{"id":658,"date":"2014-10-09T21:50:51","date_gmt":"2014-10-10T01:50:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/typingmonkeys.com\/blog\/?p=658"},"modified":"2023-05-02T12:49:04","modified_gmt":"2023-05-02T16:49:04","slug":"so-theres-that-day-17-pronoun-trouble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/typingmonkeys.com\/blog\/so-theres-that-day-17-pronoun-trouble\/","title":{"rendered":"So There’s That, Day 17: Pronoun Trouble"},"content":{"rendered":"

So There\u2019s That: Adventures in Transgendering chronicled my transition in 2014. One hopes the gentle readers will forgive any awkward or anachronistic language within.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/em><\/p>\n

N.B.: When I began transitioning, I was known by my nickname “DiG” — prior to learning my mom had chosen Jennifer as my name prior to my birth.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

Wednesday morning 3 A.M.<\/p>\n

Not just a Simon & Garfunkel album anymore. It\u2019s me in my hotel room and I can\u2019t sleep.<\/p>\n

I send a note of gratitude to my boss for her wonderful and loving support and continue pacing the hotel room.<\/p>\n

Why? Because in the morning I have an appointment at Beth Israel Medical Center about my self-medicated hormone use and subsequent blood test. On the positive side, my nurse practitioner is transgender so hopefully she\u2019ll be understanding about what I\u2019ve been going through.<\/p>\n

I finally fall asleep, but awake hours later and the pacing continues.<\/p>\n

My wait finally comes to an end, and I arrive at Beth Israel on 14th Street. Everyone there is extremely nice and supportive, and I am directed to fill in my personal information.<\/p>\n

I am then confronted, for the first time in my life, with a new choice. Male. Female.\u00a0Transgender<\/i>.<\/p>\n

I smile and circle Transgender. I smile again and can\u2019t suppress a laugh this time. \u201cI accept!!!\u201d<\/p>\n

I wish I could recount more epic tales of bravery, but I panic when it comes to my insurance. Do I want my insurance company to know I\u2019m transgender? Do I want that on my permanent medical record? I blink and decide to pay out of pocket for now. I\u2019ll cross that<\/i>\u00a0road at another time.<\/p>\n

I am beckoned in to have my blood pressure taken. Yeah, that shouldn\u2019t be\u00a0too<\/i>\u00a0high, especially for one afflicted with white coat syndrome (artificially high blood pressure due to anxiety about having your blood pressure taken). But to my surprise it\u2019s 113 over something.<\/p>\n

Maybe I\u2019m more at ease about all of this than I thought.<\/p>\n

I then meet my NP (I\u2019m new to the world of medical acronyms, but officially Family Nurse Practitioner, Board Certified. FNP-BC for short. NP for really short). Regardless, she is a delight and let\u2019s me nervously share my story over the next half hour. She intersperses my running dialogue with head nods and comments like, yup, that\u2019s normal.<\/p>\n

Normal. Not a word I ever expected to hear when it came to being transgender.<\/p>\n

She seems satisfied with my story, progress and therapy, and innocuously asks if I want to continue my hormones. That catches me off guard as I was expecting to be reprimanded for my previous self-medication and taken off all hormones until I had proceeded further down \u201cofficial\u201d channels.<\/p>\n

I think about it and nod my assent. Yes, I would. The subtle changes so far are welcome, and I feel like I\u2019m making progress. She gives me a release to sign about the hazards of estrogen and before long I have my prescriptions.<\/p>\n

She then catches me off guard a second time with another question. What pronoun would I like to use? I suddenly have a vision of the Bugs Bunny cartoon with Daffy Duck,\u00a0Rabbit Seasoning,<\/i>\u00a0where Bugs repeatedly tricks Elmer Fudd into shooting Daffy.<\/p>\n

Daffy Duck:<\/strong>\u00a0Let\u2019s run through that again.<\/p>\n

Bugs Bunny:<\/strong>\u00a0Okay.<\/p>\n

Bugs Bunny:<\/strong>\u00a0Wouldja like to shoot me now or wait till you get home?<\/p>\n

Daffy Duck:<\/strong>\u00a0Shoot him now, shoot him now.<\/p>\n

Bugs Bunny:<\/strong>\u00a0You keep outta this. He doesn\u2019t hafta shoot you now.<\/p>\n

Daffy Duck:<\/strong>\u00a0Ha! That\u2019s it! Hold it right there! Pronoun trouble.<\/p>\n

Daffy Duck:<\/strong>\u00a0It\u2019s not: \u201cHe doesn\u2019t have to shoot *you* now.\u201d It\u2019s: \u201cHe doesn\u2019t have to shoot *me* now.\u201d Well, I say he does have to shoot me now!<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think I\u2019m ready for \u201cpronoun troubles\u201d just yet and request that we just use \u201cDiG\u201d for now. Pronouns can be sorted out on another day.<\/p>\n

I then get my blood taken and finally depart for the front desk. As I\u2019m about to pay, I decide, screw it. I\u00a0am<\/i> transgender. I circled the damn word on the form. Damn the torpedoes, let\u2019s submit to my insurance company and let the chips fall where they may.<\/p>\n

Okay, I may be brave, but I still torture analogies with the best of \u2019em.<\/p>\n

I leave Beth Israel feeling great. And again can\u2019t suppress a laugh.<\/p>\n

You, my friend, are officially transgender.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So There\u2019s That: Adventures in Transgendering chronicled my transition in 2014. One hopes the gentle readers will forgive any awkward or anachronistic language within. \u2014 N.B.: When I began transitioning, I was known by my nickname “DiG” — prior to learning my mom had chosen Jennifer as my name prior to my birth.\u00a0 Wednesday morning […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-so-theres-that"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t