Just curious if anyone else here has surgery with Brassard around that time frame.
Audrey
Good for you, Girl.
I hope all goes well for you.
Janet
Im amy and i used to live in montreal. Now live 40 minutes away :-*
Will someone be there with you? Friend, relative?
Havent done surgery yet, no date yet, but lived in montreal, have heard alot about menard and brossard
unfortunately no. Im hoping it isn't necessary to have someone along, it would be nice but its not really an option.
:) I don't have a surgery scheduled with Dr.Brassard, but I live in Montreal :)
Do you have any question ???
Anna :P
no questions really just curious if id have any friends there already, Im going alone so Im a little (lot) nervous.
I'm not having surgery there, but I'll be in town around then.
I fly in on a sunday and have monday and some of tuesday to screw around.lol. we should get a coffee or something I dont know anything about montreal.
What are you going to be in town for mister.
Hi Audry, Ahhh, now aint that good news. I certainly wish Wing Walker and I could be there but we do have a calling plan that allows us to blab everywhere on the telephone. It would be nice to talk to you on the tephone if you wished. Well Wing Walker and I didn't get to see much of Montreal it was November 3rd when we were there, too cold for me to move around much.
We did walk to a shopping mall about four blocks away on the first day we were there. Since we were legally married in Ontario I got to share the same room with her at the healing house. Nice place and nice people, the nice thing about it is you can continue having follow ups with them by phone or email, even send pictures to them of your progress. Well, congrats and I do pray all goes well. PM me if you wish to be in touch by telly.
Cindy
No one should have to go it alone. We are all with you in spirit. But please, if someone is able to be there physically and give comfort and support to this girl. Please do so.
Fade into you (Mazzy Star) lyrics....
I want to hold the hand inside you.....
Audrey, you will be in good hands. Nothing to worry about. A lot of girls go there unaccompanied.
You'll be picked up at the airport by limo and taken to the residence. When you get there you'll meet whoever is on staff at the time and be shown your room. Anne is the head nurse there and is a saint. She's the best. Hopefully you'll meet Francine. She's such a sweetheart. Alain will sing as he goes about his work. All the people there are so charming.
When you get there ask Anne if you can see her photo album. Julie and I are there twice, once when she had GRS last June and again when I had it in March.
Brush up on your French and show them not all Americans are like me, only able to speak English!
Good luck and if you have any questions just ask.
Julie
I'm Canadian by birth. I have an annual pilgrimage back to my homeland. ;D
Thanks for the reassurance, Im pretty independent usually and it sounds like they take excellent care of their patients. Im going to have to start packing pretty soon here. not to mention clean my apt so its perfect when i get back.
blahh ttyl
Audrey
I had surgery with Dr Brassard in January 2008, but will be visiting at the convalesence home June 9 & 10
Best of luck Audrey.
It appears that your about two weeks away from the big day.
Take care.
Mich'
sorry about the late reply. I am looking forward to being there. my surgery did get moved up a bit to the 8th, one day after I get there. yikes. five days.
Congrats hun I am both praying and cheering for you. Everything will be fine. Lookin forward to hearing from you again. Don't forget to put our our phone number and email Addys on a piece of paper and put it in your purse.
Love
Cindy
haha you bet I will cindy.
Oops, sorry I missed it Audrey. :(
Yesterday, June 9th, Audrey had her surgery.
hate to say it but the night hospital staff sucks ass. I had an anxiety attack that was triggered by lack of sleep and exessive bleeding. I couldn't stop hyperventilating and the god#$%^ night nurses were just like calm down deep breaths we cant give you any meds for another hour. i think that they thought iwas in pain but i was hyperventilation so bad that I had trouble getting it across that i was having a panic attack. after the worst part of the attack they finally gave me an adavan. The worst part is I have pills with me for anxiety but they wouldn't give them to me. i demanded that they let me keep them with me. I was pissed that I couldn't get it thruogh there thick heads. My atarax even says prn anxiety. plus the nurses take forever to answer a call light, so id rather be able to take them before I start panicking. And this morning i made them get me up an walked around the hospital. she wanted to put myrailing uup which there was no way in hell i was going to be stuck in bed and not be able to get to my purse etc.
Lol after last nite im done playing the oh help me patient, Ive been demanding that my needs get met. lol anyway got to go its luch time
Give them hell, Girl. You know yourself better than anyone. Just don't pop a stitch though.
And
Congratulations!
it's a girl
And you get added to my list,Hon. Heal quickly.
