Recovery from MtF Gender Confirmation Surgery

My daughter, underwent MtF Gender Confirmation Surgery, and so I’ve witnessed first-hand how difficult the recovery process is after that surgery.  Unfortunately, my daughter had a really rough time hours after the surgery due to her motor tics from Tourette Syndrome.  She needed to rest and stay still, but couldn’t and so needed several dressing changes (usually there is only one or none) and 2 blood transfusions (again usually there is none needed).  Anyway, a few days after the surgery she was moved along with the other patients who had it around the same time to a place for recovery where the nurses show them and help them learn what to do.  It is a lot of work, painful, and exhausting to say the least.  However, everyone there gets through it as it is liberating to finally be in the right body.  Being trapped in the wrong body is suffocating, and seriously depressing.

Anyway, anyone who has been through this surgery knows that it is a long time-consuming recovery process of dilations, douching, four times a day to begin and then over the next year it gets somewhat easier as the dilations decrease.  The doctor gives each patient 3 sizes of dilators to use, and they are made of a hard plastic so a good lubricant is necessary.  My daughter was so glad when she got to the one year mark, as from that time forward she only had to do one dilation per week with the largest dilator.  At least that’s what the pamphlet of instructions said. Well, she waited the week and found it very painful and almost impossible to do that one dilation after a whole week of no dilations.  When she contacted other patients she had met at the recovery center, she found that most of them were afraid to do this and so were doing it more gradually.  So, she went to every other day, but it was still very difficult.

That’s when I contacted the owner of Lovecraft, Pam Cameron, for help.  We discovered she had in stock 2 silicone dilators of the exact same dimensions as the middle and largest of the hard plastic ones.  My daughter then contacted the doctor, and was told after the one year mark it was fine to switch to the Silicone Dilators (Fuze Step 4 and Fuze Step 5).  Along with this, Pam suggested Sliquid as a lubricant, and my daughter found this lubricant preferable to the thicker lubricant she was using from Home Health, which she needed to use with the hard plastic dilators.  Thank you Pam!!  Lovecraft helped my daughter tremendously, and we are very thankful that she now can use the Fuze Step dilators with Sliquid.  Weekly dilations have certainly become easier for my daughter, and I am very thankful for Pam’s help.