Britain - "brendalana" related material from the 2009-02-21 defunct MSN group "The Biber Girls…" [2009-03-13 BLS]

"brendalana" related material salvaged/reconstructed from the 2009-02-21 defunct MSN group "The Biber Girls…"

http://groups.msn.com/TheBiberGirls

BLS' pictures:

http://groups.msn.com/TheBiberGirls/brendalanasmithrafd.msnw


1983-11-30 BLS - Hollywood CA


1984-11-14 Affidavit of SRS - Trinidad CO


1985-01-25 Decree Changing Name - Los Angeles CA


1985-08-03 BLS (Stern Mag #1)  - Trinidad CO


1985-08-03 BLS (Stern Mag #2) - Trinidad CO


1985-08-03 Stanley Biber and eight of his "gals..." - Trinidad CO


1988-05-24 BLS & Billy Adderley - Bermuda


1988-07-23 BLS & Jonathon Ford - Bermuda


1988-08-19 BLS - Bermuda


1988-11-24 BLS & Christine Jorgensen - Dana Point CA


1989-01-17 BLS - San Clemente CA


1989-03-18 BLS - Riverside CA


1989-07-10 BLS - San Clemente CA


1992-05-04 BLS - Croydon UK


1995-03-17 BLS - Croydon UK


2001-10-04 BLS - Cornwall UK


2005-06-03 BLS - Cornwall UK


2005-06-04 BLS - Cornwall UK


2006-04-04 BLS - Cornwall UK


2007-08-18 BLS - Cornwall UK


2007-08-18 BLS - Cornwall UK (02)


2008-10-19 BLS - Cornwall UK


2009-01-24 BLS - Cornwall UK

   and...

BLS' account of 1984-11-14 gender reassignment surgery...

http://groups.msn.com/TheBiberGirls/herstory.msnw

Extract "“a’top a dung-hill...” pages 113 - 120 © Brenda Lana Smith R. af D., 2009

In my mind's eye my November "pilgrimage" of 'eighty-four to Trinidad's Colorado township Mt San Rafael Hospital was just another step in my becoming all I was created to be...

My change evolved... and... came to fruition at the right time... as I had intuitively come to know it eventually would...

For me... male-to-female genital conversion surgery relieved much of the incongruity of having a chemically feminized male anatomy housing what... after many years... I had finally come to accept as being predominantly a feminine persona... so-much-so... that even though now much of the novelty and the initial high of having female genitalia has long since worn off... Dr Biber's postoperative diagnosis of me would be much closer to the truth... and... made me far happier had he instead of: "Transsexual..." have added the prognostication: "Gender Euphoric..."

Although deemed "elective..." until some equitable antidote comes along for the apparent overwhelming irrationality of dissociative gender identification... there will be no viable alternative available to supplant the rehabilitative promise that genital conversion surgery holds out for transsexual persons...

The bottom line for me would be... should I similarly choose or happen this way again... and... be given my druthers... "the right time..." would happen very much earlier this next time around—lubricated by a far more welcoming world than I and the majority of my peers today have experienced to date this time around... thank you very much...

Much as my former lover and mentor Lynne Bell had gotten me hooked on the therapeutic value of keeping a daily journal... I understandably was able to little more than sketchily contribute to it during my confinement on Mt San Rafael's "Trannie Ward..."  so little that details of what should be the all important event in my life would now be similarly sketchy had I not have had the good fortune to have embodied all the niceties of my "pilgrimage" in a letter—the mother of the expanded epistle below—written just days after my return to Burbank to a male nurse-cum-amateur-drag-queen:-

"It is the early hours of the morning... and I have just finished dilating with my newest toy—a 5 cm by 16 cm inflatable vaginal stent... naturally I deflate its diameter to about 2.5 Cm before inserting... then—after I've very gently easing it in—allow it of its own volition to gently expand and therapeutically stretch my pseudo-vagina to a sexually functional size..."

