Border wars

[metal_dog]

Unless i can be incredibly persuasive on the phone to Mr. Bartholemuez tomorrow and he is willing to be flexible about his requirements, it looks as though i'll be getting myself "assessed" by a psychiartrist in the very near future. :-o I resent this process already. I am terrified that i'll be told that i don't pass as a good candidate for

Comments

[imyerjoeyramone]

good luck with it dude, let us know how it goes!

for the record i was also told by dr b that id need a letter from a psych, and it put me off/made me try and find other options in australia who would work on an informed consent model (still a work in progress).

be thinkin of ya dude! good luck! :)

[metal_dog]

Thanks, i shall! I really don't understand why a letter from Vikki wouldn't suffice, tbh. I'm going to try and push that barrow. A fool's hope maybe, but we'll see. And who knows, the more ppl that talk to him about this stuff, perhaps he'll change his mind sometime?

[imyerjoeyramone]

hey totally yeh its pretty crazy if he wont accept a letter from someone other than a psychiatrist, particulary when vikki is a psychologist and so well known in the area!

good luck with it dude! and yeh its totally a fight worth fighting! let me know if you wanna chat or anything sometime!

[metal_dog]

Thanks mate. I really would like to chat sometime actually. D'you mind if i email you?

[azhdragon]

if you have to go to see a psych, I can highly recommend Fintan Harte, even though he's associated with the Monash Gender Clinic. He's a very reasonable person and not at all the gatekeeper I was fearing.

As for Dr B, I didn't have a letter but he's asked me to get one before I have the actual surgery which is booked for the end of march. His "waiting time" has apparently leaped up to 12 weeks from his previous 6 weeks.

Because I don't have insurance it's also going to cost me over $7,000 out of pocket, with medicare rebates of about $550. Fortunately my gf owns timeshare points so we'll be staying for free in caloundra while we're up there, but otherwise you'd have to figure in a minimum of 11 days of hotel, plus food, plus transport.

Expensive, hell yeah. But worth it.

[metal_dog]

Thanks for recc'ing Fintan Harte. I was wondering what he was like. How do you reckon he would be with someone who wasn't on hormones wanting to get top surgery first?

[radicalyffe]

*HUGS!*

I'm sure you'll be fine with the psych.
Also, I totally forgot that I said I would send you a copy of my letter from Dr Toohey. I don't actually have a copy at the moment, so I'll email him and ask him for one. I'll post it to my LJ for peeps to see.

I can understand why you are nervous. I wish that Dr B wasn't such a dick about the psychiatric eval requirement. It pisses me off since he's so awesome about everything else.

[metal_dog]

Thanks so much! I'd love to see a copy of yr letter, if yr fine with that. :)

[nixwilliams]

mmm, me too... pshrinking tiem soon!

[metal_dog]

Ooh yeah, it's scary, no?

makes me want to stand up and scream "IT'S MY CHEST THAT NEEDS SHRINKING, NOT MY HEAD!"

[nixwilliams]

totally!

hey, thank you so much for the book and the card - MY FAVE PICTURE EVAR!!! :D :D :D

[metal_dog]

Oh, you got it! Cool. :) 'Tis my pleasure, yr most welcome.