TL:DR

Doctor Theerapong and Interplast Clinic staff are great, I’m satisfied, although the pain was unbearable and I wanted to die.

Hello! Today I’d like to share my experience with doctor Theerapong. As I said earlier, I have undergone primary lap sigmoid colon vaginoplasty  a month ago. I booked everything directly through Interplast, didn’t bother with agencies like Amani. Please forgive any spelling mistakes as I’m not native English speaker and I still have brain fog after the surgery.

The technique

Doctor Theerapong performs various srs techniques, depending on patient’s wants and needs. I chose laparoscopic sigmoid colon. For that technique, he uses about 20 cm of the colon for the inside of the vagina and he combines it with scrotal skin flap (just few centimeters to conceal the redness of the colon mucosa). I paid 585 000 THB for the surgery and 100 000 THB for care package.

Before going to Thailand
I contacted them via Whatsapp, this is their preferred way. Lan, Interplast employee I was writing with (and later, my caretaker), was patient and answered all of my questions. Her English is good, we didn’t have problems with communication. Be prepared to sent photos of your genitals to them, because it’s required. You also have to pay small deposits for the surgery and care package (condo, food, medical stuff, wound dressing etc.) beforehand. The rest of the cost you can pay in Thailand, after consultation with the doctor. Also be prepared to stop your hormones A MONTH before the surgery. Doctor Thee also requires hair removal (for this technique at least). Interplast is fine with people coming here with you. I was here with 2 friends.

In Thailand, before the surgery

When we arrived on the airport, there was car waiting for us. Driver drove us to the condo, where Lan was waiting. She showed us everything, the condo is very nice and well equipped – we had everything we needed, including water, food, toothpaste, toothbrushes, soaps etc. There also is a gym and a pool in the building that me and my friends could access freely (although, after the surgery you can’t).

On the next day Lan took me to see 2 Thai psychiatrists for general check-up (included in care package) before the surgery. The  day after I had consultation with doctor Thee. His English is good, but he speaks kinda quiet and fast so sometimes I couldn’t understand him. During the consultation they checked my private parts again, and took some photos. The did HIV test, too. Doctor asked me, how do I want my vulva to look like, which never happened to me before. He actually gave me homework to see the results of his past surgeries and pick ones that I like the most. I felt very understood.

The day before the surgery I was transported to hospital (not Interplast but some hospital they work with) for checkup and prep before the surgery – I had to drink nasty laxatives and they gave me soap enema 2 times.

The day of the surgery

Nothing much happened for the whole day. Lan explained to me what most patients feel after being woke up after the surgery and comforted me. The surgery was delayed and started around 6.30 p.m. right before the surgery they confirmed my identity 2 times, also doctor asked again about what result I’d like, to be sure. I was then transported to OR, they asked a few questions and applied the anesthesia.

After the surgery

When they woke me up, I was very confused and didn’t really feel anything. Fell asleep after few seconds. But when I woke up after that, hell started. I was in unfathomable pain, mostly in the vaginal region, but also in the abdomen. It was torture. I didn’t know humans can experience something like this. No pain I’ve ever experienced was even remotely close to that. It was so overwhelming, I couldn’t speak properly, couldn’t move. I moaned, grunted, sometimes even screamed and wished I was dead.

In general, pain management was bad. I don’t remember much of first 2 days. What I do remember is terrible pain and when I asked for medicines, the nurses usually refused to give me any. At that time my friends stayed with me most of the time and communication with nurses was hard, because they didn’t really speak English. We had to call Lan and she called them to persuade them to give me the medicine but it worked just once. After that, my morphine dosage was somehow maxed. You see, instead of morphine drip, they gave me i.v shots every 6 hours. The shots usually worked for 1.5-2 hours and after that I was in hell again and when I complained, they just upped the dosage instead of switching to drip or changing frequency of the shots. In the meantime they added tramadol and pethidine to the mix. They were supposed to use them between morphine shots but didn’t do that most of the time. Pethidine was actually in a drip but they set the drip rate very high and whole bag was usually empty after 30 minutes. I tried to ask them to lower it, but they didn’t do it. So basically every six hours they gave me a concoction of 3 different opioids i.v. It was way too much, felt like overdose (terrible nausea, sweats, hot flashes, shallow breathing and loss of consciousness). And around 2 hours after every dose I kept waking up screaming. Truly horrifying experience.

