Wow. I'm staring at a blank text field. It's kinda of intimidating. I don't really know how to begin. I guess I'll throw some info out there in case others find it useful. I haven't heard of my surgeon spoken about much on here. I think one topic comes up when I search for his name. He is Dr. Marc S Arnkoff. His website is
www.myorchie.com He performs orchiectomies and, apparently, penis removal as well. I opted for an orchie. He does not require a letter - in his paraphrased words, being a gatekeeper is stupid. People own their bodies and if they want to modify them in some way, it is up to them. He operates on informed consent. I had to sign a letter taking responsibility for the effects of the surgery and indicating that Dr. Arnkoff went over them with me(which he did). He is in a subburb of Detroit, MI named Southfield. Me and my bff stayed over night at the Courtyard in Livonia. It's a lovely hotel, excellent customer service, and it only ran me like $115 for two nights using priceline. I would recommend them. They were accomodating when I asked for a groundfloor room(for obvious reasons
).
We stayed over night on Friday, and surgery was scheduled for 8:00AM on Saturday morning. Dr. Arnkoff was the only medical staff present. Normally his daughter-in-law acts as his MA, but she was out since she just had a baby on Thurs. He was still very capable on his own. We completed the paperwork prior to the surgery. He completed a generic new patient questionnaire with me, covering allergies, past surgical history, and med list. He handed me the notarized affidavit that is proof that he performed "gender reassignment surgery" as defined by Michigan state law. This is the same affidavit that the state records keeping department requests for change of info on birth certificate - he was extremely accommodating as far as this goes. There was no extra fee for getting it notarized. And it was ready PRIOR to my surgery! Yippee!
He explained the consequences of the surgery and suggested that I speak to my endo about what I could expect with having extremely decreased testosterone production for the rest of my life. I then gave him the money order for $2k(that's going up to 2.3k in April), after making it out to him, personally. He accepts only cash or money order.
His bedside manner was good. He explained what he was doing during the entire procedure. Warned me about pokes. Chatted with me. Mostly it was me nervously chit chatting and him answering my many questions.
I'm a very inquisitive individual, because I can take this information and share it with others. I asked him a couple times if it was okay that I chat at him, and he was just fine with it.
He has been performing orchies for transgirls since the seventies. He's very familiar with the process and the community. He puts off an air of calm confidence, and I really felt like he was good natured. Like not only was he doing this for the 2K, but he was doing it because it gave him a sense of fulfillment to help these people when other surgeons will not, due to religious, legal, or other personal reasons. I could tell he was kind-hearted.
The procedure last about an hour to an hour and a half. I was in his office for about two hours total. He let me see my testicles after he removed them. It was funny - once he stated the he had removed the left one, after previously telling me that the right one was gone, I cried tears of joy.
Not sobs, the tears welled up in my eyes. Thank god that I did not do eye makeup that morning!
I asked if he ran into that a lot, and he said no, never.
He allowed my friend back into the room to view my testicles as well. She actually poked one! Yuck!
It jiggled like a cube of Jell-O would.
Also, I had the strangest reaction during surgery - my feet went numb and were paralyzed to a certain extent. They were tingly first, then numb, then I couldn't tilt them toward my upper body. I'd never had that sensation before and it was the strangest feeling! I was confident that it would eventually pass, and it did. I explained it all to Dr. Arnkoff, and he wasn't worried at all. He explained it as a certain type of nervous reaction. It went away by the time that I was stitched up and ready to trying sitting/standing.
He went over post-surgical care. He wrote out a script for an antibiotic and a script for Vicadin. Walgreens is conveniently located RIGHT next door to the building that his office is in. They were sort of "enh" on the customer service level, but they got the job done. We dropped off the scripts and went out to breakfast at some bagel place, since I had not eaten since midnight the night before(doctor's orders). We came back, grabbed some necessaries - like maxipads, gauze pads, OTC Tylenol, chocolate.
I had brought neosporin with me, otherwise I would have picked some up to coat the cut and sutures with.
Dr. Arnkoff left me with two drain tubes sutured into my scrotum(hence the need for the maxipads). I am to remove them today, as it has been two days. I was able to shower normally on Saturday, and since then. I'm careful to wash with a mild antibacterial soap, and put a thin layer of the neosporin on. The drain tubes are to help prevent blood from accumulating in the scrotum(I think he called it hemotosis), which would add to the recovery time. I previously had a vasectomy, in 2004, and this did not complicate the procedure, and I'm healing up and feeling less pain from this than that. It might be the change in my body chemistry due to hormone therapy or it could be the drain or it could be that I'm taking it more easy and icing on and off. My vas recovery was awful - swelling, bruizing, sharp pain. This is not nearly as bad.
I can't think of anything else to say. Feel free to message me or reply back to me with any questions. My experience was uber positive and I would highly recommend Dr. Arnkoff to anyone on this board who is interested in an orchiectomy!
