lol, that was probably me?

The “concoting their own cleaning solution” might have been making a lactic acid douche instead of using a vinegar douche?

But for context, that’s so I can cultivate a microbiome that is friendly to lactobacillus - not to prevent infection. It did improve the smell, but tbh there was a stable microbiome (not lactobacillus dominant) that stabilized over time without my regimen which was maybe not as good-smelling as the lactobacilli, but was also not an overtly bad smell like it could get when there was something going wonky down there. Also, none of it is relevant if you just follow the doctor’s orders: douche every other day with vinegar solution during recovery (eventually I think you can reduce frequency to “as is”).

The hospital staff issues I had were particular to the hospital I had my surgery in, and because that wing was short-staffed and had to pull staff from other wings. I only had one truly bad nurse, and one mediocre nurse, but almost everyone I worked with was great even if they needed more training on dealing with vaginoplasty patients and the role that sitting can play in creating wound separation in that first week.

But those issues were in the end inconsequential and I recovered fully without issue. I don’t know how typical my experience was, and since my surgery that hospital no longer provides gender-affirming surgeries, so even that specific hospital’s problems aren’t relevant to future trans patients there.

Either way, none of this really bears on how safe and successful vaginoplasties are - I am very thankful I went through with mine despite the hardships I endured before and after the surgery.