Hey everyone,
I just had to share this (since Ive always been completely stealth, when theres something Im really happy about, I dont know who to share my excitement with :p ).
I am being put forward for lower surgery! I am so so happy and ridiculously excited!!
I last went to the clinic last month, and the woman I see said she will refer me for a hysto, afterwards we can talk about the phallo (even though we have been talking about the phallo surgery for about a year).
After thinking about it all, I sent her a letter to explain that, even if it means I have to wait longer, I would rather have the hysto done with the phalloplasty, not separately. OTherwise this just means a whole other surgery, more time off work/uni, more separate trauma to the body etc.
She called me yesterday to say she had read my letter, and agrees with me. Also, that she had actually spoken to the hysto surgeon 2 days before, and it was suggested that I be offered this route also since Im definitely going for the phallo surgery.
So she is writing to request funding and referring me to the London team now. :D I am so happy!
I expected that once she read my letter, she would say lets talk about it at the next clinic appointment, I didnt think she would put me forward straigjt away. IM SO EXCITED!!
Ive known and been hoping for this day since I was 15.
I get frustrated alot of the times with how I sometimes feel my progress isnt as quick as I want. But if I stop and take a step back to look at everything, I can get out of the wrong mindset and view things more appreciatively. I am so grateful for how everything is going. I am still young and look forward to live completely post op. But even untill then, I have to count my blessings and enjoy every day Im given :)
(Apologies for the rambling :p )
Congratulations! That is fantastic news! :laugh:
Congrats!!
Awesome :)
I hope it turns out as well as your top surgery. You look great.
Congrats! I've heard good things about the London team, so that's awesome. Best of luck and keep us updated! :)
Congrats and I second what Lee said. Your top surgery results look great!!
Troy
Thats AWESOME ;D ;D ;D ;D I hope that everything goes great for you!
OMG, I just saw you are 21. Dude, that is SO awesome! :D
Yeah, don't ever feel like you're not progressing very quickly. That's the youngest I've known someone to be for bottom surgery, just in my little experience. So to me, that's just super young. So jealous XD
Oh Congratulations,
That is totally great news.
Geez for once the NHS does something right :laugh:
Whoops I hope you don't mind hugs from a sister :laugh:
Cindy
Nice!! Congrats on that.
Posts like this give me hope. I can't wait until my day comes.
Thankyou everyone!
Yes Adio, I shall keep you all updated if you want :) I am impressed by London's teams results. Some guys I have spoken to who have gone through them seem to have been taken care of well, and end up with very good results.
Lee and Troy, thankyou for that compliment.
JohnAlex, thanks. I did enter the NHS system for transitioning at 15, so I guess I was able to "get the ball rolling" early on.
I actually know of someone who had meta at 18 :O
Cindy, ofcourse I wouldnt mind a hug from you :p
Gifted, your day will come. Everyone's day they hope for will arrive at their feet aslong as you dont let everything get on top of you and just persevere.
Thanks again everyone, I will let you all know of any more that happens.
:)
This thread totally made me smile. ;D You've got so much ahead of you, all which you can live as your true self...that's awesome. I'm a little jealous but the happiness for you completely outweighs that!
congrats man thats great. good luck.
A quick update.
I emailed the surgeon Im referred to, to ask a few questions. (The surgeon is actually in Leicester. Id never heard of him and had just assumed I was being referred to the London team as thats the only people Id heard of doign the phallo in England).
My two main priorities with surgery are 1. That it is not the forearm graft used and 2. That they do perform the urethral hook-up. The surgeon said he does not do the urethraplasty, and that if I do want it done I would be better being referred to the London team instead.
So I will be calling my clinic when they re-open in the new year to ask that this be done. Im just glad I emailed the surgeon instead of waiting till my consultation whenever that would be, to find out all this.
One other note. Id been worrying how to tell my Mum that I am getting this lower surgery. I still see my family, we love eachother just as much now that we have gotten through the rough patch, but to bring this up, seemed a very daunting and awkward task! And I felt I couldnt not tell her because we are close and it is a major surgery her child will be going through.