Janet
haha thanks janet and everyone else for you support. I got to get up and did a cirlce around the hospital. And i get to eat a full meal finally. anyhows got to go
Audrey
Congrats, Audrey.
Heal quickly and take care of yourself.
Mich'
Congrats Girl, Glad your doing well. Heal quickly.
Beni
thanks everyone. I did really well today and walked quite a bit, and ate three square meals. I did have a problem last nite with excessive bleeding that brought on a massive anxiety attack. Other than that thinks are look up, havent started dilations yet. soon enough i suppose. anyway got to go.
Bleeding will happen and unless its buckets it not too big a deal. Messy yes, but well the new plumbing has to get adjusted and set in. Think of it at a period. Worked for me. :-)
Beni
Congrats Audrey :)
Hope all goes well and you heal quickly. :icon_bunch:
I woke up in a hospital (for other reasons) and thought is was morning because of the lighting and activity around. So I turned on the TV. Then I realized that the night staff were racing each other on service carts up and down the hallway. Then a rather burly nurse came in and injected me with a sedative and shut off the TV :P
I really dont see why peoople think its all butterflys and rainbows here. The honest truth is it sucks. Everyone speaks french, the nurses in the hospital suck and would rather shoot you up with morphine than actually listen to you. the little brat nurse at the recovery house is dangerously inexperienced. I had crippling pain from constipation from morphine and I literally had to beg her to give me a suppository. I mean literally beg...
My roommate bless her soul helped me far more than any of the nurses combined. Just wanted to throw this out there as a reality check for and transgender people seeking surgery. Its not all butterflies and rainbows so dont let people blow smoke up your ass by telling you how good and wonderful it is. The truth is it sucks, I'd be better off going home now, but my flight doesn't leave till friday so I have a week of hell left. Tomorrow im going to go out and find some pot. At least that will help the pain without getting ->-bleeped-<-ing constipated.
Well.... no. Whenever I've been in a hospital for what ever reason, there were no Butterflies or Rainbows. Surgery of any kind is not a trip to Disneyland.
Right now, you need to concentrate on healing up so you can go out and find those Butterflies and Rainbows later when your feeling better.
Quote from: Audrey on June 12, 2009, 04:13:20 AM
Everyone speaks french, ....
Errrrr It's a French Province what did you expect them to speak?
QuoteTomorrow im going to go out and find some pot. At least that will help the pain without getting ->-bleeped-<-ing constipated.
A real bright move. HA! and to think someone said "You know yourself better than anyone." Your attitude seems to have clouded your judgment.
-={LR}=-
I'm sorry Audrey that you're having such a rough time of it.
Of course you wouldn't be better off at home, you still have to have the dressing, the packing and the catheter out.
You have to find a compromise on being active. Being too active, too soon can cause bleeding.
Most don't have a constipation problem three days after a throrough enema regimen.
Quote from: Audrey on June 12, 2009, 04:13:20 AM
Tomorrow im going to go out and find some pot. At least that will help the pain without getting ->-bleeped-<-ing constipated.
Sweet Audrey,
Sorry you are having a rough time with the hospital staff. Do what you have to to get through this, but please rethink the pot thing. It would suck big time to get arrested there, no way to get medical care, in a foreign country, and all the rest. It is just not worth the risk. Surely there is a better way.
(https://www.susans.org/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fganjataz.com%2F01smileys%2Fimages%2Fsmileys%2FloopyBlonde-blinking.gif&hash=4545ddf8251cf9c32ae6074d56e48bc34a755857)Kristi
I have to agree with the pot thing, Audrey. Foreign countries are no fun to be arrested in. May be go find something to help with the constipation rather than risk jail time being just out of surgery.
Stay strong. Heal well. Get home.
Janet
lol I know I was in so much pain at the time it just sounded good. I wouldn't actually go do that.
And the healing house staff really are great it was just really traumatic at the hospital when i had my anxiety because the nurses didn't understand so they just shot me up with morphine causing me to become so constipated and it also made the anxiety attack way worse. Note to self, Im def. telling my doc that I don't tolerate morphine, period.
But seriously, oh my god ive never ever felt pain that badly. Also I dont agree with the fact that I literally had to beg for a simple suppository. They nurse was just new I think and didn't know.
