Gendersaurus Rex

So I think its time that I start planning for chest surgery. I’d like to go ahead and “get it out of the way” so to speak. Especially since I am thinking about graduate school in the near future (and taking time off from grad school would not work out very well). Dually, I have accepted the fact that I don’t have bad credit, nor do I have a lot of debt, and it would not kill me to put the surgery costs on CareCredit (a medical credit card). I was wary of making such a leap into debt, but I feel like it would be a manageable debt to take, especially when I have the means to pay it off.

There are some things I need to figure out. First of all I need to think realistically about the timing. I highly doubt my parents would want to be present (if they didn’t want to come to my graduation, why would they come to this?), so I am looking for reliable friends that could take off a week from work/school/life to travel with me to the surgeon, see me through the process, and the first week of recovery on site. After a week, I am free to go home, but will still be unable to work for another two weeks or so. Which means, I need to make sure my work will let me take that much time off. Naturally, its going to be unpaid, but last I checked, they couldn’t fire me for having to take medical leave (especially if I get a letter from the surgeon and give them extreme advance notice).

FAMILY AND MEDICAL LEAVE ACT (GEORGIA)

The FMLA requires that employers with 50 or more employees, who are employed within a 75 mile radius, provide eligible employees with up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave each year to care for a newborn or newly adopted or foster child; to care for a seriously ill child, spouse or parent; or because of the employee’s own illness. Employers may, under certain circumstances, require employees to take unpaid FMLA leave rather than accrued paid leave. It is, however, always the employer’s responsibility to designate whether an employee’s use of paid leave counts as FMLA leave, based on information provided by the employee and it is the employer’s responsibility to notify the employee of this designation.

I am also going to start stockpiling a lot of money, and working on making sure I have a buffer for funds in terms of rent/food/bills. Once my name change goes through, I’ll apply for the credit card, apply for EBT, and start locking down details on a potential surgery date.

I still feel like some kind of fluke will come up and everything will fall apart, but if I don’t try now, then I’ll never get it done.

Oh, and I think I have decided on going to Dr. Charles Garramone in South Florida. I like his results, I like his reputation of good care (friendliness, check up quality, ect), and I like his price – only $5,700 for all the fees.

Filed under: Transition