Chronic Health and Passport Renewal: My Updates

I’ve got a couple of quick updates to share. It’s been a difficult day chronic health wise, so this will not be up to my usual level of eloquence. 😆

I’ll start with the good news. I sent off my passport renewal paperwork this morning. It’s done, and I have a tracking number. It was a bit more complicated than I anticipated. The “passport office” in the county courthouse? It doesn’t tell you this on the website, but they can’t handle renewals. They only do new applications.

The nice lady there did, however, take my picture and review my documents. She made a couple of very minor changes to ensure full compliance. Put the entire package together for me, and sent me on my way to the post office. She strongly suggested USPS Priority Mail, and I took that suggestion. So I have a tracking number. I’ll know when it arrives at its destination. Soon I will have federally issued ID with my correct gender marker.

Since I said “good news” up there, I’m certain you are now wondering about the bad news. My health struggles are continuing, though I am getting closer to my original “chronic conditions aren’t fun” status. The last two nights have been difficult because of yet another medication side effect.

The prednisone I’m on for that allergic reaction has begun to cause leg cramps. That’s due to increased potassium excretion. The cramps only seem to happen when I am sleeping. Because, of course that’s how you want to wake up multiple times every night.

The efforts of this morning wore me out. Lots of spoons needed to spend two-plus hours running around getting my passport in order. At this juncture, I’ll assume you know why a transgender person might be prioritizing a passport. I came home after that, had a bit of lunch, and pretty much passed out. I slept for about two hours and was awakened suddenly. By yet another leg cramp.

I am supplementing potassium. It will likely take a few days to get my level back where it needs to be. Especially as I still have an eight day step-down course of prednisone to get through. That’s quicker than the original plan because of the vision problems I had a couple of days ago.

I ended up being a bit more wordy than I expected. Anyone of you who know me is right now thinking “No, really?” I guess that’s it for now. A good thing (passport renewal, for a good reason) and a not so good thing (another side effect). Thus the journey continues.

Tags: Gender Affirming Surgery, Gender Marker, passport, spoonie, trans, Trans Joy, Transgender, USPol