Quote from: Jenna Marie on July 16, 2014, 01:38:35 PM
Also, personally, my muscles push the dilator back out unless I'm holding it in.   So I'd have to find a way to STRAP it in, and... no. Seems like a bad idea.

And I'll add that if not secured properly, the dilator, upon sneezing, instantly transforms into a projectile weapon!

Nicolette : Ha, I know! I was afraid I'd take out a cat.

Evolving Beauty : I'm glad to hear it!!

Not going to comment.

It is funny how way back in the day (all the wants wishes and expectations) i could see this question coming.

But not everyone can handle the time they need to make sure there surgery is a success.

Doctors give us these post op directions for a reason.

I so wish you the best.

Izzy

Quote from: awilliams1701 on July 16, 2014, 01:24:39 PM
Is this something you can just insert, dress and go out and about?

OMG!!
Just going to stand in the corner and shake my head on this.

Sounds like fun! 

Quote from: Nicolette on July 16, 2014, 02:45:01 PM
And I'll add that if not secured properly, the dilator, upon sneezing, instantly transforms into a projectile weapon!

Quote from: awilliams1701 on July 16, 2014, 01:24:39 PM
Is this something you can just insert, dress and go out and about?

I actually tried that once. It was not pretty. At all. And I was only outside my door planning to go for a walk then Im like:
'Screw this its gonna pop out if I sneeze'

Quote from: awilliams1701 on July 16, 2014, 01:34:15 PM
This is years away for me, and I'm willing to make the effort either way, but it seems like a good question to me. Depending on the length it may stick out too far though. I also have no idea what its supposed to feel like so I could totally see it getting uncomfortable after a while.

Under no circumstances can i imagine this would be good. For dilation to be effective, it pretty much as to be uncomfortable. Not painful necessarily, but it is done with a totally rock hard pyrex dilator for a reason instead of something softer: so the tissues that try to contract each day (esp in the first months) get restretched out back to their medically made size, or even larger/wider. My doc was adamant that if it isn't uncomfortable, then do it a tiny bit deeper or wider until is uncomfortable, then stay at that point for the 15-30 minutes or whatever time we were at. Long story short, doing that while walking around would be impossible, even without the risk of injury, lubrication leaking / drying out (oh, don't even get me started about sneezing:)

Quote from: thegreenrabbit on July 16, 2014, 01:22:03 PM
Those first 3 months were just a blur of eat, sleep and dilate.

That is just sooooooo right.  Six times a day, every day, for 3 months. I thought it would never end. LOL it did end, and I'm so pleased of preserving.. It was worth every effort.

Embrace, enjoy and consider it a privilege..

Huggs
Catherine

How long does the operation take you down? Are you in bed for the first month or just lightly moving around the house or is it even shorter than that?

I'll say up front that it depends very much on the surgeon; the Thai surgeons in particular believe in long bed rest. (Evolving Beauty, you should be aware that this is sometimes reported as being b/c their technique carries a higher risk of prolapse...)

Brassard had me up and walking by 18 hours post-op, and I was walking 10 minutes out of every hour I was awake (and not dilating, etc.) by day 3. I could walk maybe a quarter mile by the time I got home on day 12, and went back to work full-time at a desk job at the 4-week mark. I wished I'd taken one more week, but I managed.

On the flip side, I tired *very* easily. So I could go for a mile walk, or work all day - but that was it for my energy for the day. I don't think I got back to 100% energy levels until like six months later, and I was still getting sick easily for close to a year post-op.

That doesn't sound too bad. I was more worried about being trapped in bed for weeks than missing work for a month.

Quote from: awilliams1701 on July 17, 2014, 06:46:30 PM
That doesn't sound too bad. I was more worried about being trapped in bed for weeks than missing work for a month.

As in the OPs question you will be stuck in bed for months but for the Dilation schedule if you do what you are instructed to do.

Izzy

My rule of thumb for deciding the priority of dilation vs other things in my life is this:
Losing a vagina is about as devastating a loss as most women could imagine. We are talking major medical emergency, more than a limb in most cases.
So, until I medically no longer need to dilate like I do, I will treat conflicts like I would a threat to my arm or my leg or thumbs.

If a relationship means I can't keep dilating, that relationship is not healthy and it ends. There will always be someone else.
If a job means I can't keep dilating, that job is done. There will always be another job.
And so on.

By the way, I will second what everyone has said. My Thai surgeon didn't require bed rest after the first 4-5 days in the surgery center, but was confined to my hotel room for another 5-7 days, and to hotel for another 4-7 days beyond that. I did the lesser of all those numbers because in the nurses' opinion I was recovering so well. Just listen to your body, to your doctor and nurses, and don't exhaust yourself because it takes much longer to recover your stamina once you are exhausted.

Please don't be lazy when it comes to your vaginal health, it's probably one of the most important investments you have made.

Keep stretching it sister girlfriend, or get someone else to 

Quote from: awilliams1701 on July 17, 2014, 06:46:30 PM
That doesn't sound too bad. I was more worried about being trapped in bed for weeks than missing work for a month.

If you have a physical job you will NOT be back to work in a month or less. Possibly not less than three months if there is heavy lifting, etc. SRS is major surgery.

What will you do if it closes.
You may have to go to hospital as an emergency room patient because you will be unable to pee.
The pee in your body has to go someplace inside which will put toxin in your body.

A friend of mine preferred to bowl instead of dilating, now she has trouble with her urinary system.

I am not that far post op(110 days), and am on a decent schedule of an hour of dilation a day split over three twenty minute sessions. It works for me and I don't see reducing that schedule until my granulation is fully resolved.

Besides being in the surgeons guidelines, dilation can be tapered off long term. I know some decade plus post ops that are rather casual with dilation, like once in a blue moon...the literal measurement.

Quote from: thegreenrabbit on July 16, 2014, 01:36:01 PM
You don't walk around with them. Would do yourself an injury.

You can safely sleep with a soft bendy dilator in place.
Basically I find that after three days I get tight and sore but probably because I had the colonvaginoplasty op.

I have to wear a very soft "place holder" between the dilating session in the first aix months. First two months I have to dilate three times a day. That is hard. My life really splits into sleeping, working and dilating. But it is worth. I am so happy with my new vagina that I would to everything to preserve it.

Lara

Get this, i went 10 years not dilating out of laziness/being in a sexual abstinent relationship, and my vagina did not "close up". I think that's a myth (at least in my experience). But i did lose depth and width in that time, probably about 2 inches of depth (which sucks because i didn't have much to start with), and maybe 1/2 inch of width. I'll probably end up having to have a total redo of my surgery to get my depth back (actually i'm hoping i'll get more than i had initially, which was probably 5-5 1/2 inches), if i decide to go that route and if i deem it worth the time/pain/cost/possible complications.