The nurses woke me up twice through the night, then again at 6:30 AM just to make sure I was awake for when they would come to take me down to the operating theater and cut away all of the damaged tissue, then create a vagina and connect blood vessels, etc., to it.

Of course, by the time they DID come to pull my gurney down there, I was half nodding from being woken up so much.

They rolled me into the operating theater, where a well-built thirtyish male leaned down to place the mask over my face.

"Okay, Will," as he flipped a switch or something, "Just count down from 100 now."

I started counting, "100... 99... 98... 97... 96... 95..." then the anaesthetic rolled over my consciousness and that was all I knew.

I had been told that the whole operation would take at least five or six hours, even with two surgeons working together.

I'm not sure just how much time had passed when I woke up in the recovery room and found Sammi and my mom sitting nearby.

Sammi must have been keeping an eye on me, as it was only a moment after I opened my eyes before she noticed I was awake.

She was up and off that chair pretty darn fast, gesturing for me to lean up a bit. When I did, she hugged me half to death.

Well, it felt like it, I thought for a brief moment that she might have cracked one of my ribs, she was holding me so tightly, but as soon as she reluctantly released me from the hug, that pressure on my ribs faded. I grinned at her, pulled her close and kissed her long and hard.

Oops! Well, mom was also aware that I was awake now, staring at me from behind Sammi, shaking a finger at me. I swear I laughed.

Oh, boy, that might have been a mistake. The hug didn't bother me, but laughing put pressure on something down there, and it bloody hurt!

I let out what can only be described as a squawk of pain and Sammi looked at me, wondering what was causing me to act that way. I pointed behind her, she turned enough to see my mom still standing there, hand raised, finger shaking and promptly started giggling.

At least she can laugh at it! I laid there, clutching at my lower abdomen until mom stepped past Sammi and asked me what was wrong.

I weakly pointed to the area between my legs and whispered, "I laughed and I felt it all the way down there. Ow! Ow! OW!"

She shook her head, smiled briefly, then giggled for a minute or two while holding on to the side of the hospital bed.

I groaned, just my luck to have to lie here and be forced to deal with two giggly women at once!

About an hour or so after I woke up, I was brought a meal by one of the nurses' aides on the floor. I took a brief look at the food on the tray, it looked okay, meatloaf cut in two thin slices, corn niblets and a splatter of what I assumed was mashed potatoes on one side of the plate.

Next to the plate on the left was a plastic fork and spoon. Hmmm... no knife, that meatloaf looks firm. A quick attempt using the fork to cut a small piece of the meatloaf away from the rest succeeded, so I nodded while looking at the strawberry jello and thanked her for the food.

Mom and Sammi let me eat in peace, stepping out of the room to wait somewhere nearby until I was finished.

The meatloaf was actually fairly decent, still nice and warm from the oven. The vegetables were edible and the jello was mmmm good!

There was a glass of milk on the tray as well, which I drank bit by bit as I ate the meal.

I had laid back against the top part of the bed for perhaps fifteen minutes before someone came in to collect the tray and stand.

Once again, I made sure to thank them for the food, asking them to pass on my compliments to the cook about the meatloaf.

The young woman, most likely about ten years older than I am, grinned and said she'd do that, then wheeled the stand out of the room.

Mom and Sammi came in a short while after that and we talked until I started yawning.

I guess doing something like having an operation can take the energy right out of you like serious exercise might do otherwise.

I'm fairly sure that I was asleep even before mom and Sammi reached the door.

When I woke up this time, I found myself in a semi-private room somewhere in the hospital. The other bed was empty.

A nurse came in a minute or two later, gave me a quick visual examination just to make sure I was all right, then left the room again.

I don't think two minutes passed from her leaving to my mom, dad, Sammi and my little brother Wesley appearing in the doorway. I waved them all in, then spent a moment or two hugging mom and Sammi, then shaking dad's hand and poking Wesley in the ribs just for fun.

The little guy laughed, he's nice and doesn't mind when I get stuck with watching over him when mom and dad go out together.

Dad picked Wesley up, carefully placed him on the hospital bed beside me. I grabbed the little guy and hugged him, then tickled him. He squirmed a bit, but I didn't want to cause some kind of accident, so I only did it for a minute or two, then hugged him again for the heck of it.

He took it all like the little champ he is. Gods, I love him, even when he's a brat, which is more than half of the time!

Mom, dad and Wesley only stayed for about half an hour, leaving me alone again with Sammi.

Sammi and I talked for about an hour, I guess, our talking interspersed with plenty of hot, passionate kisses that rocked my world.

Even with my being like a girl down there, Sammi still wants to be with me. She's awesome, I love her more than I can say.

The next few days were pretty much like the post-operation portion of that day, the only difference being what the meals were each day.

Doctors and nurses wandered in from time to time to check up on me and make sure everything was fine with the work they had done.

Our little journey up the hill that led to my fall happened last Thursday morning. From what Sammi has told me since then, Alec and Frank pulled two of the seats from their older Bell 206 to make room to place me in the passenger area of the helicopter that day.

