Hi everyone - Just thought I drop ya'll a line and introduce myself. My name is Sharon and I live outside Charlotte, NC. I'm old enough to have thought Noah how to sail, but that's okay coz I'm healthy; physically anyway. I've lived full-time twice in my life - once in Miami, but without any medical or psychological support - bird seed for boobs - you get the idea. It was okay though coz I was living in South Beach (way before it became THE place to be seen - so it was just drugs, drinks and gender-benders). That was in the 80's. Flash forward to 2000 - the very beginning of the recession. I'm living androginiously; neither male or female. For you old SNL fans, think "Pat". I was designing huge, secure computer networks for one of the top 5 banks in America, making the big bucks - thinking it would last forever. Until the contractor I was working for lost the contract after 20 years and closed up shop in Charlotte. After looking for work for three years and not even getting interviews (did I mention I was old?), I conveniently went crazy, really crazy - locked wards and all. It was there I met my p-doc (psychiatrist). He understood my borderline personality disorder (bpd) better that anyone I have ever met, but he'd never met a TS before. So, while he worked on my bpd, I taught him about gender issues. He is a very quick study and within the month, I was on gender meds. I showed him the SOC. A year later I got my boobs. Short aside here: because I was/am mentally disabled, I'm on NC Medicaid. They pay for everything but my boobs. Needless to say, with 38D's hanging off my chest, I was full time for real this time. But I still had something in the wrong place and SRS isn't free. Well, I'm a sticker for the facts, an avid reader and I enjoy reference books. One weekend I downloaded the NC Medicaid manual and read it - cover to cover. I came away believing SRS SHOULD be covered because I had been diagnosed 302.85, per the DSM-IV-TR. Now you can say what you want about labels and how bad they are and how they stigmatize us, but those six little characters made it official. I spoke with some (all) the local Medicaid workers. No one challenged my reading of the law, it's just no one had ever done it before. That was last June. I began an intense letter writing spree, arguing that SRS was more cost effective than repeated trips to the psych unit. No one even acknowledged my letters, until one morning, about three weeks ago, I got an early morning phone call from this bright and cheerful voice telling me she was from the NC Medicaid office and was calling in response to an email I had sent the governor and what could she do for me. Right off I said I had been formally diagnosed as 302.85 and was wondering about getting SRS paid for by the state. Her response was "Sure, we do that all the time". She said no one in NC does that and I said I knew that. She asked where I would like to go. I said Miami (Dr Reed). No problem she said. How much, she asked. $25,000 I replied. No problem. I asked about transportation. No problem, she replied. And lodging? Probably she said. She said she would put together a packet and send it to me via snail-mail. I was afraid to push my luck and ask about FFS, but that's next - one step at a time.
So there you have it - my current life story. You can say anything you want about the nasty old DSM-IV, but that's getting me my SRS at state expense. If anyone wants further details, I'd be happy to share.
I'm looking forward to a fun, supportive community here. And to quote Paul Simon: Still Crazy After All These Years.
Peace to all -
- Sharon
