Cycling in Phoenix and Jen’s Recovery, Part 2

Cycling in Phoenix and Jen’s Recovery, Part 2
October 15, 2005

During the time when Jen was in surgery at Greenbaum, I had a chance to stop the SHC medical records department to request a copy of my medical records. When I requested a copy of my medical records the clerk asked me what I’m specifically looking for in my records. I told her that I wanted a copy of my file. She processed my request and called me later that afternoon to let me know the copy of my records are ready. I picked them up Thursday morning on our way back to our hotel room. Much to my disappointment, the copies she made for me contained only my surgery report, results of a blood test (I had no idea they ran this test on me) and not much more. After reviewing this, I told the clerk I’m looking for a copy of my complete records and she was surprised at my request. A call to the medical records department on Friday afternoon verified that the copy of my records were ready for pick up. A short trip over to the SHC medical records department and $45.00 later, I had a 125-page copy of my medical records. Over the weekend, I looked over every page and learned a lot about the medical process, the procedure and my self. It was very informative, educational and helps me understand more about all that has happened.

Jen and I got up early Saturday morning and she was still a bit tired for the recovery process. Jen and I discussed my plans for today. I was going to head out for another bike ride with our friend in Phoenix. While Jen did her morning routine, I headed down stairs to fetch some breakfast for the two of us. Some hard-boiled eggs, French toast, waffles, corn flakes with milk, yogurt, cinnamon roll and chocolate muffin. After our breakfast, I got ready for the bike trip while Jen stayed in our hotel room resting and recovering.

We had planned to have Lunch with Debbie later today. Once I was ready for the bike ride, we said our goodbyes and headed off to our friends house in Phoenix. When I arrived, it was a warm hello and both our bicycles were ready to go much to my surprise. We headed off to Paradise Valley and a few other new places in Phoenix that I have never been before. We eventually reached 64th Street in Scottsdale before we began to head back to her home. The weather was simply wonderful, sunny warm with little wind. 35 miles later and just over 2 hours, our bicycle trip was over. It seems that our time together on the bike went by so fast. When we returned back to her home, I got a chance to take a shower and share a small snack before heading back to our hotel room and meet Debbie for lunch. I will always treasure these memorable bike trips and time spent with our friends in Phoenix.

The drive back to our hotel was a scenic and peaceful one. When I arrived back at the Holiday Inn and took the elevator up to our room, Debbie was waiting at the door. After a warm Debbie hello, I opened the door and Debbie greeted Jen with the same. We all chatted for a while before heading off to a local Mexican restaurant. We were all seated in a booth near a window and placed our drink and food orders. Debbie told me of a local Trans community event that evening and asked if I were interested in attending. I considered this for a moment, but decided to be with Jen instead. We talked about a host of stuff, everything from our memories of Rocky to real estate in Phoenix. Hours passed and it was time for us to head back to our hotel room. Jen was getting tired from our time together. With our leftovers in hand, Debbie drove us back to the holiday Inn and we took the elevator up to our room. Jen and I took a nap together for the rest of the afternoon. We were so stuffed from our meal at lunch that dinner would have been excessive. We did have a few nibbles from the food leftover from our lunch earlier that day.

Jen was not feeling well later that evening and I asked her what was going on. She just looked tired and a bit pale. I decided to call our Surgeon friend Dr. Kay for some advice. Once I got Dr. Kay on the phone, we chatted a bit about how Jen was feeling and eventually passed the phone on the Jen for her to chat with Dr. Kay. She suspects Jen might be running a slight fever and we should get a thermometer, some Tylenol and Moltrin. I happened to have a couple of Tylenol in my purse and Jen took them while I made a trip to Walgreen’s for the other items. When I got back to our hotel room, Jen was looking and feeling better. A check of Jen’s temperature proved it to be within the normal range, but we suspect that Jen was running a slight temperature before she took the Tylenol. Jen took a Moltrin and stopped taking the Percocet for pain. It was now time for bed, and this was a nice way to end another day in Scottsdale.

