Yesterday I had a doctor appointment and it was the first one I've had since going fulltime. I was going because I was just about out of my 6 month supply of hormones and needed to get a new prescription. Additionally, I had injured my hand on Saturday night and wanted to get that checked out. I ended up leaving work around 2:30 an dtook a couple of buses over there because it would have taken more time to get to my car and drive there. At one of the stops while waiting for my bus, this young woman starts talking with me. I found her rather attractive and prior to transition, I bet there's no way we would have ever talked. Anyhow, we had a good chat while waiting for the bus.
I arrived at the doctor's office and checked in. I had to update my name in the system as well as my new insurance information. After waiting for about 30 minutes, I was called back and weighed and measured. Then I was led back to the doctor's office and had the usual series of tests like blood pressure and temp. Anyhow, the doctor came in and did an examination of me. She thought I had been on hormones 18 months (she has a lot of TS patients, like 600 or so) and when I said 6 months, she was surprised and said I was doing very well on hormones - about as good of results as she had seen on any patient. She said she thought I passed pretty well and I told her I did.
Next, I talked to her about changing my hormone regimen. I wanted to try injectibles as I've heard that people who have tried both the pill and injections preferred injections because of the results. She said she didn't have any problem with that, but that she had people try it out and they went back to the pills because they said it hurt too much. I said I wanted to do it anyways. Next, the nurse came in to show me how. So I went through the procedures and ended up injecting myself for the first time.
After that I realized I forgot to talk to the doctor about my hand. She now had a couple patients in fornt of me and my doctor wanted me to get some blood work next, so I headed over to the lab. I noticed the lab person had referred to my doctor as a "he" (my doctor's TS) and I didn't like that, but she treated me just fine. I have no idea if she knew I was TS or not, but as she had struck up a conversation with me like women do, I tend to doubt it.
Next I went back to the room I was in and the doctor checked out my hand. She wanted to x-ray it to make sure I hadn't broken it, so it was off the x-ray. When the x-ray tech called me back she asked when my last period was. I didn't know what to say, so I just said I've never had a period. I had once heard (on this or another forum) there was a safe answer to give people that didn't raise any red flags, but I can't remember what it was. If anyone knows, please post it. Well, I got my hand x-rayed and then she walked me back to the doctor with my x-rays. They put me in a room and closed the door. I was a little worried and it was taking some time and nobody was telling me anything. After about 10 minutes, my doctor walked in and said that she didn't see any fractures, so I left.
After riding a series of buses, I was back at my car and drove to the pharmacy with my new prescriptions. I dropped them off and decided to wait until Friday when I got paid to actually pick up the hormones. I did find out the injectible is considerably more expensive than the pills I was on, but at least insurance pays for about 25% of the cost, whereas nothing was paid for on my old insurance. Still about $160 (after insurance) for a vial is a little pricey. Next time I'll go to a cheaper place as my doctor recommended a local place that's the cheapest she's seen.
So that's about how my experience went. All in all, pretty good. Doing the injections wasn't as hard as I thought, but my leg does hurt today because I think I moved the needle while doing the injection.
Melissa
