: Recovery at the convalescence center :
This is the fourth in a series of posts recounting my trip to Montreal and gender reassignment surgery with Dr. Pierre Brassard, which took place on January 8, 2007:
On Thursday, January 11, Gene and I packed our bags and trundled off in a black Lincoln Town Car to a private convalescence center a few miles away from the hospital. The exertion of this activity was extremely exhausting, and took almost a day just to recover from. Earlier in the day Dr. Brassard came in and cut some of the stitches that held gauze over the upper part of the vulva and took that gauze out. There is still a small amount of gauze over the clitoris and the packing inside the vagina remains that will come out on Sunday. The packing consists of a condom about five inches long filled with gauze, and having it inside me makes walking and moving even more uncomfortable.
The following day I had my first look at my new genitalia using a mirror. I was actually quite impressed with how real they look, at least in basic structure. It's such a thrill to see that and know that it's mine. There are two nasty scars running up onto my pubic mound, but they should fade and the scars will be covered by pubic hair once it grows back in. I apply ointment on those twice a day after bathing. The clitoris is still stitched up with gauze, so I can't spread the labia to see it, but overall, I'm satisfied with the initial results. I didn't have very high expectations to begin with, but it's really the functional aspect that concerns me the most. That will take a while to figure out, so no use in worrying about it now.
Upon leaving the hospital, I could no longer have a urine bag next to my bed, so I had to start going to the bathroom myself. I still had a short (appropriately-colored) yellow catheter tube sticking out of me, and the end was plugged with a white plastic cap. In order to pee, I had to stand over the toilet, unplug the catheter (being careful not to let the plug touch anything to minimize the risk of bladder infection) and let the urine flow out of the tube into the toilet. Ironically it was the first time in more than a year that I stood up to pee.
Kaylyn is still at the hospital today, along with her surgery partner Linda, who is a redheaded T-girl from Montreal. Both had their surgeries a day after me and Gene, so they will arrive tonight. The best thing about being out of the hospital is that we each get private rooms with remote control adjustable beds - at the hospital we had to call the nurses to adjust our beds for us. Also, the TVs here have cable, which means English-speaking channels. However, the ESPN channel is called TSN (Toronto Sports Network) and focuses almost exclusively on hockey. But we do have the major networks and CNN, which is a big upgrade from the rabbit-ears equipped TV at the hospital, not that I felt like watching much TV the first few days after surgery. We also have a lot more space for our own stuff, and private bathrooms with sinks and toilets to boot (although the shower is still shared).
Today I had my first sitz bath, which is basically a small basin placed in the toilet and filled with soapy water where I can wash between my legs. The hardest thing was sitting on my graft pad, which I tried to avoid by shifting my weight to one side and holding myself up using the handicapped bars and a stool next to the toilet. The exertion meant I couldn't soak more than about four minutes before I would become exhausted.
After each shower or sitz bath, I still had to lay down with a hair dryer to dry the skin graft pad, which started peeling off after a couple days. Eventually it got to the point where the nurse would come in after my shower and trim the edges of the gauze off one small piece at a time. This was not the most pleasant ordeal - aside from having a stranger's head down between my legs, after a while it became necessary to actually pull layers of the gauze off the wound. If you're old enough to remember when bandages used to stick to wounds before Curad pioneered the non-stick bandage, you might remember how excruciatingly painful this is, especially when you're dealing with a bandage pad the size of a slice of bread.
Being cut off from the outside world was hard, as there was no wireless Internet access available. I missed checking my emails, and reading about what's going on with my friends. The lack of access compounded a problem that sprung up when I found out that I was supposed to leave on January 18, not the 22nd (which I had made my plane reservations for). Since I made my reservations on Orbitz.com, I had to have my family get me the phone number so I could make the change over the phone.
On Sunday the nurse removed the last piece of gauze from the clitoris and cut the stitches holding my vaginal packing inside and removed that. As most people report, this was not painful at all - it was actually a bit of a relief. I had been issued a pink bag containing a set of five Femistent dilators. The first attempt at dilation wasn't very successful - I simply could not insert the smallest stent into my vagina. The nurse gave me some muscle relaxants to take, and after about 30 minutes we tried again, and this time it worked. I also had to start douching twice a day with a vinegar and water mixture. With all these routines, I actually became quite active during the last week of my stay. A typical day went like this:
8 a.m. Breakfast
8:30 Shower and douche
9 Dry graft pad
9:30 1st dilation
11:30 2nd dilation
12 Lunch
1 p.m Nap
3:30 3rd dilation
6 Dinner
6:30 4th dilation
9 5th dilation
9:30 Sitz bath and douche
10 Dry graft pad
11 Bedtime
In between I read a lot, and watched a lot of movies and episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer on my laptop. In fact, I watched the entire Season 6 (22 episodes) of Buffy while in the convalescence center. Once Dr. Brassard walked in in the middle of one and asked what it was. When I told him the title, he thought it sounded like a horror show, but when I explained that the heroine was a young woman, he looked positively confused. I guess the show didn't have much traction in French-speaking Canada.
