Susan's Place Transgender Resources

I have a question for you women who work.  Dr McGinn has her patients on a 5 X a day dilating schedule for the first few months.  How in the world can you keep a dilating schedule like that, and still work, I mean, "excuse me boss....I hafta.....hmmmm".
I used to be concerned about this a year ago, but I retired early, so it's a non-issue here.  But what do you do??
I'm at home, or out and about, and it's not that easy to schedule.

I got lucky. My longest class is only three hours long...usually with a 1 to 3 hour break in between. I just walk to my apartment on campus...bring up Netflix and chill lol

For those who work fulltime...i'm in the same boat as you. I would assume it would be quite difficult and would require some creative time management thinking skills!

Quote from: Ms Bev on January 09, 2013, 02:26:46 PM
  But what do you do??
I'm at home, or out and about, and it's not that easy to schedule.

Those early days were a royal pain. I used to get up super early in the morning and do a double session and then when I got home from work I did another double session. I think it's not the number of dilation sessions but the amount of time the dilator is in and how far apart it is time wise.Those early post srs days were so time consuming, between dilating, cleanup, sterilizing it just chewed up all my free time. The only bright side was watching a lot of TV since I had nothing better to do.

Quote from: Ms Bev on January 09, 2013, 02:26:46 PM
I have a question for you women who work.  Dr McGinn has her patients on a 5 X a day dilating schedule for the first few months.  How in the world can you keep a dilating schedule like that, and still work, I mean, "excuse me boss....I hafta.....hmmmm".
I used to be concerned about this a year ago, but I retired early, so it's a non-issue here.  But what do you do??
I'm at home, or out and about, and it's not that easy to schedule.

Can I just say even 3X would be hard in some careers. How do you girls do it??

no other choice.

I know a girl whose parents paid for her SRS (they paid everything for her...so she never really appreciated anything...silver spoon mentality).

Well...she didn't take dilating seriously. Long story short, she closed up.

My wife came home during lunch for the one week she was on a 4X daily schedule. (Once at about 6 am, once at noon, and then ~5 and ~9 pm. Brassard says it has to be at least 2 hours from the end of one session to the start of the next, so to do two in the morning would've meant getting up about 3:30 am!)

Going down to once a day is a huge relief... for both of us, since I kinda missed her being able to do things without being handcuffed to the dilators for what seemed like half the day. ;)

Quote from: Annah on January 09, 2013, 02:51:19 PM
no other choice.

I know a girl whose parents paid for her SRS (they paid everything for her...so she never really appreciated anything...silver spoon mentality).

Well...she didn't take dilating seriously. Long story short, she closed up.

OMG just that thought makes me almost cry..
Heheh if I get my full paid scholarship for university then my parents might do the same.
But I sure wouldnt let mine close up EWWW.

Quote from: LilDevilOfPrada on January 09, 2013, 03:00:39 PM
OMG just that thought makes me almost cry..
Heheh if I get my full paid scholarship for university then my parents might do the same.
But I sure wouldnt let mine close up EWWW.

She didn't care that she closed up. I felt sorry for her on many different levels

Quote from: Annah on January 09, 2013, 03:04:24 PM
She didn't care that she closed up. I felt sorry for her on many different levels

I cant even wrap my mind around the idea.

Quote from: blueconstancy on January 09, 2013, 02:58:10 PM
so to do two in the morning would've meant getting up about 3:30 am!)

When I said I used to get up really early I wasn't kidding :) I got to be quite an expert from watching a ton of CNN in the morning because that's all there is. I was finally happy about 6 months post op when the schedule became more manageable :)

Quote from: Zumbagirl on January 09, 2013, 03:21:39 PM
When I said I used to get up really early I wasn't kidding :) I got to be quite an expert from watching a ton of CNN in the morning because that's all there is. I was finally happy about 6 months post op when the schedule became more manageable :)

Seeming I am obviously pre-op how do you know when you can change your schedule?

your doctor lays out a regiment for you

Quote from: Annah on January 09, 2013, 03:28:38 PM
your doctor lays out a regiment for you

And here I thought you just know  :embarrassed: :laugh:

Quote from: LilDevilOfPrada on January 09, 2013, 03:30:20 PM
And here I thought you just know  :embarrassed: :laugh:

By the time I was about 3 months post surgery I knew all I ever wanted to know about vaginas first hand simply because all of my free time was spent taking care of it. It was still a swollen puffy mess but is MY swollen puffy mess :)

Zumbagirl - good grief, you were hardcore. :) I'm impressed.

