After 1.5 years of research and planning, my bottom surgery is now complete and I'm quite happy. I wouldn't say euphoric because I still have 3+ months of healing and limited mobility ahead of me before I can live a normal life and use the new equipment, but at least all my anxiety leading up to surgery has disappeared. I think it was mostly related to fearing the last minute cancellation and delays I had with my FFS surgery.
Dr. Wittenberg was caring and accommodating. During my initial consult on the phone with her 1.5 years ago she answered all my questions thoroughly and was candid about the complication rates of her patients. During my pre-op appointment March 4th, she offered me two choices for labia minora. Her usual method is to use scrotal skin and she's found most patients lost most of the definition due to swelling. So with PPT patients she's started using penile skin which is closer in texture to cis-female labia minora and is expected to retain more definition (based on the results of Dr. Suporn's use of the technique - none of Wittenbergs patients are over 8 weeks post op with this technique). I decided to go with the new technique.
For the last 5 or so patients, Dr. Wittenberg has also changed from using packing sutchered into your thighs to using a wound VAC . This reduces suture scars and should also reduce swelling which may help retain some labia minora definition. I suspect the VAC also reduces pain since I've talked to another Wittenberg patient that said the sutures caused a lot of discomfort before packing was removed. I've found myself having almost no pain when I lay still and 1-2 out of 10 when I walk around the last couple days. I've been on only 1000mg tylenol every 8 hours and 400 mg ibuprofen every 8 hours during that time. No narcotics or other pain meds. Same pain levels in hospital though I was on hydrocodone or similar at that point. Of course, everyone's pain response is different.
Another nice benefit of PPT is less need for hair removal. I just needed 1" around base of shaft and 2.5" wide from base of scrotum to anus. They also said it wasn't critical to get the area completely clear which is great because covid shutdowns stopped me from getting removal for many months and I'm not completely clear. I'm not sure why any hair removal is required given that they don't use any external skin for internal parts. I think maybe they don't want it to grow into suture lines can create hairs growing under the skin which forms a little wound that takes awhile to heal (I had two of those in my hair after FFS).
I've found three things post op that I never read anywhere and weren't mentioned on Dr. Wittenberg's post-op instructions. One is that you must breathe in through a spirometer 3-4 times every 15 mins (while awake) trying to get an indicator up to a certain point that means your lungs are completely full. This exercises the lungs and prevents the body from having a spontaneous fever. I didn't really understand the explanation for why the fever forms but if it happens you must use the spirometer every 5 mins and call the doc if the fever doesn't go down. It only takes about 1 min to do the spiro exercise but getting interrupted every 15 mins by an alarm to do it is pretty annoying.
The second thing is that starting 3 days post-op, I have to poop every few hours and do so without putting much pressure on things. This always leads to a point where I feel like there is more in there but it won't come out without too much pressure, so it's a mess to wipe. The need to poop always seems to come on suddenly and is hard to contain so I must rush to the bathroom - not that I can really rush when collecting the wound vac and foley bag and hobbling to the toilet. Then it's an adventure of trying to balance on once cheek because sitting full on the seat hurts the sutures. The doc also suggested some people find it more comfortable to sit on the rim of the toilet but I haven't tried that yet.
The third thing is the doctor wants the area kept on ice constantly to reduce swelling. So make sure the place you stay to recover has a freezer and you bring 6 or so good quality ice trays to make ice to put in the bags provided by the hospital. I brought 3 little freezer packs but they don't last nearly long enough. We also found that higher quality ice trays that came with the air BnB I'm staying at freeze ice much faster than the cheap ones we bought - we're not sure why.
For those wondering, my insurance is Blue Shield of California PPO which is what the doctor recommends. I did the math and going for anything above Silver doesn't actually save money, but it does save you from paying one big cost at once. Basically you'll be paying your yearly out of pocket maximum (~$8000 on silver) for the surgery, unless you paid a lot for other things in the year. The platinum plan has a much lower out of pocket max but the monthly premiums will cost significantly more over the year than what you save with the lower out of pocket max.
