I met up with a few T friends this past weekend. Three of them are on the upside of their journey, that being they are approaching that twilight of going full time. One was visiting the area...supporting her friend who just had a little surgery with Dr. O. She is sorta doing what I did when I went with Amber for SRS...she's scoping out how things will be for her when she returns later this summer for FFS.
Our conversation, as it has in prior times, drifted to the actual surgery and discussions of Dr. O. A lot of people are amazed at how Dr. O can do these 10-12 hour surgeries. The guy is in great shape, I'll give him that. He's also very smart. Between procedures, the O.R. staff has to change out a variety of things. At this point, Dr. O will sneak out for lunch or a power nap. This seems to startle a number of people, but really, it's not a big deal. In the process of napping, he's actually staying quite alert to do his job.
A lot of people also don't realize that their eyelids are sown shut during surgery. It's really the best option since taping them shut could be an issue if the tape loses adhesion. And letting your eyelid stay open for even a few minutes wouldn't be fun for the liquid encased ball of visual bliss.
I think a common thing that goes through a lot of people's minds before they have FFS, though, is that they worry about Dr. O either retiring or getting hurt, such that he won't be able to perform surgery on them.
I'll be honest, I worried about it from the time I scheduled FFS until the time I laid on that gurney waiting to go into the O.R. Hell, I probably even worried about it before I even scheduled FFS.
And here we are, closing in on 5 years since I scheduled FFS...and Dr. O is still going strong. If there is a God, and if He or She listens to prayers, I bet Dr. O lives to be over 140 years old and operates on people until the day he dies. There are a lot of people out there hoping he makes it soundly to the day of their surgery.
The day he does retire, though, will be a huge deal for a lot of people. He's still booked out months in advance, and he still does a great job. I've seen girls over the past few years that look great (which almost causes a bit of jealousy). He might actually be improving over time.
I feel bad, though, for the first girl that calls Mira and gets told that Dr. O is retiring and no longer performing surgery. Let's just hope that the day he does retire is still quite a ways in the future.
5 comments:
I worry about my endocrinologist retiring as he's the best but is getting up there in age. His office is at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, about an hour from me, but he treats girls from all over the state as well as from most of West Virginia, Ohio, Southern Indiana and parts of Tennessee.
UK at one time did the complete GRS/SRS and Dr. Miller was part of the team. He's the only one left from that program and it probably won't be long till he does retire. Still, he's in great shape, still goes skiing every year (he was on the US Olympic ski team in the 60's) and loves what he does.
So while an endocrinologist is a bit different than an FFS surgeon, I do understand what you are saying. The old guard is slowly going the way of retirement and a new generation is taking over. Whether that is a good thing or a bad thing remains to be seen.
I really hope he's going to be around for anther couple of years at least, i'm hoping to be able to aford to see him next year for my FFS. So, that means i will by praying for him every day from now until then
I had FFS 12 weeks ago with Dr. O and I'm starting to think that maybe we should be praying for him to retire soon. I say that only because my outcome was less than desired and I wonder if some of the issues I am dealing with may be due to a reduction in his surgical abilities due to his age. Maybe I need to wait longer to heal before passing judgement but I am left with several issues that are bothering me. The first is the paralysis of the muscle that pulls the lower left lip down. This paralysis makes it hard to talk such that I talk with a lisp. I also have to be careful not to bit my lip when putting food in my mouth. Another issue is what appears to be a bone fragment left in my nose. It is not too noticable visually but you can feel it with your finger and it moves under pressure. Another is the upper lip reduction failed to produce the desired results. I think I actually show less teeth with my mouth slightly opened then before. The upper lip reduction did have the undesired effect of pulling the base of my nose down leaving me with an upturned nose. Not what I asked for or expected. Anyways, I'm stuck with what I have now but I wonder if other girls would be saved from similar complications and disapointment if Dr. O were to retire soon. He use to be the best but I wonder about his skills now.
Jen.
Hey Jen.
I never said he was perfect, as I went back to him for a slight revision of the jaw line. He took care of it free of charge, with me paying for OR expenses. I have a bump on my nose I'd love to take care of, but I have to admit, I don't get called "sir" by anyone who doesn't know. He doesn't claim to make people beauty queens, but rather, make you appear with a feminine face.
You're 12 weeks out. At that stage, I was just getting to a good stage of health. I was still rather tired, but I was able to go for short runs.
I'm sorry to hear that you have had some lingering after effects from your surgery. Typically, Dr. O wants people to wait for a little while to see how much your body recovers from the surgery before he goes back in to fix stuff. That's just the way it goes for surgery. Seriously, he's being patient because you don't want to end up with a Michael Jackson nose.
Anyway, ring them up and ask what your options are. Otherwise, eat healthy, rest, and see how much your body can recover on its own.
Dr. Miller, endocrinologist at the University of Kentucky, "is the best"? On what terms do you define that? As I see it, he under-prescribes in his HRT regimen, resulting in wasted time and money. Yet, he claims that having labwork done in order to get baselines on testosterone and estrogen are a waste of time and money. I have my doubts, and yes, I am a patient of his.
Post a Comment