Cycling in Phoenix and Jen’s Recovery

Cycling in Phoenix and Jen’s Recovery
October 14, 2005

I called our friend who lives in Phoenix yesterday night to see if she would like to got for a bike ride. After our chat on the phone, we decided to head out for a ride on this Friday morning. I asked Jen how she was feeling and if it would be OK for me to head off for a bike ride. While Jens was still tired and dealing with the recovery process, Jen felt it was OK for me to do my own thing for a while. I got dressed, headed downstairs to get some breakfast for the two of us and after we ate, I changed into my cycling stuff, loaded the bike into the car, said our goodbyes and headed over to our friends home in Phoenix. I got lost on the way over to her place, but a phone call fixed that problem quick. When I arrived at her home, she was so excited that we are finally going to head out for a ride together. We finished getting ready and head out on the Phoenix roads and bike paths. One of the bike paths we pedaled on was next to a canal and was complete with tunnels for the streets over above. I have never been on any road like this before and while my cyclist friend rolled right into and out the other side of the tunnels, I slowed down on entering the tunnel and speeded up near the exit to catch up to her. Our ride took up into places in Phoenix I have never been and the new places were great. I’m still not sure where we pedaled, but it was really nice to be able to focus on just riding and not worrying about getting lost. We did reach part of Paradise Valley. This is where I spent most of my time cycling last year when Jen was a Greenbaum recovering for SRS part 1. The time and miles went by fast and we were back at where we started. Our ride was 30 miles in about 2 hours including stops and etc. Wow that was great fun to share our time cycling, chatting about anything that came to mind and it was really enjoyable visiting parts of Phoenix that I have never been to before. The morning was not too hot, but it was windy and later that morning the temperature was in the low 90’s. The heat of the day was just beginning to happen. We went into our friend’s home where I had a chance to take a quick shower while she made lunch for us. Lunch was ready when I got out of the shower and dressed. We shared lunch together and spent time chatting about so many things that came to mind.

The time was now past noon and it was time to head back to our room at the Holiday Inn. I called Jen to check on how she was doing and what she wanted for lunch. It turns out, Jen is doing well enough, she was in bed most of the morning watching TV. She wanted a Mc D’s basic burger meal for lunch. Old habits die slow, the last time Jen had one of these in Scottsdale, the Mc D’s meal made her sick. Now it was time for me to say goodbye to our friend in Phoenix, pick up lunch for Jen and head back to the hotel. I stopped by a Mc D’s in Indian School Road on the way back to the Holiday Inn. It was around 1:30 PM when I arrived back at Room. Jen ate her lunch and we spent the rest of the afternoon taking a nap and cuddling together.

By dinner time, we decided to get a take out pizza at Oregano’s which is located across the street from Greenbaum. They have really good thin crust pizza. I ordered a garlic chicken cheese pizza and one green salad with grilled chicken. Our order required 20 minutes or so before it’s ready, so I decided to take a short visit to my new friends at Greenbaum. It was nice to see them again and they were happy that I visited them. The bad news was one of my newly post-op friends was not able to pee after the catheter came out and requires reinstallation of the catheter. Having been there and done that, it’s no fun at all. I shared my experience with her having been thru the same problem. There is comfort in hearing there is an end to that form another that has lived thru the same problem.

After almost ½ hour has passed, our pizza and it was time for me to leave Greenbaum and head over to Oregano’s to pick up our order and head back to our hotel room. Our order was ready to pick up upon my arrival. When I got back to our hotel room, Jen and I sat down in the dinning area to have din din together. The rest of our evening was a quite one with the tow of us simply spending time cuddling and resting in bed together. I did get a look at Jen’s labiaplasty healing progress. It is still swollen, and there are some dark areas on the edge of the labia.

There are no asymmetry problems and overall it does look really good. It also appears that the slight webbing between the anus and vagina has been removed. Jen has not dilated for a few days, but that should not be a problem since being a year post op, the schedule is about twice a week or so. There some advantages of waiting a year or so after vaginoplasty before getting labiaplasty. IMO, what is the rush?

