I'M CURED!

I had surgery - a full vestibulectomy - December 9th, 2016. I took pictures throughout the process so as to share them with you. 

Surgery with Dr. Conway, December 9, 2017. 

We had done a consult in advance by phone and then also did an exam in New Hampshire where St. Joseph's Hospital is located. He determined me an ideal candidate for surgery because of the success rate for those with my medical history and symptoms. Note: there are many people for whom there are less invasive treatment options and who should not have surgery. 

My pain management was Tramadol as I cannot take codeine-based medication, plus alternating Advil and Tylenol. I mostly stayed in bed and limited my walking so as to not disturb the stitches. I bled from the surgery site for the next 9-days. I wore a heavy pad that I changed often. I did not ever touch the surgery site. 

3 Days

9 Days

The swelling is down significantly, the tissue is looking healthy. It is easy to see what parts were sewn together. You can see two light kidney-like shapes next to each finger. This were sort of hard and sensitive, but resolved over the next few weeks.

I flew home from New Hampshire after a 10-day post-surgery recovery and another exam by Dr. Conway, December 19, 2017. Interestingly, he said that any gynecologist should be able to perform this as a trained surgeon. I was happy I did it this way although it was costly because of the flight and the hotel room. However, St. Joseph's takes standard medical insurance so the actual surgery and pre/post-care was $500, I recall.

I saw my at-home Gynecologist on December 23, 2017 to have her look at the surgical site should any problems occur in the future. I had pain to the right side of my vaginal opening. She concluded was from cutting through a nerve root. It resolved itself in 3-weeks.

3 Weeks

You can see the last of the stitches. The are the pale yellow remnants that look like worms. These fall out on their own over time.

4 Weeks, January 2, 2017

5 Weeks

I was able to have intercourse 5 weeks out from surgery. It wasn't painful and hasn't been since.

8 weeks, February 3, 2017

All done healing.

Today

I am so grateful not to be in constant pain, or any pain. I have more energy. I don't spend my time emotionally accepting what I cannot do because of the pain. I can wear pants.

Pain is so tiring and demoralizing.

I do have some sensitivity to excessive friction on my inner labia. I don't feel high pressure to address this, but I will. I think creams or hormones will help.

My marriage did break up. It is common for this to occur, although I think it usually happens more rapidly. It took us 21-years of dealing with my constant sexual pain. Fixing the biological problem did not mitigate the associated emotional trauma in our sex life. We both have so much PTSD around sex because of our shared history. We broke up about seven months after the surgery.