Female blandy urethroplasty experience

I wanted to share a little bit about my experience as a female having a urethroplasty, especially since I have not seen much online around the experience.

For some context, I am in Canada and have been dealing with urethral stricture disease due to radiation complications from cervical cancer. I have been cathetering for 4 years and almost completely closed up when I found out I was dealing with this issue. Went in for cystoscopies every 6 months.

The doctor finally cleared me for surgery as an option but did not have an opening for me for a year and a half. So I went into surgery really blind with no real information. Pre op was minimal and no one really told me how long I would be in the hospital, where they would be grafting from, what post op care would look like, etc.

I was the first surgery of the day, they did blood work, IV and vitals and I was brought in right away. The surgical room was pretty minimal with only around 5 people in the room. I was lucky to only have a bunch of women and a good report with my surgeon, due to my PTSD with past cancer surgery trauma. The nurse gave me drugs right away to calm me down and knocked me out pretty fast. I was in surgery for only 2 hours. She was able to cut out the majority of the urethral tissue and wrap the vaginal tissue in easy, despite the stenosis and atrophy I have from cancer. I came too around 3 hours from being knocked out.

I felt pretty good coming out of surgery but it definately was the drugs talking. I was eating and drinking fine since I did not need any grafting from my mouth or other areas. I had a catheter put in and my IV, but that was it. As the drugs wore off, I started to feel pretty bad. It was a lot of cramping and stinging type pain.

I was only in the hospital overnight and discharged the next day at 12pm. I was bleeding fairly heavy and they mentioned there would be "spotting" but it felt like a lot more then that. I would stand up and the blood would just rush down my legs like it had been pooling from laying down.

As I went home, I had a shower right away because I had blood all over. I was extremely tired and still in that raw, stinging pain feeling. The blood kept rushing out and it started to get really symptomatic when I would have this intense urge to have to pee, followed by a wave and then relief. 4 days in, I was still bleeding but confirmed with the home care nurse that it was from the vagina. The home care nurse also helped Reposition the catheter so that it was sitting a bit higher up and that helped the pain.

I am currently 4 days in now when writing this and starting to feel the heaviness (like inflammation or prolapse) in the vagina. I am still bleeding and passing clots. There is blood and chunks of what look like tissue in my urine. Pooping was hell on earth. When you bare down to poop, it was so painful and would cause rushes of blood. I also have this issue due to my hysterectomy and my colon pushing into my vagina. I am just taking advil right now and have been told no walking or lifting for 14 days. I have my catheter coming out in 3 weeks with the home nurse who will expect me to get it out and have a good, normal void in order to clear me. I will also see my doctor in 4 weeks.

I can say overall that it was been a lot easier then other surgeries I have had in terms of recovery. The first couple days are raw and exhausting and then its dealing with the weird heaviness and pinching in the vagina from the stitches (which i have that are dissolvable). My energy is slowly coming back and the catheter is a pain but manageable. Make sure you go home with a night bag and a leg bag and get lots of depends (they will be your life saver). Going to call into the doctor tomorrow about the bleeding.

Hope this helps anyone who is looking for some answers when going through a female blandy urethroplasty. I couldn't find any experience of others so wanted to share and will make sure to update this thread as I heal!