Month: July 2017

Give or take the fact that memories of my childhood were somewhat darkened by my unhappiness in who I was and later by the fact that my parents were shall we say economical with the truth about my beginnings I was brought up knowing right from wrong, in a god “respecting” home with a sense of values and above all a work ethic which I think is probably lacking a little in this day and age. I have however had my moments and I know I have hurt people by misbehaving in the past which is my biggest regret. Apart from that I have always tried to be a good person and always look for good in people instead of complaining and criticising which in the long run gets you no where anyway. I am a big believer in giving credit where it’s due and have always believed that the way to get the best from people is through encouragement, praise and assistance rather than berating them for making a mistake. However, somewhere down the line I think I’ve got mixed up with some other person as today again I have been completely blown away by the service I have received, they say you reap what you sow well I definitely don’t remember sowing any of this!

After seeing my GP last Wednesday I sent emails to both my endocrinologist and my specialist in Perth just to let them know that they would be receiving the results. I plan to go up and see them both in due course but it will have to wait until I can sit in relative comfort for the duration of the journey which is probably some time off yet, Jenny, the endocrinologist emailed me straight back and said she would be away for the school holidays but would love to see me when she gets back, I didn’t hear from Stephen my specialist at the time but thought I would probably hear from him after he got the results. Anyway, my GP called today and gave me the results, I seem to be very menopausal! No testosterone which is to be expected as there is nothing to produce it now but after years of having oestrogen levels off the scale, I seem to have none of that either which explains the night sweats and the total inability to regulate my temperature. Anyway, it was decided that I would contact Stephen again just to get his thoughts and maybe a plan of action so I sent another email and was totally blown away by the response. Now a number of people have mentioned that they think it strange that I have this type of relationship with doctors and specialists, that I have email contact with them and there was indeed a day while in Philadelphia shortly after the surgery that I had emails from no less than 4 of the health professionals who look after me but today I the response from Stephen really shows how blessed I am, he is currently on holiday in Europe with his family but still sent a reply suggesting a plan of action! Like I said, blessed and humbled! xx

Today has had its up and downs, I’ve had some considerable pain at times and others have been virtually pain free. On the whole I am much happier with my regime of painkillers than I was but I think i must have turned over in bed or stretched a different way at some point in the night and have suffered for it today which brings me to the second part of today’s post, communication, over the last few weeks I have come to realise that one of the things that has kept me going, kept me focused, kept me believing in the fact that in a couple of months the pain will have reduced to a very manageable level, the swelling will have gone down and I will be enjoying my life as Stephanie a great deal is in fact communication. Whether it be by email, messenger, Skype, text or any of the other myriad of methods, waking up in a morning to find those little numbers next to the icons on my Samsung is one of my greatest pleasures and all down to the amazing support I have had from friends and family from numerous places around the world. Only toninght I received one such message through messenger from someone I have only recently reconnected with and only then because she heard my story which both made me smile and made me realise and appreciate the amount of support I have had and indeed have, I try very hard without appearing rude to reply as soon as I can to all messages, I think that’s only right and good manners when someone has taken the time to message me and is obviously thinking about me or us, I also make a great effort to answer questions which are in messages as I think there is nothing worse than sending an email with numerous questions in it and getting one back which has only answered the first question so is obvious that the rest of the email has either not been read or certainly not absorbed.

Another of my favourite pastimes is checking messenger and scrolling down to where it shows who of your contacts are online at the time and just sending a one line, how are you message, I know how much it means to me so hope it does to others as well. The only thing which I do need to take into account at the moment is that I appreciate the fact that I am in forced “take it easy mode” so spending the first hour of the day answering emails, many of which come from the uk as they have arrived during the night due to the time difference is probably not an option for most people, also many of you who know me well will know I am the author of some very “novel” like emails, sometimes when I pick up my iPad the fire just flows from my fingertips and onto the screen, in fact my mind works much faster than my fingers can type so I have to go back through them to sort out all the predictive text mistakes, most of which are my fault I would add but it gives me such a lot of pleasure writing them and it bodes well for when I do finally put pen to paper as it were and write my book. I really feel that people need to know what went on back in the 60s and 70s with intersex kids and if writing my story down makes even a few people aware of it then my time will have been worthwhile.

In finishing today’s post I just want to say how much we both really really appreciate all the messages, calls, emails and any other communication we have received, it just goes to reiterate how lucky we are in having such amazing support, thank you xx