#andyives

[fromdysphorictoeuphoric]

19/08 8:00pm

Surgery was delayed a bit but went perfectly. Don’t even remember going to sleep and even a couple of hours later the pain is much more bareable than I thought it would be. Can tell you now though, these drains are gonna be a burden.

[fromdysphorictoeuphoric]

20/09 8am, 15 hours post op

Had a pretty sleepless night purely because I just wasn’t tired. The one time I did wake I was lying completely on my side which probably isn’t good.. surprisingly my IV thing hurts the most right now, chest is completely fine. I’ll get my last round of antibiotics at 9:30 and it can be taken out. I’m apparently allowed to shower tomorrow too which is surprising. I don’t really have as much to update as I thought I would.

Hopefully I can just keep up the panadol during the day and just using endone to sleep

[fromdysphorictoeuphoric]

26/09 One week post op

Visited Andy again today for him to check up on the incision and stitches. All is looking good and he’s very happy with the amount of swelling and the placement of the incision. I’ve been given a roll of paper tape to now change every 4 days and in 4 weeks I’m allowed to switch to silicone gel. In 8 weeks time I will have my final appointment with him to check up on everything one last time :)

I guess my only concern is it looks like I got a bit of a dog ear on my right side (left in photo). Hopefully that will shrink in time. The swelling is a little off putting too since I can’t see the full effect but again, that will shrink in time.

[fromdysphorictoeuphoric]

24/09, 5 days post op Drain removal

Today I finally was awarded my freedom with my drains being removed! I was most worried about how it would feel in terms of pain and discomfort but in the end the tape coming off my hair was a lot more painful than the stitch or tubes being removed. It’s an amazing feeling to be able to move around without any tugging or fear of ripping out a drain :)

[fromdysphorictoeuphoric]

24 hours post op pics

Here’s some pictures from Thursday afternoon, just a little before 24 hours post op. Couldnt be happier with the results, I shall post weekly healing updates and sensation updates as that all comes back.

[allthatglittas]

10 months post-op

[allthatglittas]

Day Two Post-Op

It feels very surreal to even say, but I am officially two days post-op, currently recovering in an apartment not too far from Andy Ives office and surgery. My op was on Wednesday 1st July at around 1:30pm and it took roughly two hours. 

I arrived at the surgery around 12:30pm to be admitted. I hadn’t eaten anything since the night before and stopped drinking water around 10:30am. I met with a nurse who checked off my details, ran over if I had any medical conditions or allergies [which fortunately I don’t] and asked me to get changed into a medical gown and put DVT stockings on. I was then told that Amar, the anaesthetist, would visit me soon. The nurse actually went on to tell me then that “Amar is an Indian woman, but she is very competent” like I would have any doubt in Amar’s abilities anyway? Perhaps they are used to dealing with entitled, racist arseholes accessing plastic surgery most days? I don’t know, but I was really taken back by this and couldn't believe she even said it. ***

After that interaction I was feeling more than a little apprehensive about the nurses and my nerves were in full swing. That nurse left and Amar came in shortly after this and was so so reassuring. She was actually the perfect person to chat to at that point, we had a good laugh about her dosing me up on the good stuff and she assured me that she would do everything she could to make me feel relaxed. 

Andy came in a bit after this to draw the lines on me where he would incisions. I find Andy friendly, but also direct and to the point. I trust his abilities and felt like he knew exactly what he was doing. We didn’t talk a great deal, I just let him focus on getting the lines right. Directly after this I said goodbye to my partner [who was able to stay with me while being admitted] and I walked into the surgery room.

Amar was in the room and was totally amazing. She gave me some anti-nausea drugs in my drip and was very very reassuring, talking me through everything and even distracted me with conversations about dogs while putting me under [well played Amar]. She also gave me a relaxant before knocking me out, which made me pretty unaware of everything and just super chilled. 

When I woke up I was very groggy and out of it, but surprisingly not nauseous. I ate some fruit and had some lemonade. A few hours later I made the mistake of having minestrone soup, which didn’t go down so well and I ended up have a little spew. Aside from that though, I was totally fine, just way doped up still and keen for sleep.

After I woke up the nursing staff were pretty good, personal favourites were Sophie and Jang. Some down sides though, I did find it a bit difficult that no one asked my pronoun and the nurses would continually swap between he or she, even though I identify with ‘they’. *** I also felt a bit rushed in the morning, as they obviously wanted to clear the room out for another patient. I found that surprising seeing as I had paid $3000 to stay there and was so freshly operated on!

I slept a lot better than I thought I would, though I did have an endone and have been taking one before bed every night just to knock me out a bit since. I’m also taking panadol x2 and antibiotics 4 times a day. Plus my supplements, which are:

Arnica pills without food/between meals x4 a day

Quercertain and bromelain pills x3 a day with food

Vitamin C and Zinc x3 a day Probiotic x1 a day

Vitamin A and B x1 a day

I’m also having lots of miso soup with shitake mushrooms and seaweed, and turmeric and chamomile tea - all super foods for healing and inflammation. 

Overall the pain has been pretty manageable. I did have half an endone yesterday every 4 or 5 hours just to manage the discomfort more so. Today I haven’t had any.

So far I’m really happy with how everything is travelling. Keen to get my drains out on Monday, as they are pretty annoying and in the way, but manageable much like all aspects of this process so far. 

I am super grateful to not have had any complications and from the brief previews I’ve had of my chest so far, everything looks so good and flat!

HOT POST-OP TIP: The meds [painkillers and also the anaesthetic still coming out of your system] will probably give you intense stank, but at the same time I found I didn’t want to put deodorant on to avoid any chemicals going anywhere near my incisions. My advice is to rub bicarb soda into your pits. It absorbs smells and I found it totally reduced my stink almost completely. Especially helpful in the first week when showering isn’t really a thing. 

*** I am going to give feedback re the comment the nurse made about Amar and also suggest they invest time into asking about pronouns. I think this should be on the intake paperwork, so that this can be clear from the start.

[allthatglittas]

first post, take two

I tried to do my first post a few weeks back now, but ended up deleting it and giving up on tumblr. For some reason though, while walking my dog early this morning, I felt inspired to try to do this again. I’ve also been reading some other tumblr’s of non-binary folk who have undergone top-surgery and felt motivated by them to document my own experience for those that take this path after me. 

That was the whole point of starting this anyway, to talk about my experience in a space where other people might be able to utilise what I have learnt along the way.  Before any of that though, I want to acknowledge that my journey to surgery has been a whole heap easier than a lot of other people. I have privileges that have enabled me to be able to choose how and when I want to undergo surgery; I am white, middle-class, able bodied, in my late twenties, have a full-time job, live in the city, have an understanding family… etc. While there are a lot of things that have been really challenging for me to get to the point that I’m at and there is a heap of stuff I’m still working through to get through surgery, the ways in which I am privileged allow this journey to have a fuck-ton more cushioning than so many other folk. I believe that it is essential for me to keep this in the forefront of my mind as I walk this path and do whatever I can to assist anyone who faces far greater barriers to accessing the support they want and need to be free. I am booked in for surgery with Andy Ives in Melbourne on July 1st. I am not on testosterone and don’t have any plans to be. I have a variety of different feelings about undergoing surgery, which I hope to talk about in posts to come. I’ve also been quite focused on getting my body to a healthy place physically, mentally and emotionally leading up to the date, through a whole bunch of self-care processes such as daily exercise, herbs and vitamins, yoga, meditation, writing, which I will also get around to breaking down in future posts too. Anyway, no promises, but I’ll try and keep this blogging thing rolling and see what happens.