I wrote a few short posts since the last one, but I must have accidentally saved them as drafts and not published them to the blog.  Oops.

I’ve been back at work  for over a month now and things are going fine.  Everything has been healing up nicely and I’m not in any pain or discomfort.  I’ve still got a little bit of swelling, but that’s normal for areas over the bone.  I feel like I’ve got the same energy level as before surgery, too.

The one complication I’ve noticed is that one of the implants in my breasts hasn’t dropped as nicely as the other.  The fold below the bad one isn’t as defined, and the implant is sitting higher on my chest.  They both look fine and equal under clothing, but exposed one looks great and the other looks a bit off.

I go in for my second stage surgery in two weeks from Monday.  Dr. Meltzer will also preform a minor revision to the breast that is having a poblem and should also correct my urine stream (it goes too far forward!) at the same time.  This surgery isn’t nearly as invasive and I’m not planning to take more than a week off of work to recover.

I finally received a settlement from my insurance company for my disability claim.  They didn’t make it easy, but I finally got a check for about 60% of my salary for the time I was out recovering from my first surgery.

I threw a big party last weekend, celebrating my 34th birthday and one year (to the day) of living full-time as a girl.  It was one year since the day I came out work, the last day I presented myself in boy-mode.  It’s been an amazing year and I can’t believe the support I’ve had from everyone around me.  The party was great, and it felt wonderful to be able to give something back to some of the people how have helped me through this first year.

I filed for short term disability several months before I left for surgery and provided them with all the needed information from my doctor about the procedures to be done and the estimated recovery time.  I was told that it’d take ten days to review the claim, but when I called back later I was told that they wouldn’t start to review it until I had actually begun my leave — it all sounded very fishy to me.

Well, as you may have guessed, I returned home to find a letter from the insurance company telling me that I had been denied benefits on the grounds that my leave is because of cosmetic surgery.  I was very upset — not so much at being denied as that I felt I had been toyed with.  I initially got the impression that I’d have a decision ten days after filing my claim, but later it seemed to change so that I couldn’t find out the decision until after I had had surgery — committing myself to a course of action.

I decided to fight it.  California has anti-discrimination laws protecting trans-identified people and I feel that this was a case of discrimination.  I talked to my dad, a lawyer, and also contacted the Transgender Law Center here in the city for advice.  The first course of action I took was the less offensive, however.  I contacted my employer’s HR department and they are now working with the insurance company.  I don’t get much feedback, but I have heard that they are now reviewing their decision — though I’m not expecting any change.  I just wanted to follow that path before exploring legal options.

The good news is that I’ve got some savings left, even after this surgery, as well as support from my family that will get me through this period — even though I won’t get any pay for over a month.  I’ve had to cut back, but I’m glad it’s not going to cause a big financial crisis for me.

Today is my sister’s last day here with me.  My mom stays for another week yet, so I’ll have some more alone time with her, which will be nice.

We went out for lunch today and stopped by a fancy candy store to pick up some goodies for my sister’s flight home.  While there I saw a woman come in who looked very familiar.  It turned out she was my old roommate’s ex-girlfriend.  She was around quite a bit and we were all pretty close back then, but it was about eight years ago.  After my roommate moved to New York I lost all touch with his ex, which was sad because I really liked her — Hey! Not like that!  I’ve thought about her from time to time and a few times have tried to see if I could find her on facebook, myspace and other online communities with no luck.  It’s a small city, so I had hopes to run into her at some point… and after I started to transition I thought it’d be really fun to run into her and see her reaction.

I approached her and asked if she was who I thought she was.  She said yes, and looked quite shocked but also curious.  I said I was her ex’s old roommate and her jaw dropped and she said/asked “John?!?!?!”  I nodded and said my name was now Jenn.  She told me I look great and seemed to accept my transition immediately.  She seemed very genuine about it all, and I felt great to finally run into her after all this time.  We caught up and exchanged numbers.  I’ve been in a wonderful mood since — I’m really looking forward to seeing her again and finding out what she’s been up to these last several years.  She lives just a few blocks from me, so I’m sure we’ll see more of each other soon.