BA & LP Pre OP
February 1, 2006
I usually don’t sleep too well in a strange place and yesterday night was no exception. Adding to it all was my pre-op appointment tomorrow morning at Dr. Meltzer’s office. I’m writing this in the early morning while Jen is still sleeping. After over a year of debating, research, consultations and a lot of emotional events the time has come for me to deal with my surgery date tomorrow.
It was 6:30 AM when I finally got out of bed and began getting ready for the day ahead. Jen did not wake until later, but after she woke up at just after 7:00 AM, we did our usual routine and got ready to leave for my pre-op appointment with Dr. Meltzer at 9:30 AM. We left the B&B at quarter after 9:00 AM and arrived at Dr. Meltzer’s office slightly after 9:30 AM. We rang the door buzzer and Linda let us into the office. Linda asked me how I was doing and I told her, “not good.” And I shared with her how I felt about my surgery date tomorrow. She introduced me to her daughter who worked there part time. We were surprised to see Stephanie sitting in the waiting area. It’s been a long time since we met. We chatted for a bit to catch up on all that has happened since we last talked. She was here with Roberta who is scheduled for a VAG the morning of my surgery. Roberta was already doing her pre-op consultation with Dr. Meltzer when we arrived. More of Roberta’s friends arrived later that morning. Dr. Meltzer’s office was pretty busy, more so than from what I have observed in the past. They were running a bit late, but eventually, Debbie called my name and we followed her into one of the exam rooms. This was her first day back to work after her finger was surgically removed due to the continued problems of infection and other problems. This was another one of those problems that she has been dealing with since her BF Rocky was shot by her ex last year. Debbie was in surprisingly good spirits after all that has happened. Once we were in the exam room, Lindsay who is one of Dr. Meltzer’s nurses from the days when he was working in Oregon came in and went over some paper work with me. Dr. Meltzer arrived shortly after with that bright and cheerful charm. We spent a bit of time talking about cycling as we usually do and went on to discuss my pre-op stuff. After a year of discussing my concerns with BA, we both pretty much knew what my concerns were. We went on to discuss my concerns for labiaplasty and I asked for a sheet of paper to draw a sketch. I drew it reversed relative to what Dr. Meltzer was accustomed to seeing, but reversed the drawing so he could understand what I was trying to explain. On the drawing was a crude sketch of the bottom Vee where my sutures had split post VAG a year ago and while they have healed well, there is scar tissue there with some webbing that made accessing the vagina slightly more difficult. There were two JP drains that are placed in the labia post VAG and one of them healed OK, the other healed with a raised bump. The urine stream was slightly towards my right and the flow rate is modest but most of the time, it’s a downward flow rather than a stream. None of these are going to be a problem to fix during LP. As for the clitoral hooding, I just told Dr. Meltzer no to do anything that might affect its function. It’s bad enough with the concerns I have for BA, but having clitoral function affected is going to break me. While there are a number of surgeons who does a one stop VAG, I don’t believe you can consistently get good results due to the amount of surgery done in that area, healing varies among individuals, anatomy varies among individuals too. That is a lot to expect to go right for such an extensive surgery. Once my pre-op appointment was done, I carried my bag of post-op supplies with me to visit Carole to chat for a moment and schedule a post-op appointment for next week. We left Dr. Meltzer’s off and headed to Starbucks for Mocha and pastery. Jen & I sat around for a while to chat about the day ahead and enjoying the warm sunny day. Our next stop was Target to pick up toiletries and a few other related items for the days ahead. We stopped by the Greenbaum hotel to say hello to the nursing staff and visit Ericka who got her VAG done earlier this week and her friend Suzy to chat. We talked about her history T* and suzy about her M to F son. The time passed quickly and we needed to head over to Trader Joes to get food for the next few days. I got a dinner invitation call from Terri. She wanted us to join her for dinner at Picasso Pizza at 6:30 PM. Our schedule was tight, but do able if we did not stay out too late.
When we got back to our B&B after shopping at Trader Joes and put the food away. We both took a rest before heading out for our dinner date. I washed and conditioned my hair knowing I won’t be able to do this until a few days post-op.
We drove down Scottsdale Blvd to Picasso Pizza and had a nice dinner with Terri and Roberta’s friends who were in town to support her VAG journey. We left the restaurant at just after 8:00PM for our B&B. I wanted to go to bed early since there will be a long day for me tomorrow. I dilated one last time knowing I’m not going to be doing this until several days later. Tomorrow is surgery day.
