This may have possibly been talked about on some other thread, but I feel that I need to ask anyway.

I am just shy of a week and 4 days post-op and had my surgery with Dr. Bowers. According to all the paper work I was given and from what I was told by her and her staff at the clinic, I only need to dilate 3x a day 15 minutes each session. Which I would like to think is doable.. a little uncomfortable, but doable. And I was recommended that I use a water soluble lube.

And then I am hearing that Dr. McGinn has her patients dilate 5x a day and to use mineral oil. From what I read, her reasoning is because during the first 8 weeks, you're still healing and by dilating more freqently, you will be able to increase your width and maintain depth and as you heal, it can be harder to do that once you are completely healed.

So I really want to know both sides! Do any Bowers girls that follow the 3x regimen have any challenges as far as intercourse goes or is it a piece of cake? Same thing goes for the McGinn girls that follow her regimen?

To be honest, I contemplating introducing a little bit of Mcginn's regmimen and essentially making a Hybrid regimen, but I am wanting to know if it will be necesarry?

Any and all thoughts and feedback are welcome!!! 

(disclamer: I'm the result of another surgeon)
I can see mcginn's point of getting dilation in before scar tissue fixes things up starting around 2-3 months in, but I'm too swollen labia wise to really benefit from more than 3x day. one of the biggies in comparing the two has to be if you're using a single stent through the dilation time, or going say, 5 min with a smaller one then going up to the one which stretches things (and makes go oww oww afterwards).

Hi Sis -- I am another Bowers Girl, who just reached my 180 day plateau. (Now once a day)   My green boyfriend who came along at Dilation Week 4 is easy to use, and since I do a little more than just hold him in place, I am a little bigger in circumference than just the 1 3/8 inches, and I have the same depth (7 inches from the outer labia) that I did the day Safina took out my packing there in San Mateo.  I did have a little problem at your point in time with a yeast infection.  This resulted in my seeing a gynecologist close to home who called Bowers office, and between the two of the Drs, the water soluable lube got the two votes to my DUH.  The reason being, we do have mucous tissue down there, and the water soluable stuff reacts with our self lube better as far as preventing infections.  Before you try anything new check in by phone to Trinidad.  McGinn does not do the labia minora the way Marci does, so for her clients the mineral oil is probably OK.  Robin will not tell you to dilate more than Marci's three times, but will tell you that you can if you want to use your time that way.  Do wait until after the 6 weeks pre PV sex, but you can use McGinn's two extra times worth of time to go out and get a human boyfriend. Starting in week 6 for me, I found that things were delightfully healed, and I could make Micky Mint do all sorts of tricks, and it was great to find a way to tickle the prostate area,  OH MY!!  The feeling.

I am a Montreal girl myself (almost 4 months). Here is a copy of my instructions. For us by end of 3rd month we start the largest Mr Orange as some call it. For me it is OMG #4. Also we use a water based lube like KY Jelly brand or store equiv. Only issue i had was it took almost a week to get #4 to be comfortable, he i had to work on slow.


From Dr. Brassard's instructions :

"At home, you should dilate 4 times per day with, #1, #2 for 5, 15
minutes for one month.

Dilate 3 times per day with #1, #2, #3 for 5, 10, 15 minutes for two months.

Dilate twice a day with #2, #3, #4, for 5, 10, 15 minutes for 3 months

Dilate once a day with #3, #4, for 5, 15 minutes for 6 months.

Slowly increase the interval of time between each dilation until you
reach one dilation per week with #4, for 15 minutes for the rest of
your life.

If you have difficulties with a bigger size dilator, wait before you
are comfortable with this one before using a bigger size.  You can go
back to a smaller size and increase the frequency for a few days."

He's VERY specific, at least, up to the year mark. I appreciated that.

I touched a lil bit about dilation here

https://www.susans.org/forums/index.php/topic,145244.0.html

Dr Chettawut like's 3 times or a min 1.5 hours a day for a year, but his #4 dilator is comparable to the "blue" dilator of Mcginn, and Bowers, I am going to order the "orange" in a couple days even though he didn't recommend any bigger dilators till 6 months but I feel I will be ok since my bf is a lil bigger than the "green" I have. but I will be dilating 2-3 times daily for 30-1hr each time till 1 year.