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Changing Times
A scattering of stories playing off of fairy tales and nursery rhymes appeared at this time. The Jack and Jill one was amusing.
There was a previous time that Betty played Little Red Riding Hood. Veronica was the Grandma in that one.
more redraws of stims! just finished redrawing lots of emotes
Not an ask, but scrolling through your art has given a bunch of our syskids so much joy, they've been happy stimming for like 20 minutes and are now excitedly showing them (with credit) to their friends in other systems
bswhbshw!! im so glad they like my emotes so much!! u didnt request anything but that reminded me i wanted to do some stim emotes :)
Stage 2 - Oct. 15th
Waiting in pre-op, the surgeon confirms the side and the procedure and all that, you get the lovely anesthesia that makes you feel funny and knocks you the hell out lol. However, they tried to confirm the WRONG ARM! Then they tried to confirm the WRONG PROCEDURE! They tried to confirm the bone-in method; I just stared at my surgeon like “wtf!?” He tried to play it off like he was just messing around but 1) he didn’t sound like he was joking, didn’t smile or have a playful tone and 2) THAT’S NOT SOMETHING YOU JOKE ABOUT! I think he genuinely forgot that we weren’t going to do the bone method. Sheesh. Well, that’s why they do the confirmation in the first place, I guess.
So, he took the flap from my arm to make my neo penis. He took a vein from each thigh, and an artery from my abdomen, to be attached downstairs to allow blood flow through the penis. If there’s a clog/clot in them and the blood can’t flow, the tissue will die and I lose my penis. So it’s very important to have everything connected correctly because we’re not really going to have a second chance at this. Sure there’s another arm, but the veins and artery will have been used. You can’t just keep taking those out of the body.
For the scrotoplasty, he sewed the two previous labia major together, and injected them with some fat he got from my abdomen. I’m not sure I’m 100% with appearance, but it’s not awful, so I’ll wait and see how it looks.
The arm graft isn’t done during Stage 2, but later. I’ll be in the hospital for a good while, so the graft will be done at a separate surgery, then a week after that I can be released. You’ll see in the pics following that there’s an incision going up my arm above the skin graft. I wasn’t aware that would happen, but it’s just where the surgeon when up the arm to take some blood vessel for down below.
Stage 1 - Recovery
After having my insides scraped and forcefully closed, I was in more pain than I thought I would be. They sent me home on 4mg tablets of dilauded, which is a pretty strong drug for someone who doesn’t take meds often/at all. I actually ended up going into withdrawal for a day. I didn’t recognize it; I thought I had an infection because the symptoms are very similar. I made sure to make a note to get some 2mg tablets after Stage 2 so I could ween myself down, lol. Stage 2 should take place 4-6 weeks later. Arm Care: I was instructed to flush the catheter 3x a day by pushing 60-120mL of sterile saline in one side and out the other. I had to change the dressing on the arm every day at first: I change the Xeroform (petroleum gauze) and rewrap it, cover the two openings with a 4x4, then wrapped in an ace bandage. I was supposed to have a 1wk check-up, but being 4hrs away and trying to go back to work made that difficult. He said it’d be fine to email him some pictures, and he’ll determine based on those if I need to come down and see him. After that 1wk, he said everything looked good. The incision was pretty closed, so I could change the dressings every other day unless the wrappings got wet (it needed to stay dry). I had a 3 wk check-up instead, and he took out all the stitches, just wrapping the openings with a self-adhesive bands. I could take showers now, but I still had to flush the catheter 3x a day. Being pretty much healed, it usually only needed 60mL. Notice: From 3-6 weeks, the catheter would slide up and down when I tried to flush it. I was worried at first, but apparently that’s normal. Just don’t let either opening slide into the arm.
Oh, I should probably mention that towards the end of the six weeks, the incision keeping my…older holes…closed, popped open a bit. It was maybe as wide as my finger, so not large at all, but of course I panicked, wondering if it would postpone Stage 2. It also wasn’t deep. You really couldn’t even put a finger in. The surgeon said it was fine and he would close it again during Stage 2. I just wanted to mention it for thorough-ness’ sake.
Personal side-note: I tried to go back to work on light duty, but I was hurting more than I had anticipated (I don’t have a particularly high pain tolerance). Standing too long hurt, sitting too long hurt (my boss offered me a stool to use, he’s awesome ‘cause that’s against policy), and running a register was difficult with one arm, especially bagging. I ended up cancelling my return to work by taking medical leave. The time between Stage 1 and 2 ended up being about six and a half weeks.
Pics to follow.
Stage 1 - Aug. 28th
Stage 1 consists of the vaginectomy and preparation of the forearm flap. He takes the vaginal mucosa and wraps it around a catheter. He then cuts into the forearm and places the catheter, then closes the arm around it. I was in the hospital for…6 days, I think?
Hospital Care: When I was taken to the floor, I got the WORST CARE I could ever imagine. Right off the bat they tried to give me a pain medication that I was allergic to! At where I really can’t even move, that would have been VERY…inconvenient. It took them over eight hours to get their shit together and give me something, all the while I was writing in pain.
My mom stayed with me in the hospital, and she did EVERYTHING for me. All the nurses had to do was give me my pain meds. Like, she emptied my urine bag, helped with my food (cutting it up and helping me get set up, me being one-handed), got me cleaned up with bed baths since I wasn’t allowed to get up yet, EVERYTHING.
And they couldn’t get my pain meds every four hours. Literally. I had to call them every single time, and they didn’t even come when I called. They would take another hour or more to bring my meds. I was pretty much constantly in pain because they were so slack.
Also, they didn’t do ANY post-op assignments! They didn’t do their assessments, they didn’t check my lungs or bowels or anything. They didn’t provide me with a thing called an incentive spirometer, which is given to EVERYONE post op, to help the lungs after anesthesia and prevent pneumonia. Thankfully my mom has been a nurse my entire life, and I’m a nurse’s aid on a post op floor, so we’re aware of what should be done. My mom ended up demanding a stethoscope so she could do some assessments herself, since no one else would.
Seriously guys, you’ll probably want a medically trained person to stay with you and advocate for you. Yeah, this is one set of nursing staff, but idk what others are like so I can’t vouch for their competence.
Mario Kart 8
SO! I'm over a friends house hanging out with a group of my peeps when our lovable host asks "You guys wanna play Mario Kart 8?" Now If you don't know me then you don know how super competitive, what foul language i use, and how truly amazing i am a failing in all games related to Mario. Well we play a few rounds, watch the highlights and then, THEN, they realize they can focus the highlights on me! They can rewind, and slow motion every epic fail. We are all crying from laughing so hard. XD
I'm Googling as hard as I can!
*flaps arms*
