Surgery info

Yes, I'm posting again. Already. Things seem to be going so fast right now (while at the same time dragging on so much). Further correspondence with the surgeon's office revealed that the price of surgery seems to have gone up considerably. Information I'd gotten online from guys who've had their surgeries with Dr. Brownstein indicated that the price was $7,500. This seemed fairly consistent. The price Dr. Brownstein quoted me is $8,310. I'm wondering if I could get it done for less money elsewhere. Probably, but a) I'd probably have to travel a lot further from home, and b) the results probably wouldn't be as good; Dr. Brownstein is highly regarded as possibly the best surgeon out there for this surgery.

The good news is that I found out that I only need someone with me for the first two days after surgery. This means I can have the surgery during the college's spring break. The guy who volunteered to go with me only gets one week off school, and I'll have to stay eight nights in San Francisco. So I'm going to request a surgery date for the week of March 29. Two months away. Suddenly that seems really soon. Of course the fact that it'll be two months after that before my name change is legal still seems really far away. Hormones take so long to work their magic, but I think about where I'll be a year from now, living as a male 100% of the time, with a body that mostly matches the way my mind says it should be. This is exciting. Is it strange that it's also kind of scary?

I think I'll be less scared after I tell my family. Even if they take it really bad, at least I'll know, right? It's just getting up the nerve to actually do it that's hard. I still can't figure out how I'll bring it up, how I'll phrase it. Can't I just fast forward through this part?