Missing in Action

 

Image from Miquel
Adjuelo on UnSplash

The reason I have been missing in action this time started with a fall I took a week ago. It was bad enough my wife Liz had to call the squad (ambulance) to get me on my feet and to the hospital. It turned out the flu I had contacted on our vacation had gone to my lungs and was causing the start of pneumonia.

In the emergency room the gender questions started almost immediately. I had two nurses checking me in  It did not take long to happen.  As one of them was checking my records which I knew said female, the squad driver came through and called me “sir”. So, the nurse appropriately enough asked me what I would like to be referred to as. I explained I was still biologically male but was living as a transgender woman as well as living with a woman and that was where the mistakes happen. She had other things to do and quickly moved on from me without commenting. But I knew the gender fun was just the beginning because this was not my first hospital rodeo.

I was prepared to lay my naked gender self out to a multitude of strangers I did not know. The only thing I was sure of I was not prepared to spend five days in a hospital to do it. Of course the first thing that  happened was the nurses had to get me into one of those infamous hospital gowns which are open in the back and begin to start to stick me in the arms to begin all the spots they would need to inject me with fluids and draw blood work which turned out to be a daily occurrence.

As far as my being humbled when my male nakedness was exposed was when the staff had to install a device to hopefully catch all my pee before it hit the bed. For the most part the device worked but when it did not, I had to be totally naked to the world as I was cleaned up. I was fortunate in that I had a staff take care of me who did not seem to care about my gender at all except for one nurse who infuriated me by referring to me as “buddy”. She might as well had been calling me “sir”. But for the most part, I received good treatment and eventually was released back to the loving care of my wife, and my daughter and son-in-law even drove down from Dayton, Ohio to visit me. They brought me flowers and candy on their seventy-five-mile trip. (one way).

The whole adventure was obviously not planned, so I did not have a chance to even clean up and shave before I went. So my best foot forward was in leggings, tennis shoes and a sweatshirt. But even as the admitting nurse said, they don’t expect everybody to be fully made up when they enter their care. Which made me feel better.

Speaking of feeling better, finally I am catching up on my sleep and feeling rested from my daily blood draws which had to be done at 5: 58 am every morning and even a person coming through at 2:00 am one morning to make sure I was wearing my safety sox…really? I guess it is no wonder why I feel so tired. If the sickness doesn’t make you tired certainly the hospital stay will do it for you.

As far as anyone else questioning my gender, they never did or did it behind my back where I could not hear them. Now my goal is to start writing again on a regular basis as my health returns. Thank you all for your patience.