I seriously found religion last nite. It took me five hours of gut twisting agony, like literally white knuckles holding the sheets as waves of sheer pain came over me constantly. Even after like 4 cups of hot prune juice two cups of coffee, and a cigarette (shhhh dont tell). It really scared the holy crap out of me and i was about to return to the hospital. I never thought it would feel so good to finally poop. WoW. what a relief it was.
After breakfast I felt alot better and with some pain meds toodled about the grounds and layed in the sun for awhile. That helped with the depression immensly and im going to make it a daily ritual. Its also been hard as my parents, whom I thought were coming around, have reverted back to calling me my old name, and totally backtracking. The only word I have heard from them was one txt msg from my mom "dont do it ford" after the surgery.
It confuses me that they would want the old me back so badly. I was always depressed and angry, why would they want that. For the most part now I am usually perky and joking around, when Im not close to dying that is lol.
Sigh oh well. I've had alot of support from my wonderfull friends and coworkers and sister, and that helped turn my mood around immensly.
I made a joke to one of the nurses today. "omg call brassard (hes on vacation) i sneezed and my thing popped back out" while i pointed to the mound in my crotch from the bandages lol. I've already thought of the next one....Refering to the dilators, "you know for 18 k they could at least vibrate".
Anyway thank you all for understanding the situation and please realize that Im not usually that bitter, just was having a really hard time. Pain has a funny way of skewing perception and attitude, but Im back to normal and Im going to get through this.
I am so glad that you are feeling better and that your mood is lifting.
The dilators will be the next thing. Have fun. ???
Janet
I can honestly say, when I had my surgery in Montreal, my spirits lifted 100% after leaving the hospital and returning to the residence.
yeah the sheer nature of the surgery alone is traumatic, not to mention the laying in bed depression and pain. Hey weren't you coming to visit?
"Hee, hee." I guess I was one of the lucky ones, I went for a walk about and visited other folks in the other rooms the day after the surgery. I get bored easy, and I never really had what amounts to pain, just a lot of discomfort when sitting and had to squirm and fidget a lot through the meals.
I was never so relieved after they took out the stent and the packing. Ever see the size of the packing? Yikes!. And yes it is much better at the recovery house and keep up the good work with the sense of humor thing Audry, they understand English sufficiently enough to understand your jokes. ;D
Paula and I will call you later this afternoon.
Cindy
haha good deal i look forward to hearing from you cindy. and the packing feels like a tree stump up there.
OMG Audrey, I didn't realize you already had SRS! Whoa. It's funny because I read your posts from the beginning in this thread and I'm like 'wait a minute, that's not the Audrey I know!" and then I kept reading and you said "Anyway thank you all for understanding the situation and please realize that Im not usually that bitter, just was having a really hard time. Pain has a funny way of skewing perception and attitude, but Im back to normal and Im going to get through this."
You WILL get through this, of course you know that! Stay strong, k? Meghan
Quote from: Audrey on June 12, 2009, 03:29:05 PM
yeah the sheer nature of the surgery alone is traumatic, not to mention the laying in bed depression and pain. Hey weren't you coming to visit?
I was. I had an appointment on the 10th, but on the 2nd I got a call, that the doctor wasn't going to be available, so they moved it to the 4th. Fortunately, I have an understanding employer.
Now that you are back to the friendly confines of the residence, you'll love Anne and Francine.
Well, it's Saturday, Audrey. Have you had a peek yet? >:-)
omg i feel so relieved. the bandages came off just now. everything looks ok considering the swelling and blood, but i have good sensitivity. i can't tell you how wonderfull i feel. its going to9 be a new life for me. wow woww wow. My whole attitude about life is going to be changed for the better. I dont have to be ashamed anymore nor have to explain myself or my past. its done and now i am finally free.....
Congratulations Audrey :icon_bunch:
I'm so pleased that you are beginning to feel better now..
:icon_hug:
Chrissty
anne and francine are amazing individuals. they're so caring and kind whenever I think about them I cry because they are such angels. Having gone through a rough transition were I lost both friends and families has damaged my heart and in the short time i've been here they have helped to heal that damage. Last nite was another rough night with anxiety and swelling and sweet francine dryed my tears and helped me calm down with some medication and sat with me for awhile. Everyone here are such angels. I am excited because the stent comes out tomorrow, what a relief that will be.
Today was a good day and i feel fantastic as i get to dilate tomorrow. woo hoo. This is going to be the start of an amazing new life for me. I plan on leaving the old me completely behind as i have been reborn.
Hi Audrey, Remember I am here for you too, I will call you in a bit, OK?
Love
Cindy