Coming up - the journey home and my first orgasm
On Thursday, January 11, Gene and I packed our bags and trundled off in a black Lincoln Town Car to a private convalescence center a few miles away from the hospital. The exertion of this activity was extremely exhausting, and took almost a day just to recover from. Earlier in the day Dr. Brassard came in and cut some of the stitches that held gauze over the upper part of the vulva and took that gauze out. There is still a small amount of gauze over the clitoris and the packing inside the vagina remains that will come out on Sunday. The packing consists of a condom about five inches long filled with gauze, and having it inside me makes walking and moving even more uncomfortable.
The following day I had my first look at my new genitalia using a mirror. I was actually quite impressed with how real they look, at least in basic structure. It's such a thrill to see that and know that it's mine. There are two nasty scars running up onto my pubic mound, but they should fade and the scars will be covered by pubic hair once it grows back in. I apply ointment on those twice a day after bathing. The clitoris is still stitched up with gauze, so I can't spread the labia to see it, but overall, I'm satisfied with the initial results. I didn't have very high expectations to begin with, but it's really the functional aspect that concerns me the most. That will take a while to figure out, so no use in worrying about it now.
Upon leaving the hospital, I could no longer have a urine bag next to my bed, so I had to start going to the bathroom myself. I still had a short (appropriately-colored) yellow catheter tube sticking out of me, and the end was plugged with a white plastic cap. In order to pee, I had to stand over the toilet, unplug the catheter (being careful not to let the plug touch anything to minimize the risk of bladder infection) and let the urine flow out of the tube into the toilet. Ironically it was the first time in more than a year that I stood up to pee.
Kaylyn is still at the hospital today, along with her surgery partner Linda, who is a redheaded T-girl from Montreal. Both had their surgeries a day after me and Gene, so they will arrive tonight. The best thing about being out of the hospital is that we each get private rooms with remote control adjustable beds - at the hospital we had to call the nurses to adjust our beds for us. Also, the TVs here have cable, which means English-speaking channels. However, the ESPN channel is called TSN (Toronto Sports Network) and focuses almost exclusively on hockey. But we do have the major networks and CNN, which is a big upgrade from the rabbit-ears equipped TV at the hospital, not that I felt like watching much TV the first few days after surgery. We also have a lot more space for our own stuff, and private bathrooms with sinks and toilets to boot (although the shower is still shared).
Today I had my first sitz bath, which is basically a small basin placed in the toilet and filled with soapy water where I can wash between my legs. The hardest thing was sitting on my graft pad, which I tried to avoid by shifting my weight to one side and holding myself up using the handicapped bars and a stool next to the toilet. The exertion meant I couldn't soak more than about four minutes before I would become exhausted.
After each shower or sitz bath, I still had to lay down with a hair dryer to dry the skin graft pad, which started peeling off after a couple days. Eventually it got to the point where the nurse would come in after my shower and trim the edges of the gauze off one small piece at a time. This was not the most pleasant ordeal - aside from having a stranger's head down between my legs, after a while it became necessary to actually pull layers of the gauze off the wound. If you're old enough to remember when bandages used to stick to wounds before Curad pioneered the non-stick bandage, you might remember how excruciatingly painful this is, especially when you're dealing with a bandage pad the size of a slice of bread.
Being cut off from the outside world was hard, as there was no wireless Internet access available. I missed checking my emails, and reading about what's going on with my friends. The lack of access compounded a problem that sprung up when I found out that I was supposed to leave on January 18, not the 22nd (which I had made my plane reservations for). Since I made my reservations on Orbitz.com, I had to have my family get me the phone number so I could make the change over the phone.
On Sunday the nurse removed the last piece of gauze from the clitoris and cut the stitches holding my vaginal packing inside and removed that. As most people report, this was not painful at all - it was actually a bit of a relief. I had been issued a pink bag containing a set of five Femistent dilators. The first attempt at dilation wasn't very successful - I simply could not insert the smallest stent into my vagina. The nurse gave me some muscle relaxants to take, and after about 30 minutes we tried again, and this time it worked. I also had to start douching twice a day with a vinegar and water mixture. With all these routines, I actually became quite active during the last week of my stay. A typical day went like this:
8 a.m. Breakfast
8:30 Shower and douche
9 Dry graft pad
9:30 1st dilation
11:30 2nd dilation
12 Lunch
1 p.m Nap
3:30 3rd dilation
6 Dinner
6:30 4th dilation
9 5th dilation
9:30 Sitz bath and douche
10 Dry graft pad
11 Bedtime
In between I read a lot, and watched a lot of movies and episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer on my laptop. In fact, I watched the entire Season 6 (22 episodes) of Buffy while in the convalescence center. Once Dr. Brassard walked in in the middle of one and asked what it was. When I told him the title, he thought it sounded like a horror show, but when I explained that the heroine was a young woman, he looked positively confused. I guess the show didn't have much traction in French-speaking Canada.
Coming up - the journey home and my first orgasm
