Tse Moana

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Health

Snurgle

Wednesday, June 29, 2016 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

Best thing that happened today? My new vacuum cleaner hose arrived. The old one tore. At first I wrapped it in duct tape, but within a week or two that started to fail as well. So I bit the bullet and ordered a new one. It’s extra long and I’m looking forward to the next time I get to use it (which I normally hate).

Monday I took a gander to the hospital. Nothing serious, it was just time for the long awaited fix up on my left side. After my surgery last year it left a small pointy blob on my left side. A dog ear, as the doctor called it. Nothing serious, but it doesn’t look nice. So after the final check-up in June when they were satisfied everything else was fine, they said they’d fix that later. Last month I got a letter that later was now.

The whole process is just a minor surgery under local anesthetic. Mom couldn’t go with me, but my uncle was so he drove me. All in all the waiting took much longer than the actual procedure. That was done in ten minutes. Nothing more than extending the existing cut a little and removing some fatty tissue below before stitching me up again. And with it being dissolvable stitches I don’t even have to come back.

The night before I had been to visit my uncle and aunt. For coffee and to ask my uncle to go with me. While there, their cat, Tommy, decided attention was needed. Unfortunately their coffee table is too low to dive under and snurgle that belly.

Saturday was a lovely day where me and the parents went out to dinner with another of my aunts and uncles and their kids and grandkids in honor of my aunt’s birthday. We went to this steakhouse were they had amazing meat.

Posted in: General, Photos Tagged: Cats, Eating Out, Family, Health, Home, Photos, Transgender, Transitioning

Hippity

Tuesday, February 23, 2016 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

I’ve been having some pain in my left leg. I really noticed it earlier this month after coming back from Amsterdam. We’d been there with the whole team from work to kick off the year. At first I blamed it on the train and the chairs, and just-my-leg. But then I started thinking. And I realised my leg has been hurting more, and differently, than usual for weeks now. Even so that at work the chairs I’ve been sitting in for years are now uncomfortable to me. I even started sitting on a yoga ball and I really like it.

Last week I went to my doctor to discuss this. Based on how it feels and some Google, I figured the issue has something to do with my sciatic nerve. The pain is sharp and can radiate throughout my leg. The doctor did some basic tests and concluded there’s no nerve damage. He gave me anti-inflammatory painkillers for a week and told me to start moving normally again. This was a good point, as I’d been favoring the leg, and that doesn’t help, it only accentuates the bad positioning.

I also spoke with him about getting an x-ray done of my hip. The last time I had anyone look at it was in my late teens just before I decided I was done with hip-doctoring. The doctor agreed that it was smart to get a benchmark x-ray done. He didn’t think there’d be any real issues, but it’s nice to have a comparison picture for later. He got me a referral and I called for an appointment right after. Surprisingly, they had room for me to come in next Monday.

So, yesterday morning I went in for my photo-op. This was done at the same hospital I used to go to as a kid, but not the same hospital I now go to for my gender stuff. So I had to get a new info-card made. Despite handing over my ID, the system picked my old info out of the archives and spit out a card with my current ID picture and my old name 😀 The lady at the desk was quite apologetic about it, and manually fixed the info.

Then it was on to radiology. There, at the check-in desk, they had to remake my appointment in the system to match the new name. I was then sent on to the waiting room and shortly after it was my turn. The referral from my doctor asked for an x-ray and a description comparing it to my last. The radiologist kept me around for a bit to confirm my old data and to verify some things. It turned out that my old x-rays were no longer there, but the description were. So they took two shots, one of my hip in general to compare left to right, and a detail shot of left.

It was supposed to take about four or five days before the files would be back at my doctor. I had planned to call next Monday, but this afternoon the doctor called me. He had already gotten the x-ray and description. As he had expected, there was no cause for concern. There was some degradation, but that is to be expected with the way my hip is wonky. No action is required at this point. Maybe take another picture in another couple years.

The pain is getting better with the pills. It hurts much less now, and when it does, it’s less sharp. I’ve also been paying attention to how I walk and sit to keep doing this normally. I think it’s helping. We’ll see how it goes after the week of pills is over.

Posted in: General Tagged: Health, Me

One, Two

Wednesday, June 17, 2015 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

Had my final check-up after surgery today. All is well, it’s healing marvelously. I am now officially cleared to fully use my arms/upper chest again, which is really nice. This also means I van ride my bicycle again 😀

In waiting room and the older dude beside me has a fabulous mustache. Nice even grey with perfect round swirls at the sides

— Erik (@TseMoana) June 17, 2015

 

The Time Machine CoverI read The Time Machine earlier this week. I always thought I’d seen the old movie and never gave it much more thought. But when I read the book, I found so many things that were unfamiliar. So I looked up the movie and while scrolling through some photos realised I might’ve seen bits of it, but definitely not the whole movie. So it was a good thing I read the book.

