During my stay I received excellent care from five nurses, each on 12 hour shifts and each with just 4 patients to look after – Hannah, Talia, Shana, Sam and Briana. Obviously you had to have lots of “a”s in your name to work on the section. They were all very familiar with Transgender patients – used my preferred name of Stephanie even though my ID bracelet said Robin, used the correct pronouns – a big thing for me. Jamie, the Surgeon’s PA, came to see me this morning, took a quick look and told me it had been a perfect surgery. She also said everything had gone to plan and apart from some swelling and bruising it was looking good. I was pleased to hear that. I still had to lie flat on my back (no inclination greater than 30 degrees). There was a big plus side – I had a little button to my left which put a shot of morphine into the IV if pressed. I had been warned not to be a hero and let the pain get too bad so press it I did. The best part of this is that Denise was never more than a few meters from me (apart from when she went to the cafeteria for meals) as she had a fold-out bed in the room. The highlight of my day was being presented with my beautiful ring – I was involved in the choosing of it before we left Australia but it was agreed that I would be given it when fully awake after the surgery (for being a brave girl).
