Well, I was ready on time, got to the bus stop early and waited for it to arrive. ..and waited.. ..and waited some more.. half an hour.. forty five minutes.. an hour… It was freezing cold and all I could do was stand there waiting, hoping it would come soon.

Meanwhile, other people left the bus stop as they got tired of waiting, but this appointment is very important so I did not have that luxury. The bus didn’t show up until 4 minutes after 10. Exactly four minutes after I had to be at the hospital.

Now, normally I would have called them to let them know I was going to be late, and if there was still any point in going but wouldn’t you know it.. My cellphone had been disconnected a few days ago because of a stupid billing issue that they simply won’t fix. They’re a very dumb company and have a crappy ass help desk. As soon as this subscription is over I’m switching to something better.

Anyway, the weather was so crappy that there were warnings on the news that people that didn’t necessarily needed to travel should stay indoors. Considering there are people from all over the country headed out for appointments to the same hospital I decided to go anyway and hope someone canceled. Which isn’t unprecedented, it happens a lot I’ve been told.

Well, when I finally get there it is about 11am so I am very late. I’m cold and freezing, nervous as hell, but I walk inside, go up one floor and head toward where I’m supposed to be. As I go around the corner into the last hallway I already see her standing there with a confused look.

She asks me if I made a mistake with the appointment time, saying it was an hour ago. As I explain what happened, the late bus, the fact I couldn’t call, and the hope that someone would cancel because of the bad weather she tells me that they actually called everyone to verify if they would still show up or not. Of course I could not be reached. And guess what? They all showed up so there was nothing I could do except leave and go home. :(

So that was my shitty day. Not another appointment for a month.. next year.. which means my diagnosis will take that much longer as well. Fuck!

We left early to avoid traffic problems, it starting at such an awkward time, so we ate something there and looked around a bit before heading to the hall we were all supposed to meet. I didn’t expect a lot of people to show up but I was mistaken. There were quite a few people there, both transgender and relatives.

There was coffee and tea for everyone and shortly someone came to usher us into an adjacent room which looked very much like a movie theater. Well, at least we were comfy. :) After a brief introduction the first guy started doing his slide ‘n speech thing. He spoke kinda softly so I don’t think my dad missed the bigger part of it, but the guy really only gave a general overview of the process in its entirety, from diagnosis to hormones to surgery.

The second guy was a lot easier to understand, it was an older man, bearded, that made the occasional joke. His main focus seemed to be around the hormones and how it would affect you. He also talked about the danger in acquiring hormones from the internet, and the poor quality thereof even if it is a valid drug.

When he was done we were told there was someone from TransVisie who wanted to say a few things. She was a transgender herself and I assume talked about how TransVisie is there to help both transgers and their relatives deal with issues or just find other people to talk to, beyond the more official places to go to. I say assume because she was so nervous about talking in front of people it was very hard to hear her and between every sentence there was this very awkward silence. It was a very sad display, she may have needed to practice this first.

Then it was breaktime and Lynda and I took this time to go back to the restaurant and find us something to drink besides tea. We decided on Dr Pepper and bought some chocolate too.

When it was time to go back there was one more person going to talk, which was a surgeon who, naturally, talked about the surgical procedures and everything surrounding that. They mentioned having been to Thailand recently and altering their technique somewhat. It was asked by someone if they also saw Dr. Suporn, one of the most well-known surgeons in this field but they said they haven’t been to his practice yet.

While I already knew most of the topics talked about it was still nice to hear it from the actual official source and it was of course also nice that both my parents now have a better idea and understanding of what to expect