"Yes, I am fortunate that surgery is now behind me... I traveled to Trinidad, Colorado, on Sunday 1984-11-11... synchronitiously, it was the fifty-first anniversary of my adoption... I was careful to allow myself an additional day to cover possible delays en route... There was no way I would risk being late... Spent Monday mainly reading and puttering about... Saw Dr Biber on Tuesday 1984-11-13, who gave me my final clearance... Then having—as required—paid up front... signed consent forms... was admitted to room "442" on Mt San Rafael's surgical ward that afternoon... a two-bedded room shared by a then far from copacetic room-mate in her mid-twenties who'd had surgery that morning... Jamilah "Ju-Ju" Qurnawi thankfully turned out to be a delightful American-born Franco-Eygptian belly dancer from Tuscon... anyway, after laying claim to my assigned room "442's" vacant window side bed "2..." and downing a reasonable supper found myself being prepped for surgery scheduled at 7.30 am next day... synchronitiously, my "rebirth" would occur—as my birth had—on a Wednesday!"

"Coolly, not even saying good-bye to my penis... the last time I remember in the operating room on Wednesday 1984-11-14 was 08:30... next I seem to remember endeavoring to get out of bed or off a gurney with high side rails and wanting to pee and exclaiming loudly to that effect... next I was back in my room where I managed to creep into a world of oblivion, although strangely enough I seemed wakefully copacetic—enjoying the fact of a 'phone call and then immediately wishing the caller would hang-up and let me go to sleep again... and sleep for the first five days was one thing I seemed to be allowed little of... every two hours one of the nursing staff checked my vital signs... the care was  excellent... on each shift there was a registered nurse, two licensed practical nurses, and two nurses' aides... OK, back to the day after surgery..."

"No horrendous pain or fiery tongs tearing away at my groin as I had often read about... just one heck of a big ache... terribly hard to get into a comfortable position... I'm sure glad I'd taken the advice of one of my predecessors and ordered a flotation pad for my bed... felt as if I had been beaten in my groin with a baseball bat... even so, it could not have been all that severe... I only had two pain killer shots during the first two days, and one Davron tablet on the third or fourth night, and that was given to assist me to sleep..."

"During the course of the fourth day they removed a "wire" loop that temporarily anchored my pseudo-cervix to the pelvic bone... it now looks as if I have a small belly button one-and-a-half inches above my crotch... I guess my pubic hair will cover... otherwise—who knows—it could be that maybe I have had my tubes tied by microsurgery..."

"The fifth day they had me clamp off my catheter for two hour periods to retrain my bladder control..."

"Thank goodness the sixth day came when they removed the catheter... freeing me to dash at will to my two-bedded room's en-suite toilet, no longer tied to a messy balancing act on a cold steel bedpan..."

"Hell—ambulatory again and having every morning and evening downed a lethal earth moving cocktail of Metamucil, Milk-a-Magnesia, mineral oil, and Correctol on the day's full menu, much enjoyed from the day after surgery—I had no problem in moving a mountain of crap... but of greater relief—if such was possible—was my ability to control my urine flow from the very first time I tried to pee... and further that it thankfully went down into the metering bowl and not all over the seat, or in the air, as I knew scar tissue could occasion... I don't know what I expected but—ignoring the novelty of knowing that whether like it or not with indoor plumbing I now best need squat, and necessarily now wipe rather than endeavor shake dry—urinating otherwise seems very much the same... next, I hastened off to the bathroom, not to soak in the tub but to enjoy what must have been one of the longest showers I have ever taken in my life... I recall shampooing my hair at least three times—it was "oh-so-icky" after six days in bed..."

"The seventh day was spent wandering around the ward—stretching my legs—visiting other Trannies... amazingly enough, within a couple of hours of having gotten up the day before I was fully ambulatory... admittedly, though, still feeling kind of weak, I took it easy for the first hour or so my second day up!"

"Cautiously intent on taking a rest during one of my earlier "Trannie Ward" ambulations this morning... on returning to "Ju-Ju's" and my room... I immediately found my eyes transfixed on her belly... for much to my surprise and wonderment there was this delightful belly-dancing housemate of mine flat on her back on her bed—having earlier had her vaginal packing removed and patiently awaiting Biber's OK to go home—diligently exercising her belly muscles... with them alone—would you believe—she was gently rotating a silver dollar, head over tail, on her belly..."

