#Oregon health

[the-mira-life-project-mtf]

Gender Reassignment Surgery Finally Scheduled!

It has been almost 17 months since the last time that I visited the OHSU clinic in Portland Oregon to see if I was a candidate for GRS.

There have been many times that my hope had fallen through. Days when I wondered if something outside of my control had ruined my plans to finally feel ‘complete’.

To compound the mental pain during the process, my experience with OHSU has been somewhat ‘complicated’. I am used to medical departments keeping their patients up to date...however, this is just a fantasy that I strongly urge others to avoid.

First off, let me say that my encounter with Dr. Dy, at OHSU was a pleasant experience. Unlike other physicians who only see the physical treatment and outcome, I was greatly appreciative that Dr. Dy also took into consideration my emotions and feelings regarding this sensitive topic that I would rarely speak in public.

It was because of my trust in her, her medical background, and willingness to understand ‘my own’ situation that I committed my care at OHSU. As for the urology department, my experience wasn’t all too great. Hopefully this will change in the following appointments.

One topic that I wish to cover in this blog post is:

Do not be afraid to reach out!

I have reached out three times to OHSU regarding my surgery status, and each time, I have received a different response.

I left OHSU in January 2022 knowing that the surgery would most possibly not occur that calendar year, thanks to COVID. Dr. Dy mentioned in clinic that due to the virus, their patients were backed up. She gave a timeline of ten months upwards to a year.

Yet, as time went on, I never heard a word regarding the status of my surgery. I would check the Portal monthly to see if any messages were sent, but as always, there was nothing to report.

By August of 2022, I finally reached out to the clinic and asked for an update. I was given the timeframe of January 2023 to May 2023 to hear a response for surgery scheduling (but not the offical surgery date).

Yet, by May 1st of 2023, I had yet to hear from them.

So, I sent another message after talking to my PCP and therapist regarding my communication with OHSU. I had expected a prompt reply within 3 days as the Portal promises, yet something ‘anxiety-producing’ had happened that I wish to discuss:

The Portal allows you to see if your messages have been opened, and by May 2nd, my message had been marked as ‘Seen’. Yet, day after day, I recieved no reply from the department of urology.

By May 3rd, I expected to finally have my reply so that I could make plans for the future: like lodging, psychology papers for surgery, saving money, arranging caregivers, and preparing my family to live without me at home

Yet once again, no reply came.

May 4th & 5th, I began to wonder if the clinic was trying to receive an answer to my question...so I gave them the benefit of the doubt.

May 6th & 7th was the weekend, so I did not expect any reply from OHSU. But I was almost certain that a decent person would at least say something by Monday, May 8th.

During the weekend, I wondered what was the reason as to why no one wrote a reply. I came up with many thoughts at night that made me worry and despair. Thoughts like: ‘Are they angry with me?’ | ‘Am I no longer a patient?’ | ‘Did I send the message to the wrong person?’ | ‘Is this something to do with my insurance?’ | ‘Maybe this is a sign that I should not be having surgery!’

By May 8th, my reply had never come.

I began to think that maybe this was a universal sign that I should not be having this surgery after all. And I began wondering if I should wait for an eternity, or look elsewhere for surgery and begin the whole process all over again.

That night, I thought of sending a reminder message to the department: ‘Maybe they forgot?’ Yet, if they cannot answer a simple question regarding scheduling and paperwork...then is it a really good idea to entrust my future care with their department? Especially if I have an urgent question in post-op!

‘Well, the last message did say ‘at the end of Spring’, and Spring officially is over on June 21st. Maybe I should just be patient?”

May 9th -- like before, I waited for a reply -- but no reply came.

Today, my mother brought up my ‘lack’ of swimming and I told her that the last time I went to swim at the YMCA, I had a terrible experience that has kept me away from the pool for almost one year.

Without GRS, my life has been in a painful standstill.