I got to say, I’m not really looking forward to my surgery date in Feb 2006. Every time I think about all that we deal with in this process, it makes me cringe at all the stuff involved to get this done. This includes the emotional stress, traveling, expense, pain, recovery time, and the list goes on. For those who say being TS is a lifestyle, it makes me feel like clobbering them over the head with it. There is a part of me that would like to take that Joe Schmoe who claims this is a life style and subject them to what we live with, even if it’s just for one day. It has taken Jen and I many years to be where we are today and I’m tired of taking this from those who claim to know why we life this “lifestyle” without being born and growing up this way.

Jen’s Post Op Day One at Greenbaum

Jen’s Post Op Day One at Greenbaum
October 13, 2005

I was semi awake when the nurse came into Jen’s room to take her vitals, remove the catheter. When I asked Jen about this later in the morning, she told me it was rather uneventful. I finally got up at a bit past 8:00 AM and did my usual morning routine. I slept amazingly well that night. Jen’s Breakfast arrived and we sat together to chat while during breakfast. Jen was still tired from yesterday’s events. It was shortly after Breakfast the I got a look at Jen’s revised vag, it looked like raw hamburger on the edges of the labia, the clitoris is coved by hooding and sill quite swollen. Pretty similar to just about every other newly post-op Dr. Meltzer labiaplasty I have ever seen. Jen also told me there is a lot more pain involved than the vag which is consistent with the others who have had this procedure. Jen was still tired from the stress of surgery and went back to sleep shortly after our morning events.

I started to think about my conversation with Debbie and all the events that has happened to her over the past few months. She nearly died from being shot with a gun in the hand of her ex, Charles. Today, she is thankful for each morning she awakes and has another chance to enjoy life, spend time with those who she loves and loves her. There are many mornings I wake up thinking and feeling the same way. We are lucky to be where we are today and have the ability to enjoy what life has to offer for another day. I think about how lucky Jen and I to be able to share life the way we do and how much our lives can change with a few fleeting moments of our lives. Yes, something could have gone wrong during Jen’s surgery and I’m thankful that all went well.

Today is also check out day for Jen and I spent some of the time when Jen as sleeping to get things packed and ready for us to leave. Every time we do this serves as a reminder to pack as little as possible and anything extra makes the process more difficult. Once the packing was done, I went off to visit a few of the other Meltzer patients to see how they are doing. One of Dr. Meltzer’s patients I met yesterday night told me that she came to Scottsdale with her friend who became Jealous of how well her surgery went after suffering from various problems during her surgical recovery in Thailand.

She told me that what happened has been very stressful on their friendship as she felt abandoned by her friend who said show would be there for her during her surgery with Dr. Meltzer. We chatted for a while about our lives today and in the past. I was surprised to learn that she read my blog before her surgery date and it helped her anticipate her days of recovery. The other Meltzer patient I met on that day was post-op day 6 and just had her grand opening. All went well so far. She told me that due to the lack of pre-op material, Dr. Meltzer had to build the vaginal lining from skin grafts. Every other surgeon she consulted with told her that she did not have adequate material to create a functional vagina except Dr. Meltzer. She was surprised to fine adequate vaginal size during dilation. We also shared our life experiences during our time together. All these visits with other patients reminded me of many memories from my time at Greenbaum back in February 2005. There were a number of questions my newly post-op friends asked me and I tried to answer them based on my experience. There is comfort in knowing what might happen based on another’s experience. It was rewarding for me to share what being newly post op has been like. I headed back to room# 11 where Jen is staying. By this time, she was a bit more alert and was chatting with Debbie. We all shared memories of those times we had a Greenbaum and more on what’s been going on in her life since that nearly fatal day at home.

Dr. Meltzer strolled in about this time to check on Jen around noon to see how she was doing.
He did a post op exam and all appears well and got Jen scrip for some pain meds. I asked Dr. Meltzer if we are going to be able to spend any time cycling, he told me he has not been feeling well and has not been running or pedaling on the since last week. Not good, the last thing I would like to see is him being sick and needing to cancel any scheduled surgeries. I did take the opportunity to finish asking him about the remaining questions I had regarding my scheduled BA. When we were done, he headed off to visit his next patient. I asked Jen about how being post labiaplasty was like. She told me it’s the usual post op feeling of being tired, slight bleeding and discharge from the surgical area and pretty much what we expected. She told me her urine stream now goes straight down and is no longer at an angle towards the rim.