(Yes, the doctor usually gives a pretty detailed schedule. Brassard does leave it up to the patient after the first year - "gradually decrease as it's comfortable for you" or something like that, until it's down to one session of 15 minutes per week [largest dilator] for life.)

I started going back to work on week 7 and its hard to fit everything around that time. but the trick I used on my male boss was to start telling him each and every step I had to do and 10 seconds in he said,"to much info just take the time you need for your lady stuff but ell me ahead of time". its so great that that actually worked.

Reading all about dilating 5 times a day for xx minutes makes me feel lucky.  I had a colon type SRS and only had to dilate the opening.  It was a long time ago now, but I'm sure I only had to do it twice a day for about 10 minutes a time in the first few weeks, decreasing from there.  I worked shift work at the time so it was easy to schedule around my shifts.

Quote from: AusBelle on January 10, 2013, 02:05:29 AM
Reading all about dilating 5 times a day for xx minutes makes me feel lucky.  I had a colon type SRS and only had to dilate the opening.  It was a long time ago now, but I'm sure I only had to do it twice a day for about 10 minutes a time in the first few weeks, decreasing from there.  I worked shift work at the time so it was easy to schedule around my shifts.

yeah. im so glad my doctor has mine at 2x a day

Working 9 hours a day 5 days a week.  Went to Dr. McGinn -- I just took the 8 weeks necessarily to move down from 5 x a day to 3 x a day -- even that is hard to manage -- I get up at 7:30am and do once, then when i get home at 6:30 I do the 2nd time and then around 1am I do the 3rd time -- repeat every day for the most pat -- In a couple more weeks i'll be 4 months post-op --

It still feels like im chained to the dilators too, will be nice to get down to once per day...even twice would be better...but I highly recommend taking off work as much as needed in those initial 8 weeks, the extra week or two pay surely isn't going to mean much in the long run if you miss out but the comfort of healing and knowing you are listening to the Dr's orders is important.

Quote from: Jessica07 on January 10, 2013, 08:17:53 PM
It still feels like im chained to the dilators too, will be nice to get down to once per day...even twice would be better...but I highly recommend taking off work as much as needed in those initial 8 weeks, the extra week or two pay surely isn't going to mean much in the long run if you miss out but the comfort of healing and knowing you are listening to the Dr's orders is important.

When I read back on this and other threads on electrolysis, ffs, etc I am amazed that I made it this far in life :) I have a hard time thinking now, how the heck did I do it all? I guess I didn't have much of a life back then :)

Quote from: Zumbagirl on January 10, 2013, 08:37:47 PM

When I read back on this and other threads on electrolysis, ffs, etc I am amazed that I made it this far in life :) I have a hard time thinking now, how the heck did I do it all? I guess I didn't have much of a life back then :)

I'm with you there.  Coming back after so many years without giving TS stuff so much of a thought, and reading all the trials and tribulations of everyone just starting, and or still on their journey, really makes you glad that it's all long over.  Having said that, I'm so glad that I did do it back then.

I haven't seen too many people on here (none) that had the colon SRS ...... I feel like the odd one out.

Quote from: AusBelle on January 10, 2013, 09:56:59 PM
I'm with you there.  Coming back after so many years without giving TS stuff so much of a thought, and reading all the trials and tribulations of everyone just starting, and or still on their journey, really makes you glad that it's all long over.  Having said that, I'm so glad that I did do it back then.

I haven't seen too many people on here (none) that had the colon SRS ...... I feel like the odd one out.

I had considered colon type vaginoplasty but I kept hearing stories that it leaks constantly, smelled funny, always needed to wear a pad. Honestly I don't know if any of it was true or not or people who had personal hygiene issues having that surgery, etc. I do know that you get better depth and a vagina that is sexually more like a normal female than from straight penile inversion which is what I ended up doing. Again that's so I was told. Of course in the end "my" vagina leaks and smells funny too    if I don't keep it sparkling clean :)

I am happy to say that this is all long behind me now. No more waking up in the middle of the night to dilate. No more freaking electrolysis appointments. In fact I would probably cry like a little girl if it tried to get it done now. No more therapy, no more waking up the day after surgery and barfing, no more aching growing boobs, no more name changes, although I did have a few moments of surprises in places where I had my old name pop up often with great disbelief. I have found that as more time passes trying to convince someone I used to be that "other" person is near impossible.

