First Post op Exam

February 16, 2005

Jen and I just got back from a walk around the park near where we live. I settled down to read my email and when that was done, I visited Becky’s journal from 1994. As I read more and more of her journey, I began to think about my own transition and the life that Jen and I share together. The tears just started to pour out of my eyes as the emotions from all that has happened over the past few weeks really began to dawn on me as I was reading Becky’s journal.

I’m so dam lucky to be where I am today. For the first time in my life, I no longer feel disjointed. Something most individuals take for granted so easily and never considers or thinks about during most of their lives.

It surprised me how similar many of the feelings I felt are so similar to Becky’s. I started thinking back to the time we spent at the Kona Grill, what I come away with is the amount of similarity Becky and I share in the areas of spirituality, being born TS and a host of other topics. Maybe those who transitioned later in life have had to endure so many different challenges that the experience changes them in a certain way. I know that my transition has forever changed me in ways that I may not realize yet. Only the future can reveal that part of my story.

My appointment with Dr. Aslan got moved to Friday, it was originally scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 22. Heidi called me to tell me that she will be in Surgery at KP Santa Clara, so we moved it to Friday. Jen and I arrived at KP mountain view at just after 9:00 AM. Heidi called me in right on time and did the usual routine of taking my vitals and weight. I was surprised to discover my weight was 151lbs with my clothes on. That would put me well below 150lbs bare. I had no idea I lost weight. I thought I had gained weight instead. We followed Heidi into one of the exam rooms. I Changed into a gown and waited for Dr. Aslan to arrive. In short time, there was a knock on the door, it was Dr. Aslan. She came in and sat down on the stool while I sat on the exam table. She had a bunch of questions for me and I had some for her. She asked me how long was the surgery, just over 3 Hrs, and a few other questions specific to this procedure. I’m her first TS vaginoplasty patient. I told her about the suture tears, that is when I got into the exam table so she could have a look. She probed around a bit with a Q tip to asses the extent of the suture tears. I told her Dr. Meltzer said to keep that area really clean and it should heal in time. Dr. Aslan suggested doing a wet to dry dressing change to aid in the healing process. I was not certain of doing this as Jen would need to play nurse and do the dressing changes for me.

We also got the results of my urine cultures back from the lab. Yes, I got a UTI and the first antibiotics I got would not work for the offending organism, so she wrote me scrip for Cipro.

I suspected there was a UTI brewing and I was right. I’m glad we did the catheter removal at KP and they were able to get this lab work done.

I wanted to get my visit with Dr. Shaffer done sooner than later so we can figure what is the best way of dealing with this. Dr. Aslan was not motivated to have a look inside my vagina using a speculum. That was fine, and could wait until later. She found the article written by Dr. Meltzer and staff regarding post-op care I left for her interesting and helpful. She was a bit surprised at how good things looked given I was still quite swollen and not really healed yet. She told me to call her if I needed anything. Just before she left the room, I gave her a thank you card. Dr. Aslan’s reply, “Thank you Bernice, you’re really sweet.” I just wanted her to know that what she does for me is appreciated.

I got dressed and Jen and I were on our way. I wanted to find out if they had sent my scripts to the pharmacy. When I got to the front desk, there was no one to ask about this, and then I noticed that Heidi was around the corner and I called her to see if she could verify my scripts were sent. She came back a short time later and confirmed my scripts were sent. Jen and I headed down to the pharmacy to pick up my scripts. I got my meds, some more Bactracin and a bottle of KP’s version of Cetaphil to try. We headed home after this trip. The rest of the day was pretty low key. We took a walk around the park, had lunch and I did my daily post-op care. Our evening was spent watching stuff on TV and me resting. I just want to keep things at a low level of activity so my body can recover.