Thank you for all the friendly welcomes. As requested, I'll share a little bit more about myself. I'm mid 40s living in north Texas. I've been a career firefighter paramedic for 23 years. I've been married to an amazing woman for a decade. We have two dogs and twenty-one fish. We have land in Colorado that we plan on moving to once I retire.
Transitioning literally saved my life. I used to not care about my health at all. I drank like a fish and was morbidly obese. If I had a heart attack at 50 and died, so be it.
Eventually I figured out that I would never be truly happy unless I decided to transition. What came next was a ton of therapy and research. I found a great doctor and had my first appointment with her in November 2022. I knew, and she quickly confirmed, that I needed to get my physical health under control. In March 2023, I had gastric bypass surgery. I got pretty sick after with symptoms of extreme fatigue, dizziness, orthostatic hypotension, and some confusion. I wound up in the emergency room where they found a giant tumor on my right kidney. Apparently, with the physical strain from the surgery, my weight, and the tumor- my body could no longer compensate. I was able to get the tumor out, and still save 2/3 of the kidney. The doctor said that they typically don't find these tumors until it is too late, as the symptoms don't start until it is pretty advanced. I was so lucky!
I started on estrogen in January of 2023, had my name and gender marker legally changed in January 2024, and had ffs surgery one month ago. I've lost 210 pounds to date, and I'm trying to drop another 20. But most importantly, I'm happy and healthy and living the life I've always wanted to live.
Coincidently, I came out publicly last October on National Coming Out Day. I had decided that once my estrogen levels got to where the doctor wanted them to be, then I would come out. I had told my family and close friends already, but the next step was work. I was going to start with the Chiefs to get the ball rolling. That day I was so scared, and I chickened out... for a couple of hours. Then I was on Facebook and saw a post about it being National Coming Out Day. Goddammit. I mustered my courage and talked to the Chiefs. Its funny, they were just relieved as they thought I was going to tell them the tumor had come back. The head Chief asked what my pronouns were and what I would like them to call me. If you aren't familiar with Texas politics, you may not realize how amazing it is to get a response like that. They have since changed the entire fire department's appearance standard to make it gender neutral instead of the antiquated male verse female standards we had always had.
That's my story. I'm just living my best life now. I'm happy to be here, thanks for having me!