One other weird thing I can remember from the past was the moment I realized that i was throwing away female clothes that I just wasn't wearing and I needed to thin out the closets to make way for newer outfits. I wasn't throwing away male clothes anymore, now it was stuff that I used to wear but not any more. I even did this with shoes, getting rid of shoes that I look back and thought what was I even thinking when I bought these shoes? Those were great moments :)

Quote from: Tristan on January 09, 2013, 11:14:31 PM
I started going back to work on week 7 and its hard to fit everything around that time. but the trick I used on my male boss was to start telling him each and every step I had to do and 10 seconds in he said,"to much info just take the time you need for your lady stuff but ell me ahead of time". its so great that that actually worked.

LOL. My brother was the same way. He doesn't want to hear it the minute I try to tell him my dilation routine.

Quote from: Zumbagirl on January 11, 2013, 07:24:52 AM
I had considered colon type vaginoplasty but I kept hearing stories that it leaks constantly, smelled funny, always needed to wear a pad. Honestly I don't know if any of it was true or not or people who had personal hygiene issues having that surgery, etc. I do know that you get better depth and a vagina that is sexually more like a normal female than from straight penile inversion which is what I ended up doing. Again that's so I was told. Of course in the end "my" vagina leaks and smells funny too    if I don't keep it sparkling clean :)

I won't go into detail here, as it's not the thread for it.  It has it's advantages (from what I read, and had heard over the penile inversion), and it's disadvantages.  You do have to keep pads on hand, but sometimes I go for months without needing them.  Occasionally it will leak a coloured liquid, and the smell comes from that.  Normally though there is no smell and all is good.  I'll leave it at that for now.

I'm on Christine McGinn's 5 times a day regimen, and find it difficult to do.  I'm healing a little more slowly than we would like, and part of the routine is massaging some granulation tissue around the bottom of the introitus.  So, I have 5-10 mins with dilator #1, then 30 mins with #2, followed by 15-20 mins massaging.  All together, each dilation runs an hour.  Also, she's had me return for 2 followups, and scheduled for another in a month.  All so well worth it though.  I feel she is the very best surgeon out there!  Last time she did silver nitrate treatments which made a huge difference.  Now....if I were still working, this would be impossible.  I think I'd have to go on short-term disability.

With the initial four times a day Brassard wants, I did one in the morning before work, at lunch I went to a friend's house who was nice enough to loan me a bedroom for three months, then twice at home after work.  It sucked.

Quote from: Zumbagirl on January 10, 2013, 08:37:47 PM

When I read back on this and other threads on electrolysis, ffs, etc I am amazed that I made it this far in life :) I have a hard time thinking now, how the heck did I do it all? I guess I didn't have much of a life back then :)

Me too.  I'm two years post, been seeing a guy somewhat regularly that doesn't know my past.  It seems like a lifetime ago.

Quote from: amy2003 on January 19, 2013, 12:41:58 PM
With the initial four times a day Brassard wants, I did one in the morning before work, at lunch I went to a friend's house who was nice enough to loan me a bedroom for three months, then twice at home after work.  It sucked.

Me too.  I'm two years post, been seeing a guy somewhat regularly that doesn't know my past.  It seems like a lifetime ago.

he does not know your past? can we do that because theres a guy i like but dont feel the need to tell him?

Quote from: Tristan on January 19, 2013, 09:26:12 PM
he does not know your past? can we do that because theres a guy i like but dont feel the need to tell him?

No, he doesn't.  Since I self-lubricate pretty well, the only "sign" of something different down there are two little bumps of scar tissue where the stitches were tied off.  I have refrained from shaving there anymore for fear they will be more obvious.  But if he has noticed them he hasn't said anything, and he has been up close and personal with them plenty of times  ;D

I kind of feel the need to tell someone I would plan on spending the rest of my life with, but much to his dismay he's just not long term material for me.  He's a good guy, we are just a little too different.

oh ok. cool i see what you mean. that is a good point. i think i will fallow your model. its the problem i was running into. so people told me tell them as soon as you meet them and then others say tell them before sex. but i like your idea best.