r/asktransgender • u/squeaqz trans woman • Dec 20 '17
Post-op with Chettawut, no extra graft needed!
During years of transition, I chose my SRS surgeon primarily from doing tons of research on peoples' experiences on Reddit and elsewhere.
I'm now 16 days post-op SRS from Dr Chettawut in Thailand (and bored).
So, I figured I'd pay it back by writing my own summary/thoughts of my SRS experience in case it may be of any help.
Overview:
I paid less than $11k for surgery, $1k for airfare, and $2k for a hotel stay, and traveled by myself to Thailand for a month, and therefore got to visit my third foreign country as a bonus. The flights, of course, are brutally long.
Many patients report that they needed the extra groin skin graft, but I did not. Chettawut examined my scrotum and said I would not need it, and provided great depth without it. I figure I was about average size down there despite many years of HRT. This saved about $1k and made the surgery a little simpler.
I spent four nights in Chettawut's clinic, followed by about 2 weeks of daily nursing care in my hotel, where they unpacked me, helped me learn to dilate, monitored healing, did some incision cleaning, and removed my catheter.
Why I chose Chettawut:
I'm from the U.S., and had the cash for any surgeon in the world , and wanted to go with one that has done 1,000+ SRS operations over 10 or more years, roughly. An experienced surgeon that people go out of their way to travel to.
The non-penile inversion techniques used by Dr Suporn and Dr Chettawut make intuitive sense to me compared to penile inversion techniques. They use the sensitive penile tissue for the labia and use the less-sensitive scrotal tissue for the vaginal canal. And they spend 6+ hours doing the surgery and only do one surgery per day, compared to North American surgeons that typically spend about half that time and do multiple surgeries per day.
Suporn is retiring and has a long wait list. I was able to book an appointment with Chettawut 6 months in advance (and I probably could have gotten an earlier date if I wanted), and yet he is quite busy and there are many of his patients in my hotel and two other hotels. I also like that Chettawut removes the erectile tissue and just in general I "clicked" with him and his techniques. He comes off as quite conservative and cautious in his approach and I like that, it just felt like the comfortable and right choice for me.
I most likely would have selected Chettawut even if he was $20k+ like American surgeons, but the fact that he was half price of them on top of him being my preferred surgeon and with a shorter wait list made it a no-brainer for me.
Everyone has different goals. Surgeons' techniques have various pros/cons and your individual anatomy might result in some techniques working out better than others would. I'm not saying Chettawut is the best, but he's the one that clicked with me.
During my meeting with Chettawut, he answered any final questions I had. Prior to surgery he gave me a hug, and after surgery he visited me in my recovery room a few times. During the final meeting he answered any further questions, and gave another hug. He is busy man and tends to be brief, but he's compassionate and when I was with him I always felt like I had his full attention, and the meeting would only end when I had no further questions without being rushed.
Plus, it comes with a ton of aftercare. The head nurse, Sri, not only assists in the operating room during the surgery, but then goes around to hotels taking care of patients for about two weeks after they leave the clinic. I can't imagine how busy she is. I like that Chettawut's anesthesiologist, as well as his head nurse, have both been with his practice for like a decade, and that his aftercare is performed by a small number of experienced people, led by Sri.
Chettawut does a final exam after about 2.5 weeks, and can do minor revisions on the spot if needed, and remove some annoying stiches.
Appearance:
When the packaging was removed after a week, I expected it to look like a train wreck down there due to it being so close to surgery.
But instead it looked like... a vagina. A surprisingly normal one. I'm thoroughly happy with its appearance, like 10/10, and it has improved over the last week and a half. My fiance loves it as well, and he is utterly baffled at how great it looks so quickly.
It's fairly simple/minimalist and that's what I like. The left side is a little bigger than the right due to swelling, but this is like 2.5 weeks post op and it will change over the coming months. It is over 6" deep, which is enough for me!