"Come the wee-hours of the eighth day I discovered I had inadvertently pushed out the cotton plug retaining the packing in my vagina... the night-duty R.N. told me not to worry as the packing was due to be removed later in morning anyway... I wasn't particularly looking forward to this, although I had soon discovered I was far more comfortable with just the plug's absence... nevertheless, soon after breakfast was out of the way the packing was carefully removed... seemed as if there was miles of it up me... and the awful stench... Yuck, and triple times yuck!  Believe me, nurses earn many times over their meager earnings when they pull such a disgusting duty... but they get a giggle too... The "You're going to put that where!" four-hundred and odd dollar inflatable vaginal stent... well—as they giggling had tried to assure me—to my pleasant surprise... well lubricated with H & R jelly and Neosporin... AND thankfully deflated... the stent slipped-in beautifully... no problem at all..."

"I'd been kind of dreading the experience because I still had not too fond memories of a onetime sexual penetration of a dildo being gently but firmly shoved up my ass... it was enough to last me a lifetime... well, thank goodness this newest of penetrative experiences was nothing like that... the inflated two-inch diameter stent plumbed out at four inches... Dr Biber's routine three finger test came up with another half inch... my douche spout is five inches long and that doesn't hit base... would you believe my vagina without any therapeutic dilation already shows much larger promise than my penis ever did! "

"However, it's a good job I am no aspiring "Size Queen," for no matter how much I might want to please a partner my vagina is not functionally able to marvelously expand as does the real thing when juicily hungering to accommodate a mate's well-hung member... even so... if I am to comfortably accommodate and sexually enjoy the utmost possible with what Dr Biber has thankfully constructed, I have to necessarily dilate for twenty minutes five times a day for four weeks with the stent... and thereafter shaft with a real man size dildo until my vagina shows no signs of shrinkage... and they tell me unless I'm being regularly serviced that I should dilate each day for the rest of my life... that is if I want to enjoy a comfortable **** at virtually the drop of a hat... however—not unlike many menopausal women—my vagina although moist will not automatically juice up... it will necessarily require artificially lubricating before intercourse... even though in my hand held mirror it at present appears that I have only one set of labia or maybe I've recently birthed—Dr Biber is an artist... everything seems in its correct position... yes, I'm very happy with it... I am amazed that in just a couple of weeks I have sufficiently healed to only having but a slight discharge from what is my clitoris... and... Oh Boy!  Am I ever glad that I now only need use panty-liners... trust me, I never ever want to see or struggle with another damn sanitary belt or a pad again in my life... screw that side of becoming a woman—thank you very much!"

"Synchronicitiously, the eighth day fell on that greatest of all American holidays, "Thanksgiving Day." How fitting I was released from hospital that afternoon... I checked into the local "Best Western" as my train was not scheduled to leave for until next morning... I set my alarm and dutifully dilated every four hours throughout the night... the train journey from Trinidad to Albuquerque took near six hours... during which I religiously dilated as instructed... skirts up, panties off, etc... back well against the wall... legs well spread... in the restroom—thank you... stent well lubricated... and in it dutifully slipped... gratefully, appreciating all the while that if ever the occasion arose that I would be able to make love in such a position... from Albuquerque I flew on into Los Angeles... all in all it took me eleven hours to return home to Burbank... and, boy was I glad to climb into my own bed... a changed person believe me... OK, so maybe not quite a "Valley Girl" but at least a "Biber Gal" for sure!''

"Before surgery I used to have to put on all my feminine finery just to cross the street for a morning cup of coffee at my neighbor's house... but now—like many of the women around here—you will see a relaxed house-robed me of a morning, hair in curlers, little or no make-up, confidently out and about the immediate neighborhood..."

"Emotionally, it's comforting knowing that, if push comes to shove, I too could "flash" my otherwise now street-legal femininity should ever I need to!"

"And another thing... thanks to Dr Biber's handiwork... should I ever take up smoking again... I don't have to fear the possibility—other than perhaps setting my bush on fire and de-furring myself—of me ever burning my dick again as I once carelessly had done while disposing a lit cigarette down the same toilet on which I happened to be having a crap!"

"And while on such a socially delicate subject... I don't feel so self-conscious frequenting women's restrooms as I did before surgery..."