I've been pleased with how quickly Blue Shield approved everything. I expected a fight because the PPV surgery is much more expensive than penile inversion but it was approved in just two business days! My electrolysis was approved just as quickly but I've discovered they don't keep any electrologists in network so I'm basically paying full price for it till I meet the "out of network deductible" which is separate from the "in network deductible". Even if I reach the out of network deductible limit, they still only cover 50% of each visit which is a lot less than my previous Kaiser insurance. I did eventually learn that some of their in-network dermatologists can also do electrolysis and I think I would only pay my visit co-pay to go that route. I'll find out in a few weeks.
My main complaint with Blue Shield of California is that they make it really difficult to reach someone who can help with getting transgender care covered. I sent a few emails to their customer service and always got generic responses. Then I called and the rep had no idea and neither did her manager. I asked to speak to a "case manager trained in transgender care" and they said there was no such thing even though I told them I read on reddit that there IS such a thing. They both thought I should go to dermatologists in their network for electrolysis and they'd know how to get prior auth but only one out of about 20 dermatologists I looked at were able to perform electro and they said I needed to get the prior auth myself. Finally, I learned from another trans friend I met that she worked with a case manager named Kelly Sipes. Kelly was able to help me and you can reach her by calling customer service and ask to speak to her by name. Ask for her email and if you can get that, then she told me emailing her is best to set up an appointment to talk or you can ask questions directly. Otherwise, if you get her phone number, then leave a message and leave your email for her to contact you at.
If you're outside California, I think your best bet is to keep calling customer service each day asking to speak to a case manager trained in transgender care and hopefully you'll eventually reach a rep or a manager that will know where to send you. Or maybe Kelly Sipes can help you even if you're not in CA. She also mentioned she can help people in the PPO or HMO network.
Anyway, I'll share one photo of my surgery from immediately post-op (before packing and wound vac). I think it looks pretty good though the labia majora look more swollen then I've seen in other patients. I also know that whatever it looks like now is not at all what it will look like six months from now or a year from now, so this photo isn't all that valuable. However, it does show the difference when using penile skin for labia minora and clitoral hood.
I can answer questions but please check if they were answered here first. You might also want to read an article I wrote condensing about 100 hours of research down into a plea to Kaiser Permanente to offer PPV surgery rather than penile inversion. Kaiser's surgeons were understanding but said that although Kaiser was looking into hiring someone to train in the procedure, they didn't expect it to be available for 2-3 years, so I moved to Blue Shield.
Edit: In response to a comment, the wound vac is a replacement for the bolster. Dr. Wittenberg has used the vac for the last 5 or so patients. It avoids suturing the bolster in place and should reduce swelling and pain. There is no wound vac or bolster in the picture above - they hadn't put it in place yet. I'll put a pic here of what it looks like currently with the wound vac attached. It's sort of gross but all the dark black is blood that's been dried out by the vacuuming action of the wound vac. I sent this image to the doctor and she said it was completely normal.
The white tube heading to the right leads to the wound vac which is always lightly sucking to keep the plastic pulled tight and remove excess blood and other fluids which collect in a chamber in the vac. The orange tube is the catheter. The vac itself will alarm if it becomes clogged, senses an air leak, or becomes overfull of fluids. I was given instructions on how to fix each of those problems. For anything I can't handle, there is a person assigned to visit me and resolve things and I was given their direct number.
Edit 2: I recommend staying at whatever hotel is cheapest before the surgery. End the hotel stay 2 days post-op and have your support person move everything to either an airbnb without stairs or a hotel with fridge and microwave as well as elevator access to your room. Make sure to choose an airbnb or hotel that offers full refund if canceled 1 day ahead. Doing all this guards against having to pay the full price of the second part of your stay if surgery is postponed at the last minute. Bonus if you can find somewhere with a nice flat area to walk for 10 mins, 3 times a day. I'm stuck walking round and round a 15-foot space in our room because outside the room it's hills in every direction.