I finished packing our stuff and moved it all down to the car. Jen rang for the nurse to tell them we were ready to check out and Charlotte returned with a wheel chair as we waited in the hall way. The ride back to Holiday Inn was short, but we had to change room due to the noise from the construction going on at the back of the hotel. We moved from room# 245 to room# 323. With keys in hand, we opened the door and got Jen in bed where she took a nap and got some more rest. I told Jen I’m going to head off to Walgreen’s pick up her pain meds and a few other items we needed. It was already 4 PM when we got back to our room and I was hoping that there would be time for me to take a short bike ride since I got the bike assembled on Wednesday night before going out for bike rides with our friend in Scottsdale.

I drove over to Walgreen’s, dropped of the scrip and asked the pharmacist how long it would take for the meds to be ready. The pharmacist told me it should ready in 20 minutes and they would cal me when it’s ready. I headed off to the magazine section to spend the time. 20 minutes passed and the meds were not ready after I asked the pharmacist. She told me the dosage was missing and they had to call Dr. Meltzer’s office to find out the dosage information. How much longer I asked? Dr. Meltzer’s office returned the call quickly and the pharmacist told me the meds should be ready in another 10 to 15 minutes. Jen called me on the cell phone to see if they had a sitz bottle at Walgreen’s and to pick one up if they do. It was one of the little items that was forgotten when check out from Greenbaum. I looked around and did not find one, so I decided to take a short walk over to Greenbaum to get one. Charlotte was still there I arrived and asked her for a sitz bottle. She went to get a sitz bottle, ice bag, spare post op panties and a pad that was service with a smile. One more trip down the elevator and back over to Walgreen’s to see if Jen’s meds were ready.

When I arrived at the pharmacy the meds were still not ready and much to my shock and amazement the folks working in the pharmacy were spending more time chatting among themselves and carrying on than getting the scripts filled. I stood there steaming over this as I have been waiting for over an hour for Jen’s meds. If they simply told me that filling the scripts would take more like an hour rather than 20 minutes or so, I would not have been so pissed off.
Eventually, I did get the meds, but after all that, I called the store manager to complain. Even more surprising was hearing the store manager defending the workers at the pharmacy. This made me more pissed off as I left the store and headed back to our hotel room. I was planning to head out for a short bike ride before the sunset on that day to check out how well the bicycle is working, but it was too late when I finally returned. We spent the evening together with Jen sleeping in bed most of the time.

Jen's Surgery Day

Jen's Surgery Day
October 12, 2005

I did not sleep that well yesterday night and spent part of the time writing my previous journal entry. I found myself waking up after listing to an Enya CD. It was 2:00 AM before I woke up and went on to bed. I got up this morning around 6:30 AM to get ready for our day ahead. Jen was not up and around until after 7:00 AM. Jen and I got ready for our appointment at Dr. Meltzer’s office. We arrived at Dr. Meltzer’s office at a just before 9:00 AM and met Debbie at the front desk. I was really surprised to see her, she looked great! After our warm greetings and short chat, she went to get the room ready for us. Jen and I sat down in the waiting room for what appeared to be a short time before Debbie told us that our room is ready. We followed Debbie into the exam room and Jen sat down on the familiar dental chair. I sat down on the chair to the right. Debbie handed us two black robes to change into. Jen and I looked at each with early morning eyes, undressed and put on our robes. Debbie returned into our room, while she took Jen’s temperature and other patient info, Debbie and I began to chat about all that’s been happening in her life since that incident with her ex. At one point during our conversation, we both got tearful and comforted each other with a big warm hug. Debbie is so thankful to have received the many gifts of love and caring that was given to her by those individuals touched by her spirit. I’m so glad to see her doing so well after all that has happened to her only a few months ago.