They'd arrived at most half an hour after my fall, then pushed the helicopter hard to get me to the hospital in Thunder Bay as fast as possible. Sammi then said that they had been forced to borrow a bit of fuel from the hospital's reserves in order to reach the Marine Service Coast Guard location on the eastern edge of the city, where they purchased enough fuel to return to the hospital and later on, take me home.

What surprised me, though, was that Alec's and Frank's cousin Darren followed them, picking up mom, dad, Sammi and Wesley on the way.

Sammi added that the whole group of teenagers had felt that she should go, as she and I were in the beginning stages of a relationship. They thought that having Sammi close by would give me a boost, make me want to fight to keep going, and bless them, they were right!

Darren had done the same as Alec and Frank, headed over to the Coast Guard and refuelled, bringing enough to replace what was borrowed.

None of us, other than my dad, really knew any of the three guys, but thanks to them and their helicopters, I was still alive.

Like I said, it had been a bit over three days since the operation. It was now approaching mid-afternoon on the Monday after my fall.

I'd been in the hospital for nearly four days now, and yet I was surprised by the group of four doctors who entered my room that afternoon.

I had already met Drs. Kinson and Alliston, Dr. Kinson now introduced the other two, "Will, these two are Dr. Philberts and Dr. Kamitzo."

I took a moment to look at the two new doctors. Dr. Philberts was young, tall and lean, and appeared to be rocking on the balls of his feet as if we were keeping him from doing something or other. Dr. Kamitzo, though, was a short woman of Asian appearance, perhaps 35 or so?

Dr. Kinson continued talking, "These two were the primary surgeons for the work that was done last Friday. I'm glad they were here, as it could have taken quite a bit of time to find two surgeons as capable as they are, notwithstanding Dr. Philberts is still fairly new to it all."

I nodded and smiled at the two unfamiliar doctors, then thanked them and asked what they were all doing here now.

That caused the two female doctors to blush, then giggle for a moment before Dr. Philberts explained, "We're going to remove the packing." He accompanied that brief statement by pointing at the area between my legs, then turning as red as a beet while still rocking back and forth.

Huh, even when upset or embarrassed, he keeps doing that rocking on his feet thing. I guess it's an old habit of his.

The four doctors crowded close to the gurney, then began the process of pulling out the packing and revealing their work.

There were "Hmmms", "Ahhhhs", one "Interesting!" and one "Looks like it's healing okay" as they all examined me.

I shrugged. I'm not sure if any of them noticed it at all, they were so intent on checking out the operation site.

After a few minutes of muttered conversation between the four doctors, Drs. Philberts and Kinson left the room. I was surprised that the two female doctors were still there, then Dr. Kamitzo blushed briefly, grinned and reached for a small packet in her pocket, wrapped in cellophane.

She passed the packet over to me, saying, "These are stents, you'll need to use them on a regular basis to keep your new vagina open."

I guess it was my turn to go beet red as I took the packet from her hands and set it on a small table near the top end of the bed.

"We want you to take it easy. If things look as good tomorrow as they do now, we might release you in another day or two," Dr. Alliston stated.

The two doctors stayed for about ten minutes, giving me rather detailed instructions on how to use those infernal things.

They left to continue on their rounds or to other duties somewhere in the hospital.

Sammi came back in just after they left. It only took her maybe half a minute to spot the package of stents and she burst into giggles.

I lay back on the raised upper portion of the bed, looking at my giggling girlfriend and shook my head in exasperation. Women!

It figures that my bladder would decide that the perfect time to do its duty was after the doctors had all left.

I had to actually explain to Sammi what I needed, and she turned pink as she picked up a bedpan and held it so I could take my pee.

Sammi stayed with me for most of the rest of that afternoon and a large part of the evening, except when they all went to have dinner.

I had mine in my room. It was a big bowl of what looked life a sort of beef stew or thick soup, but it was quite good and soon gone. There was a nice sized bun with it, as well as a glass of milk and a smaller bowl with what looked like rice pudding. That all disappeared, too.

Huh, my appetite doesn't seem to have been affected. I'm honestly surprised, my life is going to be so different from now on, ya know?

Sammi was rather bemused when I asked her to help me with the first attempt at dilation. It was odd... and yet interesting? Hmmm...

She was still there when the nurse came in, saying it was time for my first authorized shot of testosterone.

I guess Sammi doesn't like needles. As soon as she saw the size of the one the nurse was holding, already primed, she ran out of the room.

The nurse chuckled at Sammi scurrying out the door, then had me roll over onto my side, rubbed my butt with an alcohol swab and jabbed.

Hooo, boy, that was painful. It took just about everything I had to keep myself from whining as the syringe emptied into my butt. The desire to whine was only partly from the needle. A fair bit was that simply turning like that brought on a brief pain spike from the new vaginal cavity.

Once the shot had been given, the needle removed and the spot swiped again, I rolled over onto my back as the nurse exited from the room.