Hey all! I'm currently recovering from GRS with Dr Chettawut in Thailand at the moment. It's a fairly boring time so I thought I'd do a post answering questions about the procedure, results, etc. Anything at all.
Will do another post with pics once I'm a bit more healed, but its coming along pretty well so far :)
Wish you the best with your recovery.
Thanks so much!
Wow, how much did it cost altogether? And how long is your expected recovery time?
Also, how did you find the time to take off from work to have this surgery?
Sorry, I know I'm throwing a lot of questions at you here 😅
Overall, it cost me around $20k AUD. That's including flights and accommodation, quarantine, covid tests, etc. Was very lucky and managed to convince my mum to help pay. She paid about 60%.
I'm a student in Australia, and we have our summer holidays from November to February. So I just managed to schedule it in the break :)
No worries! I love talking about myself :P
Oh, you're an Aussie. That makes a lot of sense.
Wow, that's a steal compared to the US. I think that payment would be the cost of the surgery alone here in the US. And I think that's one of the lowest prices in the US.
You're mom didn't mind paying $12000?! She's such a supportive mother. You're lucky to have her.
Yeah I'm incredibly grateful.
We're also lucky in that we are legally required to have retirement funds. By law our employers have to put 9% of our wages into these funds with each pay, and so if you are employed for any significant length of time you get a sizeable chunk of money. You can withdraw it before retirement for medical treatment, and I drained mine completely and mum took the rest out of hers.
Wow, that's so nice of her. You'll bounce back with time, especially if you get a higher paying in the future.
I'm debating whether I should start investing or not.
I'm guessing your healthcare system doesn't cover surgeries for trans people, or do you not have many options in Australia?
There are actually a few pretty good options in Aus, even in my home city of Melbourne, and they're all partially covered by our healthcare system. My problem was that I really didn't want penile inversion once I read about Chettawut's technique, and he and Suporn are the only surgeons who do something different.
What is that name of Chettawut's technique?
He relatively uncreatively calls it "non penile inversion", but in my experience, both from seeing other people's surgeries and my own, creates a more cis looking and feeling vagina than penile inversion. He creates the vaginal canal out of scrotal skin and used the penile skin to create the labia, resulting in more sensation on the vulva than internally (although from my experience still plenty), just like a cis women would have. He aims to move all the parts of the penis to the location they would be in had they developed into a vulva instead. The upshot is a longer recovery, but a more "realistic" outcome.
Thanks!
I hear you. And Chettawut has a great reputation with many trans people, both in Thailand and abroad. You made a good choice.
Two weeks after the surgery I definitely agree!
Congratulations hoping your healing well
Thanks!
Another Aussie girl ♥️ hope you are doing well over there. I plan on getting some ffs procedures done next year and grs after that from Chet. Which hotel are you staying in?
Staying at Bangkok Rama! The cottages are really cute and self contained which suits me really well.
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I've had some okay food! Mostly it's hospital and hotel food, which has varied between boring/bad and pretty good. I'm recovering now and finally able to order food on food delivery apps, and my experimentation has been finding some decent stuff.
It's made a bit harder by the fact that I'm vegan and don't speak thai haha
Thanks, I've added your post to the wiki here
https://www.reddit.com/r/TransSurgeriesWiki/wiki/srs/thailand#wiki_chettawut_tulayaphanich
Hi Frosty and great to meet you, I’m from Australia as well. So it’s been comforting to read these posts. I wish the very best in you’re recovery.
Yay! I'm an Aussie girl seeing Chett in May!
Nothing really to ask but I just hope you're well and I'm so excited and happy for you!
Thanks! You've made a great decision, hope it goes well for you!
Hi Frosty!
I’ll be having surgery with Chett on May 8. I’m super nervous and excited. How has your pain level been so far? Also is there anything you wish you would have done differently in your preparation for surgery? Also what was the seven day quarantine like? Excited to see your postop pictures and continue to hear your updates
Thanks! So far the pain has been basically non-existent. I had a minor revision yesterday where he had to remove some skin that wasnt healing right from my left labia, and redo the stitches, and that's the most I've felt it so far. The worst pain was just after surgery where the swelling and bandages basically sealed my butt shut and I couldnt fart. But they have good painkillers available for the first 4 or 5 days after that are really helpful, so once I got through that it was a relative breeze.
Things I would do differently in prep: he told mr after the surgery that there were some minor complications, one of which was slight inflammation in my colon. I assume this was from all the really spicy thai food I was eating during quarantine, so I would probably eat more mild food in the lead up. That doesnt seem to have caused me any problems though, but it might have just put me at risk of some issues developing.
The quarantine was surprisingly fine! A bit boring, but I had my laptop and my switch. I live alone and tend to just veg out and do those things anyway so it wasn't too foreign a concept for me. Plus the city where I'm from has had huge amounts of hard lockdowns during the pandemic as it is, so I was really used to being trapped in my house without being able to leave.
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It's going good! Each day is better and better. Have my last followup with him tomorrow where he will probably give me a minor revision, but aside from being a bit nervous about that, it's good!
Yeah I found a handful of good places which are keeping me fed, plus the supermarket is very handy!
I can send you my rewrite of the certificate if you like, pretty much all I changed were the pronouns (and corrected some grammar 😅). The bulk of it is unchanged.
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