A short while later, Dr. Meltzer entered our exam room. He was a bit under the weather from the previous week, but still cheerful and charming as ever. After a bit of bicycle chat, he went on to do Jen’s Labiaplasty pre op exam. Jen wanted IV sedation for this procedure, make an adjustment to her urine stream. Otherwise, it was a rather routine Dr. Meltzer Labiaplasty. Now it was my turn, ug.. We chatted as the exam chair rolled back and he did an exam for Labiaplasty. I was concerned with the need for some hair zapping around the clitoral area that becomes the hooding. It turns out that there is enough clear area to get the clitoral hooding done without any hair zapping. I was surprised, relieved and feeling very lucky that was able to skip the entire genital electrolysis (hair zapping) for both surgeries. I don’t really have any problems with urine stream problems (it’s more like a downward pour) and since my clitoris is relatively flat, I don’t have a problem with rubbing on a very sensitive clitoris. In many ways, I could skip the Labiaplasty and be OK with the way things are now. Labiaplasty would be an improvement more than a required procedure. We discussed my eye catching raised scars and while it’s pretty much the same as we discussed the last time, I did consult with a skin doc on this a few weeks before our trip to Scottsdale and it looks like a series steroid injection to flatten them. This is pretty much what Dr. Meltzer told me the first time he examined them. I should do something about them some them in the near future, but I’m not looking forward to a series of really painful steroid injections. We moved on to the next schedules surgery, breast aug. This began with, “how small could you make the incision?” Dr. Meltzer is well aware of the way my body tends to heal with raised scars. While there is a difference between surgical incisions and skin trauma, I still believe what ever incision is going to heal with a raised scar. To minimize this, the smaller the incision, the smaller the raised scar. Our discussion began to take on the feel of a buyer / seller at bazaar. Seriously, there is a finite space required to do this. I did mention Dr. Gray’s tiny incision (about 0.5” under the actual nipple) Dr. Meltzer was curious about the consistency of his results from this. In the end, it came down to less the half the diameter of my areola which is less than 1” or so. The norm for a peri areola incision is 1.5” or half the areola diameter. With that out of the way, we continued to my primary concern, the loss of sensation question. I mentioned to Dr. Meltzer that when I posed this question to a number of BA patients, the reply was extremely varied. From just fine post op to totally numb over one year post-op.

What he told me was the primary factor is what happened during the implant dissection process. If the pocket is made wider, there is a greater chance of damaging the nerve that connects to the breast, areola and nipple. It is possible to alter the implant pocket dissection process by significantly reducing the width of the pocket and staying as far away as possible to the nerve area around the pocket area and areola. This also means a smaller implant which is fine with me.

Dr. Meltzer told me of a case when he was in Portland where the patient canceled her BA for exactly my same concerns. At that point, I mentioned that maybe this is a procedure I should not do for this reason, his reply, “no not really, there are ways to reduce this risk.” Hearing this was a bit comforting, regardless, in the world of surgery and most everything in life there are no 100% guarantees, just varying degrees of risk. That is when I mentioned the reason for all my worry and concern over the loss of sensitivity problem is due to me being breast orgasmic and something I really don’t want to lose. He agreed that losing this would not be a good thing. Several years ago when I first began hormone therapy, my developing boobies definitely hurt like any other girl going thru puberty. Even after a year or so after my Orchiectomy, my breast did not have the degree of sensitivity they do today. I believe in my case, it’s a time to mature development thing. Thinking back to when I first started HT, losing sensitivity due to BA would not have been that big an issue for me. It’s only in recent years and being able to share with a loving partner that this has become a serious issue for me.

As for implant size, it’s one of the focal issues that concern the majority of women who get a BA. Dr. Meltzer does implant sizing while you are on the OR table. After a look at my boobies, he notes that I don’t have a very wide chest and his estimation for implant size would be in the 300ish cc range. Not far from what I discovered after I tried on a large number of implant sizers during my long Dr. Gray consultation back in April 2005. Dr. Gray suggested implants in the 450cc range for me…errr.. I don’t think so, “your’re not the one who has to live with them.”

I honestly believe the enjoyment and sharing of sex between two individuals is not primarily for pro creation, but emotional bonding between two individuals. This topic is discussed at length in Prof. Joan Roughgarden’s book ‘Evolution's Rainbow: Diversity, Gender and Sexuality in Nature and People’. Her book counters one of Darwin’s theories that sex is primarily for pro creation. It’s well worth the read.

