I figured I'd probably feel a phantom, like what amputees perceive, but most of the time I don't. I thought maybe I'd feel like I've lost something. Well I did, I lost something I strongly disliked. I thought maybe I'd feel like OMG there's nothing down there - but there are plenty of folds & stuff there. I thought it might be so arousing to have this, and I guess it was a little at first but not anymore. It's just me now, without that piece of superfluous tissue flopping around like a nuisance. Same as if a giant skin tag had been removed.

It feels so normal.

Quote from: Dàwkbua on March 14, 2010, 08:24:18 AM
It feels so normal.

Isn't it great! Just a few days after surgery I couldn't have told you with any certainty what it felt like to have dangly bits, and decades on that memory has completely faded.

Although I was surprised when I woke up after my revision surgery to find that again things felt different but very natural... and once again I can't really recall clearly what it was like before.

The second time around I think it was like some of the tightness and folded-in-ness of everything (the kind of sensate noise) disappeared leaving the erotic sensations when I was aroused much clearer.

mine feels very normal and natural. I've had a few friends ask me if I felt like I had a phantom penis, but I never have. Things just feel right. I can't even remember what it was like to have told old bits anymore. I can't even remember what it looked like. o_0

Congrats on your procedure.   

And I totally concur from my experience... it's really hard to imagine what was there before, like Jenny said, even days after surgery.   

*huggs* and happy healing!

Melan

When I woke up from surgery it was like things had always been that way.  I knew it was a mess down there but it was more like removing a cancerous tumor and the feeling was total relief.

Welcome to the club!

All this talk about normalcy down there...I can't wait any longer!!! Just 16 more days and I'll finally be able to make my own topic in the "Post operative life" forum. I'm so glad to hear how normal things feel. I can't wait until after the procedure and I don't have anything left to go regarding surgeries and stuff.

~Sarah

Quote from: SarahR on March 14, 2010, 08:08:25 PM
All this talk about normalcy down there...I can't wait any longer!!! Just 16 more days and I'll finally be able to make my own topic in the "Post operative life" forum. I'm so glad to hear how normal things feel. I can't wait until after the procedure and I don't have anything left to go regarding surgeries and stuff.

~Sarah

Santa will be coming down the chimney real soon, Sarah. Isn't it difficult to wait? After this, it will be like...how soon until its healed?...then, when will I be sensate and have my first big 'O'...then finally, when will I have my first 'experience' with someone else? After that, you will just settle in happily with your new parts as if they had always been there. Congrats, and try and be patient!

Quote from: juliekins on March 14, 2010, 08:14:10 PM
Santa will be coming down the chimney real soon, Sarah. Isn't it difficult to wait? After this, it will be like...how soon until its healed?...then, when will I be sensate and have my first big 'O'...then finally, when will I have my first 'experience' with someone else? After that, you will just settle in happily with your new parts as if they had always been there. Congrats, and try and be patient!

Yes, very difficult! Especially when you're this close. But yes, I do need to be patient

~Sarah

Quote from: juliekins on March 14, 2010, 08:14:10 PM
Isn't it difficult to wait? After this, it will be like...how soon until its healed?...then, when will I be sensate and have my first big 'O'...then finally, when will I have my first 'experience' with someone else? After that, you will just settle in happily with your new parts as if they had always been there. Congrats, and try and be patient!

I so can't wait until these things come true... I can understand Sarah's impatience totally... this 8 week post op part is really hard!  So close, but still so far... and it's hard work!  ....Baby steps!   The actual operation is only the first stage of a long process of healing.. at least it seems really lonnnnggggg now!! lol.....

*huggs* all,
Melan

That's actually an important thing that most people probably don't really comprehend before going through with the surgery. I myself haven't really given too much thought about the long healing process. Yes, I know it'll be long and I know basically what it entails, but you kind of think past it when you aren't currently going through it. Most of my thoughts are of just coming up to that final day of having the thing down there, and then everything else is clumped into a blob of "after the surgery." However, there's probably the same amount, if not more anticipation, waiting, milestones, and everything else that goes into the entire aspect of post-op life. My thoughts after the big day are of finally being comfortable at the beach without worrying about a bulge, being able to change in changing rooms without hiding things down there, etc. But all those experiences will still be tarnished in the short to medium term after the surgery as well.

I still won't be able to go into the water for a few months. I will have to make sure that whatever I do, that I make time to always do the scheduled dilation. I have to pay attention more closely to my health and maintenance of the nether regions closer than I have in my life. This constant attention to those parts post-op I hear last at a minimum of a year, which means that even after the big day, there's still a lot more that you go through to be finally "complete," in whatever sense you want to make that.

