Hi everyone, my grs is in 10 days and I’m so anxious and happy at the same time. Do you have any tips/suggestions for me? Everything can help even during recovery? I had consultation with anesthesiologist and she told me they’ll put on my back epidural catheter for manage pain after surgery, I thought they would gave me morphine. Sorry for my English!
The epidural is something u can opt out of, but I'd definitely recommend. It sucks bad going in but will make the hospital stay easier.
Oh, thank you so much for your reply!
You're very welcome. There are no bonus points awarded for being "tough," so the aim is to make sure the experience is as easy as it can be. There's plenty of time to be tough later.
That's great advice!
GRS in 6 months. :)
😁😁😁 I Had to be my own caretaker so I'm all for the idea of making it easier where possible.
Also hell yeah! So excited for you!
I have mine in 19 days. I know how you feel
Thank you :)
Honestly, the only pain meds I took were Tylenol and Aleve. They did give me a narcotic if I wanted it but it actually wasn't so bad for me. Epidural seems a little bit intense to be honest
Really? Only Tylenol and Aleve? I thought was a painful surgery, I knew they gave morphine.
Pain varies greatly among different people. Some need morphine and the like, others have essentially no pain. If you need strong painkillers and don’t get them it can be bad.
Painkillers also don’t work for everyone and some people need to experiment with different drugs. Hopefully the doctor will allow that if necessary, but it doesn’t always happen.
Usually the hospital is not where problems arise. Strong drugs like morphine are available in hospitals, if the surgeon wants to, but it’s very difficult to get drugs like this once you’re out.
Yes, also the doctor told me that I can have epidural only for 3/4 days then they’ll give me general painkiller or oppiods based on how many pain I’ll have. I’ll stay 1-2 weeks in an hotel near the clinic after surgery so I think I would be able to manage the pain with doctor (I hope honestly).
It’s good if the doctor is willing to prescribe these drugs, but don’t take them unless you need them. Apart from being addictive they also cause constipation, which you definitely don’t want after surgery.
You probably won’t have bad pain longer term, but all surgery has risks and this is one of them.
I didn’t know about constipation related to these drugs, good to know.
I had the option for a narcotic but I was trying to avoid it. I was fine without it
Seems obvious probably, but the more you can rest and not strain the area, the better. I'd say 3 weeks is the critical time period for the best outcome.
I’ve to work from my bed, unfortunately I can’t take 3 weeks off. So I’ll stay in bed all day working from my laptop, I hope it will be ok.
Yes you should be fine. I took 2.5 weeks off from work and worked another 3 weeks from bed before I started to be able to sit in a chair again.
I would not turn down an epidural. Just laying in bed for weeks is very uncomfortable so an epidural for the first few days will help you lay still in bed.
The best advice I will impart is, do everything your surgeon says draw on them and their team. They are had a lot more experience with what you will going through. Good Luck 🤞
I’m 3 months post op. For me,the pain was manageable and all I was given post op was tramadol. Once you get your bandages removed and the packing is out, you will be very swollen. That was super uncomfortable. Do your best to massage the FUPA area pushing downwards. I waited until my sutures were almost healed before I started doing that. The amount of blood clots that came out was crazy. I waited too long and I’m still a little swollen.
My biggest piece of advice would be to be prepared to be leaking at basically any moment. You are going to be a lot more gross than you think you will be. Not everyone’s experience will be the same but for me the gauze packed around my clitoris led to a lot of blood/urine mix dripping without really feeling it. Get lots of baby wipes, extra absorbent pads, and daily after care supplies like cleaning wipes, drop pads, unscented low ingredient dish soap to clean your dilators. Read through your surgeons information packages and make sure you are prepared for your return home. If you can switch to a soft foods diet a few days before and ask for soft foods immediately following surgery if you can. The first bowel movement is hard and as someone that struggled with constipation and needed an enema do whatever you can to make it easier on yourself. Don’t be afraid to take your pain meds and ask for more if you need them, it’s much harder to deal with if you let it get too bad.
I had an epidural to inject morphine as well for the first couple of days, and then only paracetamol or tramadol when the pain was too intense. Take as many painkillers as you need (within the limit specified on the prescription), you want to be able to get some sleep. Take it easy and try to relax, I remember the first week being a bit of a difficult time, and then it only gets better from there.
Thank you so much, I’m so afraid about the pain
I feel you, I was very scared about the pain too, but it turned out to be way better than I expected. I'd rate it between 4 or 5 out 10, and it went away with the painkillers. After a week no pain except random shooting pain due to nerves reconnecting. But it's only my experience, I wish you to have the same if not better !
I had my GRS on Tuesday. I had a lot of fear about the epidural. The pre-op pain management team kept me distracted and still during insertion. They were great, it was a pain free experience. Post-op, I didn't notice it until it was removed. Post removal, my pain elevated slightly. We got it down with Tylenol.
My biggest Post-op issue was dealing with the pressure from the surgical tape and packing. My skin had some tears when the tap was removed.
I had received the epidural. I HIGHLY recommend it.
The morphine (or some other similar heavy duty painkiller) are usually for the days immediately following surgery.
Here is a great guide to GRS (SRS) with Dr. Chettawut. A lot of the details of your surgery and recovery will differ, but it also serves as a great general guide with tons of helpful tips:
This guide is so useful even if technique will be different, so thank u so much
The painkillers they give were perfectly fine part from 2 days post op I needed a top up that’s all. I actually thought they’d be more pain and I ‘m over 58 years old ! My surgery was called SRS sex reassignment surgery with vaginoplasty as my gender has been same all the time , just physical genital parts reassigning my breasts grew well with Estrogen and progesterone
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