TGIF

Oh what a week. If I haven't mentioned it yet, A is an epileptic. He usually has some symptoms that are a red flag that it coming and he has had some this week. he usually becomes agitated, off-balance, and can't connect ideas as well as usual. All of those symptoms have been present this week so i am both nervous and exhusted from handling his light verbal assaults. My hope is that this newest medicine will ward off the actual occurrance of the seizure and only leave the pre-symptoms. This makes me think of writing about the medical issues A has faced over the time that we have been together. It has been quite the journey.

When A and I first got together it had been over 5 years since he had recieved a pap smear. As those familiar with the FTM community may know, the willingness of both the FTM and the sensitivity of the gynocologist can create quite the rift between FTMs and reproductive health. We were very lucky to find a wonderful nurse practitioner at a local clinic who scheduled us together, only called me back, and who was sensitive to A when actually completing the pap smear.

When A had his first seizure ( about 6 months after we started dating) we were in the admissions office of the hospital. The lady admitting him asked about his medications, when he said he was on T (testosterone) she asked why. A brief description later we were ushered to a room where we sat for six hours before someone helped us and his insurance information had to be phoned in later because she refused to talk to us further. It took me threatening to sue before a doctor came into help us and we were told that his testosterone was probably causing his seizures.

After his GP seconded that notion we took him off of testosterone from 9 months (when of course he had a seizure anyway) before we called a trans specialist who told us that was absolutely not true. Nine months of periods for A is a living hell. Before this I never had a problem with doctors. Now I would rather walk hot coals then go to one with A.

A doctor once told us we couldn't expect to be treated with dignity, because we were in the bible belt. An endocrinologist refused to do a physical exam because "He couldn't know what he would find down there". That doctor billed us for a 200 dollar visit. The medical community should be the first to embrace diversity because lives depend on it.

Off my soap box, this week has been trying. I love A and hate when he "disappears" for periods of time. It is lonely and disheartening. My new friend is not panning out much either so double lonely this week. Boo. It's Friday, so hopefully the weekend will prove to be better for little ole me.

Happy Friday all!