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CW: surgery
Let's talk about hand/finger mobility after RFF phalloplasty.
Range of motion was a concern of mine, and I don't even do anything that requires fine motor skills, like play an instrument. I just wanted to know if my hand would be the same after it all healed.
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Let's talk about hand/finger mobility after RFF phalloplasty.
Range of motion was a concern of mine, and I don't even do anything that requires fine motor skills, like play an instrument. I just wanted to know if my hand would be the same after it all healed.
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It's generally better to use your non-dominant arm as your donor arm simply bc of logistics - it'll be easier during recovery if you have one "good" hand. Folks I've seen use their dominant arm either have tattoos or scarring they don't want transferred to their dick.
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Ultimately it's the patient's preference but I would have struggled without having my dominant hand to do...everything.
For the first few weeks my arm was in a splint, to protect the skin graft. Bumping my arm lit it on fire and I was afraid I'd mess up the graft.
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For the first few weeks my arm was in a splint, to protect the skin graft. Bumping my arm lit it on fire and I was afraid I'd mess up the graft.
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Side note: so much of what I felt right after phallo was fear, not pain. Everything was new. New parts, new sensations, new vulnerabilities. I'd flinch while my girlfriend did wound care, but she wasn't hurting me; it was scary and new-feeling, is all.
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I started hand therapy about a month after surgery. The hand therapist measured things like grip strength and wrist flexion/extension angles, with benchmarks for me to meet over time. A lot of it was her massaging my scar site to keep the graft from healing to my tendons.
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She also taught me exercises to do with one of those big rubber band things. Lots of stretches. Grip strength was my big issue but I met the benchmarks pretty quickly tbh, and I think you could easily rehab on your own if your insurance won't play ball.
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I had about 5 weeks/10 appts worth of hand therapy then it was back out into the wild. My left hand gets tired a bit faster than my right but I've had no lasting issues.
That said, Iet's also talk about some not so fun stuff that can happen with your donor arm/hand:
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That said, Iet's also talk about some not so fun stuff that can happen with your donor arm/hand:
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CW: wound photo
Some not-great things that can happen:
-Graft doesn't take
-Swelling (see pic)
-Hand/thumb numbness
-Tendon adhesion to graft
-Loss of full prior flexion/extension/grip
My hand rarely swells now and only if I overdo it at work.
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Some not-great things that can happen:
-Graft doesn't take
-Swelling (see pic)
-Hand/thumb numbness
-Tendon adhesion to graft
-Loss of full prior flexion/extension/grip
My hand rarely swells now and only if I overdo it at work.
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You can see how the microsurgeons intentionally left about a half inch of skin untouched at my wrist. That is to help with mobility and is the type of "advancement" you can expect in the field of phalloplasty. The focus is on improving complication rates, not lab-grown dicks.
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I'm sure I'm forgetting something and this is still pretty basic, but I'll add to this thread from time to time if I think of more/people have questions.
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