Monday, July 2, 2012

"Six" Equals One?

Difficult to believe, it has been 6 months since I started my HRT journey.
Just as a bit of history, I started on a minimum dosage along with "Spiro" which is a Testosterone blocker.
In February the dosage was doubled with the understanding I still had a lot of "dosage" room to play with.
It's time to "play" again.
You regulars here at Crysti's Condo most likely recall I'm trying to get the Veteran's Administration to completely take care of my needs.  The VA where I live will fill my prescriptions if I have them prescribed by an outside physician. That's my problem.
Initially, I went to the outside doc with two ideas. I knew initial consultation was costly but follow ups weren't. The drugs themselves were not an issue because both are inexpensive.  OK, so far I'm living with this until my prescribing doc decides he is leaving his practice to another physician. Very quickly I'm thinking I will be starting all over again cost wise and not amused.
So-what's a transgender vet to do? Read advice from other trans vets.  I happened along a post advising another vet to contact the closest center and try to find out who the "transgender specialist" is in the facility.
For a fact I know there wasn't one in my facility last fall. I started with four visits to an in house VA psychologist who approved my request for hormones but was clueless how I could get them there.
For once I took some advice and called the clinic today and asked for their "transgender specialist". I was pleasantly surprised to find out the "specialist" was now the very same person I saw before and could get an appointment next week.
I was equally impressed with the guy on the phone who suggested she refer me to a VA psychiatrist who could prescribe. To increase your confusion, my "primary physician" has no problem filling the "scripts" and monitoring my overall health (which is what he is supposed to do anyhow).
It will be interesting to see how things have changed in the system. I was such a shock to their system-hopefully a positive one.  I can say I was impressed with the no hesitation response I received today.
At the least, both of us are much more experienced this time around and I have a clear path of where I want to go.
I have totally loved the changes so far and want to double the dosage I am on which I understand is totally possible with no toxic results. (One of the benefits of having a physician which I totally recommend).
Stay tuned on this one. The process should heat up hotter than this summer very soon.

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