sick and remember then putting a needle into me saying it was to stop the sickness. I felt awful. I didn't even remember coming around in the post op recovery room and by the time I came around in my room it was around 10pm. I slept on and off most of the night, being drip fed with antibiotics and morphine.
Day 3. Woke around 6am again and couldn't believe the surgery had been done. It was a strange feeling because I knew it had and yet because everything was in this T bandage I could see it. Pain wise it was a bearable 4 on a scale of 1 – 10 and ten being the worst. Breakfast came around at 8am again and this time I was only on a liquid diet for the next three days. The electronic bed came in handy over the next days, lol. The specialist nurse came in with the surgeon at around 2pm and told me the surgery had been a success with no injury to any other organs, (apparently a good thing).
Day 3 to day 5 really were similar, bed baths, TV, mags, boredom, pain, difficult to get a comfortable position while sleeping. Pain wise it was still a bearable 4 although there were the odd occasions in the night when I woke and had to ask for some pain relief.
Day 4 Apart from the days being similar I had a catheter failure which took absolutely ages for them to sort out and by the time they did I was bleeding from the urethra.
Day 5 They decide to remove the catheter altogether. By this time I couldn't pee properly without straining and I really had thought I had made a huge mistake having the surgery. I thought I would never be right ever again. This was my lowest point.
Day 6 This was bandage off and package off day. This was the first time I would have seen my new genitalia and off course being shown how to dilate. The daily routine had become, well routine. The specialist nurse came in again and a few minutes later the surgeon came in to remove everything. This was around 9am. To say he was fast was an understatement. The bandage was cut off and I was told to lay back with my legs bent slightly open and told to breath deeply and out slowly as the surgeon removed the packaging in my vagina. It was out in a matter of minutes and the largest of the two dilators put in side me by the surgeon in a not somewhat fast way. I had been told by other girls he doesn't mess around. OMG there I was for fifteen minutes with this dilator inside me. I was told by the nurse that afterwards I could have a bath. Bliss. The days were uncomfortable and the worst thing was how to get comfortable. In the late afternoon the specialist nurse came in and showed me how to dilate myself. My bladder and urethra were still giving me problems. An uncomfortable day with not being able to empty my bladder properly and I had not had a bowl movement since enema day.
Day 7 This was my discharge day and I was supposed to be discharged by 10am. I had not still had a bowl movement and I was passing very little water. The specialist nurse said if I had not had a bowl movement I would have to have an enema again. Was that a threat because it worked. I wondered if they would let me go as time went on. 10am passed and it was decided to give me a couple of bladder scans to see how much water I was passing. I did have a bowl movement latterly seconds before the specialist nurse came in with the enema, phew! Two bladder scans later and now it was 1pm the doctor decided it was OK to discharge me. My friend had arrived to drive me back home so they helped with the suit case and flowers and cards and all the medical stuff they gave me to start me off back home.
There were a few other things like an injection everyday in my stomach to stop blood clots and keep the blood thin. This was from day one to day six. I also had a clot on my clitoral area which has taken five weeks to go.
Would I do it all over again knowing what I do, you bet your sweet life I would, with all the ups and downs, Its so wonderful and fantastic how I feel now even with being still swollen and still having pain.
I hope this is of help to others even though things may be slightly different.
Stardust
