Kareal

I think you really read into my statement wrong. 1. Of course I dont think SRS will make me feel complete. I feel like a woman now. I need the SRS for my own personal benefit and to be legally a female as recognized in the United States of America. You cant change a birth cert without SRS. I cannot get married until I have the SRS or it would be considered same sex (which is fine to me but thats not what im after). 2. Please define "fully" female for me please. I guess those who had a hysterectomy is not fully female, huh? I hate that comment. To me, once everything is said and done I will be "fully female" as you described it and no one will take that away from me. 3. Of course i know there will be issues when transitioning and I know there are laws protecting GLBT. I merely asked in the healthcare was beyond than just the legal mumbo jumbo and really are accepting. I found out YES they are. 4. No, when I transition I wont be going around jumping and skipping all about screaming "look at me, Im trans!!!" No. The only people who will know will be those at work during the first year when I transition to real life experience. After that if i transfer to another hospital they wont know. No one will know. 1 in 12 transgendereds are murdered and I plan on not being a statistic. The only person who will know who i WAS is someone i can trust in a relationship and hopefully they can see me for who I am NOW.

ok :) Sorry The SOC changed the real life test to one year now versus two.

I haven't told her yet lol

and hopefully when the economy approves (hopefully by the time we graduate) we can get lotsa OT!

and a lot less painful!!

since i blew 40 grand on my previous degree (which was utterly useless) Im having to pay cash for my RN program. Its not too bad. Just 89 dollars a credit hour so im looking at about 9K for the program. Fortunately, in Maryland you dont HAVE to have a Bachelors for your RN immediatly.

Don't feel sorry for me TraumaRus! I know one day my children will find me again and they will accept me for who I am. I loved my wife dearly but I also understand her viewpoints. I mean.....it would have turned into a Lesbian relationship and well.....like I said in an earlier post I was a Christian Fundamentalist preacher who married a Preacher's Kid. She wouldn't ever let that happen. I'm just very hurt over the way she did it. She could have been more "humane" about it. But don't feel sorry for me. I feel free and I have a long road ahead of me but im ready for it! Now i just need to find a damn midnight job to pay for my schooling >.

Thanks Sue, that means a lot to me I heard Laser isnt permanent. Is that true? Because if Laser is permanent I can save like 2K right there!!

Thank you for your kind words! Yes, its like a nightmarish hell you cant wake up from. I feel girly in the inside too but then I look in the mirror and cry sometimes. 10 years ago people thought of transgenders as freaks or sex craved lunatics but that is far from the truth. The latest scientific research have found that 1 in 35,000 males suffer from GID and 1 in 65,000 females suffer from it. Sadly many of them commit suicide because they cannot handle it. Ive been through hell so far. Ive been married for 10 years and I kept it inside of me and I informed my wife who I am and the next day when I came home from work she was gone and all three of my children. This was in August. I havent heard from them since. And I have a 1, 5, and 8 year old. I even took jobs to would mask my femininity and transgender state (as is a common trait among males). We get super hyper masculine jobs to try to suppress who we really are. When I was 21 I was a deputy for 4 years and then I went to Bible College and became a Minister in a very fundamentalist denomination. Every year I cried out to God for some type of miracle or something. I lost my family over this but Im too strong. I need to transition. I'm just so glad Im doing so now. My greatest fear is telling my mother. Im living with her now because I broked down in a really bad way after my wife deserted me. My mother is liberal but you can never tell when you say "Hey mom. Im gay or Im a lesbian. Or I am transgendered." It really is a true test of character. Finding your real self is one of the most beautiful experiences you can face and when everything is said and done I will be the happiest girl on the planet (or in the top 10 )

