Happy 2017, all! Spot’s doing fine so far, biding his time for another two weeks with a catheter in post-urethroplasty.
A thoughtful friend gave him an argyle dick cozy for the cold winter months, though sadly his mouth’s a tad full for him to be able to slip it on just yet.
Soon, though.
SOON~
This is my view of Spot for the next week and a half or so. Don’t worry, it doesn’t hurt!
My last stage of a buccal-graft (rebuilt with inside-of-the-mouth tissue) urethroplasty was this past Friday. I went home that same day, and I’ve been more or less asleep until today.
I low-key feel like I have to pee, all the time. This is normal, the same as any other time I’ve had a catheter in, though this time they’re giving me medication twice a day to prevent bladder spasms.
*Unlike* most other times, this stage of urethroplasty had me under total sedation, so they had to put a breathing tube down my throat during the surgery. I had a sore throat for the first couple days; it’s all fine again now.
Siiiigh. A year and a half of stricture complications since June 2015, and fingers crossed, this is THE LAST chapter in the Spot Surgery Saga. I have the catheter taken out two weeks after the surgery– as my doctor put it, “You’ll be peeing in a bag for Christmas, and standing up for 2017.”
Can’t wait. 83
Word to the wise: if at any point you need a suprapubic catheter hooked up to you, and you’ve got a belly with some overhang, like I do, make sure you’re lifting it up and putting sterile, dry gauze over the entry site SERIOUSLY every day.
I could’ve had my catheter out with my urethroplasty yesterday, but because I’d been slacking off when it came to changing the gauze, not really checking if it was staying in place under my belly hang… yeah, even after six weeks of having a cath in, the area shouldn’t be looking *that* red. Got myself a nice little infection, which didn’t halt the surgery, but it means I have to keep it in for another week until I run a full antibiotics course.
Month 4. (Easier than going day by day, at this point.)
I wanted to bring up an important point for any of you who’re eventually going to go through phalloplasty, and that’s that it took me *four days* to muster up the courage to take this pic of my suprapubic catheter’s entry site.
Thankfully, nothing was infected when I finally looked at it, but it makes me realize the truth of something Dr. Crane and his staff told me: You *have.* To look. At your surgery site. To keep yourself healthy post-surgery. Buy a hand mirror. Use the reflection off whichever bathroom or bedroom mirror can reach down there. Just look at it SOMEHOW.
‘Cause I get it. For most of us, looking at our junk is something we’ve trained ourselves NOT to do, right? Out of sight, out of mind.
But this could’ve gone *so* much more badly than it did. All I had to go by was an awful smell coming from the catheter site. Does that mean it’s infected? No. Should I have checked to make sure a lot sooner than I did? YES.
Please. Don’t take that kind of head-in-the-sand chance with your health, any of you.
Ta-daaa! It’s out!
I got video footage I’m trying to upload right now, but like I say on that post, I was expecting something scary kept inside me, not this little munchkin. If deflated, which it was, it’s a mere straight line of tube.
Morning piss break.
(All my fingers crossed that I’ll be graduating to non-catheter peeing starting next Tuesday, at my next post-op doctor appointment! I. Cannot. WAIT.)
Chinchilla Meat 