After over 6 weeks away from home, primarily living in my camping trailer while recovering from my lower SRS procedure, I am finally back at my house, and doing very well.
On Feb 14, I took the final medical step in transitioning from male to female. That was the surgery to make me female below the waist. My adult daughter came with me, to be a helper as needed for me during my recovery. She stayed inside my sister in law's home giving me full privacy to recover, but ready at a moments notice to come out and help me as needed.
For 5 nights after the surgery, I was in the hospital, primarily confined to my bed. I was only allowed to get out of bed to use the bathroom, and on one occasion, to do a short walk around the hospital ward. They had me on the 'Mother and Baby' unit... Well, I did just 'create a new girl' - my new self! When they did release me, I was not supposed to lift more than 10 pounds, was not supposed to walk more than 2000 steps per day, and I was stuck with having a catheter for the first two weeks after my release.
For 5 weeks after the surgery itself, I had follow-up exams and physical therapy sessions, every week. So I had to remain in the town where the surgery took place, over 100 miles from my home. My initial plan was to live in my nice camping trailer, with it parked at the curb outside a sister in law's home. I was able to connect to water and to 110v 15 Amp power there, but had no sewer connection. My plan was to use a portable waste tank with wheels, to move waste from my trailer's holding tanks to her home's sewer clean out port, to be dumped. The neighbors on either side were fine with my prolonged visit and with my trailer and truck being parked there.
But at about three weeks post surgery, some 'neighbor' reported my truck to the city parking patrol as 'abandoned', and my trailer as 'illegally parked on a city street'. Well, of course the truck hadn't moved for the 5 days I was in the hospital, or for the two weeks after that, before my surgeons cleared me to drive again! And I am rather OCD, so once I did start driving the truck again on short errands, I tended to park it in almost exactly the same spot, in front of the trailer. Anyway, no attempt was made to talk to any of us, but I got a 'move it in 72 hours or we'll tow it' notice slapped on both, by the local police. A few quick phone calls the next morning, and I moved into a RV park with weekly rates, about a 20 minute drive from where my sister in law lives. Thankfully, by then I was driving well enough and recovered sufficiently that with help from my daughter, I could hitch the trailer up, tow it across town, and set it up at the RV park.
A week after my last medical exam, I was off all the medications, and felt recovered enough to do the two hour plus drive back to my home town. Not allowed to lift more than 50 pounds, and not supposed to walk more than 6,000 steps a day, though.
I'm now back at my home, with the trailer back in its storage site at a nearby RV park. I am starting to go back to work, though for the next month will continue to have limits on weight and steps, gradually relaxing those limits each week until the month ends.
