(see post history for previous entries about this surgery)

This post covers week 2 post-op - basically just dilation, douching, healing, and avoiding complications. An important note - it's the same post-op schedule as normal vaginoplasty. The surgeon thinks that the peritoneal tissue should mean less dilating & no douching, but to be safe she's putting everyone on the same post-op treatment until she has more data.

Dilation

Pretty standard - 3x daily, 10-30 minutes. I use the smallest one (purple) and my depth is at the second dot from the handle. I haven't measured it but from eyeballing it I'd say 5-6inches. I'm not really interested in working up to the super wide dilators (seriously, the orange one is ridiculous) but I suppose I should at least go up to the blue one.

It's a little annoying having my penis & scrotum in the way of dilating. Thank god I have a hand mirror.

It takes ~2-3 minutes (maybe less sometimes) to get the dilator all the way inside. Every time it's a little different. The first several times were scary, as you didn't really know if you were breaking something or not. By now I'm not anxious but it's still uncomfortable.

It's surprising how much I can feel inside, even now. The peritoneal tissue doesn't have tactile sensation like your outer skin does, but you still feel the dilator the whole way in. It's much more sensate than your butt. It reminds me a bit of putting things in your mouth actually haha. I'm excited to learn fine muscle control in the future once things heal more.

Douching

1x daily for week 2, every other day for week 3, and then once a week after that. I think at 3 months I'll try stopping douching if the secretions are acidic enough.

Douching is easy and painless and actually feels a bit tickly.

Healing & (Avoiding) Complications

Week 2 was dubbed the "swelling week" by Dr. Wittenberg. Apparently this week is the worst for swelling & has the highest risk of wound separation (eek!). Luckily nothing happened to me.

Besides wound separation, the sight of my vagina was probably the most frightening part of it all LOL. You see all the post-op pictures and are prepared for it, but you still can't believe "that" will heal into something that will look nice.

Funnily enough though I'm already happy about the surgery. It's very annoying having to keep the scrotum around, but my genital dysphoria is already lessening. I can tell this was the right thing to do. I just can't wait for the labiaplasty.

Pads

This deserves its own sub-section!

Pads are so frustrating. Probably doubly so since I still have my penis & scrotum.

Their sizing & absorbancy is arbitrary, relative only to their other products. I've bought two different pads off Amazon, both of which were way too big. Right now I'm just using more "abdominal pads", like the ones they give you in the hospital. They're available on Amazon in different sizes, and feel better than normal pads.

Sexy Times

This also deserves its own section, as it's the hardest thing for me right now. I honestly wish my libido had been affected, because it's hard mentally staving off arousal.

According to the surgeon, my butt and vagina are off-limits for the first 3 months, and everything else is off-limits for some shorter period of time (the first month I think?).

Well, I couldn't restrain myself that well - as a compromise, I give myself one penis-only orgasm a week. I can comfortably say that my penis is working 100%. There's some temporary numbness on the bottom near the base, but it normal otherwise.

Outstanding Questions I Can't Answer Yet

There's a few questions that I'm sure people want to know, that I can't answer yet:

Peritoneal lubrication/secretion?

No idea yet, there's discharge from a lot of things.

Sexy stuff besides penis functionality?

I won't know for at least ~2 months.

Pictures?

I'm not uploading pictures now, but that may change in the future.

Future Post Schedule?

I intend to cover the entire healing experience, but I'm not sure how frequently I'll post. I'll post again next week about week 3, and then probably week 4, and then probably month-to-month. Around the labiaplasty I'll start posting more frequently again.