loriannetucson
03-07-2007, 12:19 AM
Okay, so I won't have to keep recreating threads, I have decided to keep this post updated with some of my thoughts and musings, as well as my progress with hormone therapy and my transition, wherever that leads.
It's been a couple of weeks since I've seen my therapist, and although I will see her next week, she wanted me to send her a status report. Well, here it is. It pretty much sums up all of what's going on with me over the past couple of weeks.
I will also keep my 360 yahoo blog active with nearly the same posts, but I'm finding that there are different friends at different forums.
God's blessings on you beautiful women!
......
Dear XXXXXX,
As for me, you wanted me to check in with you to give you an update on how I'm doing. Well, today I started day 14 of hormone replacement therapy, and I have to admit, the feeling is absolutely wonderful! Before I go into detail, I wanted to let you know what the plans are with Dr. xxxx. He initially prescribed 2 mg of Estradiol in the morning and 2 mg at night. He also started me on Spironolactone, 50 mg in the AM and 50 mg in the PM. He advised me that this was a low starting dose, but he would rather take it slow because of the effects of estro on the body can be rough initially. I'll take the doctor's word for it.
As for how I'm doing, I know there is a large psychosomatic element involved, but since day one I have felt great! I feel like Tony the Tiger ("Theyyyyyyy're GRRRRReat!"). First of all, my deep sadness I'd been feeling has essentially disappeared. I'm not talking about the "just under the surface" blues, but the real downer moments I had been having just prior to HRT. I would say that for the last two weeks I have felt level-headed and motivated, both at home and at work. I do feel some minor fatigue during the day, along with some days of diarrhea or stomach cramping, but you should see the stuff I eat :) . I can be a pig when I do eat big. However, I am still continuing to drop the weight because when I'm not eating huge (as a reward to myself), I'm eating right and very light. I know I need to stay away from sweetened sodas for the high potassium they contiain, and the Spiro is a potassium sparing diuretic.
As far as my skin is concerned, I can already tell that my skin is feeling much smoother, a lot more like my wife's skin. Touching it, or touching my skin to my wife's skin is marvelous! I love the feeling of my skin finally being smooth and not being so thick and beef jerky-like. Oh, and as for shaving, my belly used to grow thick hair covering most of my belly and navel, and I always shave it every other day. Well, a lot of the hair is not growing back already, and the new hair coming in in many areas is already thinning considerably. I felt my belly tonight and it was still smooth after 2 1/2 days without shaving, a definite first, woo-hoo! Even my beard seems to take longer to grow back in. The 5 o'clock shadow is now a 5 a.m. shadow the next day. I'm totally OK with that! I'm totally looking forward to the fat redistribution to a more feminine pear shape.
So far my wife has really come through the anger phase quite well. I know there will be future moments, but she realized that bitter feeling she harbored wasn't productive for any of us, and that she is totally committed to our relationship, no matter what the outcome. She is, however, still ultimately scared that I will one day transition to a "transexual," according to her. To her a TS is different from me as a TG because TS's are those who go through the operation and transition fully. I've been completely honest with her and told her I don't know what exactly the future holds, all I know is I need to continue to take things day by day.
Do I want to transition fully and become the woman that I believe I really am? Absolutely. But I know she has needs, and I have managed to complicate things with my children, although, I know that kids can be pretty darn resilient.
Like I said earlier, my motivation has returned at work. I really am on the move doing this and that, and it even seems like my memory is getting better, although we won't mention our little snafu with you all :)) I'm not getting teased at work anymore, but like I said, it's good to be king (or queen as in my case!). Today was interesting, I FINALLY got asked the face question... "Do you pluck your eyebrows?" I paused for a moment, then built up enough courage to say, "Well... yeah! My wife waxes them, why?" The guy clapped his hands downward and said, "I knew it!" almost as if he had just won a bet with the other guy standing there. What surprised me was what happened next. Here we 3 "macho" guys are standing there after I had just admitted to waxing my eyebrows, and the first guy says, "Well, I only pull the hairs at the bottom of my brows, not the top." The other guy who initially raised the question says, "Yeah, my wife plucks the thick hairs at the top of my eyebrows." My mouth just want to drop but I act cool and not make a big deal about it just like they did. Suddenly another guy walks up to me and says I shouldn't be wearing an earring b/c it's too feminine. The first guy chides in over me, "What are you talking about? It's not feminine, HE gets layed!" All I can do is smile, nod, and say, "It's true, it happened last night in fact." That guy lost that battle and the rest of the day was focused on work. So the guys at work know I dress in a feminine manner, pluck my eyebrows, and wear earrings, but nobody seems to bat eyes very much anymore. Now I know things will change as I change, but I'm hoping they and I will both be prepared for it.
That's about everything in a nutshell. I went to the SAGA general meeting last night, it was no big deal. There was a speaker that took up most of the time and there was little room for personal chat, which is why I go mostly for anyway.
