Life’s Little Mistakes

My daughter turns 9 in just over a month. Last night while I was giving her a bath I realized that we had done a disservice to her. As we were raising her older brother we always called his penis a penis. In contrast, I never spoke of her vagina. Instead we always said that “Boys have penises and girls don’t” but never referred to her parts as anything other than “her bottom”. Well, last night she asked me to name body parts and then she would point them out on her body. After asking about her cheeks and joking about those on her face and those on her butt I asked about her vagina. I only got a blank stare in return. So, it was time to educate. I told her that in the fold between her legs are two openings; the one in the front is what she pees from and is called the urethra and the opening about an inch back is called the vagina. I went on to say that the vagina connects to the uterus, the place that a baby develops. She knew that I was going to Arizona for surgery that would “change my penis into something that looks more appropriate for a woman” but, again, I never named parts. I see now that this was probably a mistake.

Healing: My operation site seems to be healing well. One “advantage” of wearing a sanitary napkin is that I can see where any discharge is coming from. At this point I don’t have much discharge, but what there is mostly comes from the area of my clitoris. I’ve gotten out a magnifying mirror and taken a good look at the area. It seems that where the clitoris meets the surrounding skin there are at least three small gaps or breaks in the skin. It’s a little alarming. I hope that this is normal at this stage!

More Healing: I’ve also noticed that everything is less tender now. The pain in the side of my groin is mostly gone and most of the other tender spots are getting better. I can now easily lift my legs for soaping and drying, but climbing stairs is still somewhat hard. I’m definitely getting an increased confidence from not having a bulge between my legs or parts that don’t belong. I feel more genuine.