I usually don’t sleep too well in a strange place and yesterday night was no exception. Adding to it all was my pre-op appointment tomorrow morning at Dr. Meltzer’s office. I’m writing this in the early morning while Jen is still sleeping. After over a year of debating, research, consultations and a lot of emotional events the time has come for me to deal with my surgery date tomorrow.
It was 6:30 AM when I finally got out of bed and began getting ready for the day ahead. Jen did not wake until later, but after she woke up at just after 7:00 AM, we did our usual routine and got ready to leave for my pre-op appointment with Dr. Meltzer at 9:30 AM. We left the B&B at quarter after 9:00 AM and arrived at Dr. Meltzer’s office slightly after 9:30 AM. We rang the door buzzer and Linda let us into the office. Linda asked me how I was doing and I told her, “not good.” And I shared with her how I felt about my surgery date tomorrow. She introduced me to her daughter who worked there part time. We were surprised to see Stephanie sitting in the waiting area. It’s been a long time since we met. We chatted for a bit to catch up on all that has happened since we last talked. She was here with Roberta who is scheduled for a VAG the morning of my surgery. Roberta was already doing her pre-op consultation with Dr. Meltzer when we arrived. More of Roberta’s friends arrived later that morning. Dr. Meltzer’s office was pretty busy, more so than from what I have observed in the past. They were running a bit late, but eventually, Debbie called my name and we followed her into one of the exam rooms. This was her first day back to work after her finger was surgically removed due to the continued problems of infection and other problems. This was another one of those problems that she has been dealing with since her BF Rocky was shot by her ex last year. Debbie was in surprisingly good spirits after all that has happened. Once we were in the exam room, Lindsay who is one of Dr. Meltzer’s nurses from the days when he was working in Oregon came in and went over some paper work with me. Dr. Meltzer arrived shortly after with that bright and cheerful charm. We spent a bit of time talking about cycling as we usually do and went on to discuss my pre-op stuff. After a year of discussing my concerns with BA, we both pretty much knew what my concerns were. We went on to discuss my concerns for labiaplasty and I asked for a sheet of paper to draw a sketch. I drew it reversed relative to what Dr. Meltzer was accustomed to seeing, but reversed the drawing so he could understand what I was trying to explain. On the drawing was a crude sketch of the bottom Vee where my sutures had split post VAG a year ago and while they have healed well, there is scar tissue there with some webbing that made accessing the vagina slightly more difficult. There were two JP drains that are placed in the labia post VAG and one of them healed OK, the other healed with a raised bump. The urine stream was slightly towards my right and the flow rate is modest but most of the time, it’s a downward flow rather than a stream. None of these are going to be a problem to fix during LP. As for the clitoral hooding, I just told Dr. Meltzer no to do anything that might affect its function. It’s bad enough with the concerns I have for BA, but having clitoral function affected is going to break me. While there are a number of surgeons who does a one stop VAG, I don’t believe you can consistently get good results due to the amount of surgery done in that area, healing varies among individuals, anatomy varies among individuals too. That is a lot to expect to go right for such an extensive surgery. Once my pre-op appointment was done, I carried my bag of post-op supplies with me to visit Carole to chat for a moment and schedule a post-op appointment for next week. We left Dr. Meltzer’s off and headed to Starbucks for Mocha and pastery. Jen & I sat around for a while to chat about the day ahead and enjoying the warm sunny day. Our next stop was Target to pick up toiletries and a few other related items for the days ahead. We stopped by the Greenbaum hotel to say hello to the nursing staff and visit Ericka who got her VAG done earlier this week and her friend Suzy to chat. We talked about her history T* and suzy about her M to F son. The time passed quickly and we needed to head over to Trader Joes to get food for the next few days. I got a dinner invitation call from Terri. She wanted us to join her for dinner at Picasso Pizza at 6:30 PM. Our schedule was tight, but do able if we did not stay out too late.
When we got back to our B&B after shopping at Trader Joes and put the food away. We both took a rest before heading out for our dinner date. I washed and conditioned my hair knowing I won’t be able to do this until a few days post-op.
We drove down Scottsdale Blvd to Picasso Pizza and had a nice dinner with Terri and Roberta’s friends who were in town to support her VAG journey. We left the restaurant at just after 8:00PM for our B&B. I wanted to go to bed early since there will be a long day for me tomorrow. I dilated one last time knowing I’m not going to be doing this until several days later. Tomorrow is surgery day.
posted by Rupunzell | 1:41 PM
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