Hope I filled you in on everything. I know it's a lot, but my outlook on life is currently "airborne!"
God bless,
Lori Anne:tongueout
It's been a couple of weeks since I've seen my therapist, and although I will see her next week, she wanted me to send her a status report. Well, here it is. It pretty much sums up all of what's going on with me over the past couple of weeks.
I will also keep my 360 yahoo blog active with nearly the same posts, but I'm finding that there are different friends at different forums.
God's blessings on you beautiful women!
......
Dear XXXXXX,
As for me, you wanted me to check in with you to give you an update on how I'm doing. Well, today I started day 14 of hormone replacement therapy, and I have to admit, the feeling is absolutely wonderful! Before I go into detail, I wanted to let you know what the plans are with Dr. xxxx. He initially prescribed 2 mg of Estradiol in the morning and 2 mg at night. He also started me on Spironolactone, 50 mg in the AM and 50 mg in the PM. He advised me that this was a low starting dose, but he would rather take it slow because of the effects of estro on the body can be rough initially. I'll take the doctor's word for it.
As for how I'm doing, I know there is a large psychosomatic element involved, but since day one I have felt great! I feel like Tony the Tiger ("Theyyyyyyy're GRRRRReat!"). First of all, my deep sadness I'd been feeling has essentially disappeared. I'm not talking about the "just under the surface" blues, but the real downer moments I had been having just prior to HRT. I would say that for the last two weeks I have felt level-headed and motivated, both at home and at work. I do feel some minor fatigue during the day, along with some days of diarrhea or stomach cramping, but you should see the stuff I eat :) . I can be a pig when I do eat big. However, I am still continuing to drop the weight because when I'm not eating huge (as a reward to myself), I'm eating right and very light. I know I need to stay away from sweetened sodas for the high potassium they contiain, and the Spiro is a potassium sparing diuretic.
As far as my skin is concerned, I can already tell that my skin is feeling much smoother, a lot more like my wife's skin. Touching it, or touching my skin to my wife's skin is marvelous! I love the feeling of my skin finally being smooth and not being so thick and beef jerky-like. Oh, and as for shaving, my belly used to grow thick hair covering most of my belly and navel, and I always shave it every other day. Well, a lot of the hair is not growing back already, and the new hair coming in in many areas is already thinning considerably. I felt my belly tonight and it was still smooth after 2 1/2 days without shaving, a definite first, woo-hoo! Even my beard seems to take longer to grow back in. The 5 o'clock shadow is now a 5 a.m. shadow the next day. I'm totally OK with that! I'm totally looking forward to the fat redistribution to a more feminine pear shape.
So far my wife has really come through the anger phase quite well. I know there will be future moments, but she realized that bitter feeling she harbored wasn't productive for any of us, and that she is totally committed to our relationship, no matter what the outcome. She is, however, still ultimately scared that I will one day transition to a "transexual," according to her. To her a TS is different from me as a TG because TS's are those who go through the operation and transition fully. I've been completely honest with her and told her I don't know what exactly the future holds, all I know is I need to continue to take things day by day.
Do I want to transition fully and become the woman that I believe I really am? Absolutely. But I know she has needs, and I have managed to complicate things with my children, although, I know that kids can be pretty darn resilient.
Like I said earlier, my motivation has returned at work. I really am on the move doing this and that, and it even seems like my memory is getting better, although we won't mention our little snafu with you all :)) I'm not getting teased at work anymore, but like I said, it's good to be king (or queen as in my case!). Today was interesting, I FINALLY got asked the face question... "Do you pluck your eyebrows?" I paused for a moment, then built up enough courage to say, "Well... yeah! My wife waxes them, why?" The guy clapped his hands downward and said, "I knew it!" almost as if he had just won a bet with the other guy standing there. What surprised me was what happened next. Here we 3 "macho" guys are standing there after I had just admitted to waxing my eyebrows, and the first guy says, "Well, I only pull the hairs at the bottom of my brows, not the top." The other guy who initially raised the question says, "Yeah, my wife plucks the thick hairs at the top of my eyebrows." My mouth just want to drop but I act cool and not make a big deal about it just like they did. Suddenly another guy walks up to me and says I shouldn't be wearing an earring b/c it's too feminine. The first guy chides in over me, "What are you talking about? It's not feminine, HE gets layed!" All I can do is smile, nod, and say, "It's true, it happened last night in fact." That guy lost that battle and the rest of the day was focused on work. So the guys at work know I dress in a feminine manner, pluck my eyebrows, and wear earrings, but nobody seems to bat eyes very much anymore. Now I know things will change as I change, but I'm hoping they and I will both be prepared for it.
That's about everything in a nutshell. I went to the SAGA general meeting last night, it was no big deal. There was a speaker that took up most of the time and there was little room for personal chat, which is why I go mostly for anyway.
Hope I filled you in on everything. I know it's a lot, but my outlook on life is currently "airborne!"
God bless,
Lori Anne:tongueout