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| JJ Hart with "Brutus" Buckeye at Columbus, Ohio. |
As promised in a recent post, I am passing along the results of my new psychiatrist visit this morning.
First of all, I needed to run the waiting room gauntlet after
I got checked in. The woman checking me in was very nice and I had no problems
with my pronouns which was different from the past. After that, I needed to
walk past the rest of the waiting room men waiting for their appointments. When
I did, I received the usual number of stares and glares I normally get, so I
was not upset over anything new.
Very quickly, my new therapist came out to greet me. I was
relieved when he turned out to be a younger man as I have found to be more
accepting of gender situations such as transgender women and trans men.
As we started to go through my past, I was surprised at all
the information the Veteran’s Administration mental health system acquired on
me during my previous appointment. All I needed to do was fill in the many
blanks he asked me. Immediately, I tested him by telling him my former fulltime
psychiatrist separated my transgender issues with my struggles with depression
and anxiety. He agreed with me that the issues I have are separate and should
be treated separately. Furthermore, coming out in the world and expressing
myself as a transgender woman fulltime had helped me express that side of my
personality, the help never resolved my other issues.
Other issues we covered in-depth were my suicide and self-harm
attempts. It was decided my medications were working and we should stay on the
course for the most part. Those were the difficult issues we talked about and
others we finished up with included my childhood and military service.
This appointment marked the next to the last move from all
my care from the Dayton, Ohio VA hospital to the Cincinnati VA. All I have left
to do is my endocrinology doctor services from Dayton to Cincinnati which could
be the most difficult move of all. My next appointment is coming up early in
May and I need a refill on my Estradiol prescription. With the current situation
in Washington, I do have a constant paranoia that my HRT hormones can be cut
off at anytime by the VA under direct supervision of the orange war criminal. I
think what I am going to do now is go ahead and get my refill then try to
transfer my needs down here and close out my need to deal with Dayton at all.
As a point of reference, Dayton VA is in close proximity to where I used to
live before I moved the nearly one hundred miles to move in with my wife Liz.
From there, my appointment was over and my next visit was up
as a virtual appointment in three months. I finished the early morning off by
stopping at our favorite coffee shop, drive through and picking up coffee and a
breakfast sandwich. I am happy to say the shop’s LGBTQ flag is still up on the
wall and the young man at the window probably was gay and very friendly to me.
All the better for me and the perfect ending to a great morning.
Just a short post to check in on my progress with my VA
mental health care which has overall been a very positive experience over the
years. When I started many years ago, I had to educate everyone about what a
transgender woman was all about. These days, they know and I don’t have to.
Fortunately, I did not have to explain myself this morning
and I look forward to my next appointment.
