Blackberry and Orange, Mr or Miss????????

I got a problem!!!!!!!!! To let everyone know Blackberries are brilliant, but they have one huge drawback. they don't survive an eco wash in my washing machine!!!! :( At the beginning of August I was super efficient came home and just put the clothes I was wearing start into the machine, forgetting my Blackberry was in the pocket of my jeans. It's now been in for repair for 2 months and the shop can't source a new motherboard, which is strange as Orange still sell this model and mine was only a month old. Anyways, about 18 months ago I changed my name with Orange, all was great until I upgraded to the Blackberry. The helpful call centre decided to change my title back to MR, so I am now MR Gayle .........., not really matching is it?????? The person must have assumed they had made an error on my file, DUH. For the past 6 weeks I have been in battle with emails and faxing documents to get this fixed back to MISS Gayle ........., but at the moment I have no idea what I am.

So this morning I thought go into Orange and ask for advice for a friend, HaHa. And the guy said get your friend to call a number and get emergency cover and they will replace the phone in 24 hours. But doing this I have no idea what to call myself and I know my voice on the phone is still abit dodgy, and I don't really want to out myself to someone in a call centre, but I want a Blackberry!!!!????

I think I will sleep on this and decide tomorrow.

Another GP Appointment

Just back from seeing my GP to get blood pressure checked and supplies of all my medications. Going to have to get a trolley when I collect them from the pharmacy, heehee. Blood pressure was ok for me at 135/91, which is probably abit high but over the past year it was been up at 170/144. So anything approaching normal I'm pleased with. It was funny in the waiting room, usually nobody sits next to me, I pick a quiet booth, today everyone who came in sat in my booth. So I think I must be blending in now, oh, and a nice guy held the door for me as well, a real boost to my confidence. The next appointment is with the nurse for blood pressure again in 4 weeks and then another 4 weeks to see my GP. you read and hear so much bad talk about the NHS, but my surgery and staff are just so cool and caring, it's a joy to see all the smiling faces and they treat me with so much respect they are great!!!

For anyone who is interested here is a list of my medications -
Estradiol Valerate 4mg, Cyproterone Acetate 100mg, Simvastatin 20mg, Citalopram 30mg, Amlodipine 10mg and Propranolol Hydrachloride up to 30mg when required

Torture Chamber called a Beauty Salon

This afternoon I had an hour of electroylis, by the wonderful Marny. Most saturdays I wind-up Marny that I walk in looking good and have to leave with a paperbag over my head, and that she must have an evil mind after doing this for 40 years!!! Well, today was pain free !!!!!!!!!!! Yippee, I nearly fell off the couch with that statement. We have been working on my chin area for ages and it is almost there now, she really went for it today as I wasn't feeling it, thus to say my chin looks like it has been punched a few times tonight. Perhaps I'm getting the mix of pain relief correct, at last, EMLA, paracetamol, and a couple of beta-blockers to keep me calm. Over the year I have tried a few things from being slightly merry with Jack Daniels, and different pain killers. It seems if I can stay calm and sleepy I can get away with a hour. My next torture chamber visit is in two weeks, I have had to cut back in October as I have a very big bill for my dying car to get repaired, so only three appointments with Marny, instead of every week. Yes the photo is of my chin, not my best angle, but gives you an idea of what has been achieved in 12 IPL and about 26 hours of electrolyis, I hadn't shaved for 5 days.

Girl In 14G

I love this clip, it goes to show never take for granted what you see or hear.

Speach Therapy

This morning I had an appointment with Moira for speach therapy at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. It was fun, she is very clever getting you talk away so you get relaxed and see where your voice is. She felt my voice is improving in female inflections and the pitch is up to a more ambiguous level. I was really pleased with this. We do some vocal exercises first and then focus on long passages to improve the voice. She also thought I was looking much more confident within myself, that was a great confidence booster. Although I think the two beta-blockers I took before hand really help to lower my aniexty. Very time Moira comments about how long my hair is, to me it looks like a blown out crows nest. I try my best to straighten it but it has a mind of it's own. My next appointment is the end of October, so I have my homework, to read aloud, and also get my sister to help me on that one.

It was funny coming home today, my next door neighbour entered the flats as I parked the car. When I got into the stairs her door was still open. My trying to be all dainty, made me miss a step and fall, and hurt my hand cushioning my overweight body frame. It's a good job I only type with two fingers.

