Karen,

Is there any way women can have things done LOCALLY, prescribed by their internal medicine/family practice doctor, to reduce costs, hopefully covered by their insurance, including prescriptions for medications?  Have had EKGs done a week before surgery by my internal medicine/family practice doctor.  Think it behooves a woman to do as much in advance, if the surgeon cooperates.

Also, is it important that the doctor that performed the bottom surgery also performs the tracheal shave and the top surgery?

Thank you for an excellent post!

Monica

Monica,

In regards to medications being prescribed locally, I guess this may be possible but things like the poop extraction formula (bowel prep) would be difficult to pack if travelling. For EKG they are required a month prior to surgery.

I had an EKG done locally, the doctor faxed the results to Marci and was confirmed by her assistant Robin. Morning of surgery they said "we can't find your EKG so we must do one now" and now is less than one hour before scheduled surgery thus not a time to argue the matter. So with that said one can be totally be prepared but the unexpected may happen as it did with me.

Concerning bottom surgery + tracheal shave + top surgery. That should provide a discount but one must also consider their tolerance for pain. I had the shave and bottom surgery done and looking back would had been fine with top surgery also considering I do extremely well with pain. During my recovery and exiting the hospital I was told many times I was in a one percentile for dealing with pain. Now if someone were to do all three they must be totally honest with themselves in how they deal with pain.

After surgery between the legs has been totally remapped and been told many need all the meds that are allowed. For top surgery it's best to be in a incline position while bottom surgery it's best to be laying down, the two contradict each other. The shave for me was zero pain so no comments there.

So again, honesty is paramount else be a big girl and big girls don't cry as the song goes.

PS By no means the above is to scare others from doing the three surgeries but to educate.

Karen,

This information is great, thank you for sharing it!

I suspect I wouldn't do the tracheal shave as my adam's apple doesn't show at all (unless there are other reasons for doing it?)  And top surgery I guess would depend on what the HRT does

Bur there's still much time for all these questions.

Xoxo

christie

Christie, you are indeed fortunate not to need a tracheal shave which will save you from $1500 to $2000. In regards to top surgery, something I forgot to mention which is a general recommendation is to wait for at least two years on HRT but that is not for everyone as some will grow faster yet the norm is slow growth and no larger than the largest cisgender female in your immediate family. I was a B cup and 1 1/2 years HRT prior to top surgery.

Karen and Christie,

In addition of getting as much done locally in advance, make sure you BRING a copy in hard copy, such as your EKG (tracings AND report), bloodwork, etc.

Ask you internal medicine/family practice doctor to work with the surgeon on this, explaining that you have saved a long time for this. As my mother would say, may God rest her soul, "cry poor mouth."

Monica