I cannot use any public restroom or locker room because of my strict morals. Everyone is different, but my morals prevent me from using a women’s restroom if I still have a penis. This is because I would never want to encounter a man in a women’s restroom...even if that individual is a transwoman who hasn’t undergone GRS.

I can no longer use a male’s restroom or locker room...because I now ‘appear’ too much as a female. Not to mention that this would create a terrible experience of abuse and even possible sexual harassment.

Even without GRS, I cannot face going to the ER for emergencies due to a bad experience in 2019 when I had to reveal that I was transgender. Even my time in the ocean had suffered because of fear of getting wet and things revealing too much...it is a painful existence!

With a long drive to Bainbridge Island, I had plenty of time to think of my next move. I sent a second message to OHSU...but instead of placing blame...I apologized and asked once more.

I honestly did not expect anything to come out of it.

Around 3:10PST I finally recieved a reply from OHSU. In communications with Mr. Skelton who asked if I would like to have surgery on July 12th 2023 with Dr. Dy being my attending physician.

I was thrilled!

I quickly checked my calandar to see that surgery will be a week after my vacation. Perfect timing!

So, with one step closer to finalizing my new life as a female...I can only dream of returning back to the pool to swim! Play in the ocean and clam dig! Not be afraid to use the restroom when I really need it. No fear in violating my morals bathing amongst other women in onsen and locker rooms.

I can finally focus on my health instead of jeopardizing it. Even possibly enter a relationship without having a panic attack.

For most of my life, I felt neither male or female...but both at the same time. I can only wonder how my future will change after this surgery...for the best and for the worse.

Only time will tell; though the path will be long.

[politijohn]

Source

[coochiequeens]

A patient said something she thought was in confidence and he (the doctor) shared it with staff? And now TRAs are harassing a woman fighting breast cancer? That doctor needs to lose his license for violating patient confidentiality

A woman in Oregon receiving treatment for breast cancer has been dropped by her health clinic of 12 years because she expressed views critical of gender ideology.

Marlene Barbera, who is scheduled for a mastectomy later this month, told Reduxx that she had commented on the presence of a transgender pride flag that was hanging in the waiting room of the Richmond Family Medical Clinic in Portland last year.

Barbera explained that she had written a message to her doctor on MyChart, a website where patients can access their personal health information, describing that she found the inclusion of “political messaging in a healthcare setting” as “offensive.”

She, like a growing number of women, has “gender critical” views, rejecting modern ideologies that conflate biological sex and “gender identity.” Barbera mentioned she had faced rape and death threats from trans activists on X (formerly Twitter), many of whom would have identified with that same flag.

Initially, the Doctor, who she revealed had been her primary care provider for over ten years, said that he would not take the flag down. But while Barbera had initially believed their correspondence to be private, she later discovered that the note to her physician had been viewed and shared by other staff at the clinic.

This June, while attempting to leave a message for her doctor regarding blood test results, the issue continued to escalate. A receptionist at the clinic, who Barbera speculated was transgender, did not permit her to be patched through to her doctor.

“The person insisted I make an appointment. I have breast cancer and consequently an abundance of medical appointments so I did not want to do that. They got frustrated with my ‘non-compliance’ and hung up on me,” Barbera told Reduxx.

“Thinking it might have been in error, I called back. I was told I was ‘not allowed’ and that I must speak to the previous person who had hung up on me. I declined as things hadn’t gone well the first time.”

She then questioned whether the refusal from the first receptionist was due to her previous complaint about the trans pride flag in the lobby.

“I asked, guessing ‘did I hurt the trans person’s feelings?’ And the receptionist took offense to the question, asking ‘what did you say‘ slowly and with great emphasis.”

Weeks later, Barbera received an email from Oregon Health Science University’s (OHSU) Stein Berger, informing her that she had been “discharged from receiving medical care at the Richmond Family Medicine Clinic,” effective immediately, with services to be cut off from all OHSU Family Medicine Clinics, including immediate care clinics, from July 29th. The email did in fact specify that she was being removed “because of ongoing disrespectful and hurtful remarks about our LGBTQ community and staff.”

