SRS in Argentina 4/12 | Week 3-5

23
u/SRSinARthrowaway
Sun May 16 02:58:58 2021 UTC
(8 comments)

Previous posts:

So 3 weeks passed by, the day after submitting my last post here the wound separation that I mentioned got worse. I woke up and went to the bathroom to pee, while I was peeing a lot of blood started to pour down, I tried not to panic and I grabbed a lot of toilet paper to try to stop it, I grabbed some gauze and went to the bed. I cleaned up the mess the best I could and I started to examine what happened with the mirror. Well turns out that more stitches popped out around the hanging skin and it came off, so now I had an exposed wound in the perineum and on the inner right and left labia majora. I took some pictures and sent them to my surgeon. He replied a few minutes later saying that it's going to be ok, that it will heal over time, that if I see any clots I shouldn't touch them and that I could resume dilations next day. I read about that this type of wound separation is very common due to the dilation, but one thing is to read about it and another thing is if it happens to you, I took an extra dose of Clonazepam/Klonopin that night.

The next day I resumed the dilation, there was a little blood in the entrance but not much, starting that evening a lot of fibrin from the wound started to come out, that lasted for 5 days or so. Pain was manageable with only diclofenac so far. However by end of week 3 as the swelling was decreasing the level of pain increased particularly near the clitoris, I had a few days that were rough even when taking Diclofenac and Paracetamol/Acetaminophen

Thankfully by Week 4 the pain started to decrease and I was able to stop taking the painkillers. During that week I had the checkup with the surgeon and he told me that everything is looking good, that dilations would get a little harder/tight next few months due to the healing process but after that it will be easier. And that started to happen by end of Week 4, now when I start to dilate there's like some resistance and it's taking me a little bit longer to reach depth, before it was super quick, now it's taking me around 10 minutes. I'm doing 3x20 mins a day with SS#1 and 3x20mins with SS#2, the Doctor cleared me to go ahead and use SS#3 but I will wait another week more to see if the tissue around my perineum/inner labia is a little bit more healed up.

My stamina took a hit after week 2, during most of Week 3/4 I was really tired, but now I'm feeling more energy at last, today I managed to go to the supermarket with my boyfriend, I walked 6000 steps and I didn't feel exhausted so that was nice. I also went back to work last week since I was getting a little bit bored and I work remotely, it was kind of rough first but it's getting better.

All in all it's looking good, I had my ups and downs, but it was manageable in part I suppose that was thanks to my boyfriend and parents that were always there to support me too, it's very important when having a surgery of this type that has a very lengthy recovery process to have a support network, for me the pain itself was not the problem, but how long the recovery process is, it takes a toll on you.

My next checkup with the surgeon is on 6/4, that should be almost two months post op. I will be doing another post by then. If there's any questions just ask away! =)

Dilating with SS#2 33 Days Post Op

How it looks standing up!

all 8 comments



1
u/Hammna
Sun May 16 11:57:14 2021 UTC
(3 children)

Penile inversion or peritoneal?

2
OP
Fri May 21 00:56:44 2021 UTC
(2 children)

Neither, a full thickness skin graft was used since I didn't have much donor tissue. I mentioned that on the first journal entry.

1
Wed May 26 04:02:45 2021 UTC
(1 child)

full thickness skin graft

where did the donor tissue come from if you mind me asking

2
OP
Wed May 26 04:56:17 2021 UTC
(0 children)

It came from the inner/bottom part of my butt, so the scar is almost invisible. The donor site was something like this chart shows caption

1
u/candystories
Fri May 21 00:28:06 2021 UTC
(1 child)

Sorry to read about the complications. Best wishes. xoxo Candy 💙💜🤍

1
OP
Fri May 21 00:57:57 2021 UTC
(0 children)

Thank you Candy! 😊 The recovery has been smoothly despite the complications.

1
u/Loony__Luna
Thu Sep 2 02:07:52 2021 UTC
(1 child)

It's an amazing journal, very thorough and clear! You are goals! I'm very happy to see this wonderful results can be achieved locally. And looks awesome just with 1 surgery!

I have 3 set of question so far. 1- What health insurance do you have? I assume it was a private hospital, may I ask which it was if you think it was related in any way to the aftercare quality? 2- Why did you choose a full thickness graf as donor instead of peritoneal? The benefits from peritoneal seem really great although invasive. 3- Maybe to soon to ask this, but so far. Do you wish you had done something different or know beforehand?

2
OP
Thu Sep 2 05:00:36 2021 UTC
(0 children)

Thank you! I have Swiss Medical, the surgery was performed Clínica Zabala. The nurses were great, and yes I suppose that you get a little bit better attention in a private hospital, but the surgeons are usually the same (Belinky operates in both public and private hospitals).

There are no surgeons in argentina that perform PPT, only colovaginoplasty (which is really invasive), penile inversion, penile inversion + scrotal graft ot in my case PI + full thickness graft since I didn't had much donor material.

Mm, not really, I was like really aware of all the risks related to the surgery so I was expecting the worst, thankfully besides the wound dehiscence I didn't face any other complication.