Hospital shmospital

[ailbhe]

I saw the colo-rectal guy who says that the pain I'm in is due to scar tissue and he thinks I should see a painspecialist. I said fine, but I'm also going to see the gynaecologist. He said well wait until then to see the pain specialist. I said no, I'd rather do everything now please, in case the gynaecologist can't think of anything other than a pain specialist either.

Basically, there's the rectocele, which is about all that's keeping me continent since my muscles are lousy, and there's a huge raft of scar tissue where the perineal body ought to be, and some holes in the vaginal wall with a wodge of scar tissue, and then some more scar tissue, just for luck. He couldn't tell us how much scar tissue there was or how far around the various passages it extended; I'm hoping the gynaecologist will be better able to guage that, it being his, ah, area of expertise.

So now we wait 40 days and 40 nights. Well, 39. But it looks like surgery really is too much to hope for.

I really don't want to settle for this. What's the word for the surgery people get to have prettier vulvas? Because I'm certain there's a way to fix this. Can't they take some flesh from somewhere else? There's lots of wobbly squishy fless on my belly these days; I'm not using it.

I need to compose an email to the patient advocacy people. I'm likely to make a formal complaint in the near future, I think. If I can work out what the hell happened; the fact that my notes from the birth contain deviations from the accurate truth won't help.

Comments

[rosefox]

You could volunteer to help test regeneration treatments.

[hitchhiker.livejournal.com]

"vulvoplasty", I think. I do hope all the specialists manage to work out something between them :-/

[songster.livejournal.com]

There's two things you may be referring to: the prettying up of the outside some people go for (whether elective cosmetic or reconstruction following FGM), and the deeper internal stuff done for M2F transsexuals.

Unfortunately, I don't think either option will help. The former really is just the look of the outside, while the latter is nowhere near making a "true" vagina - just a cavity of sufficient size to accomodate a penis. Don't know how far they've got with nerve supply to a constructed vagina, but I don't think it's very far.

Unfortunately, building a functional muscular birth canal without scar tissue is a way beyond anything they have in the way of artificial vaginas so far :-(

[ailbhe]

Really, all I need is a penis-sheath; I accepted long ago that I can never again have another vaginal birth, since the risk to the anal sphincter is too great. I must remember to be explicit about this to the gynaecologist, actually, as he may assume I'm talking about a truly working vagina. I'm not; I just want to be able to *get* pregnant again. I'll accept c-sections as inevitable. I no longer even expect to be able to use a tampon or take long walks. It's the pregnancy bit I refuse to accept.

A lot will depend on the gynae exam, though, since that will point up what actually hurts and where and whether it's in a fixable area.

Though perhaps labiaplasty is a good idea... a lot of people have been looking, after all, so perhaps I should make it more interesting. Perhaps a logo.

[megabitch.livejournal.com]

I assume your problems are not something that can be resolved by something like this (http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/ate/pregnancyandchildbirth/204905.html) otherwise I'd've expected it to have been the first thing discussed by any medical person. Good luck, and don't take "go away" as an answer.

[megabitch.livejournal.com]

Oh... and http://www.radmid.demon.co.uk/thirddeg.htm

Googling for "Fenton's Procedure" throws up a lot of interesting sites.

[ailbhe]

They did a very involved and thorough Fentons Procedure in December. It went in quite a long way. It did help - before that I was constantly on painkillers and constantly in pain anyway. Oh, and much more incontinent than I am now.

*reads link* Poor midwives. They try so hard.

[barakta]

As I understand it SRS is not structurally complex, it is basically creating a sheath in the naturally occuring gap before the perineum. The difficult part is to maintain the form of the sheath as the hole created in the M2F's abdominal wall will close over and cause prolapse unless regular dilation (insertion of dildo-alike thing) is used.

It might be worth asking gynae if any structural strengthening is at all possible, it may be that with some kind of dilation you could maintain and increase vaginal stability.

I wish you all the best for this appointment and certainly hope they are more open minded than colo-rectal people.

[ai731.livejournal.com]

The problems with a graft are a) what you have to do leading up to/after it to avoid infection/rejection; baronscartop was in hospital for a month on intravenous antibiotics for his, and b) what to do if the graft doesn't take. His didn't, and he grew scar tissue instead. Which is fine for the top of his head (well, mostly fine) but much less fine for you as it may leave you in worse shape than you currently are...

[ailbhe]

Wow. I shall have to ask the gynaecologist if I have enough vaginal tissue left for this to work. If I do, it... Wow. We can remortgage if necessary - I mean, this is about babies, for me, and that's important. I am missing the babies I can't have (I started dreaming about the one me and Noel never had, recently, is how much I'm missing them). A little longer on the mortgage payments won't hurt. The more we get rid of Stuff, the bigger our house gets.

Thank you very much for your google powers.

[ailbhe]

I've joined the radical midwives mailing list. Thank you.

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

And vaginoplasty for the interior bits. Wouldn't it be great if it could be used for something other than "make your husband think you're a virgin again"?

[baratron.livejournal.com]

Gah.

And gah again. I'm entirely out of coherent thoughts.

And *hugs*, although fat bloody use they are.

[(Anonymous)]

Forgive the coming-from-out-of-nowhere? I have, er, reason to know about the nerve function of MTF trans women's bits (not mine, which is why I'm posting anon), and it's actually pretty good, and the dilation required is minimal, certainly very tolerable as a daily practice. So perhaps a surgeon who's done SRS might be a good person to talk to here?

Christ, I get so pissed off at the fucking lousy medical treatment meted out to trans people, and yet here's a situation where the expertise might actually be ahead of another area of practice. Why does it not surprise me that women's sexual and reproductive functioning comes even lower than trans women's health?

[ailbhe]

The people asking for MTF look more like men than the people asking for FTF? Just guessing...