Transgender journey: recovering from surgery

After sex reassignment surgery, Juliet Jacques recuperates at home with her parents. An infection delays her recovery, but eventually pain begins to give way to pleasure

    Juliet Jacques   
    guardian.co.uk, Monday 8 October 2012 08.18 EDT   

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/oct/08/transgender-journey-recovering-from-surgery

When I got the date for my sex reassignment surgery, I wasn't so worried about the operation itself (I'd be asleep, right?) as its aftermath: how I was going to look after myself during the two months it would take to recover? I called my parents and immediately my mother offered to take care of me at the family home. I'd never felt so glad or relieved: the Gender Identity Clinic suggest full-time care for at least the first two weeks, and getting it from my parents (especially my mother, a former district nurse) meant that they would be reassured that I was fine, while I would benefit from rest, relaxation and plenty of home cooking.

The day after my discharge from Charing Cross Hospital, my father drives me back to Horley, Surrey, where I will convalesce in my old bedroom. As he does so, the post-surgical pain increases dramatically. I try to be stoic: it isn't going away for some time, so I decide to get through the journey, sleep and see how I feel in the morning. Much worse, is the answer: the sight and smell of the neovagina instantly confirms that I've contracted an infection.

Question: because I am allergic to sulfa drugs, would that hurt my ability to have SRS in the future, or any attempts to stave off infection if I end up being an unlucky one? If an infection occurs, can they successfully treat it without using sulfa drugs?

I doubt it, I'm allergic to them too but haven't had a single medical issue yet that the doctors were concerned.  There are dozens of meds physicians prefer over sulfa drugs, but I've yet to have any TG specific procedures so I may be missing something.