Some people wanted to keep tabs on my progress at Seacroft, so may as well post them here. I will point out that it may vary slightly for different people, but I'll try and summarise my experience as best as possible.
Now, I didn't start my treatment with these guys, so it'll be a bit different to most of you. This is the story so far:
First appointment (May 11): Sat with consultant nurse and psychiatrist (the latter was asking most of the questions, the former was there more for collecting info). Both pretty friendly and seemed like they actually wanted to understand my journey. Got asked "standard" questions similar to my first appointment with Dr Curtis (i.e. not too in-depth or unnecessarily invasive), was mostly about physical stuff since I'd been on T about seven months by then.
Second appointment (June 11): Due to lagging T levels, I'd taken to unofficially doubling my dose. In the lead up to this appointment, I went back to singles so the nurse could see how low I really was. I was wiped out and looked it. I was therefore insistent on getting dosage adjusted. She explained that although I was now eight months on T, gone through over a year of RLE and generally ticked most of the boxes, I still had to go through the formality of an initial assessment, which usually takes about six sessions (note to all you guys/girls starting from scratch). However, *because* I already ticked most of the boxes, it was hopeful that I could get them squeezed down to about three or four, thus shortening this limbo stage a little (
see vid for more). Got letter explaining to GP that I needed referring to an endo to get my HRT sorted out - this happened about a month later.
Endo appointment (8th July 11): I was after the guy with the shortest waiting list, and by a massive stroke of luck it turned out to be the guy they'd recommended in the first place (consultant endo for the GIC). His name's Peter Hammond, and is based at Harrogate District Hospital. Now, this is where I got my hysto, and was very impressed with the place as a whole, so this just sent off all sorts of good vibes. When it came to the actual meeting, I was far from disappointed. This guy is awesome; his special interest is with trans-people, he was talking on my level, especially when discussing treatment. He described the two injections as short and long-term solutions (Sustanon and Nebido respectively). Nebido is the one I want, and thankfully it's the one he prefers to use with trans-guys
Said he'd send a letter to my GP the following Monday to arrange for my treatment to be switched - and in the meantime officially doubled my dose.
Third GIC appointment (19th July 11): Now, nothing's perfect, and in this case it's the above letter. One thing I brought up with the nurse today was that I'm still waiting for the damn thing. I'd planned to chase if it hadn't arrived by now, which I've done since getting back home. In the meantime however, I have this vid for you (it's a little way in, after talk about what else I have to put up with this week XP ):
No, that's not the reason I seem to be scowling a lot, just the sunlight getting in my eyes
Anyway, to elaborate on the vid - we covered the rest of the assessment. This got more personal, but the only time sex got mentioned was by me when explaining sexuality issues faced when I was a bit younger. Was never asked about my sex life, was more focused on relationships - in fact, she said she wanted to chat about the bereavement I suffered a few years back "only if you want to talk about it." Key word: sensitivity! ^_^ As I explain in the vid, next appointment will be "crunch time" - quotes used because it's more a formality in my case. No review panel here, anyway - what'll happen next time is another meeting with her and the psychiatrist, where they go through my notes and make a diagnosis based on that. Review needed only if there's doubt about something or other, but I'm a little far gone now for that
Anyway, after that I will be officially on the care pathway! Yay!
The only annoying part there is, she was saying the first real appointment was to do with collecting docs for RLE. Which I've already sent them. So, hopefully that'll mean I only have to give them my DL for copying, although I've been warned I may need another letter from my employer
Erm, yeah, whatever... we'll cross that bridge later. Although the whole collecting docs will take up a whole five to ten minutes of the appointment, so it's not too bad. Rest of the appointment? Hopefully arranging chest surgery! Officially I'm meant to go through a consultant doc there for the first opinion before getting shipped off to Sheffield for the second. However, as I mentioned in the vid, I've already seen an endo (albeit for other reasons), so there *may* be scope for another fast-forward. They're good at that kind of thing ^_^ Wish I could say the same about the letter.. ugh, hopefully it won't be too much longer.