Edit 3: When they say to get maxi pads to catch blood post-op, get the smallest, thinnest ones you can, ie Always Ultra Thin Pads, no wings, size 1. I originally got the largest, thickest pads possible in case there was a lot of blood, and they're ridiculously painful to wear and don't stay in place. Even cut into a small strip they hurt too much and don't stick well enough to panties to stay in place.
Edit 3-20-21:
Here's a photo 11 days postop:
Lots of swelling on labia majora but I think it's healing well? I've kept it iced as much as possible and swelling comes and goes (mostly comes). It still hurts to touch so haven't really looked inside so I hope it's healing well there as well. There's a lot of soreness during my three 10 min walks each day though it mostly fades after the first minute. I assume a lot of soreness is related to the dissolvable sutures which seem to take 2+ months to dissolve for me instead of 2 weeks. I hope they can remove some at my second post-op next week.
Dilations have been minimally painful. About 5 days post-op I felt three spots of extra burning pain that was brief but fairly sharp during my first dilation. This was possibly tearing through the webbing the body tries to put in place to close the canal. This is supposed to not happen much with peritoneal skin as opposed to penile inversion, and I've only felt it that one time so far. It's always a bit of a struggle to get the dilator in the last cm and there's a fairly constant discomfort from having it in place that mostly fades over the ten mins of having it in (some days it doesn't fade). There's always a brief burn when I pull the dilator out the first cm no matter how much lube I use. I discovered KY Jelly is superior to ID Glide (and KY Liquid) as it doesn't dry out as much which makes removal more pleasant. KY liquid seemed fine when my caretaker got it for me on week 3 until I had a dilation that took 10 mins longer than normal and then it dried out and hurt to remove the dilator and there was much more blood than usual. After the first couple days I reduced the amount of jelly I use to what I see on Dr. Wittenberg's videos and that reduced the mess to clean up afterward without causing any friction problems.
The first day after wound vac removal was by far the worst pain day of the healing process. If I moved the wrong way I could have stabbing pain that wouldn't fade for 20 mins. I eventually took oxycodone but it didn't help that much. I kept trying to find ways to sleep on my side with pillows between my knees and all I did was get pain so I eventually slept on my back. That's been true every other night as well even up to last night, though the pain of trying to side sleep is much less.
At this point I'm fairly accustomed to getting up 3-4 times a night to pee, rinsing with dilute hydrogen peroxide, walking and dilating 3 times a day, douching once, then showering. It's a time sink but not too bad pain wise. The pain I experience is more towards soreness, 1-2 / 10, instead of the burning/stabbing 5-6 / 10 of the first day. Just counting the days to my post op...
Edit 3-28-21:
When the nurse said they might remove sutures at my first post op, I think she meant if any had broken and ends were sticking out they would trim the ends. Dr. Wittenberg clarified that the sutures couldn't be removed without cutting me and risking losing structure. So I'm stuck with them... for weeks longer if the length of time it took my FFS sutures to disappear is any indication. So it absolutely sucks having a body that doesn't seem to care about stuff penetrating it (ha).
On the plus side, she said it was remarkable how little swelling I'd had and that there was no separation anywhere which was also unusual. Although she didn't look inside at all which I found surprising but also pleasing since it would have hurt. I don't know if this is thanks to the sutures remaining strong or thanks to me remaining in bed on my back and doing little more than the three ten min walks per day recommended. I also kept ice on things non stop except for possibly a few hours each night when it melted while I slept, but I refreshed it during the night when I woke to find it melted.