"Despite not being impeded by yet stubbly fuzz... and hopefully only because my pussy is still "intacta" or I am not yet into the habit of naturally spreading my thighs when peeing... I now more closely echo a maiden tinkling than the whooshing voiding cascade of a grown woman's open sluice gate that I enviously came to expect after fifteen months or so frequenting the intimate inner sanctum of many a woman's restroom..."

"Acoustically and carnally... I thankfully no longer need fear the embarrassing possibility of being exposed as a squatting gender dysphoric interloper nervously concealing "her" unwanted —surplus-to-requirements—"manhood" thrust firmly downward between "her" tightly closed thighs... on the fearful off-chance that some nosey roaming predacious "diesel-dyke" might force the protective stall latch—yuck!"

"Even though the days of me being anatomically taken for a transgenderist are thankfully over and I am socially well cocooned by many caring "non-scene-dyke" friends... I'm still not overly comfortable chitchatting and lingering and preening unnecessarily while solo in my now legally rightful restrooms, though... but I'm slowly getting there..."

"I 'belonged' the other day... volunteering one of the three safety-pins automatically proffered after there was a needy sisterly cry of expectancy for one!"

"Yes, world... I'm as happy as a Miss Piggy-in-shit with Dr Biber's handiwork... thank you Father... thank you for Dr Biber… I no longer feel a fraud presenting as a woman..."

=====

And... for the record and interest of those with a surgical bent...

REPORT OF OPERATION                                     MT SAN RAFAEL HOSPITAL
DATE OF SURGERY:   11/14/84                          Name:        SMITH, BRENDA L.
SURGEON:               S.H.Biber M.D.                     Room No:   442-2
ASSISTANT(S)         C.H.Raye, M.D.                    Doctor:       Biber
                                                                    Birthdate:   06/21/33                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         
                                                                    Hosp.No:    84-1590
                                                                    Adm.Date:   11/13/84

PREOPERATIVE DIAGNOSIS:    Transsexual
POSTOPERATIVE DIAGNOSIS:  Transsexual

NAME OF SURGERY: Genital conversion surgery, male to female, penile inversion technique.

