Wow, I had a rather intense day at the Dr's office.
The night before my appointment, I had to go on a fast so they could do labs and blood work on me. No food or drink after 6:00pm and nothing on the morning of the appointment. I woke up feeling tired and sluggish from the lack of food or coffee.
I got to Dr. Smilo's office by 10:40 am for my 11:00 appointment. I filled out about 6 pages of paperwork, that included an intensive description of my medical history, including all current medications, past examinations and vaccinations, chronic illnesses, past surgeries, psychological issues, any known allergies and my family's medical history.
Unfortunately, Dr. Smilo was running about 40 minutes late so we were a little crunched for time when it was my turn to see her. Dr. Smilo is an elderly woman in her 80s and of European background. I'm not sure what country she's from but she speaks English, German & Polish. I understand that she's worked with transgender men and women with hormone therapy for over 40 years.
I spoke with her at great length about my medical and psychological health. I'd told her that I first noticed feeling something different about my body and gender when I was around 6 years old. She nodded and stated that research indicates that transgender children usually know that they are differently gendered between the ages of 4-6. I didn't know that but I felt validated that I had many of the classic patterns and experiences of other transgender people. She interviewed me about my medical history for about an hour and gave me a basic physical examination. She wrote up a request for labs to be done, including blood draws, so that they could ensure that my blood, hormone levels, kidneys and thyroid gland are normal. She also asked that I get a letter of diagnosis from my psychotherapist, stating that he has diagnosed and is treating me for Gender Identity Disorder (GID).
Fortunately, CPMC is about 3 blocks away from her office so I went there right after my appointment to get the blood work and labs done. By this time, it was about 1:30pm. I was feeling pretty low energy from not having eaten in so long and now I needed to have blood drawn. I didn't have to wait long to see a phlebotomist but I have tiny veins and they don't like needles. They tend to hide, go flat and roll or "coke bottle". Ever tried to stick a needle into a coke bottle? They roll and are difficult or impossible to stick.
The first phlebotomist tried to stick me and after a few minutes of sticking and re-sticking me, she gave up and called another nurse to draw my blood. Great, now they have to stick me in the other arm as well. The second nurse had a pretty hard time finding a vein to use but he was able to stick me on the first try. They took 8 vials of blood out of me and gave me a tiny cup of orange juice to drink. It took a lot out of me to get all of the medical stuff done today with Dr. Smilo and the blood work but I'm glad I got it all done today.
The good news is, I have an appointment with Dr. Smilo next Tuesday the 23rd of August. If my labs come back as normal and my Psychotherapist provides the letter of diagnosis, I'LL GET MY FIRST TESTOSTERONE SHOT!! I'm so excited! Finally, I'm on my way to becoming the man I've always wanted to be. I can't wait to get started. I'm so happy!
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