December 1, 2007

Out of the Hospital!

Posted in surgery, transgender at 2:32 pm by Michael

I just got back to the Cocoon house just a couple of hours ago… wow, it feels so much better to be out of the hospital. While the hospital is nice and all, just the feeling of *hominess* and the greater degree of control is just much more comforting.

Yesterday Anh went to Seattle to get Peri and John, and then flew back down last night (they got back at about 8). My mom and sister stayed with me yesterday. I was a bit of a wreck. Basically, every three hours, pain meds, sleep for two, one hour of suckiness – repeat.

Our friends Alex, Kat, and Fen came down last night too, and are hanging out with Peri and John today. Part of what we wanted to achieve was that even though that this is a “A BIG CHANGE” – lots is the same. Our friends are still around, I’m still the same person, Anh’s still the same person, etc. Just hearing about others who in going through this lost everyone – friends, family, children, work – I feel incredibly fortunate.

Fen brought me down a gift (he’s almost 9) – a Star Wars X Wing “Transformer”. Even in my super hazy state, I completely loved it. What a thoughtful gift – I’ll keep it right next to my “Lunch Lady” action figure.

It was great to see Anh last night when she got back…as you might be able to tell, I love her a lot. But she soon had to leave to head back to Cocoon house.

Here’s the picture of me last night, about 24 hour postop. There was very little change from this picture from anytime before – all wrapped up its somewhat hard to figure out whats going on.

Samwich unfortunately had a bout of vomiting, and is having a hard time keeping stuff down. He’s almost better now, but we are trying hard to limit his intake.

Last night at the hospital was pretty much a repeat of the day, although I decided to try to limit the pain meds after 3am. To get through this, there’s some degree of sucking it up required.

One of the problems I was having yesterday is that my left eye was swollen shut. There wasn’t a particular reason for it (no particular complication), but it wasn’t great. However, by putting dry, cold compresses on it, the eye opened up again pretty quickly.

This morning was the big unveling – Dr. O came it about 9am to remove all of the head bandages, and quite a few of the chin bandages. Here’s the result:

The big remaining bandage to remove is the nose packing – once that comes out, I’ll be able to breathe through my nose again. That all comes out Tuesday. I can’t wait. This whole breathing through your mouth thing, it sucks.

So, just before noon today Anh and her Aunt Tan and of course Samwich brought me home to cocoon house – it was so great to see everyone. Tan had gotten me a lovely purse – thanks Tan! Anh gave me the new ring that we’d been looking for… I love it.

So… we are getting there. I’m feeling better, more alert, and a little better every day. It funny, the easiest way for me to tell if I’m out of it is how my typing is. As it gets worse, I fee worse, etc. Also, if the blog gets a little slow, factual and less interesting, that’s not as good. My typing is getting better, the blog content, well, I don’t think I’m there yet.

Even though this has been more painful than I thought, I feel great. It’s been an amazing transition.

Permalink