Hi Hou! Thank you so much for the insightful post Yes I am still pre op and I still go by my Male name in public circles. I have not transitioned yet and there remains the big reason: I want to make sure I have completed Nursing School and passed my certs and BE employed while I make that transition. HOWEVER I am doing transitions in small ways right now such as: 1. Electrolysis: Im using my tax refund this year to start that procedure. I have it timed to where I graduate in two years, I will no longer have facial hair. 2. I am on Hormone Replacement Therapy right now. Basically, Im hitting a female puberty right now (and yes, all the emotions that comes with it....God bless those girls! :heartbeat) 3. Growing my hair out (scalp hair hehe) 4. Training my voice to where it is completely passable 5. Putting monies aside for my SRS surgery and POSSIBLY facial feminization surgery (FFS). However, I wont know if I need FFS quite yet. Hormones can feminize a face and I do not have very masculine facial features but if I need the FFS Im saving up for it. I am planning to take my certs as a male with my male name Once employed I will do this: 1. Start my transition with what they call real life experience (I will be physically ready in terms where I will be passable and no one will know except my co workers) 2. Get my gender changed on my Driver's License and Social Security card (Once this is done it should be no problem changing my name over on my RN cert..I mean girls do it all the time with last names when they get married) 3. Work as much over time as I can. Hopefully I would have around 5K saved up from monies here and there. With working and overtime I should be able to have enough monies for my SRS and FFS within 2 years of employement. 4. Have a roommate to help cut the cost of living expenses 5. Once my SRS sx is done, I will then have my birth certificate changed officially (can only change the birth cert once SRS is done) and my passport will say female. Trust me...I have set out a roadmap to all of this. SRS surgery with one of the best surgeons in Canada will be about $10,000 and if i need FFS that will be about $15,000. Im starting it now so I am prepared when I fully become female in about 5 or so years. A lot of people would think 25,000 -35,000 bucks is a lot of money but for a transgendered its not an expense. Its a must. Ive been living in the wrong body since I had my first memories of crying at a playground when I was 4 wondering why God put me in a boys body. I lived in denial for 35 years and I need to let myself out. I need to be me. If you have any questions about this, please feel free to private message me. I would love to answer any other questions you or anyone else may have. ~Kareal

thank you all so very much. All of your statements are very inspiring to me. The transition is pretty long and tedious and for Diane227: I agree with what you said concerning not changing in the middle of NS. I plan on staying a man throughout NS (EEK) but transition once I find a job (and the certifications will be a whole other topic all together lol). Also, I noticed you used crossdresser a lot. That's ok but it incorrectly describes transgenders. Crossdressers dress as girls for either erotic or de stressing purposes and most are heterosexual. Transgenders it goes far beyone the clothes. But i am planning on doing the small things in NS such as: 1. Electrolysis 2. Growing my hair out 3. Voice And during my senior year maybe FFS (Facial Feminization SX) Then when i get cert and get a job (loving SF all the time now) thats when I will go fulltime and then about a year later be official a female with my SRS. I always wanted to be a nurse and i am so happy i made the decision to go back to school to do this. I love people and am very empathetic. Thanks everyone for your comments. They are very inspiring to me.

Thank you! Does anyone else have any first hand experiences with transgendereds? Were they treated well? I just get nervous sometimes because you hear horror stories in the job field.

Thank you so very much!!!! However when I work as a transgendered only my job would know. I look just like a woman and soon I will be fully woman; so I dont think ill get any grief from the patients (I even took voice classes to change my voice). My main concern is when i do transition full time or if my employer finds out they will be a lot more tolerant. I live in Maryland now....i may take a job in San Francisco once I graduate to be more at peace. Dont know yet. But thank you sooo much for your advice!!! :redpinkhe ~Kareal

hi everyone My name is Kareal and I started going back to college for my nursing degree. My current degree is not making me any money whatsoever. With that said, I love nursing. I've always been interested in nursing since I was 5 but I also have a condition since I was 5. Gender Identity Dysphoria. It basically means i have a mans body but mentally, emotionally and my soul is a woman. In about 4 years I will have SRS sx to become fully female. With that said. Have you seen any transgendered in the nursing field? Is the medical field good to transgendereds? Thanks for any input!