I’m a girl that needs a plan! Whether it is working in my business, doing the weekly shopping or attending one of the dozens of medical appointments i have had since making the decision to become the person i should always have been nearly three years ago. Today was no different. Today I attended an appointment with a surgeon in Perth who very kindly agreed to see me with a view to solving the problem of my ongoing pain.
As normal we were 20 minutes early for the appointment and he was running 25 minutes late! He apologised after inviting me into his office for running late, i told him it was fine and that on the grounds that it’s usually me that causes the lateness i never complain. He thanked me for that and began asking me a series of questions about the said pain. After a while he told me his plan. Sadly this was very different to what i had i mind. His plan involved having a good old chat to get the background and sending me away with a date to return where i would be admitted to hospital, given a full anaesthetic so he could thoroughly examine me including inserting a scope up my urethra to check its route to my bladder. He would then attend a fortnightly discussion meeting with a number of other surgeons and a radiologist to try and formulate a plan going forward to get me off opiate painkillers once and for all.
My plan on the other hand was for him to examine me today, then do his research and formulate a plan from that. His reasoning for his plan was sound as he said he didn’t want to hurt me. Now I’m all for no pain but I explained how I’d driven 250kms to see him today and therefore would be driving another 250kms home afterwards and felt that i would be happier if he had a look at me today. If after examining me today he felt that he still needed to put me under to have a better look then i would be happy to go with his plan. One very big flaw in his plan however was that if i was asleep then how would i be able to tell him when it hurt? He thought this was a valid point and went off to get the nurse/chaperone while i got undressed and onto the bed, good result i thought! When he returned, he introduced me to the nurse and positioned a very bright LED light so he could take a close look. As is the norm when someone sees my surgery for the first time I apologised for how it looks, to my surprise he said he was just thinking how “normal” it looked. I relayed the story of the first time my gender specialist (who he knows well!) saw it and commented “wow, what a mess, you must be so disappointed!” He replied “I’ve seen much worse on cis gender women”. He did a fair amount of pressing and poking, asked me where it hurt the most then announced that he wouldn’t need to examine me under anaesthetic after all! Another good result for Stephanie i thought! He asked me to get cleaned up and dressed and said he would be back in a minute, he had doused me with a fair amount of lubricating gel so i cleaned myself up and pulled back the curtain. He returned and told me to make an appointment for 4 weeks hence by which time he will have had his meeting with other specialists and bid me good day. All in all a successful visit i think – he has a positive next step and a plan going forward if he decides that it needs more expertise to solve to problem. He even said that it may involve going to a surgeon in the eastern states but he was hopeful he would find the appropriate person for me. It all left me feeling quietly optimistic and above all, thankful to the lovely lady who spent a good deal of time searching for someone willing to at least have a look at me. I had a good feeling the very first time i saw her and she seems to have come up with a winner, she even shares my name!