Thanks for the support, all. I'm going to type until I get too tired to continue. The pain meds are making me groggy but they're helping to make this tolerable.
I slept about 3 hours at our rental on Sunday night, getting up at 4:30 AM and walking about a mile to the hospital. The procedure was scheduled to take 5 hours but ended up taking 8. I have't yet learned why. Unfortunately, time under general anesthesia isn't restorative; it's not like sleep. They pushed anti-nausea meds and applied a patch to my neck when we were finished, so the 1:45 trip home wasn't as agonizing as last time. It was nice to be back to my own bed, but I only got a few hours of sleep at best, probably les.
I had to work today. Hard to believe but I did. Luckily, I work at home, but I was fortunate/unfortunate to have received several orders for items I build here, rather than ones that are built/packed by others. So I was up and down the basement stairs a bunch, running the engraving machines, sealing up boxes with packing tape. Oh well- no work, no money. I dozed a little this evening and I am due to take my meds in about 90 minutes, so I hope to get a bit more sleep. I need it because I have to drive into the city tomorrow afternoon. Fortunately, I tend to recover from these things at lightning speed.
I have a dressing wrapped around my neck, up the sides of my cheeks, around the back and tied in a knot on the top of my head. I look like a Teletubbie.
I have a "cast" on my nose, which is a metal bit that's taped in place to support and protect my nose.
They were able to use outside donor cartilage to rebuild my septum which means they didn't harvest it from my rib cage. One less area in which I'm feeling pain.
I have a considerable amount of burning pain in my belly and a band-aid near my belly button. They used a liposuction probe to extract fat from that are with which to fill out my face. I can't imagine getting full-body lipo - it must be agonizing.
My neck is pretty sore. It seems they did a surprising amount of work there. There's some sort of incision(s) beneath my jawbone, which is how they tightened the skin in my neck. It seems they also tacked a hemostatic mesh onto my neck. This is a sort of a spiderweb that sutured to my skin in many places. Very uncomfortable.
Fortunately, I'm headed into the city tomorrow afternoon to have a the head dressing and neck mesh removed. I think all that will be left is the nose cast and internal silicone splints which will remain in place for another two weeks. Fortunately, my nose is not fully packed like it was by the previous surgeon. This means I can breathe a bit through my nose. Funny, but I can breathe almost as well through these tubes as a could previously, a good sign.
There are tiny sutures in place in the creases on the lower left and right of my nose. These are part of the lip lift. My upper lip is very swollen, due in part to the fat injections.
I had a thought today: I've had FIVE SURGERY SESSIONS, since I started my transition journey:
Hair replacement
Rhinoplasty/septoplasty
Rhinoplasty/septoplasty revision
FFS Phase I
FFS Phase II
Hopefully, this is the last one. I'm worried that the results will be underwhelming, but I'm not going back for more. I just hope my nose is straight and cute and I'm able to breathe well. This surgery stuff is serious business.