On the third day the pain eased and I was finally able to communicate almost normally. I also was allowed to take oral medication by then. I asked doctor Thee to stop the morphine and give me oral tramadol every 4 hours. He agreed and after that I felt much, much better. The pain was still very bad, but started to be manageable and the spiral of opioid hell and literal agony almost stopped. I say almost, because the nurses didn’t really stick to the regimen. They didn’t give me the tramadol unless I was asking for it so usually when I managed to sleep, the pain woke me up after few hours and I had to ask for medicine and wait for it to work.
I started walking 2 days after the surgery and it was very hard. I had bad muscle and joint pains. My friends and Lan helped a lot though. Lan gives great massages and is very comforting.
I was very bloated after the surgery and it was very uncomfortable. They gave me some i.v. medication for that but it didn’t help and made my skin smell weird.  I recommend changing medication for oral one as soon as you’re allowed to. It helped a lot.
On the 5th day they removed the dressing from my wounds and I was able to see my vagina for  the first time. Also, they removed the catheter. I had to pee by myself 3 times before the discharge. I couldn’t so they applied new catheter for 5 more days and kept me in the hospital for 1 more day. I was discharged on day six. Transport to the condo wasn’t that bad.

I have to say few things about the nurses. They were terrible. They literally laughed at my pain and screaming, they were very rough, sometimes even brutal when cleaning and handling me. Half of the time they didn’t answer my calls and someone had to intervene. When they “helped” me get up for walk, they forcefully moved me instead of letting me get up myself and they ignored me when I told them that they hurt me. When my body involuntarily  resisted some of more painful movements, they usually forced through it. With all that said, I have to admit they did a good job with finding my veins, applying i.v, removing stiches, removing and applying the catheter etc.

After discharge

After coming back to condo I pretty much spent most of my days in bed. Lan was coming to me at least 2 times a day for wound dressing and she was always available when I needed her. She also took care of all my meals (ordered through Grab). I started dilation and douching a week after discharge, Lan of course helped. I had 1 check-up with nurse (she came to the condo) and 3 with doctor Thee, in the clinic. On the last week of my stay I was able to move more. We even went out for shopping.

The results

I am overall pretty happy with the result. I’m around 17.5-18 cm deep from day 1 of dilation. I can push a little deeper, but some time after I do that I feel a terrible urge to poop. Aesthetics are good. I have some hair inside. There is little to no smell and I don’t have a lot of discharge. My bowel after resection works fine, although I poop infrequently. Was it worth it? To be honest, right after the surgery I felt like it wasn’t but everyday I feel more and more satisfied. I believe that someday I will be able to say it was 100% worth the pain.

Coming back home

I was very scared of the flight, because sitting is still very painful for me, even with the donut pillow. It was much better than I thought. Lan ordered wheelchair service for me and airport staff took good care of me.  I didn’t waste energy before and in between flights.

How am I feeling a month after the surgery

I feel much better. I am able to take care of myself. Prolonged sitting is still not an option though and I tire very easily. There is still pain, especially if I move. I also have nerve pain – sudden attacks of feeling electricity and needles in vaginal region, they last few minutes each and hurt like hell. Mentally I haven’t been the same since the surgery. I can’t sleep, I have to force myself to eat and I wake up multiple times during the night. I am also severely depressed and have terrible mental fog.

Do I recommend doctor Theerapong and Interplast clinic?

Despite the unimaginable pain I experienced, I do actually recommend doctor Thee for this surgery. I talked to multiple doctors before and he is the only one that actually listened to my needs and made me feel understood. He provided great depth and aesthetics. I believe he is a great surgeon, just lacks in pain management.
I also recommend booking through Interplast directly. Lan is a great caretaker. She is very sweet, gentle, provided great help during all of my stay. I had pretty much everything that I needed.

To summarize

I hope this post didn’t scare you too much. The hell lasted only 2 days. After that it was much, much better. If you have any questions (other than to show photo of the results), feel free to AMA in the comments. Also, I highly recommend bringing someone with you for support.