I ended up going with Travieso at USC. I just like his bedside manners, training he did specifically to be a transgender plastic surgeon, and I just felt safer with him (really don’t know why I thought that).

Surgery went well, had a little hiccup and a planned 8 hour surgery turned into 12 hours for me. Travieso told me that when the robotic surgeon was suturing the peritoneal flap to the canal it was under so much tension and parts of the peritoneum flap were ripping. So the peritoneal flap method got aborted, and he made the decision to just do a penile inversion method. It worked out since I had a lot of “skin graft” left over that he used for the inner part of the canal. I asked for an epidural because I didn’t want to use too much narcotics and they were accommodating to that request.

Recovery was tough (just my own experience). Because of the extended surgery time, I developed atelectasis and fevers post op in recovery. But recovered well with the antibiotics I was on and doing the incentive spirometer (very important to do post op). Surgery was done at Verdugo Hills Hospital in Glendale, CA. Small kind of basic hospital, but the staff was amazing. Food not the best lol. Travieso trained nurses on the 4th floor on how to care for vaginoplasty patients and they all have been great. So they try and put transgender patients on the 4th floor.

Pain was manageable because I still had the epidural that made my lower half pretty numb. I had a pain pump that I could push for pain meds to be given into the epidural if I needed. The most discomfort I had was just the referred shoulder pain from the gas during surgery, bloating, and the constipation. They purposefully don’t want you pooping for the first few days after surgery to keep the area clean because it’s so close to the anus. So my appetite dropped immensely and the dietitian had to pay me a visit and add protein shakes into my meal trays because I just was barely eating anything in the hospital. But after that first poop I had OMG it was heaven. So good that I passed out while the physical therapist was standing behind the curtain and had to call a rapid response on me. Packing comes out on day 4 and you dilate with Travieso. This is when you can start getting out of bed and walking with assistance.

Now I’m 6 days post op, at home resting, and only complaint is I’m just so fatigued. Standing in the bathroom to change my pad and some bandages made my legs tire out. I’m dilating with the small purple dilator not and I’m able to get to the last dot easily.