So, remember that thing I said yesterday about how it doesn't really feel real yet?
Well, you can strike that.
Today was my consultation day. And now it's definitely real. I definitely had an "OMIGOD IT'S REALLY HAPPENING!" moment of sheer delight this morning when I signed my consent form, (the one which goes through all the risks, talks about "this surgery is irreversible," and "you will no longer be able to have biological children afterwards," and asks you to acknowledge these things, sign that you agree, and give the surgeon consent to proceed,) and then there was a big moment of happiness when I actually got to see my legal paperwork that listed my surgery date and basically said "Carrie is now medically the equivalent of an infertile female," and described the procedures that were going to be performed. (Yes, you do get to see that before surgery ever takes place. It's the certificate of SRS completion that you can use to change the sex on your birth certificate.)
So yeah... now it's real. And wow, I am SO excited!
So, basically during the consultation, it was comprised of a few things. First of all, I sat down at the front counter and received the aforementioned consent forms. I also gave the physical copies of my x-ray images, blood test results, and psychologist referral letters to Som K, (she's the one who composes all of the emails that you'll send back and forth to Dr. Chett's office during pre-surgery preparation. She's very nice, and speaks almost perfect English, so there definitely won't be any communication problems if you have questions about things.) [Also, I had no issues with my letters being accepted, all you need to do is make sure that the letters are the original copies with the handwritten signature of your psychologists. I tend to be a double-check-to-make-absolute-sure kind of person, so I asked Som a LOT of questions via email whenever I had a doubt about whether something was okay or not, to make absolute sure that things were settled, and that I had exactly what they needed.] Then while I was signing the consent forms, a nurse came out and took my blood pressure and weight. And then once all of those things were settled, a nurse took me upstairs to meet Dr. Chettawut and have my official pre-op consultation.
So, they tell you beforehand that if you have any concerns about surgery, make sure you discuss them during your pre-op screening, because that's the only real chance you're going to get to make personal requests, bring up any personal questions or concerns that you might have about the surgery procedure, or to make special requests.
Dr. Chettawut is a soft-spoken humble kind of person, and he is very honest about what you can and cannot expect. If you ask about specific things that you're hoping to receive from SRS, he'll tell you beforehand very honestly whether those things are reasonable or not based on your own anatomy. (I personally asked about the appearance/definition of the vulva, so I told him that my main concern was the definition of the inner labia and the clitoral hood and all of the other intricate bits, and told him that if he needed to sacrifice a bit of depth to make the outside look better, that would be fine with me.) He replied to me honestly, saying "well, you are very small, and you do not have much elasticity in the scrotal skin, so I'll do my best, but that is going to limit how much we can do with the inner labia." (He will pretty much always say "I'll do my best," he is an honest humble kind of person, not the kind of surgeon who will load you up with false hope and be like "you will look EXACTLY like a cis woman, I promise." He'll be honest with what your personal limitations will be, and will say "I'll do my best" rather than making extravagant claims.)
(I feel like this last point is important for me to say, because I heard someone on this forum talking about how they were afraid that Dr. Chett isn't honest because his website contains nothing but pictures of beautiful cis women. Well, you definitely haven't met him in person. He's the exact opposite of a snake-oil salesman making extravagant claims of how beautiful you'll look and how perfect everything will be. He is 100% honest about personal limitations and what you can and cannot expect, he'll answer your questions/concerns very honestly, and he doesn't make bold claims, he's the type who will take your personal requests into consideration and say "I'll do my best" in regards to making them happen rather than making promises. So, well, just be realistic and you'll do great with him. I can see where there'd be problems with people who are insistent on getting a certain depth or getting certain results for 100% sure, but Chett isn't the kind of surgeon who likes to guarantee such things, he's the kind who will work with what you have to work with to the best of his ability, and just trust his expertise on the matter, he's done this thousands of times, he's seen everything at this point, he seems to know exactly what to expect, and, again, will be honest with you about what you can expect given what you have to work with.)
The consultation for these procedures involved having pictures taken of the area, a brief physical examination to check for size and elasticity and other things, and then a face-to-face Q&A as I've mentioned.
In addition to SRS, I'm having a trachea shave as well, and Dr. Chett showed me exactly where the incision on the neck will be, once again went over my individual plan with it, (he told me that my trachea is a bit large, so he's going to remove as much as he can, but there's a limit on how much can be removed safely, again, "I'll do my best,") and when I asked if there was a chance that my voice could be affected, (which is something that I've heard other people say, that a trachea shave can cause you to lose vocal strength,) he said no, that's not something that he's had happen to a patient before, and not something that I had to be worried about.
