FFS + 7 days - The fact that it hurts, and recedes, indicates passing through change

[the_fantastic_ms_fox]

And I'm back. It's all done. The sutures are out, leaving little blood-dotted tracks across my forehead like a map to I don't know where. Flakes of hair shed around the suture line. Hope that stops soon. A shallow grove runs under my nose. In my mouth, tangles of dissolvable/edible sutures slowly recede across two streak-like lesions.

This knocked me on my ass. I can walk, and run short distances, but I get tired easily. No heavy exertion for one month. No contact sports (or other roughhousing?) for four. The restrictions are not due to fatique, but rather due to the potential fragility of the sutures.

I clean the sutures once a day with hydrogen peroxide, trying to break up any scabs or flakes. I give them neosporin twice per day. I sleep on my back, with my head elevated. I bind my jaw with an ace bandage, Jack and Jill style. Anesthetic mouthwash.

I'm healing quickly. My cheeks are less swollen each day. Thisis good. First it relieves the surprising strain my neck bore by carrying them around. Second it makes it easier, or just possible, to eat. Third, it makes me look less like a guy - my swollen jowls gave me a kind of "sleazy landlord" look. My skin is still tight and sneezing on coughing pulls across it to draw on sharp sutures. But I can see that there has been a change for the better.

My jaw, or at least the bone, feels in place now. I touch it and think, yeah, that's about right. Ocular ridge lines up. The distances are right. The bone is right.

This also means that I no longer have to take special measures in bright light, or have to manage my hair to avoid the bald streaks.

This is good.

Yes, I am glad I did this.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/innerlife_/]

: )

Keep healin'. Good job so far. ;)

[eva00.livejournal.com]

It's really interesting to see this updated step by step, and great hearing that it's going so well.

[plaidalicious.livejournal.com]

I am glad that the pain and suffering are paying off. It means so much to you I'm glad it's going well.

this is just killing me

[porphyre.livejournal.com]

Two Families Grapple with Sons' Gender Preferences

In particular, there is one typically girl thing — now banned — that her son absolutely cannot resist.

"He really struggles with the color pink. He really struggles with the color pink. He can't even really look at pink," Carol says. "He's like an addict. He's like, 'Mommy, don't take me there! Close my eyes! Cover my eyes! I can't see that stuff; it's all pink!' "

What kind of society are we that makes it okay to torture a little boy into thinking everything he likes is wrong?

As his pile of toys dwindled, Carol realized Bradley was hoarding. She would find female action figures stashed between couch pillows. Rainbow unicorns were hidden in the back of Bradley's closet. Bradley seemed at a loss, she said. They gave him male toys, but he chose not to play at all.

"He turned to coloring and drawing, and he just simply wouldn't play with anything. And he would color and draw for hours and hours and hours. And that would be all he did in a day," Carol says. "I think he was really lost. ... The whole way that he knew and understood how to play was just sort of, you know, removed from his house."

This is a little boy who from a very early age has insisted he is a girl, who loves "girl things". His parents took him to therapy because he got beat up by a group of older boys...deciding to change the child instead of address the bullying.

There's a lovely example in the article of a kid who's being raised with his own gender preference, which is a good contrast to this poor kid.

Re: this is just killing me

[osmie]

I currently know of a child who's roughly in Jona's position, supportive parents and all. I'm full of admiration.

I'm also aware that many transgender kids don't need a therapist like Dr. Zucker to force them into the closet & hand them extraordinary lifelong psychological problems: our society & culture bring them to this response all by themselves.

[sambiamb.livejournal.com]

Keep on healing, friend. Glad to hear it is going well so far.

[medousa.livejournal.com]

Welcome back. Glad to hear it's all progressing well.

[sciencequeen.livejournal.com]

Eeeee I'm so essited for you! It's so rad to see you transition.

And I was SO happy to see you today!!! :D

[greenstorm.livejournal.com]

So glad you're through it. Sleep lots.

[vanessa-antiopa.livejournal.com]

I'm just catching up with everything now. You are so very brave. It's amazing. Thank you for sharing this with all of us.

[hundun.livejournal.com]

Hey, thanks.