The Green Light!!!

The last time I posted I was a little bummed about the whole "starting transition" process. Based on the many stories I'd heard and the information both given to me and out there on the internet, I was starting to worry that it would take forever to start on T and get going on starting this new phase of life. Those of you who've read my blog from the beginning will know that I'm sort of in a "transition stage" with the whole career thing. I don't want to have to go through this major change while in the workplace, or to be forced to deal with being openly transsexual in the field I work in, as I'm not sure of how well the idea will be accepted. Therefore, I was hoping to get some headway in the transition process before starting my proper career, and am simply enjoying life/paying the bills with part-time work at a friend's shop and coaching in the meantime.

By the way, that picture at the top is how a lot of people feel about their situation with starting T.

Anyway, this is what happened to me. On the 5th of July I'd gotten a list of GPs and psychiatrists who are trans-friendly when I went in to see Gaye the counsellor at the Gender Centre. 3 weeks later saw me griping about how no one was taking in new patients or had an available appointment for ages except for one Dr.T who would charge $200 per session (of which Medicare members would get $120 back, but I'm with Medibank and am not sure what I'd recover from them). Gaye recommended that I call a Dr.P who is based in Wollongong but comes in to Sydney twice a week, and later that day, Dr. Hansen returned my call and recommended him as well.

So I call Dr.P and leave a message on the machine, and he was really nice to return my call after hours that same day. We scheduled a session for his next available slot on the 28th of August, a whole 5 weeks from then! Also, he said that he'd charge the minimum required by Medicare at $151.40, which was fine by me.

Fast forward 5 weeks and it's Sunday night, I'm telling myself that I have to get to bed so that I'll be ready for an early start to a long day. I kept getting a dread feeling that I shouldn't get exceited, that I'd only be made to wait even longer to start on T. I silently cursed myself for being in counselling for so long before moving on to seeing a psych, and wondered if I should stop putting my working career on hold and just hope for the best.

The next morning I get to Dr.P's office in the city 15 minutes early and give my bike a loving pat for getting me out of the parking headache in Sydney. I find Dr.P to be an extremely pleasant man in appearance and demeanour, a soft-spoken and articulate gentleman through and through. We have a very pleasant hour, during which we talk about my family, background, the discussions I've had with Gaye and other general personal information. At the end he suddenly tells me that he's heard enough and in his professional opinion, he would be able to write me a referral to an endocrinologist in good conscience. My eyes must have been as wide as dinnerplates, as I'd anticipated having to see him maybe once or twice more in the span of 3 months before getting that referral!

Anyway, I have 20 minutes between leaving Dr.P in the city and getting in to the Gender Centre in Petersham. I get there in good time (how I love my bike!) despite nearly getting killed by an idiot driving a van (who just shrugged his shoulders when I squeezed in next to him and rapped on his window to shake my fist at him). Anyway, long story short, I tell Gaye that I've gotten the green light from Dr.P to see a Dr.H who is based in Bondi Junction. We later bump into D, a fellow trans-boi I've written about before, and he says that he had an excellent experience with Dr.H, so I'm happy about that. I asked if anyone knew what the waiting period would be like to get an appointment, and no one knew. I wasn't looking forward to another 5-week wait after the shock of that morning.

The second shock was soon to come. I rang up the office of Dr.H on Thursday and was surprised to be given an appointment for next Wednesday, a mere 6 days from then! That was certainly unexpected! So I could be seeing my first dose of T very very soon! I'm obviously looking forward to the day, although I'm not quite sure what to expect from it. The other piece of information that D gave me was that Dr.H only requires his first-time patients to take their tops off, while a lot of other endocrinologists require their first-time patients to take both their tops and bottoms off.

So that's what been going on for me in the past few weeks, and that's what I'll be looking forward to this coming week. I'm sure I could've said it an a lot less words instead of such a long rambling post. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Posted in transition, hormones, counselling, Gender-Centre, trans-friends