Post Easter, Surgery Thoughts

With Easter behind us and filling our hearts, I look forward to the rest of the month doings. Kay and I are involved with the Church in many ways; I am one of the regular readers of New Testament readings, and church musician. Our little Episcopal Church is growing so we had a good combined attendance to both the Great Easter Vigil at 6:30 am and again at the 11 am Easter Kay and I helped with playing the hand chimes for several pieces. We had to take a break between services to take naps while the children hunted the Easter Eggs we had rolled out. Long Day for both of us.

It didn’t help that the day before, we spent all day cleaning our house since we were having a party for the cast members of this year’s Vagina Monologues; it was a Slumber Party to have a kind of women’s bonding session, by introducing sex products to this crowd. As a returning cast member and oldest participant, I felt like the cast members hadn’t taken the time to get to know each other as we had last year. However, I believe the ‘girls’ are doing a great job in getting emotionally involved with each of the pieces and telling the stories of the Monologues. We start this week with dress rehearsals and the show goes on this coming Friday night; we are doing three shows this year because we over sold tickets and the auditorium was really crowded. I am looking forward to doing the monologues again this year. There is never enough education about how to stop the violence that is inflicted upon women around the world. Changing attitudes with young women about looking out for their safety is difficult when some can’t even say the ‘Vagina’ word. We have let other define us, use us, abuse us and let ourselves be manipulated into thinking that we want to be sexually abused and used for the pleasure of men. I was saddened when watching a documentary about the systematic rape of women in the Congo as a weapon of war, and 15 to 20 men walked out in the middle of the lecture video. How can we change the attitudes of men when they won’t sit at the table with us? How can we ensure the safety of young trans women who are seeking a person who will love them for who they are, not what they are. What else can we do to ensure protection is in place to give transwomen their civil rights and elevate those rights to ensure the same protection under the law? How do we ensure that the killers of transwomen receive the same criminal sentencing that other killers are given?

I am about 4 week post nipple reconstruction and it is healing quite nicely, my doctor’s skills are amazing. Kay doesn’t think there will be too much of a scar by a year’s time. Considering what he had to start with there is quite a nice side profile and I am so glad he used silicone implants rather than saline. I can not emphasis enough to find a good doctor. I was very lucky when I decided to restart my search for doctors who would help me and ensure that I was happy with the results. Oh I talked with doctors who would do the surgery, but I didn’t think they could heal the patient. And one doctor chose to decline because she realized she didn’t have the skills to work with male breast tissue in a male to female trans woman with breast cancer. She did try to help by referring me to a doctor in Atlanta, but my insurance company failed to authorize the surgery I needed.

I am so happy that I waited until I found Dr. Mast; with what he and his staff provided in concerned care and professionalism is truly remarkable.