However, for now, I'm still patiently impatient about the next 16 days

~Sarah

Thank you for posting this, because as my time gets closer (14 weeks now) I have been wondering about this exact "phantom" issue myself. I've scheduled 8 weeks to stay near the surgeon in Philadelphia before returning to Australia for the purposes of healing, but like Sarah said it's all kind of lumped together in the "after surgery" category for now. Reading all of your experiences here is very encouraging

Mine is somewhere in the very distant future.  But even after my Orchie, it seemed more normal.  And if sitting in the correct position, It even appears more normal.

There has been no Phantom issues after the Orchie.  Just a semi-normal feeling.

SarahR, I know how you feel & I have been watching your countdown ticker with excitement for you. These 16 days are going to fly by so fast! You're gonna be so happy.

Thanks to the other post-ops here for the welcome; it is wonderful to be, as another post-op friend of mine said, on this side of the mirror.

For sure the need for constant attention to that *area* is a hassle, and even after only 11 days I am finding it getting to be an annoyance. In my case though I had urethral swelling so I'm presently dealing with a tube sticking out, which makes day to day life more challenging. Everyone's different. In a few weeks I'll have to reconcile all this with going back to full time work!

Thank you FairyGirl it's good to hear that my posts are helpful.

I have a question regarding feeling post op.

My wang hurts. It always has. It got chafed pretty badly when I was a stupid teenager, and the last year or so was doing just fine... as I find myself tucking most of the time these days, I find it to be sore and sometimes painful again. Did you all experience that too? I assume it went away after the operation, and the tissue got to heal and sort of reconstitute itself as it does?

Those memories, yes it did feel normal down there after coming out of surgery. "lt was like things had always been that way" as Julie Marie said, it was, as if it had never been there.

I never had any phantom feelings in regards to what was down there after my surgery  However, a couple of months or years I do not remember, but I had a couple of dreams about it being back in a sense and I was struggling to work it out, it was unsettling to say the least until one night,  it was really vivid and I then woke up and realised it was a dream (something like that) and ever since then nothing. Yes!  No, I cannot remember what it was like to have it and even to think about it sends shivers down my spine and sickly feeling washing over me.

SarahR and FariyGirl

You have the chance to really remember this occasion more so, from reading and listening to others that have gone before and in this sense you can say to yourself I am going to remember this and this and this.  I still remember as if it was yesterday, those special moments that I do remember while I was in hospital.

Dàwkbua

Its good to hear to hear from you and I hope your current problem sorts itself out.  Work the bane of our existence!!

Take care everyone and all the best for the future.

Kind regards
Sarah B

Sarah B. beat me to it.

Forget phantom feelings. Its simply not going to happen.

Actually I do know of just one person who had it but they turned out to regret what they had done - so I'm wondering if it is in fact a kind of sign that they weren't right for the whole thing anyway.

First big "O" - that originally took all of about a fortnight after I left hospital before it happened, admittedly I heal pretty fast and I was lucky enough to have no complications. You mustn't get involved with anyone else for two or three months postop - but cautious self exploration - eventually becomes inevitable if you get my drift...  (choosing my words carefully so as to keep this PG13 cos I don't want to get in trouble) well I'm sure you get what I'm saying.

My surgeon is a little vague on when I can begin to fully explore myself. He says no thinking about sex for two months. Yeah right! Actually he told me how long to wait before spreading that particular place but I've forgotten what he said. (Darned ADD.)

In other news, I've not been feeling anywheres near the level of pain and agony that I expected to, however now at 2 weeks post-op the sensation is beginning to return in places that have been numb since the surgery. I'm quite swollen so this means I'm able to feel more of the discomfort than I was a few days ago.

When there was no more discharge, that was the time for me to begin what I was missing out on!  If one is dilating then one is able to have sex, but with care, is what I would say or better still trust your instincts on when you think it is the right time to have fun.  Oh boy that first one was memorable.

Kind regards
Sarah B

Sometimes I feel like I have phantom ovaries... anyone else?

Quote from: Sarah B on March 18, 2010, 01:37:41 PMOh boy that first one was memorable.

YA THINK! LOL!

A sweet-talking Irishman, a man of the world, and a naive country girl ...... I didn't have a @$#% clue what my body was doing and I was scared xxxless LOL! Second time was better 

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Post Merge: March 18, 2010, 04:36:47 PM

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Quote from: Ketsy on March 18, 2010, 01:46:39 PM
Sometimes I feel like I have phantom ovaries... anyone else?

I had "phantom periods" but I never told a soul - they already thought I was delusional because I kept saying I was a girl!