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Hi all Went for my bi annual endocrinology check at the end of January 2017, and all went well. Then for a urology check up, more like an appointment date for my bilateral orchidectomy on 2 March 2017. And got an appointment date for 7 March 2017, which was yesterday. I had 4 days to prepare for surgery so went and stocked up on pads (sanitary towels) for the possible bleeding, paid the doctors fees of basically R4000.00 and the requested the bill from the hospital which the doctor estimated at another R4000.00+. Chose my shoes, as the last time wearing heeled boots was a bad idea, I took my slip ins, and an easy to get in pants. Get to hospital at 06:40 as I needed to get booked in by 07:00 and find the doors still locked. But at 06:50 a nurse pulls up and says, hello Michele, follow me. You can go book in so long, I will be with you shortly. So far so good friendly staff. Everyone enquires if I'm Afrikaans or English speaking, I say they choice is yours. Just dont ask me to write in Afrikaans, I write very poorly in that language, just speak it predominantly. And the forms I left open on title, I see Werner the receptionist at the helpdesk for surgery admission made it Mej the Afrikaans abbreviation for Miss of Ms. So glad even though I hadn't put anything he put the right abbreviation on as my title. Pre operation theater, doc comes and says this is going to hurt and injects me 3 different places and the last one just above a crack was the most painful. Ouch... 10 minutes later gets asked to walk to the theater as I'm number 1 on the list. Now the uncomfortable section, lying there exposed for the world to see. The nurses start using female pronouns to make me feel at ease and when the doctor who is uncertain about the pronouns to use, just falls in with continuing the female pronouns the whole way. They tell me that it might burn me, and I smell flesh burn. I just say, can't feel anything so do your thing. They have this green sheet up between us so we can't see each other and we chatting the whole way through. Somewhere near the end as they move to the left, I start feeling what they do and say. Now I'm feeling, but continue and get it over and done with. Here as promised I started giggling in my Mortisha Adams sleeping pose. We talk about my nursing days and weird scenes I've attended to as a police official. Now he starts taping me up and explaining that I must only wear tight underwear. I ask him if he remembers the shape of the underwear I use, and all of them are tight doctor, so no worries. They say I can move to the recovery room where coffee is offered to me, and I drink it because my head was spinning, yes a dizzy baby. The nurse fetched my bag with 2 steamed beef dumpling in it. I ate them and drank my coffee. Well in the morning one of my friends were supposed to drive me there and take me home, but in this case I felt like I was late and drove myself home again. Pain levels as I left the hospital before getting behind the wheel of my car was a 3/10, but as soon as I started driving the pain went up to a 5/10. Get home and everything draws out of my body and I walk like an old woman with a walking stick. I ended up for today and yesterday with pain levels around 7/10 maybe an 8/10. I know, closest pain I've ever felt was a full blown migraine. Talking a migraines, apparently my migraines are Testosterone related, the more present the stronger the migraine. The last I managed to number 2 was yesterday morning before leaving for hospital. I'm micturating with ease. My pain starts just below my diaphragm and ends just below my pelvis area, with only my ass spared from the pain. Well tomorrow is checkup day, precisely a week later. I've been bleeding everyday, but small amounts. So nothing to write home about. The pain is sometimes unbearable, but I'm a big girl. Some sswelling to my right side, just hope its not an infection, because then more pain... On the bright side, started having a guy over, and had the transgender discussion, but I wanted him to read my fb profile which explains it, but his friends saw it first, and now he has this attitude saying it doesnt change me, and they should be concerned about their lives, and then he said I should read a message from his mom who is also not approving of me being transgender and getting to know her oldest boy better. So I am enjoying his company and my oldest sister has met him, we officially met on 3 March 2017. Love life. Live your life accordingly. And dont be forced to take the road you dont want too. Cheers Michele

Such a nice story and outcome, Michele. Congratulations! Hope you're feeling better and better everyday. Emma

Life evolves. The original plan was only moving if Nikki found a job out of town. Which as of yet has not happened, but it's always a potentiality. Unfortunately, I got curious, and I looked at towns around our area and asked NIkki what the maximum commute was, as apparently there are several choices in a city a half hourish south of us that would put our mortgage at a third to half of what we pay now. Let that percolate a moment, yeah. And the houses are bigger and nicer. One is so flat out gorgeous. but we're not ready to list (although working hard at it!) and that city doesn't have a huge migration...so it's possible it will still be there when this one sells. I need to sell this one first for the down payment for the next one. And watching Trump deconstruct our country has forced me into the realization that we need to get a setup where if we have to we can survive okay on minimum wage jobs. We can't do that in this house, and I feel financially insecure in what he's going to do in the next four years to realize now is the time to change that. Course, if he drives us into another Great Depression, I'm not sure there will be any burger cooking (I just can't say flipping, I've worked at McD's, no flipping involved it's a giant really hot clam thing) jobs to be had. Especially if you're me. Republicans are trying to pass a bill now giving employers the right to genetic test employees and get the resutls. So much for Hipaa. I'm asthmatic, among other things, and I have no idea if that will show up or not. But I imagine if that law passes people with conditions can start saying goodbye to jobs so employers can save money on insurance feees. There is seriously no real reason an employer needs that level of medical information on potential employees. And since they also want to defund medicare and welfare and everything else, I wonder what these jobless ill people will do to survive. I imagine it won't be pretty. But the decision to sell the house and go has been finalized no matter what he does job wise. And it's weird. On the one hand, there is new life possibilities! on the other hand...so much work, and crazy fears, an waiting for the house to sell being stuck in a limbo you can't control til that is done. And resentment that it literally is the fact that I can't count on my country to care about people like us, or anyone not in the top 2% financial positions, that i have to do this. Weird headspace for me right now, and I"m sorta volatile. The trump fans are trying to tell me I'm overreacting. I'm not. When you see a potential weakness, you fix it. $676 a month when I could get $150 to $290 a month is not an overreaction, it's a positive change so that if they automate, offshore, or just downsize nikki's job out we're not screwed. My offspring is coming home next weekend to get the rest of his things, he's moving back with crazy ex. Here's hoping she's grown less crazy with time and it works out okay. It'll be great to get to see him, originally he was coming the weekend after but his moving plans changed, which is good becuase the weekend after I'll be driving to wehre it's warm to hop on a boat. PALM TREES! I'm coming palm trees! I can't really explain the palm tree thing, they just make me happy.