I Really Really Underestimated Facial Feminization Surgery — Aftermath Part 2
NB: For those who haven’t been keeping up with me, it is suggested you read my first article about my experience with facial feminization surgery to fully understand the scope and depth of the facial feminization surgery which was quite extensive here but not necessary (http://jeetwincasinos.com/@Amber.Poe.302/i-underestimated-facial-feminization-surgery-aftermath-fc7010f3535a)
Things were going so well. My facial feminization surgery in the rearview mirror having been done on April 4th followed by my breast augmentation surgery on June 6th with my sights set on my vaginoplasty and starting the process for that. All my postop appointments as of August 1st were going great. Each surgeon just kept telling me I was healing up as expected and then came an unexpected turn.
On July 29th I somehow developed a sore throat from out of nowhere. I didn’t think anything of it as I chalked it up to my drinking of some cold beverages over the weekend. Then July 30th rolled around, I went to work like normal and towards the end of the day I started to feel a bit off. I took my dog for our usual hour long plus walk, sore throat still somewhat prevalent but when we got back I started to feel fatigued and lethargy…all signs pointing to me being sick.
Fortunately I still had my appetite so I ate a normal dinner and then I do what I always do when I start to feel/get sick. I layer up on clothing so while it is the middle of summer and it’s 90 degrees outside I am putting on socks, sweatpants and a sweatshirt. I then immediately start drinking any and all fluids i.e. water / Pedialyte / Gatorade and then go to bed early. My thinking has always been if you can purify water by boiling out the bacteria/viruses out of it then the same concept should apply with the human body by boiling the virus out of my body…and it’s always worked for me by the way.
So I wake up on July 31st well rested, fatigue and lethargy are just about gone, sore throat just about gone and overall I’m feeling a million times better. It was around this time that I noticed something developing on the right side of my under jaw. It started out innocent enough and was a small bump, then it became more and more noticeable over the course of the next few days. After about a week it became tender to the touch and still in my head I was like “Let me see if it goes away on its own.”
Fast forward to this past Sunday, August 11th and I woke up and I looked in the mirror and an abscess was clearly visible on top of the bump and then it started to puss. This is when I decided to throw in the white towel and get it looked at by a doctor. I suspected it was infected but the abscess and puss all but confirmed my suspicions. With my postop for FFS looming on August 15th, I decided I needed to go get antibiotics so fortunately I literally live a block from a full service hospital. So I walk over on Sunday at around 3pm and go to the ER and there is no wait (this is a smaller hospital so there is usually no wait thankfully). I immediately go back and a nurse takes my vitals, jots down my issue and then I am shuffled into a hospital room where I wait until the doctor comes in. I show her the abscess on my face and then I tell her “full disclosure, I had facial feminization surgery on April 4th, but it was healing up great so I don’t think it’s related to that.”
So she orders blood work to be done and a cat scan. She said she wants to be able to see what’s going on…at this point I’m glad I didn’t go to some Urgent Care who clearly aren’t equipped with a cat scan machine or get my blood work done in an hour. So eventually the doctor comes back in and says “Your blood work came back normal, however the cat scan revealed a screw from the FFS procedure that appears to be loose and is the cause of your infection. I am going to contact Penn Med to see how they want to handle this, but I am probably going to have to put you in an ambulance tonight and get you up there to have emergency surgery to take the screw out, clean out the infection and put the screw back.”
At this point, I am absolutely floored with shock. The first shock being I didn’t know that screws were being placed in my jaw, that isn’t what the surgeon and I discussed. Second, I have to leave right now in an ambulance to go to Penn Med to have emergency surgery!?! WTF, I came in here for just antibiotics, not a full blown emergency surgery! I have work tomorrow, my dog will be left alone, how am I going to get home after the surgery….my cell phone is only at 50%!
My doctor said just sit tight, I am going to try and get ahold of Penn Med to see how they want to handle this before I ship you up there. I have all of the aforesaid thoughts running through my head right now, I am texting my best friend like “WTF?!? I didn’t know I had screws in my jaw!!!” So while I am waiting one of the nurses starts me on an IV drip with antibiotics and that is when the doctor comes back in and said “Well…”
She said that she not only got ahold of Penn Med but spoke to my surgeon and discussed the cat scans with him. He was on call that day by some cosmic luck and he said the following “The screw is not infected since we are so far out from surgery that shouldn’t be the cause. She must have gotten infected intraorally or on the skin’s surface and the infection having burrowed its way towards the area of the screw. The screws are going to come out after the six (6) month mark so just give her antibiotics / prescribe them for the next few days and keep my postop appointment for August 15th and we can assess from there after the antibiotics have had a chance to clear things up.”
Yeah remember me explaining how I got sick above? I think it’s all related to this and more specifically to the sore throat I had which easily could have infected some small part of my mouth and boom, infection. Fighting the virus off at the same time probably didn’t help either.
But good news, the antibiotics have been working amazing. The abscess is shrinking each day as of the time of this writing and the area is way less tender and the bump on the jaw is receding. However the not so good news is my surgeon cannot meet with me on August 15th due to a scheduling conflict so my postop has been scheduled for August 23rd.
Right now I am in a holding pattern but until then but I am beyond shocked that my surgeon put screws in my jaw without telling me. That was NEVER mentioned in any of our consults let alone the need to take them out six (6) months after the surgery. Like now I have to plan for another surgery and go under to get them taken out? This was never part of the plan.
Truth be told, if I had known screws could be a possibility and an additional surgery would be needed to take them out six (6) months later I still would have gone through with the FFS. Nothing was going to stop my decision to undertake this surgery. But if I don’t have all the variables to an equation, how can I expect to deal with unexpected instances like this? Right now, hopefully the antibiotics clear things up 100% and everything goes back to the way they were i.e. healing up like normal. But it would have been nice to know beforehand that screws or whatever was put in my face ya know?
I think what I’m trying to say is I’m disappointed in a way. Yes of course the screws should have been discussed as a possibility and disclosed to me after the surgery but I still don’t have the full picture yet on whether or not they need to come out or if they’re permanent? Right now all I have to go on is hearsay from the ER doctor and which is why I need that postop to discuss everything that they did and what they put into me and whether or not I will need a follow up surgery. A quick Google search yielded different results on the types of screws used for FFS including some type of absorbable ones via a sort of mesh…all the more reason for the follow up appointment.
There’s a lot I still don’t know so I won’t jump to any conclusions. But for those of you thinking of getting FFS, all I can say is try and get a full breakdown of the procedure, what they are putting into your face or the possibility of putting into you and any possible additional surgeries needed. Despite the actual surgical plan, just try and get to know of all of the other possibilities / complications beforehand. Rest assured, once I have more answers I will obviously follow up with hopefully a more positive update.
All the Best!
- Amber
NB: Did you know you can clap more than once? If you weren’t aware of that fact and you really liked my article, please give it as many claps as you deem worthy as it’s my form of payment and paying it forward as well as it let’s me know what I am writing is worthwhile and valuable. Thank you for your support!