Barbera told Reduxx that the incident had sent her “anxiety through the roof” and that she was struggling with her mental health as a result of the stress.

“I have severe chronic agitated depression since teen years,” Barbera explains. “Now I have no primary care doctor and nowhere else to go. I have been made to feel like a worthless nothing.”

This is not the first time a woman has lost access to critical medical services due to her “gender critical” views.

In October of last year, a woman identified as Emma by the UK’s Daily Mail was banned from having an operation in London’s Princess Grace Hospital because she requested single sex accommodation. The woman, who had been scheduled for a complex colorectal operation, also expressed that she did not want to “use pronouns or engage with such manifestations of gender ideology.”

Despite having experience being the victim of sexual assault, Emma was banned from having her procedure at the facility for requesting single-sex care.

[bluesky-out-of-context]

[summerwages]

Tuesdays cold open..

[the-cimmerians]

Griffin-Valade confirmed last week that she intends to enforce Measure 113, which Oregon voters approved in 2022 by a landslide 70 percent. Measure 113 bans lawmakers from running for re-election if they racked up 10 or more unexcused absences in a single legislative session. It also prevents them from running for office in another chamber. It’s a well-deserved career killer.

Nonetheless, 10 of the 12 total Republican state senators called the measure’s bluff. Senate Republican Leader Tim Knopp, Daniel Bonham of Madras, Lynn Findley of Vale, Bill Hansell of Athena, Cedric Hayden of Fall Creek, Dennis Linthicum of Klamath Falls, Art Robinson of Cave Junction, Kim Thatcher of Keizer, Suzanne Weber of Tillamook, and Brian Boquist from Dallas, an independent who hangs with a bad crowd, all walked off the job in “protest” against Democratic-led bills that would protect and expand access to reproductive and gender-affirming health care.

today in 'fucking around and finding out', politics edition

[nando161mando]

Ambulance hits Oregon cyclist, rushes him to hospital, then sticks him with $1,800 bill, lawsuit says

[valentinsylve]

one of my old friends in Portland, OR told me about The Sunnyside Shower Project, which offers free showers and hygienic supplies (menstrual products, underwear, etc) to the unhoused people who live in Portland. They have volunteers who clean the bathrooms after each use to keep things nice for each person who uses them. The program was such a success that they have been able to go from serving people three days each week instead of two. Please share this and/or donate if you feel moved to and are financially able.

[etakeh]

Fingers crossed, y'all.

Oregon had managed to hold its own so far, glad to see we're trying to progress now on this matter.

HB 2002 seeks "to expand[ing] insurance coverage for gender-affirming care, adding infrastructure for reproductive healthcare, and protecting Oregon providers from persecution from other states [for providing these types of care, including abortions].

[kingscythe]

i could never be the host in the handyman!bill au bc he would be like “yk what would be awesome. If you built me a giant death robot. We can give it a sword and a laser and make it be able to run doom” and I would not have the strength of character to pretend that that’s not the single greatest idea I’ve ever heard

[solarearthworm]

ive been thinking about posting photos with random excerpts from my notes app. some of them are utter nonsense.

[memenewsdotcom]

Drug possession becomes crime again in Oregon

[livinglilitu]

I am horribly afraid of being seen in this world. But I am tired of being afraid. Of everything. I am aggressively saying 'No More.' I want to have fun and make memories and create experiences. I want to live.

That said..

HI! I'm 32F and I'd love to connect with other creative spirits.