The older language took some getting used to, but once I did, it was a fairly good read. More written like a science report than a novel in places but it has an interesting evolution of humanity.

Posted in: General, Photos Tagged: Books, Gender, Health, Me, Medical, Photos, Transgender, Transitioning

What a Difference Twenty Days Make

Friday, May 22, 2015 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

I take pictures of my chest every couple of days to keep a record of how it heals and changes and am continuously surprised by how fast it is going. To illustrate, here’s a little timeline from May 2 to May 22.

Timeline

Posted in: General, Photos Tagged: Health, Me, Photos, Transgender, Transitioning

Ten Days and Counting

Monday, May 4, 2015 by Tse Moana 1 Comment
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And so we wait…

As of today it’s been 10 days since I had top surgery.

Back in November I met with the plastic surgeon. We discussed options with the general plan that surgery would be in January somewhere. It ended up taking a bit longer than that, but in early April I got a letter to come in for pre-op consults with the anesthesiologist and the ward staff to make sure they had all their info, and I had all of mine. At that point, they didn’t know a surgery date yet, but I would get a letter.

About a week or so later, the letter dropped. I was to report in at the hospital on Friday, April 24 at 8:30. No more food after 04:00 in the morning, no more liquids after 8:00. So following from that, surgery should be around 10:00 or later. That morning, Mom and Nienke drove me to the hospital and I checked in. I first had to give some blood, and then report to the ward where I was to stay. I got signed in and met with one of the nurses briefly, and then we had to wait a little bit more as my room wasn’t ready yet.

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Off I go!

A short while later, I got shown to my room to settle in and wait. I read my book, Mom her news paper, and Nienke worked. We had to wait for quite a while but eventually, around 10:30, the nurse came in with the gown and told me it was time.

I changed into the gown and got back in bed. The nurse then came back and I got those plastic bracelets with my name and date of birth on each wrist, after confirming the info was correct 😀 A few minutes later, they came to wheel me away.

I was brought to the Holding area, where I got to confirm my identity again, and I got an IV fitted into my hand. The OR wasn’t quite ready for me yet, so there was more waiting. I also hadn’t been drawn on yet, so the nurse there expected them to come and do that, too. However, around 11:30, they were ready for me. So I got wheeled away to the OR undrawn.

Once there, I got to confirm my identity, again, and was asked to move over to the operating bed. After I had done so, the surgeon came in and had me come back off, because he had to draw on me… A few pretty blue stripes later, I got back on the, very narrow, operating bed and got wheeled from the little prep area into the OR itself. There was a final identity check, and a brief conversation to indicate what kind of surgery they were going to do (so I could protest if it was wrong), and then the oxygen mask descended and shortly after, I was out.

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And back I am 🙂 Wearing the compression vest I have to keep on for 6 weeks.

I awoke in Recovery feeling fairly groggy, and thirsty. Of course it took me a while before I could keep awake enough to get a decent situational awareness but once I did, I was given some water and an explanation of the morphine pump attached to me. I could press it every ten minutes if I felt any pain. I pressed it, mainly to try it out, when I started to feel some pain and it did indeed work nice and fast. I was still out of it, though, as I couldn’t read the clock and had no idea of time so I only occasionally pressed. I was also given an ice lollipop for extra fluids, it was the most delicious thing ever at that moment.

Around 4:45ish, I think, they deemed me well enough awake to return to the ward and I got wheeled away again. In my room, Mom and Nienke were waiting 🙂 They stayed for a little while longer and then left about an hour later.

Later that evening, after I’d had some tea and biscuits, finally had had enough fluids inside to warrant a visit to the bathroom. With some supervision from the nurse, I sat up on the bed and tried standing. That worked okay, so I shuffled to the bathroom. When I was done, though, I got the cold sweats, starry vision and dizziness that indicates a fainting is on the horizon 😀

I alerted the nurse and she wheeled the bed to the bathroom door so I could get back in it. Once I’d done that, my blood re-arranged itself as it should and my streak of never actually having fainted continued!

They then gave me some more food (tea, breakfast cake, cheese), as I hadn’t actually properly eaten anything since dinner time on Thursday….

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Bandaged up

I made it through the night okay. I woke up a few times since sleeping on my back isn’t something I’m used to, and I had some occasional pain. My stomach also protested a few times.

