a day at the doctor

Today it was a trip to the doctor for a physical. And this was entertaining.


First there was the form that they handed me at Group Health as I came in. It was the medical update for women. It had questions that I had to answer as "n/a." Then there was the fun with the nurse. She asked me the date of mylast pap smear. I replied that I've never had one. She looked at me in disbelief. Then she looked at the chart. Then she grimaced in embarrassment and apologized. She said that she remembered that I'm transgendered and that she had reviewed the chart the day before butshe said that she just goes on auto-pilot when the exam starts. She then looked across the exam room and moved a tray of item covered with a cloth saying, "I don't think we'll need this either." It was a tray of items for a pelvic exam.


After the vitals, a sight test, a hearing test done by the nurse, the doctor came in. My doctor is young and not experienced at all with trannys. So i am constantly teaching her. She looked at the form I need completed and began to go down the list. We review health history and family history and meds and such.


Then she asked about surgeries. I told her that I haven't had SRS yet (I had to explain the procedure). She asked if I'd had any other kinds of surgery. I said no and she said, "No breast implants?"I said no. She looked surprised and I said, "This is all me." She was surprised that hormones alone worked so well for me.


My doctor noted that my blood pressure in back in the normal range.She was pleased with that. My weight has gone up a pound or two. Sheis not pleased with that. The cholesterol is back to within normal limits (I checked it online) and she will be happy with that.


Then it was time to strip down to nothing, put on the flimsy robe that doesn't cover your back and wait in the cold room. EENT, heart, lungs, back, abdomen, neck shoulders, arms and hands, legs and feet. She checked all my pulses and my reflexes. Then she had to put her finger in four interesting places: oral cavity exam, breast exam and testicular exam and rectal exam.


Then it was time to get dressed and get the line-up of things she had to order: PPD, UA, CBC, Complete metabolic panel, Potassium, Creatinine, Cholesterol, Fasting glucose, PSA, Tdap and my routine estrodial inj. I had four holes poked in me. The three injects were all significantly different and since they were training someone in the injection room they asked if she could observe. I was perfectly fine with that.


I just checked my lab results and they are all normal except for the PSA which is not back yet. This is odd. It could be that the lab saw the order saw the name and the gender and concluded that this was an error and didn't test for it. In addition she sent me home with a stool occult blood collection card. I'll bring it back when I come in on Saturday to have my PPD read.


And last but not least she told me to make an appointment for a mammogram. I picked up some of my med (the rest I'll get Saturday). By then it was past noon and I was hungry. I decided on breakfast at the Salmon Café and then headed for work. All in all an interested morning