Post-LP dilation problems

So I started with the 2T as per someone else's advice, and then I tried to get the 3 in...and it wouldn't happen. Dilation is tricky in general -- first I have to find a way to set the mirror down and have it stand in place on its own. One hand (using two fingers) has to open up the lower part of the labia, and the other hand has to bring in the dilator. Luckily, the vagina is easy to spot. Inserting the 2T is increasingly painful as it's further placed in. Getting it past the PC muscle is no problem, but with the labia as bloody and swollen as it is, the dilator not only sticks to the labia, pulling it in as it's inserted, but it also has to fight with the swollen labia for space. Trying to get the 3 in is simply impossible. Even putting up with the pain, the swelling takes up too much space and can't be contended with.

I'll probably end up losing some width in the end, and have to fight again to get it back. Oh well...

More notes!

So aside from all the ew's of day three, I noticed two things...I can now tell where the telltale SRS scar will be. I see it stitched up on me, and I've seen it in another post-LP pic. Luckily, scars take more than 4 months to heal, so it probably won't be so noticible in a year.

The other thing is, all grossness aside, it looks way more correct now than it did pre-op. I guess that's mainly because I had so much extra skin. I'm a little worried about it healing with asymmetry, as the left side is more swollen than the right. Only time will tell.

So as for my physical state, because I've been painkiller free since day 1 post-op, I'm pretty much at full capability. I could drive (albeit painfully), I can do physical tasks that don't strain my midsection, and I'm fully lucid. I can't really use this as a slam against painkillers in general, as I'm a sufferer of chronic headaches (and had to stop taking my headache medicine 3 weeks pre-op) and I had some horrific pain after the BA/Vaginoplasty, but I'm now thinking: avoid them if you can.

Uh...ew...

I've read other Meltzer patients' blogs and information pages about SRS, but I never really read much about labiaplasty until today, and that explains what I saw when I went to dilate. In a nutshell, it is: WTF?

What I see is one big colorful mix of various stages of swelling, bleeding, and hopefully not infection. I'm definitely going to schedule an appointment with my GYN for a week or two from now, because I'm not really sure how I'll identify problems if they arise. Supposedly the sheet says to resume dilation 3 days after surgery, which I read in the literal sense (22-23, 23-24, 24-25...3 days!) but sometimes they really mean 4. Since it won't kill me to wait another day or two, and I already got "dilated" by Dr. Meltzer's speculum when he looked for granulation tissue, I'll put it off until the 27th.

Not to mention, I can't even figure out where the dilation is supposed to go in. The vulva is just one big ugly swollen mess of...WTF?

Labiaplasty, the list(s)

So I found out the list of what got done. It was short, but intensive:

• The hood, obviously.


• The extra skin was worse than I thought. I think Dr. Meltzer spent most of his time working on getting rid of the excess. It currently looks like there's too much there (lower part of the vulva), but I'd imagine the swelling would be worse there because so much surgery was done.


• Urethra got moved down a bit. The difference was pretty noticible, but I already feel it's for the better. I had directional issues up until the LP, but now it seems smooth and clean.


• Apparently the runaway granulation wasn't there anymore? Weird. I guess my GYN just happened to get it the last time I saw her, after missing parts of it beforehand. Seems I'll be prescribed something for the post-dilation bleeding...

So that's that. Now I just need to wait for it to heal. My simpler regimen includes:

• Optional painkillers (Vicadin) but I don't seem to need them.


• Bacitracin on the location of the incision, 3x a day.


• Keflex (antibiotic) twice a day.


• Arnica

Post-labiaplasty

Well, here's the experience:

• Go to hospital, do paperwork, minor physical, then go to the bed -- same as before.


• A few nurses come by, chat, explain that it'll be local anesthesia with sedation. I take some pills to relax. (I forget precisely what they are, but I didn't need the blood pressure dropper because mine is naturally on the lower end of the spectrum)


• Dr. Meltzer comes by, I point out my primary concerns.


• I get wheeled away into a room with large lights (1-1.5 feet in diameter) pointing at where my bed is situated. I move from one bed to another.


• I go in and out of consciousness, spending part of my time in dreamland, only to wake up occasionally, continuing dream conversations in real life, then quickly realizing I'm in the middle of surgery. I have mild sensations of the surgery going on as it happens. I think I briefly felt a speculum within me, presumably for the granulation treatment. (which is step 1 cleanup, not related to the labiaplasty) I vaguely remember speaking to the sedation lady, but the details are about as fuzzy as most memorable dreams would be 24 hours later.


• I briefly remember being wheeled into my recovery room and here I am now.

I wasn't as chipper the day after as I was post-SRS. I spent most of the rest of the day sleeping, occasionally interrupted by nurses or eating meals. I spent about 9pm-2am watching TV and parts of my video collection on my laptop, then went to sleep until 6am breakfast.

No complications. The area looks terrible, but not as bad as post-op pictures I've seen -- I guess not much had to be done. Haven't really needed much in the way of painkillers.

Now it's just the waiting game. Here's hoping that the fully healed region will look more or less normal.

Labiaplasty

Haven't written in forever, but not really much to write about.

I'm now in Scottsdale, 5 hours from a hospital visit for the step two Labiaplasty. I don't know how people can not want this step, though I can understand why people might financially decide to skip out on it. It's not going to be as game changing as step one Vaginoplasty was, but it'll be nice for everything to look normal.

There's three reasons for my visit this time around:

• Need clitoral hood, which is a normal reason for the LP


• Labia majora badly needs tweaking. There's too much of it -- it droops.


• Unrelated to the LP itself, but my GYN wasn't able to stop the granulation tissue from growing inside the vagina. (which means that I see red every time I dilate, and left unchecked it can be a serious problem)

The hardest part of this trip, honestly, is waking up at 5am, with a late-pushed internal clock and losing an hour from west coast to Arizona. I expect little sleep, and I'm thankful we live in an age where it's easy to set up three alarms -- one of them is bound to wake me up!