KarenPayne

I have not been keeping count on visits from nurses but enough that is not conducive too sleeping. Just a little bit ago my pads/packing was changed then a follow up to make sure there was no leakage. I have to say the nurses here are top notch, well versed with taking care of me after GRS. All in all I am feeling great except for sleep which I am sure will get caught up on.

My best friend arrived tonight with a flower bouquet with a balloon "it's a girl". What happened at one point after she took several pictures of me and then broke down crying saying "I have never seen you this happy" to me and pretty much seconds later I had tears o joy. This will be a memorable moment in time for me which really there are no words to tell people how I felt at that very moment.

I am going to be short here and write more later. Arrived at hospital for check-in at 6AM then taken back to undress and have a few test and various people coming in to explain things to me. Marci arrived around 7:30AM and drew on my throat. About 8:15 was wheeled into the operating room and put under. As I suspected I remember nothing, awake at around 3:30PM. Taken to my room and left there for about 10 minutes which time a nurse came in indicating she was on shift for one hour and another nurse would take her place. The second nurse explained to me that all nurses attending to me are well versed in the taking care of people who have gone thru the same as me and it shows :-) Pain level range 0-10 where 10 is high, I am hovering between 1 and 2 and should note, I am inherently not good with pain but over many years learned how to control pain thus level 1 to 2 might be for others 4-6. Trachea shave from running my fingers over it feels like it is completely gone. Vagina, will see when my packing is removed down the road.

Perhaps there is a Saturday market to sell your things at that are normally closed in the winter months but worth investigating.

I just did an update on my Wordpress blog for today if interested.

Have you talked to a therapist at all? That should be the first step when considering hormones.

So I arrive in San Francisco, love the hotel room, went out food shopping then downed to twos of A1 coffee (I tend to only drink water and coffee) and then thought, how will I get to the pre-surgery appointment tomorrow morning? Open the phone book to Taxi cab companies, there are about 20 WHAT. I call one and they said, how can I help you ma'am? I told them what I needed in the morning but got a bad feeling so I thought why not ask the front desk to see which cab company they recommended. She says where are you going, gave her the address and said you do not need a taxi as you are from the Bower group. What time do you need to be there? Told her 8AM and booked me a ride. I then asked, how do I get back, they said call the number (gave me the hotel card) for the front desk and we will pick you up WOOHOO. Many people said I could get a room for about one third of the price and I said (but this is on trust) all facts given to me point to this hotel being in alignment with Marci's surgeries and from what has happen since I have arrived is even better. So for anyone using Marci, they give you many choices to stay but most have far less then this hotel and are not in tune with Marci.

I leave for California tomorrow early morning, arrive around noon, get picked up by a limo which takes me to my hotel (luggage arrived yesterday). See what I can explore, have dinner, watch some television than Monday morning at 9AM is my pre-surgery appointment, explore again during the day, dinner, crappy tasting poop all night meds. Tuesday get to the surgery center at 6AM for check-in, surgery at 7:30AM. Doubt very much I will be blogging on Tuesday but surely the next day. For anyone interested http://karenpayneblog.com Will be taking pictures of my new vagina every couple of days then once a week but not posting them here but will post them on a private FTP site for those who would care to see the progress over say the next six months. The address will be given out by anyone here sending me a private message. Oh, I will do a video via webcam this coming Friday for giving updates on my condition.

I think it is important to journal as I learned from others before me this way

Six days until surgery, feeling content right now. About the only thing that is a possible issue revolve around, did I bring everything I need? Anyways I plan on keeping a journal from arrival in California through out the time I am in California to the weeks following for recovery on the blog in my signature in hopes it will help anyone else following a similar path as me. Yes I know there are plenty of entries on the web for this but each story is somewhat different than the ones prior so this will be my experience.

Exactly, I feel the same way, three more days to go :-(

Your welcome, and aren't you glad it's not you :-)

I am getting my armpits waxed on Friday and was told to not shave to two weeks. I look under the arm and see a small forest and can not wait until it's gone, screw saving the forest, I want smooth and silky. Nuff said. BTW This is my first waxing.

So while checking mail tonight I get a message from a firearm forum saying While we doubt your guns are at the bottom of a lake, we did notice that it has been a while since you've visited us for sometime... So I decided to create a new account for Karen Payne. I was expecting to add a profile picture but somehow when I created the account it grabbed my picture for my Windows machine. I think a few of the guys there like me as I got an alert saying someone likes you for two members (something I would not expect from a firearm forum). This should be fun in that I have a male perspective and working on the female perspective which is not going to be hard since I teach firearms. Another day, another surprise!

While waiting for my friend (female) to get ready to leave for the movies her daughter came home, said Hello Karen, I heard your name change has been completed. I said the big thing for me was more of having a bank card with Karen Payne. She did not know I was changing my last name. I pulled out my new and former driver license, she compared pictures and said "I remember you then but you have changed drastically since then". She held both licenses for a minute shaking her head and then said, it's so hard picturing you are a male now. Her mother walked in who had overheard us talking and said, I agree with her, it is almost impossible to see you as your former self. The movie may have been too long but the compliments were perfect.