After the appointment, pain kept getting worse. Icing it constantly got too painful and I had to do it less and less. At the advice of the doctor I tried increasing amounts of CBD gummies but it seemed to do nothing. About 3 days ago I got a new bottle of 30:1 CBD oil and took increasing amounts sublingually over two days to see what dose would have an effect. In the last 3 hours I took 9 of the 60 doses in the bottle which is just over 70mg of CBD. Pain got significantly worse, so I quit entirely and felt better the next day than I had in the previous week. That trend continued the next few days so I'm pretty convinced CBD actually heightens pain for me. I found the same thing when I tried to use the same vape my GF uses for pain during electrolysis. It made my pain slightly less intense but the pain of each zap lasted longer so overall it felt worse. So thanks again, weird body... but do keep that in mind: CBD doesn't help everyone and may increase pain .
I'm still really sensitive to ice and have to apply it through a blanket instead of a towel or my dress like I was originally doing and it still tends to get too cold after 5-10 mins. I eventually realized that the odd jolts of pain I felt seemingly in places far away from the ice were actually caused by the ice and I just can't tell where certain nerves link to anymore down there. So any time I feel pain I must remind myself to move the ice and it often helps.
Also, I discovered an almost deflated donut pillow helps a lot when your tailbone hurts from laying on your back for 19 frigging days. Anyway, here's the latest photo:
Edit 4-5-21:
The drive home was about 13 hours. I dreaded having to stop and pee in public restrooms every hour so I limited what I drank and managed to keep it down to three pit stops. Having my caretaker with me in a handicap stall made it not a bad experience.
I took an oxycodone two hours before we left and another about halfway through and was pleased to find my pain was pretty tolerable the whole way, 1-3/10. I was laying on my back on a foam bed I'd made in the trunk with the rear seats folded down and keeping ice from a cooler on my bits the whole way. As we neared home I was pretty happy thinking I'd made it back without much pain and without causing myself damage.
But as I wiped myself after peeing at home, the tp was bright red with blood for the first time since my surgery. I took a picture and there was a red line along the lower tip on the outside edge of my labia minora. It didn't hurt but it looked nasty and freaked me out. I was really sad that I'd been so careful, done everything right, and still managed to hurt myself somehow. I was afraid it wouldn't stop bleeding and afraid to make it worse by dilating.
In the end it didn't bleed much and so I dilated a couple hours later with no unusual pain. The doctor responded the next day saying it was a separation, a common thing, and that it would heal and I shouldn't stop dilating. It hasn't bled since then or caused any obvious problems. They said it may or may not form granulation tissue that needs to be treated later.
I knew intellectually I wouldn't be recovered just because I was home but emotionally it was hard to deal with. It felt like many steps backward from staying in SF. I couldn't sit in my usual chair without pain and risking worse separation so I was still stuck on my back. It took 3-4 days to set up my bed with the same computer access I'd had in SF while I worried every new pain was some new injury that would set back my healing.
I've only started feeling more positive the last day or so. My walks aren't so grueling, I'm not so tired, I can shift in bed without triggering pain that takes 5 mins to fade when I lay absolutely still. I can even lay my keyboard on my belly and get stuff done on my computer without the mental exertion making me want to sleep. I also found my bed is soft enough I don't need the donut pillow.
I still get strange pains or sensations in new places every day, and some of them worry me, but I'm trying to trust this is just how it is. The worst part right now is waking every 3 hours to pee at night, but at least I'm not so worried the frequent urination means I have a bladder infection. Today I was felt strong urges to pee hourly in small amounts until 7:30pm when I suddenly made a big pee and felt better. I think things were swollen and preventing me from releasing everything.
Progress picture:
Edit 4-13-21:
Today is exactly 5 weeks after surgery and I'm pretty sure I still see the faded yellow of the "3 week" dissolvable sutures. At least inflammation around the sutures is way down. Based on my experience with sutures in my nose, I suspect they are softening/stretching/thinning but will not completely break and fall off from where they are visible for who knows how much longer. I suspect many are also trapped beneath scabs. It was disheartening to look at a 3-week picture from another of Heidi's patients and see fresh skin where I still have scabs and sutures. I'm hoping my slow healing will at least make for better structure in the end.