While there were still more BA stuff I wanted to discuss with Dr. Meltzer, the clock was rolling towards 11:00 AM and Jen’s surgery is scheduled for 12:45 PM, so, I cut my consultation short thinking that I could discuss this again with Dr. Meltzer during the next day or so during one of his post-op visits with Jen at Greenbaum.

We left Dr. Meltzer’s office and headed over to Greenbaum for Jen’s surgery date.

Jen signed in, registered and filled out the usual pre-op paper work. It was a very short time later that one of the OR nurses called Jen and she was on her way. I waited for the call to join Jen in the pre op area. 45 minutes passed and after a few inquires, they finally allowed me to join Jen in the pre-op area. For what ever reason, everything seemed to run late today. This started with our appointment with Dr. Meltzer to the events at Greenbaum.

The pre-op area looked all too familiar. Jen was in stall# 11. She had the usual IV, taken a pre-op sedative and laying on the gurney partly spaced out from the meds. We held hands and waited for her surgery to begin. As more time passed, the two of the OR nurses appeared and was ready for Jen. There was also another RN named Bill who administered and injection in Jen’s arm. The clock rolled past 1:00 PM, this was 15 minutes past Jen’s scheduled surgery time.

At 1:05 PM, Dr. Meltzer appeared, check on Jen for a few moments and Jen’s Labiaplasty is ready to begin. I took a few more pre-op area pictures as the two OR nurses rolled her gurney into the OR. It was time to head back to our hotel room, pack our stuff for the overnight stay at Greenbaum. I zapped a burrito from TJ’s for lunch along with some Cranberry juice. I had a free moment and called Michelle to chat. Michelle and I chatted about our Dr. Meltzer appointment this morning. As I told her about what happened during our appointment, she said, “Ok, let’s get to what you decided to do about your schedules BA in February?” Michelle and I have been discussing this over the past several weeks. Yes, she got a BA with Dr. Meltzer along with her VAG a few months ago. In her case, everything worked out just fine. I told her, “Yes, I’m going to do the BA with my LP in February.” Yes, I’m leaning towards that direction and I did feel a bit better about this after discussing this with Dr. Meltzer, but I got to say it is a reserved yes. There is still the fear of me doing something I’m going to seriously regret for all the long winded reasons that has appeared in my blog over the past several months. It is possible that after my BA is confirmed, fee paid and etc that come surgery day that I would cancel while I’m on pre-op gurney. I don’t what this to happen, so I need to get comfy with saying yes to getting a BA. This has been the most difficult elective surgery choice I have made in my life. Every other surgery was such a simple and easy decision for me. What a way of allowing one’s desire to cause so much grief and stress over the past several months. Michelle and I finished our phone conversation and I got off the phone, loaded everything into the car and headed over to Greenbaum.

It was early when I arrived at Greenbaum so a trip to the second floor to visit would be a nice thing to do. Into the elevator and when the elevator doors opened, all the memories of my days at Greenbaum came roaring back. Many of the nursing staff remembered me instantly. After a few quick warm greetings, I moved our stuff into the room where Jen is scheduled to stay. Once this was done, I went back down stairs to wait for Dr. Meltzer to come out to discuss how Jen’s surgery went. I arrived back at Greenbaum at just 3:00 PM estimating that Jen’s surgery would take about 2 hours after they began. After my arrival at Greenbaum, I took an elevator ride up to the second floor to visit and went over to the nurse’s station. Much to my surprise, Katie was taking a group picture of the nursing staff. Many members of the nursing staff remembered me and were quite surprised to see me. Since they were taking a group picture, I got out my camera and took a few too. After a bunch of warm greetings, I headed back down stairs to wait for Jen.

The time passed like Jell-O stuck in an hour glass. No sign of Dr. Meltzer either. I took several trips up to the second floor and back to the first floor trying to find out any news on Jen’s status.
It was not until 4:30 PM that Jen finally arrived at room 11. Jen was still pretty loopy from the meds when she arrived, but semi awake enough to chat for a bit and order dinner. Jen had chicken fajita and I had the chicken with cheese and tomato sauce. She was pretty hungry after not eating anything since our dinner with friends from the previous night. After dinner, Jen went to sleep, knackered from the stress of surgery and all the events of the day.