In comes the documentary My Transsexual Summer that aired here in the UK. She actually watched it, and they talk about phalloplasty etc and she brought up the topic with me. So, theres that hurdle now crossed! :p
Thanks again everyone for being there via this site :p
And thanks Caseyyy for your kind words.
Thanks for the update. Good thinking on contacting the surgeon ahead of time. Hopefully you'll be able to get with the London team and get it all sorted. What kind of graft would you prefer?
That's great that you and your mom were able to talk about it. I've seen the clip from My Transsexual Summer where the guy shows his phallo results. I was very impressed with the overall outcome. I'm not sure who his surgeon was though.
Just another quick update.
So, Id called my clinic a few times, left messages and sent them a letter about 4 weeks ago just to ask that they instead refer me to the London clinic instead of the Surgeon they had referred me to since he does not perform the Urethraplasty, and as Ive mentioned before, this and the type of scarring are my two priorities.
I also asked that they send all the letters to my uni address, not my families address. This is because when I visited over Christmas, I had a letter from the hysto surgeon (This is pre them referring me for the phallo/hysto combo surgery) and I had a consultation that had passed already because they hadnt given the surgeon my regular address! :/
Id not heard back from my clinic for over a month.
So I had my appointment at the clinic yesterday. She was waiting to speak to me to explain the delays, and make sure she had everything right before she referred me again.
Basically, they referred me in November, funding went through fine, but the London team do the surgery more along the lines of what Im hoping for.
She has agreed to refer me to them :D YAy!!! However, since December, an Mtf surgeon has retired which apparently has caused a backlog, and all the people my clinic are referring for surgery, the local funding pct are now worried at all these surgery requests. So, despite my funding being cleared before, Ive been warned there could be problems this time around. Hopefully not though! :)
ALso, I asked on the yahoo group roughly how long people how to wait between referral and consultation, and it is around the 4 week mark, which is much quicker than I thought! This pleased me to know end.
And from consultation to surgery, the time period ranged from 1 week - 3ish months. So, hopefully this Summer I can have the surgery. This would be perfect as itd be between uni.
I just hope the funding goes through. I will continue to update you guys.
And Adio, the graft I would prefer is the thigh one. Its not the most common, but definitely my strong preference. If not this then the abdominal or hip one. Just not the forearm.
Congratulations. That is really really cool. :)
Awesome! I'm glad that clinic listened and referred you to the London team. Hopefully the backlog won't be too bad. The schedule as it is now is great! It seems a lot different than the wait for getting on T. I wonder why that is?
I've seen a couple guys use the thigh graft. It seems like a good location, more likely to be covered up by clothing than a forearm graft. For me, it would be fairly impossible unless I got electrolysis first lol Not sure what site I'd prefer, if I go that route.
Thanks again for the great updates :)
*New update*
I called up as I thought Id check they'd recieved my referral. They hadnt. But a few days later, I recieved a forwarded copy of the referral from my clinic, so assumed theres was on the way (by "theirs" I mean the surgeons team/secretary). A few days later, theirs hadnt arrived, so I thought screw it, lll send them mine!
And they have it now! :D
I called up to check (Ive learned its better to be persistent, than to wait and realize after, you could have done something!)
And theyve given me a consultation, Monday 19th! I couldnt believe they offered me one so soon. I do have to get the train at 6:42am though :p
So yeah, theres that I have to look forward to now. I have my questions all written down already.
I dont know how soon they can offer the actual surgery to me, (Ive even read of one guy who go it the week of his consultation because of a cancellation), but for me itll have to wait till atleast mid May because of uni exams.
And Adio, I have wondered myself why getting the phallo surgery sorted has seemed so much smoother and quicker than T!
Maybe its because less people go down this route..? I dunno!
Persistence is definitely necessary with these matters. It's great that the consultation is so soon. It makes sense that the reason this has gone smoother is because the amount of guys having a phallo is much less than those getting on T. Having surgery the week of the consultation though--that's unbelievably fast! Hope the consult goes well for you :)
Congrats and good luck!