Under general anesthesia after routine preoperative preparation and draping, the patient in the lithotomy position, penile inversion technique genital conversion surgery is accomplished. Incision was made over the scrotum in the midline. The scrotal skin and some fascia dissected laterally and posteriorly to the perineal body. Dissection was carried anteriorly until the corpora of the penis could be secured. Dissection of the skin of the corpora was carried completely around the penis to the glans area and the glans itself was dissected out with sharp knife dissection, coned out of the corpora, so that the glans remained as a cap to the penile skin. This would later be transferred and implanted as a graft to act as a small cervix. The soft tissue, areolar tissue, and fascias were removed on both sides, exposing the testicles and cord. Ligation of bleeders in the area was accomplished with chromic catgut. Dissection of the cord was accomplished into the external ring and then pulled down out of the inguinal canal and ligated high with both a silk suture and a catgut suture. It was then severed and withdrew high into the inguinal canal. Careful dissection of the corpora was then done down to the base of the pubic arch. The corpus spongiosum with its included urethra was dissected out of the corpora cavernosa and carried down through the bifurcation to the arch, into the crus area, incising the suspensory ligament down into this area and secured hemostasis as well as could be done with fine chromic catgut sutures. The transversis muscle was similarly removed from the corpora and dissected down both sides. Once the corpus spongiosum was alleviated from the crus of the cavernosa clamping of the cavernosa at the base of the pubic bone was done with large forceps and the cavernosa removed. Very carefully, chromic catgut sutures were utilized to obtain hemostasis as these clamps were removed from the corpora cavernosa. This was at their bases. Reinforcing sutures were, of course, utilized to aid in hemostasis in this area. Once this was accomplished dissection was carried out anteriorly, separating the abdominal skin from the rectus fascia all the way to the umbilicus. Dissection was carried on both sides so as to give us the maximum amount of elasticity and additional skin to be utilized to form the perineum. Then, with the assistant's finger in the rectum, dissection was carried out through the fascia over the perineal body area and finger dissection helped develop two similar cavities on both sides of the pubic bone and with careful dissection, the perineal body in with the central ligament was approached. The incision was accomplished separating the rectum, leaving the rectal sphincter intact and continuing to separate the rectum by incising the rectourethalis muscle and central tendon all the way up. With careful dissection the periurethral area was dissected out, dissecting out the rectus fibers in the periurethral area and exposing same up to the area of the prostate. Levators were incised on both sides as this was approached and then very carefully, dissection of the rectum off the prostate was done until we encountered Denonvillier's fascia, opened the posterior layer of Denonvillier's fascia, and then separated between the anterior and posterior layer of Denonvillier's fascia high into the intersticies of the abdominal cavity. The lateral dissection was then accomplished incising further levator muscles, leaving perhaps half of the levator intact on both sides, getting down to the pedicles of the bladder and the vessels emanating to the seminal vesicles, etc., and these were ligated and severed on both sides. Then with finger dissection we continued to form the large vaginal cavity. Hemostasis was carefully secured in all instances with fine chromic catgut sutures. Once this was done, a large pack was placed in the area and we returned to dissection above. The excess bulbar spongiosum was removed down to the urethra, very carefully at the perineal portion of the bulb and this was run over with a chromic catgut suture and locking fashion in two layers to obtain hemostasis. Then, a plastic tube was placed in the penile skin and the lower third of the penile skin was completely denuded down to the dermal area of successive areolar tissue and fascia. This was to act as skin graft within the intersticies of the vaginal cavity, however, there is and obvious dermal plexus of vein and artery in this area and we try and leave some dorsal nerve roots in the area as well, coming down to the glans tissue that remained. With this then in place a wire retention suture was then applied from the upper aspect of the abdominal skin to the symphsis itself and once this was held into position, a small incision was made in the proper area for the urethra. This was in the normal female position and the catheter along with corpora spongiosum and the remaining urethra was brought through this hole. The penile skin was then invaginated upon itself into the preformed vaginal cavity. Chromic catgut sutures held the apex of this skin in the peduncle of bladder area on both sides, in other words this was sutured into position. Once this was accomplished, the new vaginal skin of the previous penile skin was then tailored posteriorly primarily so that it would fit the vaginal cavity and closure of the posterior aspect of the orifice was accomplished primarily with chromic catgut sutures, utilizing also a chromic catgut suture from the perineal skin to the posterior aspect of the newly formed vaginal skin. Once approximately three inverting sutures were applied, we then utilized a fold of scrotal skin to form a minor labia and this was sutured upon itself with fine chromic catgut sutures. Drains were then placed into the cavity on both sides. These will be utilized for 24 hours and removed after drainage has be accomplished. Packing was then done of the vaginal cavity with two inch packing immersed in antibiotic powder. Packing was obtained and two plugs also utilized to hold the packing in position. We then tailored a labia majors, excising out the excessive scrotal skin and obtaining excellent hemostasis with fine chromic catgut sutures and the closing the external labia that were now formed with fine interrupted chromic catgut sutures. Then, our attention was then diverted to the urethra. The urethral mucosa was then opened and sutured with fine chromic catgut to the posterior aspect of the incision made in the penile skin in normal female position. This was done with fine chromic catgut sutures carried upward. The excessive corpora spongiosum from behind was then tailored to form a clitoris. We ran the corpora spongiosum with two layers of fine chromic catgut sutures, then placed in a small curve into the upper aspect of the urethral incision and made a new incision approximately a centimeter above the urethra and the excess corpus spongiosum was then pulled through this and a purse-string suture of 4000 chromic catgut placed around it and the rest of the lateral aspect of this newly formed clitoris will be sutured to the under side of the skin with fine chromic catgut of the #0000 variety, allowing the skin to form a hood around the projecting new clitoris formed of corpus spongiosum. The purse-string suture was also pursed in such fashion as-not to obliterate blood supply, but as to purse the new clitoris in outward direction.

The patient withstood the procedure well and returned to the recovery ward in good condition.

S. H. Biber, M.D.
SHB:mp
DD: 11/14/84
DT: 11/15/84

--

© Brenda Lana Smith R. af D., 2009

im looking into those inflatable stents and would like to ask where u bought urs or where u may know to buy them thanks much

thanks been awhile since i talked to her so thanks i'll use her personal email i have. appreciate ur speedy answer and help wish u long life n health not to mention happiness