I figured the stomach issues were due to not having eaten enough yet, so I had tea and beschuit and yoghurt with muesli and orange juice for breakfast. However, when I went to the bathroom again a little later, my body decided that a rerun of last night’s episode would be good. This time the nurse had a wheeled chair nearby so she got me back to bed quick enough as well.  Perfect streak!

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My drains

After rounds by the doctor, they decided to remove the pain pump since it was probably a reaction to the drugs as well, and I had barely used the pump anyway. To compensate, they gave me a pill 😀

They left the IV needle in, so they had an easy access port if I did pass out or something happened. I’d gotten it bandaged up the night before, as the cold sweats had loosened the sticker, which made it easier for them to hide the loose end.

I spent the morning reading and sleeping, until my stomach decided it hated me and I mass vomited my entire breakfast on my bed o.0

After calling the nurse in, I moved over to sit in the chair for a while, while they changed the bed. We decided that I should eat lightly today, and try sitting in the chair a couple more times. So I lunched at the the table with some clear soup and beschuit.

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Pick-up

In the afternoon, Mom and Dad came to see me. Mom had brought orange juice and cake, which I declined seeing as what had happened that morning 😀 They stayed for about an hour, and Nienke came by afterwards. In the evening, I tried another bathroom visit, and this one went without a hitch 😀 It went so well, I even felt comfortable enough to brush my teeth in the bathroom, too.

Sunday morning during rounds the doctor decided the drains could come out and that the wounds were looking good, so I could go home. The removal of the drains felt funny, but didn’t hurt. I got some extra plasters on it, and then they went to get my paperwork in order.

I alerted my parents and around midday they arrived to take me home. I spent the next few days moving between my bed and the sofa and shuffling around the house. I did a lot of reading, sleeping, and TV watching.

Wednesday I went for my first post-op check-up. They peeled the plasters off and checked the incisions. Then they removed the thingy covering the nipple transplant, which was loosely stitched on, to check that. Everything looked good, so they covered the transplant area again and gave me a bag full of gauze and plasters and such so I could change the dressings myself, daily.

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Home sweet home

The next few days were mostly a repeat of the first few days, except with every day more moving about and slightly less sleeping 😀

The daily changing of the dressing was a bit funny to do the first time. The whole chest area is covered in bruises, but the area around the nipple transplant is still numb so I don’t feel it. I’m keeping up the paracetamol regimen of two in the morning and two in the evening, and am having fairly little pain.

Sleeping is still a bitch as I hate, hate, hate sleeping on my back, but, as they say, this, too, shall pass.

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This is how it looked after I got home from the hospital. These bandages were removed during the first check-up

Today, my additional compression garment arrived. This one is a stretch band with velcro closure instead of the zippered vest. I noticed the arm holes of the vest are fairly tight so it scrapes. I;m hoping the band will be more comfortable. I also started working again. This week I’m working half days from home, and then next Monday, I’ll be going by the office after my second post-op check-up.

 

Posted in: General, Photos Tagged: Dad, Friends, Health, Me, Mom, Nienke, Parents, Photos, Transgender, Transitioning

In Sickness, Chicken. In Health, Stay Away Until Next Year

Wednesday, March 11, 2015 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

Had another of my every-couple-months check-up of hormone levels and general health. As usual, everything was peachy. Since I’ve now been on hormones for more than a year, and everything’s always been good, I don’t have to come back until January 2016. Yay!

Now I only have to wait for my appointments with the anesthesiologist and the plastic surgeon at the end of the month for the pre-op consults. I don’t have a surgery date yet, but I expect it to be around mid april. We’ll see.

After that, Mom and I decided to go to Paddepoel for a wee bit of shopping. I got new toothpaste and mouthwash and checked out the spring/Easter decorations at the Xenos. I didn’t find anything that particularly struck my fancy so I left with just some tea and the cutest little jar of orange marmalade. I checked out my usual stores, but didn’t buy anything.

Now, Nienke’s been sick for a few days now, and for the last three or so, she’s been craving half a grilled chicken… I’d offered to get her one from the snackbar the other day, but she declined. Being in Paddepoel, though, I decided to bring one anyway. The butcher at the mall is amazing, and not expensive either. I bought a small, whole, grilled chicken to take home. I also got Mom and myself a cookie from the baker next door.

