It happened, it finally happened =) I had my surgery this past Monday, and I thought I'd write a little bit on the experience so far, while my pain is manageable.
Arrived at KU Medical center at 0600 on the 25th, was admitted smoothly and was in preop by 0700. Time started getting fuzzy after that. My doctors visited with me to make sure any questions I had were answered, as well as going over the procedure one more time. Dr. Gray heads a team of three specialists who work in tandem to perform the procedure. Dr Gray herself is an OB/GYN, Dr. Ponnuru is a plastic surgeon, and Dr. Broghammer is a urologist. Between the three of them and their staff, every conceivable thing has been thought of and planned out. This team really knows what they are doing.
I woke up in recovery at some point Monday afternoon, with no concept of time elapsed. It's weird how heavy anesthetic does that to you. Initial pain was a lot less than I expected, and was mostly just a lot of pressure resembling that felt when one needs to defecate with urgency. Now that I've had a couple days to sort out the sensations, I can somewhat separate the sources of pressure. Not to put too fine a point on it, but the packings in my vagina can only be described as feeling like a baseball is stuck in there.
Pain management has been spot on, with one minor hiccup after my toridol stopped. (Toridol can be damaging to the kidneys, so they generally don't like to give more than three doses) I didn't ask for my pain pills quite fast enough, and there was a very uncomfortable window in there before the pills cut in. Currently I am on a schedule consisting of Tylenol and oxycodone every 4 hours, though I am trying to extend that a bit to try not to build too much of a dependency.
I have felt some phantom nerve sensations, which is really kind of an odd experinece. I've been told that this will likely lessen once my brain remaps the changed geography to nerves.
Food at the hospital has been half decent, with special mention to the apple crisp. that stuff is on point.
I could have been discharged yesterday (the 27th), but we decided that I'd stay one more night on account that I have a 3 1/2 hour ride home. I'll be back up next Tuesday to have the packings and foley catheter removed, and then another week later than that to check on dialation effectivity and overall progress.
Overall so far, this has been an amazing experience, and I would recommend the KU transgender medicine program to anyone in the midwest who is seeking care.
On a side note, I have Aetna healthcare from my workplace, and have had no issues with coverage.
