I’ll write more later. For now, the MRI found no structural abnormality. This is good news. No tumors, lesions, etc.
Additionally, I like the new Gender Specialist doctor. I can work with him.
So all in all, good outcomes.
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Emergency room bill
2 FebBack in October, I was in an automobile accident due to an apparent seizure. I’ve now seen the hospital portion of the ER bill. It was $58K+. My copay (because I’m charity without insurance) is $110. The largest portion of that bill is $28K for a CT Scan. The US healthcare system is insane.
HRT and Epilepsy
1 FebTIL. Well, okay, yesterday I learned. No, not from the doctor. I just had begun to notice that my breasts seem to be growing again. As it happens, I’ve got an appointment with an endo who specializes in transgender HRT on next Monday. So I decided to search hormones and epilepsy. This might be about to get interesting, in the “May you live in interesting times” curse definition of interesting.
Continue readingEpilepsy
1 FebI’ve been mostly quiet about this topic so far, because I wasn’t convinced it was accurate. I was diagnosed, on the 7th of January, with a seizure disorder. Back in late October, I had an automobile accident. The accident was a result of an apparent syncope episode while I was behind the wheel. That, combined with a several month pattern of recurring muscle spasms, not helped by muscle relaxers, led my GP to refer me to a neurologist. I saw him on the 6th. We spoke for about 30 minutes about my concerns. He ordered an EEG that same day.
Continue readingAm I Transgender?
13 AprI am a transgender woman. I am not a professional counselor. I have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria. I am romantically attracted to women, which makes me a lesbian. There is a common misconception among cisgender people that trans people, by definition, experience a particular sexual orientation. To be specific, that trans women are really just effeminate gay men, and that trans men are just masculine lesbians. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
Biologic Basis for Transsexuality, and Fibromyalgia
26 AprYes, I realize that’s an odd juxtaposition. Give me a chance, and I’ll make the connection.
Thanks to a couple of relatively disparate conversations that happened to come into juxtaposition time wise, I have been thinking about some medical issues recently.
A good while back, (June 2013) I shared (to my Google + account) an interesting news bit about the impending transition of a news helicopter reporter named Bob Tur. A friend reshared that post to a private transgender community on G+, where another friend stumbled upon it last night.
In this interview, Bob / Zoey (she asked to intersperse her names) mentioned biological bases for transsexuality, but did not elaborate. When my friend Jane saw that, she asked if there were any studies to support it. In short, yes there are, but they are very small studies in terms of persons included. One of the most interesting of these studies is
“A sex difference in the human brain and its relation to transsexuality” http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v378/n6552/abs/378068a0.html
Wikipedia links to other studies as well. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causes_of_transsexualism
I’ve been convinced pretty much since I learned of the existence of transsexuality that it must have a biologic basis. Of course, we want to believe that, so I acknowledge confirmation bias in myself. That said, having this come up in my notifications after all this time was a trigger to another thought process I’ve been dealing with for some time.
Many of you know that I suffer from fibromyalgia, which is a generalized pain disorder, thought to be rooted in an abnormality of the nervous system. Here’s where that gets interesting with regards to me. The disorder in question is rare in men. It’s prevalence is 3.4% female, 0.5% male. Now, that’s where it gets interesting to me. Men seldom ever have fibro, women much more often.
I’m MTF transsexual, which per the study mentioned earlier, may have a basis in neurologic differences. Fibro is seven times more common in women, is believed to be neurologically based as well. Hmmm… My fibro is, in my mind, another data point indicating toward the biologic basis for transsexuality.
So, let’s discuss. 🙂
A quickie, for my own reference
29 DecNot that kind of quickie, get your mind out of the gutter! Continue reading
Like a bad penny
13 DecI just won’t go away and stay away. A lot has happened since I last visited with you, some good, some not even close to good. That relationship I was losing? Yeah, I lost it. I suffered a nervous breakdown, or as my psychiatrist called it, a “medicine induced bi-polar episode”. Continue reading
About non-piercing nipple jewelry
13 SepIt doesn’t work for me. That’s just one more problem with being genetically male. Oh, well. Back to planning a trip to the piercing salon, if money ever permits it.
An Aging Trans Woman 