Standing, walking, or just moving too much produces something closer to soreness than the sharp pain it used to, but the level of pain still varies quite a lot from day to day or hour to hour with no obvious pattern. It tends to be worse in the morning and I think it's usually better after icing but not always. I still hobble and hate walking but it seems to lessen the pain after a couple minutes, "breaking things up" as the nurse suggested. On rare occasions I can get up and walk with not much pain at all. The warmth of the shower seems to loosen things and I noticed it allowed me to temporarily stand up straight with my legs almost together a couple mornings ago.
Needing to pee continues to be a problem that comes and goes. Some days I'm up hourly, others I can go 2-3 hours. I stop drinking more than sips of water around 9:30-10pm but my record for sleeping between pees is still only 3-4 hours. The few times I've reached 4 hours have always been by waking after ~2 hours, feeling mild need to pee but managing to fall asleep again. I did learn from the doc that I can pat dry after spraying with dilute hydrogen peroxide with a reusable towel instead of TP. This avoids bits of TP sticking and getting pulled inside during dilation. I keep the towel folded so I'm touching the side with my fingers that doesn't touch my vag.
Three days ago, dilating became suddenly much tighter. The first time it happened it took 10+ mins just to get past the first inch because everywhere I pushed felt like there was no hole there.Once I finally got it deeper it felt like I was 1cm lower than where I was used to pushing it in. The next dilation felt 1cm higher again. I still don't understand it. I later realized I could shine a flashlight in and be absolutely sure I was in the right place if necessary.
At my last post op the doctor said tightening was expected around 2 months but since this happened at only 4.5 weeks, it worries me. Doc didn't seem concerned and suggested using a smaller dilator, but I'm already using the smallest orange dilator included in the kit they gave me. I ordered the smaller purple one (which is also the smallest they sell) but have to continue with the orange until it gets here. So every dilation is a 45 min struggle to reach full depth with me using more pressure than I'd really like to have to use. I really hope the tightness doesn't continue to worsen.
Doc said I could stop icing constantly at 4 weeks but I continue to use it regularly because it helps control pain. It's really hard to find a balance that doesn't make things too cold and cause cold-based pain, however.
Swelling doesn't look obviously different the last couple weeks but I did notice the skin of the labia majora is getting a bit more elastic. Originally I noticed it behaved almost like a gel around the dilator but now it's stretching more naturally. It still doesn't want to naturally separate and show the labia minora and pulling it apart hurts a bit so I don't.
Progress pic:
Edit 4-20-21:
Exactly 6 weeks post op. Waking up to pee at night is still the worst part. The times I can sleep for 2.5-3 hours are getting more common, at least. My fatigue seems to be less in general and I have the motivation and focus to work a little more (remotely). Pain is significantly improved and hasn't prevented me from sleeping or been a nagging distraction too much. Usually it's more of a burning soreness at worst, though I occasionally have sharper random jabs.
I'm able to walk slowly with an almost normal gait, but slow, and it always burns to various levels. I'm more flexible and have been surprised at the positions I was able to take in order to reach stuff. However, I think being in weird positions may have resulted in more pain over the next day or so, and I had one more case of bleeding a bit.
I discovered "U by Kotex Barely There Liners" and have found them to be much more comfortable than the Always Ultrathin pads. Basically, panty liners are a thinner version of maxi pads and so they tend to flex more easily and be less irritating. They're also much more narrow which helps keep legs closer together without rubbing painfully. I still must pull my panties down a bit when I walk so the pad isn't directly rubbing my groin, but the liners are much more comfortable in bed. They're also short front to back and so I use two in a row to cover everything. They have a long version I haven't tried but it's only 1.5" longer so I don't think it will be enough.
