Part 2: Pre-surgery
Everyone referred for top surgery from the Sandyford gets seen in Manchester by Miss Dabritz’s team. I got a letter confirming my first appointment with her would be in March 2017. It was my extreme bad luck that my appointment happened to fall on the day that Storm Doris was causing havoc with public transport up and down the country, and my train to Manchester ended up being held in Lockerbie station for two hours due to flooding.
I called Miss Dabritz’ secretary in a panic, and she told me that if I could manage get to the clinic by the end of the day, I could still be seen. I arrived at my appointment four hours late, soaked to the bone and stressed out of my mind, but in time to have a rushed version of my initial appointment. In this appointment Miss Dabritz introduced herself, I gave her a short version of my gender history, and she had a look at my chest.
She went through the various techniques that she used, and told me that I was on the cusp of being eligible for peri-areola surgery, but that the result might not be totally flat, so it was my choice if I preferred that or the bilateral mastectomy. To my surprise, she also was very interested in what I wanted from my chest as a non-binary person, in terms of nipple and scar placement, or if I wanted nipples at all. She came across as extremely open-minded and open to collaboration on finding the right solution for me as an individual. I was told that I would get a letter for a follow-up appointment, in which I would tell her exactly what I wanted for my chest, and I would have a pre-op. At the end of the appointment I was directed towards the medical photography building to have ‘before’ photos taken.
Two months later I had a thankfully much less eventful trip back down to Manchester for my second appointment. Miss Dabritz’ clinic is held in the general ‘breast clinic’, but all the top surgery patients are scheduled at the same time so it feels pretty friendly, and I got chatting to a couple of guys, one of whom had also come down from Glasgow.
In this appointment, I told Miss Dabritz that I had decided on bilateral mastectomy with no nipples, because I felt that that would best fit with my desire for a flat, gender neutral chest. She took this in her stride and commented that I would be her first top surgery sans nipples. She also said that it would make the operation quicker and easier, and that if I decided I fancied the look of nipples later medical tattoos were available. We talked about surgery dates and agreed on one for mid-July, and made a follow up appointment for that at the same time. Miss Dabritz said that she would try and get me an individual room in the hospital, but that it might not be possible, and asked which gender of ward I would prefer to be on if necessary. I said that I would prefer the female ward to the male.
After that I saw the nurse practitioner, who talked me through some of the practicalities of the surgery. She explained that I would have drains in after surgery, and they would take them out before I left Manchester, and described the various complications that were possible and how I should deal with them if they occurred. She also showed me a photo of one of Miss Dabritz’s top surgery results. I got a host of pamphlets about breast surgery and anaesthesia and other things which I’m sure would have been very useful if I hadn’t lost them as soon as I got back home.
Then it was straight on to the pre-op, which took place in a different part of the hospital that I would never have been able to find without help. I was weighed, measured, had blood taken, gave a urine sample and had mrsa swabs taken.
I also had a phone appointment a couple of weeks later with a clinical psychologist. He didn’t go into any gender stuff, but basically just seemed to be double-checking that I was in a stable enough mental state to undergo the surgery and recovery process.