I took some time to relax in Jen’s room after such an eventful day. The nurses would come into Jens room once every hour or so to take her vitals. Jen had an Oximeter alarm that would go off every so often when her pulse rate got below 40 BPM. That is the lower limit set on the Oximeter. It turns out that we have a tendency to do this as it was due to our low resting pulse rate for all the cycling we do. The nurse adjusted the lower limit and the Oximeter and the problem went away.

I decided to visit a few of Dr. Meltzer’s patients while Jen was sleeping. The visits were welcomed by every patient I visited. As we shared our stories and parts of our lives, the experience was emotionally healing and bonding for us.

The nursing staff changed shifts and I got a chance to say hello a few of the night shift nurses when I was at Greenbaum in February. I was nice to see then again.

The clock was nearing 10:00 PM when I got back to our room. It was also a dilation day for me. So I asked one of the nurses for some bedding and it arrived shortly after my request. I even remember how the roll out sleeper worked. Once the sleeper was rolled out, I put the bed together, changed into my night gown and began the date with my plastic boyfriends #3, #4, and #5. It was really strange dilating in the same room where Jen stayed for her VAG almost exactly one year ago.

Once my date was done, I took a sleeping pill and went to sleep. After all the events of the day, I was tired, very tired, but the first night post op is always a noisy due to all the monitoring activity and I learned from my time at Greenbaum that taking a sleeping pill works for me as I’m a light sleeper and wake easily from all that activity.

What a way to spend our Anniversary.

Back to Scottsdale

Back to Scottsdale
October 11, 2005

We have been cleaning the house, getting stuff ready and packing since Thursday in preparation for our trip back to Scottsdale. The time has come for Jen’s Labiaplasty date with Dr. Meltzer on October 12 just before 1:00 PM. Our morning was slightly stressful since this is the fourth time we have made the trip to Scottsdale. It’s become rather routine. The only thing that did not work out well was the shuttle to the airport. They were just over thirty minutes late and the last time we are using Real Airport shuttle. It appears that cabs are more reliable. We had planned extra time for delays just in case stuff like this happens. When we got to the SWA curb side check in everything wet just fine and the security check was pretty much routine without problems. Jen and I shared a Cal garlic chicken pizza while we waited for our flight to depart for PHX. The flight was right on schedule and arrived on time without incident. Baggage pickup and rental car pickup was just the same. After we got our land yacht Buick Le saber rental car, we headed towards the Holiday Inn on Scottsdale road. We brought a portable GPS to help us find our way around this time. When we reached Scottsdale Road, we continued on to Trader Joes for some food shopping and headed back to the Holiday Inn. Jen check us in and we moved all our stuff up to our room and spent some time relaxing before heading to meet a friend for dinner at her home. The drive over to her home went with out incident and when we arrived, it was all hugs and warm greetings as we sat outside to chat before dinner started. The meal of roasted chicken, veggies, salad and dessert of rice pudding with rice pudding was scrumptious. We shared some wine too. It was simply a wonderful evening with friends. The bicycle I had sent a few weeks ago arrived in fine condition. The bike and my bike stuff were unpacked and loaded into our car. The drive back home was a quite one. We moved the bike up to our hotel room where I put the bike back together. I’m planning to take the bike out for a short spin to make sure everything is working fine. While I was putting the bike back together, Jen dilated for the last time before Labiaplasty scheduled for tomorrow. She went to bed early and I’m still up writing.

Tomorrow Morning at 9:00 AM, Jen has a pre-op appointment and I have a consultation for my scheduled BA & LP also, I hope the BA question can be resolved tomorrow so I can stop stressing over it. Once our appointment is done, we are headed over to Greenbaum for Jen’s LP. I will be staying with Jen in her room over night at Greenbaum. I’m no looking forward to sleeping on that lumpy roll out bed again.

I’m hoping that Jen’s LP goes just fine without incident, but all surgery holds not guarantee results, just varying degrees of risk.

Each time we return to Scottsdale, it feels like returning back to a familiar place that’s an important part of our life’s journey.