One Year On HRT

Today is one complete year on HRT, yippee!!! It's been a great year on the whole, as the year went on I started to become relaxed, or perhaps just me. Suppose I just started to click, heehee, all the conflict started to go. The physical side has been quite amazing, I'm not going to go into detail, I will just say one part shrunk very quickly and two other parts are quite pert. My strength has certainly gone, I use to be called to help move items in the family, well I just can't do that anymore. Over the summer I helped move an old TV (not the kind of TV, a television) from my sisters, well I was exhausted and really struggled. It's nice being a woman, no more dirty jobs for me!!! The introduction of Spiro at easter has really helped with hair growth on my head, and has soften body hair, I now go the hairdressers every 8 weeks. Scary to think two years ago I use to shave my head, so I didn't get too hot when I wearing a wig, haven't worn a wig for over a year now. Facial hair removal, well it still goes on, I've had 12 sessions of Intense Pulse Light and about 25 hours of electrolysis, all am saying is both hurt real bad, but the results are good. IPL has certainly got rid of about 60% of the growth, and now my chin and lower lip is almost clear with electrolysis, I think doing the IPL first certainly will cut down the time spent, and is a cheaper way to do it in the long run.

So a good year all round I think, still a good few years to go, but I'm happy and doing things at my pace.

Friends Online

I've only started this blog three days ago, and I have made a friend already!!!!!!! It really gets to me how nice people are, you read and hear so much negativity about how people are, it's so uplifting. I set-up a facebook account a few months ago to keep in touch with my eldest nephew, and thought tonight, I've not been in there for a while, and saw a friend who has made friends with him. Thought to myself, I will message her, and wow a reply already.

I can see this all getting addictive, but in a good way. When I started transistioning I lost alot of friends, it was my decision. My thought process was, start again as Gayle, and I was drinking too much going out clubbing as well. There were other things as well, I was going to mainly gay clubs/pubs and, well, I didn't feel I fitted in. I was going as a male, who is only interested in women, now I'm a transsexual and still only interested in women, but all the attention you get in either situation is attention from guys!!!!!!!DUH!!! Over the next few weeks I'm going to start going to an off scene gay bar and see what comes, if anything it will boost my confidence in just getting out and about. It also has WI-FI so a nice glass of vino and surfing could be fun as well. Yes, I will keep you up to date with what happens.

ITV - This Morning

As I'm a late riser in the mornings, the joy of morning television is my entertainment. In the newspapers this weekend have been articles about two boys ages 9 & 12 returning to school as girls. The press on the whole have been pretty negative about it all. But the "This Morning" show is usually caring in the dealing with transgender issues, but they failed today. The main problem was their transgendered guest Lauren Harris, who was totally concerned in her own agenda, and really couldn't answer any questions in a mature, constructive way. She pulled the Doctor up for saying "I work with trans people", which to me covers all spectrums of transgender people, her recommendation was we are "trans women, not people". At the end she was promoting her own stage show, and the interview was cut short. I felt very sorry for the two presenters and the doctor, as no quality information was given to the viewing public, and it only succeeded in making transgendered people look silly and eccentric. When Lauren was male she was the painful and annouying 10 year old antiques expert called James Harris, all I can say is she certainly hasn't matured or mastered how to convey herself on television.



That's the end of my little rant, sorry, it just really annouyed me all day.

Other things today, it looks like my car is over-heating again!!!! So, a trip to the garage is happening tomorrow morning. The car is so important to me, and I have 3 appointments in the week I need it for. On the plus side I get to visit my parents tomorrow, the garage is close to their house, so hopefully a nice lunch. Tonight I was in the local shop, it's owned by a family and I hadn't seen the mother of the family for ages, and she made my heart skip, she said "You've lost a lot of weight!" I could have kissed her.

Gayle

A little bit about me

Well, where do we start?
Birth - Yes I was born. And I was a little boy! Nobody knew I was meant to be a girl.
Over the past 2 years I have come to accept that I am transsexual. Last September I started hormone therapy, and well, so far i am very happy with the results. What you see in my picture is all real and what you get. At the moment I don't go out much as I still feel I don't pass very well, but it's getting easier. It seems I have quite bad anxiety problems, which are being dealt with. Transistion certainly doesn't fix all lives problems, but it sure does help. If you start to feel comfortable in your skin and mind, well you gain the strength to tackle the rest of your problems.

Over the past 2 years I dread to think the amount of therapy, GP, hospital, IPL, electroyisis and speach therapy appointments I have been to. It has been quite amazing, I never had to use Outlook Calender, now I have reminders popping up every few days it seems. My GP has been so very surportive, she is really my rock in this journey, even though I failed quitting smoking. As my sister's partner said "Hey, you deserve to smoke with what your going through!"

My family are all very surportive of me and help me when I ask, although I do hate asking for help. I really must more often.

I will add more when things come to me.

The start of blogging

Hi !!!

I'm starting the venture of blogging, don't really know what to say just now. Will add some stuff about myself when I learn how to use the blog.

Gayle