We ate the cookie in the car and then drove home, where Nienke and I ate the chicken. It was glorious! It didn’t end up agreeing with Nienke (not thát weird considering how little solid foods she’s had over the last few days) but it was worth it 😀

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Today was also the first day in many months that I worked on Wednesday. As of this week, the company is no longer permitting the 9-hour work days I’d been doing for the past 9 months or so. I miss them a lot, as the 9-hour days allowed me to work four days and be free on Wednesday. I contemplated going back to 32 hours, but I like my current money. So now I work four hours @home first thing in the morning on Wednesday from 7:00 to 11:00 so I still have as much of the day to myself as I can.

Posted in: General, Photos Tagged: Food, Friends, Health, Nienke, Paddepoel, Photos, Shopping, Transgender, Transitioning, Work, Xenos

Wisdom

Wednesday, February 18, 2015 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

I’ve been afraid of the dentist ever since I was about, seven, eight years old. Before, I never had any issues, but then, when my adult canines came through, my baby teeth didn’t budge. So when I went to the dentist for my normal check-up he hmm’d some, and yanked them out. It broke whatever trust I had in him, and I never got it back. I was forced to see this dentist until I turned 18 after which I promptly registered with another dentist, went once and then stopped. In the intervening years, I’d never had any problems with my teeth, so I wasn’t really worried.

About two, three years ago, one of my wisdom teeth came through. It took some time, my jaw isn’t very big so there wasn’t a lot of room for it to enter. It was also hard to reach with a toothbrush but I figured it’d be okay. About a year ago I hit the side of that tooth with my finger while pulling something, piece of popcorn probably, from between the te18eth before it, and I felt a sharp edge.

Over the next year I occasionally felt with my tongue and it kept being there. I knew it had to be a cavity, and that it would probably be best to get it out. So last month, I finally gathered up my courage and registered at the dentist here in town. I went in for a check-up, discussing my fears before hand (loss of control, not knowing what’s going on, not so much pain). So for that first appointment, my dentist just looked and poked a bit and x-rayed my teeth. Turned out my teeth in general are in good shape. I have tartar, but that can be removed. The wisdom tooth, on the other hand, had three cavities. So it had to come out, what I had already been expecting. Fortunately, the x-ray also indicated I have short roots, so it should not be a problem to do so.

This morning, I went in for the extraction. I was actually surprised how calm I was, but I’d been telling myself for weeks now that it was necessary and it wouldn’t be that bad, especially with the roots being short. I sat down in the chair, and had the dentist tell me briefly what she was going to do. Then she injected the numbing agent, once on the inside and once on the outside. This was okay, since I’m used to needles both for injections and blood draws. I didn’t even feel them.

After waiting half a minute or so, she poked my gums to see if it was numb, which it was. Then she started working around the tooth. The pulling and pressure was a bit scary, but since I didn’t feel any pain, I just clenched my hands and managed. Then she clamped the tooth, said I might hear some creaking since it was so close to my ear and then it was out.

Some suction, and clamping down on a gauze, later I could sit up and everything was done 🙂  I had a bit of the shakes as a release from tension, but once I was outside and back on my bicycle that, too, went away.

I rode to the Parents, since it was my free day. I had to clamp down on the gauze for half an hour, so I couldn’t talk very well, but it went okay 😀 I’d been given an extra gauze in case it was still bleeding after half an hour, but that wasn’t even necessary. Once I was gauze-less again, Mom and I went for a wee bit of grocery shopping and then I joined them for lunch.

The rest of the afternoon I rewarded myself with glorious Warcraft (Stable Master achievement, woohoo), and a quick stint of vacuuming 😛

Posted in: General Tagged: Health, Me, Mom, Parents, PC Games, World of Warcraft

Glasses of Draenor

Thursday, November 13, 2014 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

Went to the city this morning with Mom to get our eyes checked and pick out new glasses. It has been quite some time since I last got a new pair, and since it is still 2014, my insurance will still cover it (I’m scaling it back next year). Once at the store we always go to, it turned out that I last got new glasses seven years ago. So yeah, I’m due for new ones. It being seven years ago also meant updating my data, and it’s always fun to see how people react. The dude was very professional and only mildly surprised 😀

Got the full eye check-up done, it seems my eyes got slightly better as my cylinder deviation has apparently gone away. After measuring we picked out frames. I wasn’t, and still am not, completely satisfied with what was available. I wanted something as close as possibly to my old pair: black rimmed, rectangular and not too tall from top to bottom. But apparently that’s out of style, so they are a bit taller now. I’ll get used to it, but it’s not my favourite. Mom found herself a very pretty red pair.

Then we picked out the options on the glasses. I went with extra thin, an anti-reflection coating and a blue-screen thingy so it mellows bright white light a bit and this brought me nicely to the €6 below the max coverage my insurance gives.

