12 weeks post stage 1 RFF with Dr. Marano
Hey all I’m using talk to text. So apologies for any weird inaccuracies. TLDR at bottom!
All right, so this is gonna be a long one. I will try to organize it as best as I can.
Surgery day I was at the hospital at 5:30 AM. They took me back prepped me asked what I was here for my own words. I met with Dr. Marano. He drew the stencil on the anesthesiologist came by and then I walked back to the OR when they were ready. NOR the anesthesiologist prepped my other arm for the IV. There was a little bit of difficulty, but that’s expected when you haven’t had anything really to drinking 12+ hours Dr. Marano shaved my donor arm and I went to sleep. I woke up in the ICU wasn’t in a whole lot of pain and you know they just gave me some meds. I was on a liquid diet for the first 48 hours I think and I wasn’t super hungry.
Week one hospital stay: after I got transferred out of the ICU I was on a MedSurg floor and this experience wasn’t the best still getting Doppler checks every 2 to 4 hours at that point everything was fine with blood flow had no issues in the hospital with that I was in the hospital for six days on Wednesday. Had surgery on Friday. I had my first bowel movement felt good to go. Unfortunately, I was in bed at the time and they did not get to me fast enough to provide a bed pan and that’s kind of one thing in the hospital went really downhill. Long story short I was left sitting in a poop stained gown until I found it at like 1130 at night.
Discharge day was Thursday the next day we complained about the evening I asked for meds before leaving something that you’re not prepared for is handling your meds at home after being in the hospital where they’re giving you meds on a very regular basis.
Tip one be prepared to have your meds and a med schedule ready for when you get home.
First week home the weekend was rough, not gonna lie trying to get meds under control had to call the nurse who was going to be taking care of my arm because they didn’t change the wound VAC on Thursday when I left the hospital or rather before I left the hospital, they changed it on Tuesday which means Friday I would need a change and the nurses were not readily available. AnyWho, we got it taken care of. It was better than the first change that I had but it was still pretty painful and raw. I had my first postop appointment on that Thursday so like being home for a week finally on Monday like we kind of figure out the pain med schedule. I was in less pain overall I was watching a lot of TV and movies and just trying to manage it.
Week two through four was roughly a lot of the same. I did have some blistering on the incision line for my penis. There was slight wound separation at the base, but everything has healed since there’s slight tightness as of today, but yeah, most of the healing process and getting the wound VAC changes three times a week became very regular schedule if you will was going in once a week to be checked by the Doctor and his team overall everything was healing very well.
Week five and six were split thickness, skin graft this was obviously my second surgery and we did it not at the hospital. We did at a Surgical center. We were told to arrive by 10:30 and my surgery wasn’t until one and it was very quick. I was out of there by 4:30 and my leg was very very painful. It was a little difficult to walk. My arm no longer was in any pain. At this point, I still had a wound VAC put back on my arm. There were no changes anymore so I didn’t have to deal with that and then when I had my follow up appointment, they took the wound VAC off. They had to remove some staples at the time those were painful, but not the worst and yeah, with the exception of being allergic to Aquaphor and not finding that out for an extra week or so I’m healed up pretty well.
Week seven and eight everything‘s pretty much back to normal. I’m applying lots of lotion instead of Aquaphor bacitracin now. My cat even scratched my skin graft and that healed pretty quickly and I didn’t feel it and yeah, things are back to normal. I’m working obviously weeks eight through 12. Just kind of normal routine stuff. I went back to the doctor this week as well and yeah, I’m gonna put some more information at the bottom.
OK, if you’ve stuck with me this far, there was a lot of discomfort after they took the silicone layer off and put the wound VAC back on so we ended up switching to dry dressing changes. (Pre skin graft) The nurse came three times a week and it was pretty much the same nurse throughout the whole process so that was pretty awesome. I now have to pass a catheter three times a week through my penis and out the exit near my natal anatomy as I wait for stage two which is scheduled.
Oh, and of course I’ve measured I’m sitting at about 4 1/4 length and 5 1/2 girth at the base and five at the tip
TLDR: I had a successful stage 1 phalloplasty with Dr. Marano with limited complications (slight wound separation at the base very common) and have stage 2 scheduled. In the meantime, I have to pass a catheter 3x a week and go for some follow ups.
If anyone has any questions, feel free to comment or reach out!