I had a robot assisted laparoscopic total hysterectomy w/BSO and total vaginectomy with Dr. Thad Denehy on March 28th, 2024.
The vaginectomy included partial closure intraoperatively but with the expectation that it would fully close during healing. A small portion of the vaginal opening has been left open so as to not obstruct the urethral opening. But, the orefice itself should be totally gone.
I made a very long post about my experience with Dr. Denehy and his colleague Dr. Liberman earlier. You can read that here:
https://www.transbucket.com/pins/17422 Long story short I was referred to Dr. Liberman but things didn’t work out with him so I went to Dr. Denehy instead.
Dr. Deheny told me I wouldn’t need a post-op exam if I was healing well. But at the appointment I was coerced into one anyway. It was a brief look with no touching but I did not handle it well because of the suddenness and because I didn’t actually consent to it, as well as being triggered because I previously had a panic attack in that office.
As I said in the previous post, the hospital was overall good. Clean, nice nurses, comfortable enough.
Healing has been smooth so far. After having the packing removed I was able to sit up comfortably, but only at certain angles. The catheter made things much less comfortable though, after having it removed again I felt much better. I only needed tylenol and motrin for pain. Something I did not expect was to feel a lot of pain in my anus and rectum. During surgery they had to add a few extra sutures above my rectum because it felt weak during a digital exam, so I had some extra pain and tightness as a result. Bleeding wasn’t terrible, I changed pads every few hours just to keep everything dry. As I got farther from surgery there was more serous fluid (the same stuff you get in your drains after top surgery) so it really just felt like a wound, not menstrual bleeding. The catheter was really the worst part of recovery. I stopped wearing pads 15 days post-op.
I needed to have my catheter removed in-office by a resident doctor (the same one that removed and reinserted at the hospital).
By my 5th day post-op I was able to drive again. The recovery was intense within the first few days but let up very quickly. It was miles easier than top surgery for me.
On my 7th day post-op I started having symptoms of a UTI. I was ordered antibiotics immediately because there was concern about it spreading to my surgical site, but ended up testing negative. I think the sample I gave just happened to have a low amount of bacteria and that it really was a UTI, because I have no idea what else it could’ve been and the antibiotics eased the symptoms. I believe there is some very mild wound separation at the part of the vulva that was fused, but it seems to be going away on it’s own.
I rated my satisfaction as 4/5 because I'm not totally pleased with the level of closure I have. I'm hoping after more healing it will look less like an orifice. If this is the case I'll edit this post. The sensation around the surgerical site itself has been totally fine.
I really love that I can't feel a hole there anymore. My bottom growth has been somewhat hypersensative since surgery, to the point of pain when I touch it, I'm really hoping that calms down eventually.
Referred: October 3rd, 2023
Consultation (Liberman): November 7th, 2023
Consultation (Denehy): January 31st, 2024
Pre-op: March 15th, 2024
Surgery: March 28th, 2024