Now, I’m back home and focusing my attention for the rest of my free day on the gloriousness that is my newly delivered Warlords of Draenor. Black Portal, here I come!

Posted in: General Tagged: Health, Me, Mom, Shopping, World of Warcraft

More Tick Boxes

Wednesday, July 16, 2014 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

As expected, LifeLines wasn’t quite prepared for me 😀

I showed up about half an hour early thanks to Mom who has a habit of showing up here on the early side and driving fast. When we got there, I went to sign in and that’s where the fun started. I gave my last name, and the woman checked her sheet and looked at me, and checked her sheet and her coworker, the actual doctor, checked as well. And they went “but it says ‘miss’ here and it’s clearly a man”. That was very good to hear, but I figured I relieve them of their suffering so I was like “it’s okay, it doesn’t match, I’m transgender”. Which instantly made them very accommodating, they crossed and fixed their sheet and I was asked to accompany the doctor to the exam room.

There she double checked administrative things and fixed what she could there, and promised she would e-mail the head about this, so it goes better next time. Then I was measured and weighed and had my blood pressure taken (which was good), breath sounds listened to and the electrocardiogram done. For that I had to take off my binder, because it requires a handful of electrodes and those require skin contact. She was very nice about it, asking if it bothered me and such. Luckily for me, since I’m on hormones, I’m less bothered by them because I know they’re only temporary now, so it was no problem to take the binder off.

Then after that I got to do the lung capacity test, although I fear it might be slightly below what I would normally score as I was already back in  my binder by then. The whole thing ended with a jump test that measures muscle force when you push off the ground, it was fun 😀

The final thing this time around were two more computer things. First a memory test thing where it shows you cards and you have to press yes or no if you, for example, have seen them before, or if it is a repeat of the card directly before it. The second thing was a fairly standard stress and depression questionnaire.

The follow-up appointment is August 14, courtesy of their full agenda and mine. Then they take my blood, and I get to hand in a giant-ass canister with urine. I also got e-mailed another questionnaire to fill in-

Posted in: General Tagged: Health, LifeLines, Medical, Red Tape

Hnnnnngh…

Sunday, January 12, 2014 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

I am so completely dead. Went to the gym for the first time on Monday, and O. M. G… I was going for the half hour of Vario Sport, wherein you do something else every week. This first week of the new season it was mainly twenty thousand forms of hopping about. After doing that, I felt fairly good. And so I was easily convinced to stick around for the half hour of Tabata that follows on it directly. Tabata turned out to be a high intensity interval training where we did all kinds of exercises rapidly for about thirty seconds and then another and then another and another and a 30 second break and again a series of the same exercises. Combined this killed me sooooo dead.

I made it home afterward, fell down on the sofas and refused to get up until it was time for bed. Which was a bad idea in itself because…
The next day I could barely walk, my calves hurt sooooo bad 😀

After work I made a cheesecake for the team, from scratch, just like with Christmas dinner. Started a bit too late though, it was after midnight when I took the cake out of the oven… So late, that I didn’t get around to putting up the raspberry topping until the next morning before work.

After that it was quite the adventure to get the cake in the bike crate, it only just fit. It survived the bumps on the way to the train station as well as the ride to the city. Left the cake with the team leader for handing out during the daily meeting. At that point I was gone, though.

I had to grab the train back home right after finishing at one, to make it in time for the appointment for my second T shot. It went well, I tried to keep the leg even more relaxed than I did with the other for the first shot in the hope that this would be less painful and for a shorter time. I think it worked, as I only felt it for a day or two. The calves, though… Man, they’re still driving me nuts.

Also on Wednesday, my shiny, shiny iPad Air arrived. I went to check on my old iTunes account and all my old apps are still there. And, joy of all joys, all my progress in Magic Piano is still there as well as my more than 160 songs. I did spend some money on that back when I still had an iPhone, so nice to know it’s all still here.

During singing on Saturday I noticed some first subtle changes in my voice. It’s starting to get a bit scratchy a bit sooner. And then it didn’t help I was doing How You Remind Me 😀 Am very curious to see how this develops.

The rest of the day I dumped shit in the attic and I worked on the carpeting for the front hallway. Also had a nice evening with some friends coming over.

Today I did go to Pilates (I skipped body pump on Thursday) and that was great fun. I always liked Pilates back in Leicester, so I’m glad I went here, too. Spent the afternoon in relaxation watching Sherlock again as well as my new blu ray of Les Misérables. I love that movie <3

Posted in: General Tagged: Baking, Food, Friends, Games, Health, Home, iOS Games, Media, Movies, Sports, Tech, Transitioning
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