Day 4, still disgusting, less pads needed though, which is great. I can walk around the apartment a little bit too. Not, like, a lot, but I can do more than go directly to the bathroom, bed, shower, and couch. I can like, put away the top rack of dishes before needing to sit down, which is nice.

I have been taking picturing of my dick before, during, and eventually after this whole process and will put them all on trans bucket, for everyone to see if they want to know what a simple meta without extras looks like. I didn't get urethral lengthening and I didn't get scrotum reconstruction and I kept my vaginal opening, which is apparently much less common than "full meta" or phalloplasty. My surgeon said 9/10 surgeries in this department are for phallo, which was wild to me, so that makes me want to document my experience even more, so others know and can learn from it.

I think 4 days in, my biggest thing is that although we stocked the house with food, we should have:

• made sure ALL the laundry was done in advance
• purchased more gauze (we had some, but not enough)
• purchased more pads of every strength (again, we had some, but not enough)
• purchased puppy pads/dry bed pads for kids (we had none)
• NOT DRANK ANY bubble water the first couple of days, omg, that was a mistake - gas is very painful at first
• purchased loose american boxers ahead of time. Didn't have any because they look hideous and don't do any wicking, but they're the only comfortable thing to wear the first first few days. These are hard to find where I live.

One thing I'm glad I did have though was a portable bidet device. It's been great for keeping clean. I sanitize it with alcohol before and after using it each time and then run water through it before actually using it, but it's been huge for keeping everything clean even though I physically cannot see it all right now.

I'd recommend all of the above for any kind of lower surgery btw, not just meta. I feel silly for not looking at prep lists ahead of time.

#transmasc