Hi Steph,
You have a pretty good list of stuff surrounding surgery. Identifying the longer lead times and their prerequisites would be in order.
The longest lead time item is the waiting list of most 0f the top surgeons, some suggest a two to three year wait. For my doctor I needed at least one of my therapist referral letters prior to being able to get on her waiting list. The second letter was needed a few months prior to surgery.
Scheduling a consultation surprised me. The three surgeons on my short list; Dr. Mc Ginn, Dr. Bowers and Dr. Meltzer all had several month's wait just for consultation and I would not be able to get on the surgery list until after the consult. That made surgery further out than infinity...got lucky and got an early consult from Dr. Meltzer, that and the availability of a shorter wait time for Dr. Ley was the deciding factor in making my choice. I was comfortable with all three doctors on my short list so the choice was not difficult for me.
Hair removal is something that you will want to look into. For some it was a non issue and others have horror stories. My electrocutioner suggested that four or five rounds of total clearing over a six month period would be sufficient but that wouldn't have been enough. It looks like, for me, it may required twice that to be certain. Luckily just having a partial or no depth procedure, the remaining hair can be removed post op.
Once you have the surgery date set, both referral letters and whatever hair removal treatments done you may focus on the flexibility of your schedule. I called and checked with the surgeon's office and found that I could get in a couple of months early. It took some jumping through hoops on my part but I loved getting in early. If I hadn't done that I would still be in fairly significant recovery right now.
I thought that the one year RLE rule from WPATH would be a limiter but the surgeon's office treated it as more of a guideline. As long as my therapists felt me ready, there were no problems with the surgeons with me being a month short of the full year. Each office will probably differ.
The travel and the getting the needed stuff were good distractors from my impatience during the long wait. My surgery was in Scottsdale and we waited to pick up most of the required stuff there rather than carting it from home.
I chose to spend a few months prior to surgery working on fitness, primarily focused on endurance and core strength to aid in recovery. Recovery still took forever but I think that the added time with conditioning has helped out.
My surgery was self funded as Medicare does not cover this procedure so I have no suggestions about insurance.
One thing not on your list was recovery time. I had always felt rather immortal and invincible so was not concerned about a significant amount of recovery time. Sure, I read the stories of the others that had struggled through but knowing my typical strengths and endurance was not concerned. Needless to say, I got my ass kicked by trying to push it too hard. I recommend allowing yourself far more time than you expect for healing. You may not need it but in that case you just have some more time on your hands to enjoy life.
Good luck girl, I just know that you are going to nail this one. Let me know if you have any other questions.
Love,
Tia Anne