[yourstrulyjasmine]

💙💙💙🖤🖤🖤💙💙💙🖤🖤🖤

@sincerelyjasminexo 💓💜🥰

24 fun sweet and goofy💓😘🤪😜

[dyslesexia]

for the first time in my adult life i have no direction

i have no desire or motivation or energy

i have ideas and hopes, but beyond the glorification of future, i have no 'umph'

6 years at a university with white cis male professors shrinking my glow, passion and wonder did a toll on my soul that i never knew i was trading with $80k+ debt

i want to publish, i want to make art, i want to write and run a damn good newsroom, i want to make a difference

but each step i take, my foot gets stuck in mud

and i cant breathe or think or move

im hoping an intensive outpatient program will help my find my glow again

so i can finally start the life a younger me once dreamed of

i want to be the person that would've intimidated me. full of love, passion and drive. bright and the sunniest person in the room. full of ideas that are well-executed – or even with turbulence �� but at least they were acted on, rather than caught in flight or freeze

i want to feel like i care about friendships again. or to at least find faces here that are uplifting and loving and wholesome and understanding

i gave everything to everyone, many who never replenished, which aches as my own fault for never asking for reciprocation. because my voice got too small and too quiet to be heard amongst the shouts of everything else

i gave and gave and gave and often took and took and took, only for the end of a marathon to reveal no worthwhile celebration. a parallel universe self is thriving in productivity, love and joy. they have a healthy sleep schedule, no disorderly eating and their attention span doesn't crave stimulants to function. maybe the new year is the parallel realm i continue to peer towards with wanderlust. i just want to feel like im doing a good job without crippling mental health symptoms. i want to feel like my own mind isnt a villain and that the fog and thick suffocating clouds could easily dissipate with a breath of exhale. i want held by the hands of community. i want to feel a direction that isn't everywhere else or nowhere at all. nothing sounds good, but even if i knew the craving's soul-ution, i'm not sure id even follow that with a head held high.

i don't know what the fuck im doing, nor what the fuck i want to be doing. i barely even know who i am. all i know is im different, and this world isn't the fondest of oddity.

[flowersandspacestuff]

My dad makes his living picking seasonal berries and mushrooms. He travels around and knows what time of year and which areas to find specific sought after berries like huckleberries, where and when to find mushrooms that are considered delicacies like morels, chanterelles, and others. He lives in one area for some of the time, but travels across the whole northwest.

My dad has never really fit with society, partly due to his connection with nature, and partly due to mental illness and trauma. But this is something he can do, and something he loves, and humans will always want wild berries and mushrooms, and need food. So many people today do not know how to find these things, though they used to provide for our whole way of life.

A lot of people feel trapped in the framework our species and cultures have built, and see that the way the job market works is to suck the life out of you, but to keep you working while it does. Yeah you'll always have to work for your living, that's just how life is. You gotta put something in to get anything out. But, we have to consider, what do we want to get out of it? My country has written in it's constitution that people have a right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." This is a little bit vague, so vague, that we haven't recognized this right being slowly eroded away. Now we find ourselves pushed to the edge, we're told how lucky we are, while we scramble to find something, something we can do that our society deems worthwhile, and worth money, just so we can live to work the next week, month, year, and afford to pay for our media subscriptions, car, mortgage, rent, gas, food. We'll always have to work for our food, our home, our family, and our health. That's not the problem. The problem is, we aren't working for this. Because most of us, can put as much energy and work as we can into doing something we're not completely suited for, just to live, but still have trouble achieving the basics for life, let alone liberty and happiness. The work that so many are doing, doesn't return to them. We aren't working for our life, liberty, and happiness. Sure, it's why we're working, but the work we are doing doesn't fulfill that pursuit. We should expect that if we do good work, we will see the returns. If you farm your land, and care for the plants and the soil and the animals, you will see the return in abundance. If you build for your communities, your communities will flourish, and you will too. Some of us have found ways to work within this parasitic market system that allow us to still do this, but the power of monopolistic global industry is still felt, and this power strangles the life and liberty of the people, to squeeze out a hoarded profit. People are not machines though, we feel the pain. Our world feels the pain. The ecosystems that have provided all of our bounty, and sustained life on this planet, are suffering from neglect and abuse, just as people suffer from indenture and alienation.

