In August of 2007, when I went to Thailand to have SRS, I contacted a Urinary Tract Infection, post op. Who knows how it happened. It is a whole new world when you cut your primary defense against such things off and make it a Vagina. You go from at least several inches separation between the tip of your penis, and your anus, down to an inch or two. Ecoli is resident in your intestines, and in males it is less troublesome than in females. I had contacted a strain of Ecoli that is antibiotic resistant, perhaps due to poor sterilization of the tools?

Even those who tuck like I did, and practically put your penis on your anus, still have just lots of resistance to infection because the Urethra is a few inches long and gets flushed out a few times a day. One of the valves that stop urine from flowing also gets cut off when you have SRS. There are more than one.

Several weeks after returning to Portland, I began to feel really weak and ill, and finally took myself to the Doctor. As it turned out, I still looked very raw, and had developed a UTI. The Bacteria were Antibiotic resistant, a sort of super bug here in the states. In Thailand, they have antibiotics to deal with it.

It was a severe infection. I looked at my past blogs, thinking that I would have blogged on it but apparently did not. They installed a picc line, a catheter line that ran from just below my elbow up my arm across my chest and into the Aortic Gallery. They gave me a big box of Antibiotic vials to keep in my Refrigerator, and an electric pump to slowly infuse the drug into the line. I did this twice a day for either two weeks or a month. Just having that thing in me kept me on the edge of hysteria the whole time it was there. I was heavily medicated, so that perhaps helped. The cure worked, though the urologist told me when she saw me at the Hospital that she'd thought I would have died.

Now, I have a nasty infection there again, and am on my second course of Antibiotic pills. I will be talking to the Doc on Monday to see if the infection is under control, or if they will do a picc line again. I must admit that I'm sort of brittle right now, trying not to be frightened; trying not to "horibilize". We will be talking about long term prognosis. No tears, OK. If this freaks you out, don't call me. I can't comfort you.

For the last 2 1/2 years or so, I have been extremely happy. Some of you know why. I feel extremely thankful for the time I've been given. I'm not thinking this is the end, but I just wanted to express my feelings, um because.

If I had a husband, I would be clinging to him like a limpet right now, and I would let him hold my breasts. The job of husband is open, you know. Gaming addicts, wife beaters, drunkards, and porn addicts need not apply. :)