: Waking up female :
This is the third 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:
When I awoke back in my hospital room, I couldn't move my legs or wiggle my toes, even though I was fully conscious and remarkably coherent, compared to how I was after general anesthesia last December. I felt like Uma Thurman's character "The Bride" in Kill Bill Vol. 1 when she wakes up from a coma and she's trying to get her big toe to move. Other than my lack of motor control, I remember it being painful between my legs despite the ice packs, but not as bad as I'd expected. The most painful part was when I had to move around so they could change my blood-soaked dressings and spent ice packs.
On Wednesday, the second day after surgery, I took my first step out of bed, just one step before settling into my chair with the inflatable donut on it. That part was pretty excruciating, but I managed it. The problem is that the donut doesn't do much good because both my genital area and my skin graft site on my right inner thigh both hurt - in fact, the skin graft area hurts more - so the donut transfers my weight from my genital area to my thighs.
When a skin graft is required, the surgeon removes the top layer of skin, the epidermis, leaving the raw skin underneath exposed, much like a severe burn. For me, this area is about the size of a piece of sliced white bread. A piece of gauze was placed on the area, and the blood and other fluids soaked through the pad and dried, bonding the pad with my skin like forming a scab. However, when I move I can feel the raw flesh rubbing against the pad as it flexes, and it stings and burns quite a lot as you'd expect from such a wound. The genital areas are sore, but the pain is more of a dull throbbing pain compared to the sharp burning pain of the skin graft. I was very glad to have a catheter for my urine so I didn't have to get out of bed to use the bathroom - it makes me feel a bit like Homer Simpson.
While Demerol was available for the pain, taking it made me nauseous, so I resolved to wean myself off that as soon as possible. The pain was quite manageable except for the few times I had to get up and walk or take a shower, and on those times, I would just take Tylenol just to take the edge off. When I wasn't dealing with getting out of bed, I spent most of my time with my curtains drawn and listening to my iPod, trying to relax.
Aside from the pain it caused, showers were problematic for another reason. The skin graft pad on my thigh had to be kept dry, and Dr. Brassard said it would slowly come off by itself. Unfortunately, it was impossible to take a shower without soaking the pad, so after bathing I had to lie in bed and use a hair dryer to dry out the pad. The constant wetting and drying also caused the padding to harden and stiffen, which increased the pain of movement. Fortunately, in the hospital I didn't have to move very much.
The food at the hospital was probably better than you'd expect for hospital food. For lunch I had sausage and vegetables with potatoes au gratin, along with some chicken broth and ice cream. This evening dinner was vegetable lasagna, vegetable juice and ice cream again. Since this is the first I've ever been confined to a hospital overnight in my entire life, I don't have much basis for comparison.
Coming up - Moving on to the convalescence center
When I awoke back in my hospital room, I couldn't move my legs or wiggle my toes, even though I was fully conscious and remarkably coherent, compared to how I was after general anesthesia last December. I felt like Uma Thurman's character "The Bride" in Kill Bill Vol. 1 when she wakes up from a coma and she's trying to get her big toe to move. Other than my lack of motor control, I remember it being painful between my legs despite the ice packs, but not as bad as I'd expected. The most painful part was when I had to move around so they could change my blood-soaked dressings and spent ice packs.
On Wednesday, the second day after surgery, I took my first step out of bed, just one step before settling into my chair with the inflatable donut on it. That part was pretty excruciating, but I managed it. The problem is that the donut doesn't do much good because both my genital area and my skin graft site on my right inner thigh both hurt - in fact, the skin graft area hurts more - so the donut transfers my weight from my genital area to my thighs.
When a skin graft is required, the surgeon removes the top layer of skin, the epidermis, leaving the raw skin underneath exposed, much like a severe burn. For me, this area is about the size of a piece of sliced white bread. A piece of gauze was placed on the area, and the blood and other fluids soaked through the pad and dried, bonding the pad with my skin like forming a scab. However, when I move I can feel the raw flesh rubbing against the pad as it flexes, and it stings and burns quite a lot as you'd expect from such a wound. The genital areas are sore, but the pain is more of a dull throbbing pain compared to the sharp burning pain of the skin graft. I was very glad to have a catheter for my urine so I didn't have to get out of bed to use the bathroom - it makes me feel a bit like Homer Simpson.
While Demerol was available for the pain, taking it made me nauseous, so I resolved to wean myself off that as soon as possible. The pain was quite manageable except for the few times I had to get up and walk or take a shower, and on those times, I would just take Tylenol just to take the edge off. When I wasn't dealing with getting out of bed, I spent most of my time with my curtains drawn and listening to my iPod, trying to relax.
Aside from the pain it caused, showers were problematic for another reason. The skin graft pad on my thigh had to be kept dry, and Dr. Brassard said it would slowly come off by itself. Unfortunately, it was impossible to take a shower without soaking the pad, so after bathing I had to lie in bed and use a hair dryer to dry out the pad. The constant wetting and drying also caused the padding to harden and stiffen, which increased the pain of movement. Fortunately, in the hospital I didn't have to move very much.
The food at the hospital was probably better than you'd expect for hospital food. For lunch I had sausage and vegetables with potatoes au gratin, along with some chicken broth and ice cream. This evening dinner was vegetable lasagna, vegetable juice and ice cream again. Since this is the first I've ever been confined to a hospital overnight in my entire life, I don't have much basis for comparison.
Coming up - Moving on to the convalescence center