Some of us have been led to believe that there is no way out. This is a lie. Some of us have been led to believe our connection to nature is severed. This is a lie. Some of us have been led to believe that we cannot continue forward and advance humanity while keeping our ties to nature. This is a lie.

What is truth then?

We live, and have always lived, through nature. Earth is a part of us, as we are a part of Earth, and we thrive and fall in the same measure. There is still time for us. Everything will change, as everything always changes. We will change too. We can change, it is how we have come to be here, and how we will continue on. Harmony with Earth is not only possible, but is also the requisite for humanity's own flourishing, and the source of our natural way of being.

But what does this mean for us now? What does this mean for me, who knows how to do only the things society has taught are important? What do I do, who know how to obey, to follow direction, to communicate and to sell things, to write and to read and to drive, but know not how to create tools, to cultivate food, to search for and identify the bounties of nature, to live from what the Earth gives us, and to do so in a way that gives back to that source? What do we do? We learn!

The sources of our life, our liberty, and our happiness are not as far from us as we would be made to think. It may seem overwhelming, but it doesn't have to be. You can start with one thing. Learn about a native edible plant or berry or mushroom near you, learn its season and what habitat it grows in, and learn where you might find it. It is August. In the Northwestern United States there are many berries in season right now. In the coastal areas are blackberries and huckleberries and salal, inland there are huckleberries, grapes in some places, and elderberries, (which must be cooked to be edible but are high in vitamins A and C, and are used for a cold remedy as syrup). You can pick what you need for yourself and freeze it for winter, saving you money on frozen fruit in the dark months, and you can also pick more than you need and give some to friends or family, or sell it for a little supplemental income if you pick enough. Remember though to do your harvesting with respect for the environment, for this is the environment that is sustaining you. Protect it, give back to it, pick up your trash, and learn to be firesafe.

There are other options too, if you have the access, you can create a garden to support your food access. The recent pandemic has reminded many of us that we can't always rely on grocery stores and changing prices and the changing value of our money to get what we need, but there are other ways, and these other methods of sustaining ourselves can free us. Learn how to preserve fresh food when it is affordable and save it for when it is scarce. Tomatoes and zucchini may be overabundant in the summer, but they are scarcer in the winter. You can freeze tomatoes whole, and you can shred zucchini and freeze it for winter use in pasta, breads, and stir fries. There also inedible but very useful plants and sources within the forest, which you can use to make things you need or that are useful. Baskets can be so expensive, but weaving only requires a few supplies, an understanding, and your own work. This is just the beginning.

While we ask what we can do to live better on what nature gives us, we also ask what we can do to give back to nature, to keep nature thriving so that we may thank it for its sustenance and also partake in its abundance. Some plants are invasive and harm native plants, and can be removed to make way for plants more in harmony with the ecosystem. When many people travel a natural area, erosion can begin to threaten hillsides and habitats. This can be mitigated by creating better paths and reinforcing eroded areas near them with nature's materials, like fallen logs, branches, and plants like moss, grasses and shrubs which will make the way for trees to take root and further secure the hillside. Sometimes we don't know where our help would be most useful, or how to help, but there are good organizations that dedicate themselves to doing exactly these kinds of things. Mossy Earth is one that provides lovely videos and updates and abundant information on their efforts at habitat restoration and species reintroduction efforts. They're on youtube, and watching their videos is so hope renewing. They also have a subscription service that people may support them through.

You don't have to give up your apartment and live in a tent to renew your connection with nature. You don't have to do all of these things for it to be worthwhile. And you aren't alone in the big projects that seem a little daunting. We're in this together, and there are plenty of little ways we can start to work on our connection with nature, and work on our connection with ourselves, that will immediately benefit our health and happiness, and will further the happiness of our families and communities and home. Because Earth is home. We have to work for home, but if we do good work, we will have everything we need, and be happy with our efforts and their results.

So go pick some berries! Freeze them, eat them, share them! And at the end of it, you will have spent that time in nature, using your body for what it has developed for, and building your strength and your understanding for the future.