Being very thin, panty liners won't absorb enough for the first couple weeks of healing, at least for me. Even now I'm still oozing significant brown scab forming gunk and I'm pretty sure that's because the sutures keep irritating things. The panty liners still sometimes stick to the long suture lines near my thighs but they seem to stick less often than the pads did. Unsticking them always causes pain but not as much as it used to.
Everything hurts a lot less to touch and I'm growing more interested to spread the inner labia and see what my clit looks like... But it will probably be a mess of healing gunk so I still haven't gotten the courage to look. I'm finding myself to be very sensitive to looking at gore or surgical stuff in the dramas I've watched since my surgery. I feel really empathic to anyone who's injured or healing. I also want to smack the writers when someone is able to walk normally on a leg after getting shot in the leg the day before.
I've managed to keep using the orange dilator. It hasn't really gotten any harder or easier to reach max depth in the last week. I hate wasting 45-60 mins to finish a "10 minute" dilation but I'm a bit paranoid that if it suddenly tightens further and I've already reduced to the purple dilator I won't have anything smaller to use. The doctor says 1cm of depth is usually lost but by my second or third dilation of the day I usually reach what I think is the same point as immediately post op. I usually can't get there on the first dilation, however.
I spread my legs a little farther than usual for this update photo and managed to get the labia minora to show a bit. I'm glad to see they're still there:
I also see some fresh skin instead of scabs or sutures which must mean at least some of the sutures have fallen off, so that's good.
Someone in comments asked about my abdominal incisions. They continue to be almost entirely pain free. There's only some discomfort if I push on them and I can feel the area is harder than the area around the incision. I've kept them covered in "AWD Medical Silicone Tape" which remains stuck for around 2 weeks before the edges start peeling enough I feel the tape should be replaced. I replaced the tape today:
Here's each incision with the tape off:
And the belly button incision:
The belly button looks most healed. It never had silicone tape on it since it's not flat enough. Instead, I put on aquaphor every few days and kept it covered with a bandaid. The last week or so I left it uncovered. I suspect the other incisions would be less scabby if I left them uncovered but I've read scientific studies about how silicone sheets reduce scarring so I'd rather let them heal slower and hopefully be less visible in the long run. The basic theory is that silicone prevents the wound from getting stretched as much and it's the wound stretching that tends to create bigger scars.
Note that the AWS medical silicone tape is not specifically advertised as a scar reduction tool. The products advertised for scar reduction tend to be much more expensive and I suspect they're just marking them up as most cosmetic products are marked up. Reviews of AWS tape show people have used it to reduce scars so I'm hoping I can trust those experiences. I also wanted the tape because it can be cut into long enough strips to cover the sutures along my groin but I've been waiting till it heals significantly before I try using it there.
Edit: I tried taping one of the suture lines but after I shifted positions it wouldn't stop hurting so I took the tape off. Apparently it puts extra strain on the area as I move, probably especially where the tape ends, and I don't want to risk tearing something. I'll try again once it's healed more.
Edit 4-27-21:
7 weeks after surgery. I'm going to post an update each week, on Tue if possible. Progress photo first:
I continue to gain flexibility. I can now reach my toenails to trim them but it's a strain. Pain continues to improve and I can usually snuggle my SO without wincing every time they move which is really nice. I can also wash things in the shower without much wincing but pushing or spreading still hurts. There is still always some level of pain while walking and it feels like I'm wearing a pad against my groin when I'm not. Sitting hurts and so does closing my legs completely. I'm still miserable and tired from needing to pee every 1-2 hours at least 2 out of every 3 nights, and I can't figure out why I can hold it for 3-4 hours on 1 out of 3 nights.
Dilation has not gotten any easier or harder. Deeper "sore" pain has increased while shallower sharp pain has decreased. I finally realized that spreading my legs wider actually makes it much harder to insert past the first inch, so closing my legs more has made things easier to start. Unfortunately, nothing I've tried makes getting in the last 1-2 inches easier so I always spend 15-30 mins on that. It helps a bit to move it out and in to coax the lube a little deeper. Sometimes twisting or switching which hand I use to push helps but it's not too consistent.