And then once all of my questions were answered, he handed me the pre-op instructions (mainly things to do with the bowel prep, including when exactly I need to go on a liquid diet, what things I am and am not allowed to eat/drink, how to take the laxatives and the SWIFF solution, and he also gave me an electrolyte drink mix to keep me hydrated during the forthcoming two-days-straight of digestive pyrotechnics.) He told me when to be downstairs and when to be ready to go, what I could and couldn't bring to the surgery center, when my mom could visit, things like that which a lot of people ask.
And finally, because my WBC count was high during my blood tests in America, I had to do a repeat blood test and a urinalysis to check for infections. (I asked him whether, if I do have some sort of infection, if that could possibly affect my surgery date, and he said no, not unless it's serious, which since I have reported no symptoms at all it shouldn't be, but they'd get back to me with the results later in the day and let me know for sure if there were any problems and how we would go about addressing them.) [Side note: I didn't get an email back with the results yet, so I sent an email to Som and hopefully I'll know by tomorrow morning.]
Finally, obviously since during the examination he noticed that I'm rather small in the downstairs area, I did need the additional skin graft, and I also had to pay for the blood tests, so I had to go back down to the front desk and settle the fees for those things with Som. (It was $980 extra for everything. And as others have said, almost everyone needs the additional skin graft. So just bring $950 with you. Odds are that you'll need it. I withdrew $1500 from my bank for the trip because I was expecting it, and yeah, good call, especially if you're small like me, you'll definitely need it.)
So, anyway, I'm all ready to go now.
Once the consultation was over, my mom and I ran over to Seacon Square to get lunch and to stock up on water, prepared meals, and other amenities that we're going to need, I made sure to get a big bottle of Sprite to take the SWIFF solution with in 2 days, as well as Jell-O (we're going to have to go back at a later date to get juice and soup broth, we had to buy 9L of drinking water, [you do have to buy drinking water in Thailand, not even the locals drink the tap water, so that's definitely something that you need to plan ahead on. The hotel only provides you with a single 500mL bottle of drinking water every day, so you're definitely going to need a lot more, and, well, that stuff is heavy. So just plan ahead before you go in to surgery to make sure you have enough water to drink during recovery.) So, yeah, there was a very hard limit imposed on how much we could conceivably carry since we were carrying six 1.5L bottles of water back from Seacon Square to the hotel, 20 lbs worth.
Also, Seacon Square deserves a separate post all on its own. If you're staying at the Dusit Princess or the Vertical Suite, you simply cannot not check this shopping mall out. It's amazing. 5 floors of retail stores selling everything from clothes to food to electronics, so many amazing-looking restaurants that I lost count, (I was completely floored by how many Japanese restaurants were there... like, we are in Bangkok, right? Apparently Japanese food is a big thing in Bangkok for some reason? There was a hand-made udon noodle restaurant (which had a Thai/Japanese fusion dish of Tom Yum flavored udon (YUM!!!,)) a ramen noodle shop, one of those all-you-can-eat sushi conveyor-belt buffets that you often see in videos about Japan, plus like 5 more. And this is in addition to a wide selection of American fast food, an entire giant Thai food court which had hundreds of different kinds of meat dishes ranging from curries to stir-fries to those delicious-looking fried pancakes that you often see in videos about Bangkok street vendors. And in addition to the Thai food court, there's also an entire assortment of small street-vendor-like stands, which fill the entire mall with amazing aromas. Like, wow... I'm seriously in heaven. I could probably spend an entire year here just going to every single food vendor and trying everything. This is food heaven. And I love Thai food and I love Japanese food, and can't really get good Thai/Japanese food like this in Ohio at all, so wow... I could not have asked for a more amazing location. I'm going to savor every moment of this.
Anyway, that's enough for now, I'm sure I'll do a full post on Seacon Square soon. (Which is right across the street, within very easy walking distance, from both the Vertical Suite and the Dusit Princess.)
Anyway, the next two days are "tourist" days for me and Mom, we're going to do some sightseeing, probably going to see the grand palace and the floating market. And we're also probably going to do more shopping at Seacon Square, because I need more clear liquids for my 2 days of bowel prep, plus I've got to get Mom some prepared meals that she'll like since she's not too familiar with Thai food or Thai ingredients, so she doesn't know what kinds of flavors will work for her, while I pretty much do.
Anyway, hopefully I'll know the results of the blood tests soon and I can post good news about them.
Things are amazing. I love it here so much already, and I'm officially getting super-excited!
Till next time!
