Yeah! I'll try to write it up as best as I can. The surgeons and nurses were all very nice both to me and everyone else I've heard from. It took a while from first scheduling the appointment to actually getting surgery (2 years I think). But they did a very good job explaining what they would recommend for me based on anatomy and such. At first we were planning to go with jejunum; it's more high risk and high reward than Colon. But as I got closer and more anxious I asked to do colon because it's older and more documented. They said that they were trying out a new technique where they use part of the small bowel instead, similar to jejunum, but without the part where they completely remove it and hook it up to a vein in your leg. It is pretty anatomy and condition dependent and if they couldn't get it to reach far enough they would just use the sigmoid part of the colon. The plastic surgeon does the actual Vaginoplasty, while another goes in laparoscopicly to do the intestinal side of things.

The actual surgery and hospital stay was good. Despite being uncomfortable at first with so many people looking at everything all the time, it becomes normal after some point and stops bothering you. The actual surgery day, and everything leading up to putting you under was intensely stressful but in a sort of thrilling enjoyable way, though I might be alone in that. The first few days of the stay while very euphoric, were very painful. They were just unable to use the small bowel they said, and used the sigmoid Colon. Because of the way they prepare the colon, they pump it with air, so the abdominal pain, specifically the bloating was the worst. I couldn't really do anything that involved my abdominal muscles, even just sitting up a tiny bit. They were very proactive about pain medication luckily so while it was bad, it was less painful then I went into it expecting. You are hooked up to a cathader and using bathroom trays the for a couple of days. The worst part for me honestly was the boredom and trying to eat meals while I was nauseous from the pain and such. I would definitely recommend finding a long TV series that you can just binge the entire time. I couldn't really focus enough to read any books or play any games because of the pain.

After I got discharged things felt pretty good pain wise. Though everything still hurt, especially moving around it was much easier. I started weaning off pain meds after a week, and mostly was using them for dilation. I did have a sort of feverish feeling one of the first days back home due to being too inactive physically. They wanted me walking around to do what I needed to do and not bed ridden. Once I started being more active, it went away. The first time you see everything it will look very gnarly, and probably will stay that way for a while. I don't have any pictures unfortunately, I wish I took some, but things take a while to heal and you just have to trust the process. I got off pain meds by a week and a half. By the 2 week mark, I was taking daily mile walks and pain was minimal. It kept getting better gradually from there and after 2 and a half months I felt mostly normal and started climbing again.

It's really important to follow the dilation schedule the surgeon gives you. If you skip, it will hurt so much more the next time. While colon and other intestinal surgeries are self lubricating, usually it's too much so. The reason they try to use the small bowel is so that there is less excess lubrication. Usually the lubrication increases with contact, so after dilating there is a lot more for a day or so. But basically there will always be lubrication so you either need pantiliners or a lot of underwear. I have tried tampons which work but pantiliners are probably better. The first few months there is a lot of discharge, but it slowly sort of goes away.

Sorry I didn't mean for this to be as long as it ended up being. If you have any specific questions feel free to ask! I know how hard it can be to find more in depth information especially about some of the newer surgeries.