I made my first trip out of the house for a vaccination shot a few days ago. The drive hurt more than my trip from San Francisco at first but after taking an oxycodone and keeping ice on, the drive back was about the same as the SF trip. I was standing in line at least 30 mins without major pain. There was no bleeding but I felt more sore than usual the next day.
I asked the doc about this white triangle at the top middle of the picture below and they said it was a "staple" that would either be absorbed or "spit out". It felt fairly hard and well stuck, yet the next day it was folded over and the day after it fell out, all without obvious pain or bleeding:
I also complained about the sutures you can see at the bottom of the pic. I assumed they were supposed to dissolve in 3 weeks yet they look strong. So I researched sutures and learned the most common ones dissolve by "hydrolysis", meaning water dissolves them. This says they tend to dissolve beneath the skin surface and remain intact above the surface. It said it's best to pull them out once they became loose, and Dr. Wittenberg also said we could gently tug out loose stitches. I couldn't see well enough with a mirror so I got a closeup USB camera and tweezers dipped in alcohol. It didn't budge with light tugging but it didn't hurt, either.
It was surprisingly hard to aim the tweezers and hold the camera so I gave up tugging additional sutures and am glad I did because the next day the doctor said the sutures in the photo won't dissolve for 3-4 months!
I used the same camera to look closely along the labia majora scar and found only one possible suture. Some may still be hiding under scabs but I suspect most have fallen out. I can touch the scar line without much pain so I think the sutures are reasonably close to being dissolved. I don't know why the scabs never fall off, however. I also don't know what is causing the big scabs to the left and right of the clit hood:
They look almost like liquid so I tried cleaning one off with a saline-soaked q-tip and gentle rubbing barely stained the q-tip and would not budge the brown stuff. Similar brown stuff radiates in small spots around the hood as if it were spattered and I managed to pick some of that off from where it had clung to a hair. It reminds me of tree sap and the skin beneath was undamaged. I asked the doctor about it and they said it was normal but didn't explain further.
There's also some white yeasty stuff beneath the brown where the skin is usually folded together but I could barely get any of it off with the q-tip. I hope it doesn't cause issues. I tried spreading the labia minora with my dilator to see if I could see my clit with the camera but couldn't see deep enough and spreading wider would have hurt.
I found this thread where a few people say how they felt 6 weeks post op. Of the 7 meaningful responses, 1 sounds worse than me, 2 sound better, and 4 sound similar or unclear. So maybe my healing process isn't as below average as I thought. Nevertheless, I did some research and found this describing what affects the rate of healing. Being middle aged works against me but it says I can supplement my diet with the following (items with * are most important):
- Oxygen*
- Amino acids (especially methionine, lysine, proline and arginine)
- Vitamin A*
- Vitamin B*
- Vitamin B2
- Vitamin B6
- Vitamin C
- Carbohydrates
- Vitamin D
- Zinc*
- Vitamin K
- Iron, copper, manganese
My mood has improved and I hope I'm past the worst of the healing process. I worry most about the parts I can't see inside, about infection, and about dilation getting more difficult or more painful. I'm grateful I never had major complications like the painful separation described in this thread . I actually had anxiety over their pain for a couple days but I was relieved when they found a working treatment using saline to clean it and possibly Aquaphor to protect it.
EDIT: I forgot to mention that a few days ago I noticed that after showering, if I sit on the toilet a significant amount of water drips out even after patting dry. I'm not sure if this was always true or is due to a recent change in anatomy but in the interests of keeping as dry as possible, I now sit on the toilet for a minute after each shower.
Edit 5-4-21:
I exceeded the max post length so will continue in a new post.
[ On to part 2 ]
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