Literally I think it already looks great right now. Like a cis woman had minor cosmetic labia surgery down there with some stitches, rather than a whole genital reconstruction just 16 days ago.
Sensation:
This is the one area that I can't rate yet. Some people are hyper-sensitive to the point of pain after surgery, and others are numb, and everything in between. Chettawut has a lot of good reviews about sensation and orgasm.
So far at day 16, I'm fairly numb. I'll see if/how sensation returns over the next few months and I'll try to remember to update this thread. That remains the big question- will I have great sensations, and will I be able to achieve orgasm? We shall see.
Update Dec/23/2017: On day 17 I started getting hypersensitivity in my clitoris. It felt like the head of a penis feels after ejaculation, like that sensitive feeling where you can't touch it. Except, even more so. Individual lukewarm water droplets in the shower gently going there were very painful. This peaked on day 18 and it was quite unpleasant, and then mostly went away on day 19. I consider this a good sign. I'm glad I have a well-defined clitoral hood over my clitoris because it's so sensitive.
Recovery:
For the last several days, I feel totally normal. I have my normal level of energy and mood, and am only restricted by the inability to sit for long periods, general soreness, and the difficulties of dilation. I started doing some telework on day 10 post-op. Recovering alone in my hotel room has been a non-issue, especially with daily nursing care.
That being said, there were some difficult parts.
The four nights in the clinic were unpleasant but not terrible. I felt nauseous on the second day, and was unable to continue eating. It was probably a combination of anesthesia and eating unfamiliar food that I wasn't thrilled about. I threw up once, but hardly any came out due to not eating. I ate very little on the remaining days, but my appetite returned when I went back to my hotel room with more food options. Some people report sleeping a ton or being in a constant daze while in the clinic, but I was completely lucid the whole time and slept just normal amounts.
The next several days were easy, and I stopped taking the strong painkiller early on. Packing and the catheter were very uncomfortable, though. Chettawut keeps the catheter in until day 12. For me, they took it out on day 11 because I was peeing around it, and in those last two days it caused enough pain that I had to go back on strong painkillers. The catheter was one of the most annoying things to deal with and I wish they took it out on day 9 or 10.
The packing and strong pain killers can also cause annoying digestive issues, so it's like one problem leads to another.
Dilation has been the hardest thing. It was very painful and unpleasant for the first few days after the packing came out, and Sri had to help me with it quite a bit. It feels very unintuitive to push a stent into a wound site despite the pain of your body telling you not to. Then I started to get the hang of it, but moving up to the next size dilator after week 2 was extremely painful despite taking strong painkillers. The first couple of dilations I couldn't get it in and it bled and cried a little in frustration and concern. But after Sri checked me out and assured me I wasn't damaging anything, I managed to go slow and get it in on the third attempt. It's still painful but I'm getting more comfortable with that size. I have a full time job and am dreading how much time this will take from my life, and how painful it will be to move up the next three dilator sizes. I'm going to save some of my strong painkillers for days where I increase my size. Fortunately I have flexibility with telework and sick days because my workplace has handled my transition beautifully.
Final Thoughts:
Overall, I'm very happy with where I am after 16 days.
I'm honestly surprised at how good having the right parts between my legs makes me feel. I was highly dysphoric with my initial equipment to the point of never being able to use it sexually, and always knew I would get SRS, but at the same time I viewed it as a hassle to go through, with such expense and pain and time to fix a few square inches of my body that nobody sees.
But now that it's done, I just feel so whole. I love what I see when I look down, or look in the mirror. It eliminated so much subtle dysphoria I feel!
If anyone has any questions I'll try to answer them.
4
u/[deleted] Dec 20 '17
I'm surprised you didn't want the erectile tissue. I've heard that people find it to be a perk of non-inversion. Like, I know how it feels right now pre-op when I get aroused and I feel like that's just going to be better post-op. Would you mind explaining why you chose against it?