I had a Dermatology appointment at the VA this morning. I had been seeing a non-VA dermatologist for several years. The VA decided I needed to be treated in-house, so this was my first visit with this one. She was awesome and we spent some time going over my medical history. I have had seven Basal Cell carcinomas removed over the years, so I have to get checked every six months.

She didn't see anything suspicious that might need a biopsy. So she just froze a few thousand pre-cancerous spots with liquid nitrogen. I have a large spot on my back that I thought was a mole. It is ugly and black and about 2 inches long by an inch wide. The issue is that it is right under my bra band, so it gets irritated. She said it was a "barnacle", benign and she could freeze it. It may fall off or we can just keep attacking it during each visit. I agreed.

So then I am driving home and it is really getting sore from being frozen, my bra sitting across it, and I am sitting trying to drive without leaning back in the seat. Wowza.

I enter my apartment building and my property manager sees my face (red blotches and blisters all over), and asks if I am okay. I asked her if the Violence Against Women Act applies if the culprit is your doctor. We laughed, but I can see a pain pill in my immediate future.

Good times.

Oh goodness YES! I considered myself "just" a crossdresser for about 10-15 years. I suppose during that time I also used the archaic, transvestite label as well. I know, the horror! I look at things now and understand that I have had some sort of obvious gender variance my entire life, I just called it different things prior to starting to receive actual gender therapy. Now I just see it all as a variant of being transgender. Currently my official can label reads, transexual female. Again, the horror! I know, what is wrong with me? Yes I am transgender, however my specific form of transgender happens to be transexual. I've read my therapist's and doctor's notes for my surgeries and yup, that TS word is everywhere, so you kinda gotta get used to it, imo.

Quote from: Oldandcreaky on Today at 07:57:50 AMWow, she is generous. Is she still working on your face? 

Oh yeah, very much so. 🦁🙄😂

What she's done though is so so smart. She started with my cheeks (which she said were as dense as any she's ever worked on in her 30+ years of doing this. So... you know... score one for me.). And then moved down and is slowly doing my neck as she closes in on my goatee area (even though she continually thins it every session).

The idea is so that on the days that I don't shave in anticipation of a session, it looks "normal". Like right now (since I haven't shaved today and normally wait until Friday to give my face a day), it looks like I'm trying to grow a goatee. That's it.

But as she next finishes under my neck and comes up the chin, eventually it'll look like I'm just trying to grow a mustache and then... poof. She says all this stuff is going much more quickly, so hopefully we'll be somewhere by year's end?  That would be a little over two years.

Oh and in the beginning she would also sometimes bring me over and do a round of laser on me too (never charged me)... first to clear my whole face, but then subsequently only around the lip area, which is where I had mostly my dark hairs. But those seem gone now so we haven't done that in quite a while.

Sarah, thank you for the welcome!! I'll add more, I'm frankly nervous to be putting myself out there like this. Big step, but I'll write more as I find myself for sure!

     Oh gosh thank you for the thoughts!! That's really helpful. I'm always thinking about next major steps that I need to take some time to figure myself out more deeply. It's just something like... hey this makes sense so now what?!?

I appreciate it Allie, this is exactly the advice I need. 

Quote from: REM.1126 on Yesterday at 11:22:32 PMI can be kind, and helpful, and loving towards the people who choose to be around.  I can help the poor.  I can treat others as I would want to be treated.  And, I can try to be a positive force in the lives of those who allow it.

The good stuff. 

Wow, she is generous. Is she still working on your face? 

Quote from: LoriDee on May 07, 2024, 07:38:37 AMMy coach's initial assessment is my voice is in the mid to high male range. My laugh is similar, but my cough is awful. I gotta work on that too. 

So much to retrain. Yawns, laughs, burps, coughs. I wonder if I can ever fully do it. Golotoplasty seams like an easier option but even that doesn't work without training. I find I do well reading doing training but as soon as I have to think of what I'm going to say the brain reverts back to old voice. My coach says in time this won't happen but its very frustrating now.

I did from 13 onwards (early 1971 a few months after my birthday). Mum gave me a bag of old clothes to take to the church jumble sale & I took the ones I liked for myself & hid them. I also experimented with makeup.
A few weeks after my 21st birthday I realised I was transgender. I'd often daydreamed of starting a new school as a girl since 7ish.I hated boys haircuts, sports, I was often bullied for being a cissy until I fought back big style at 14ish. I wondered why I could never get a long term girlfriend. I became a hard drinking, brawling poolshooting bad a** girl & boy chasing biker to hide myself.Iwas working on my Triumph motorcycle in late 1978 in a freezing garage. it was so cold I did 30 minutes on 10 minutes inside to warm up. I saw a piece in the paper on a transwoman who had a near identical life to mine & the penny finally dropped! It wasn't going to go away no matter how many drugs I took or how much I drank!

Congrats on the bump up. June will be here before you know it.
Hugs Gina