Friday February 16th 2018
This would be the second consult I would have for top surgery. The first one was a play it by ear and put it in God's hands if it went through or not. Basically with my insurance being who it was, I had limited doctors at my fingertips and made the best choice I could make. However I wasn't that confident that the doctor could do the job so I am actually glad it turned out to be denied. Anyway, this time though I had found the doctor through a site http://www.topsurgery.net/states/texas.htm. I looked as much up about her as I could before even scheduling a consult with her. Yes, a female doctor is who I went with. I wanted one that was close to home and though I already knew my insurance wouldn't cover it, I decided to just go in with a it if is meant to be it'll be attitude. I was in the process of getting a loan to pay for the top surgery, however I still had to figure out for sure what doctor I would be using.
After a couple weeks of emailing the receptionist about payment plans and ending up just saying fuck it, I made the appointment with Dr. Rukmini (Vinaya) Rednam, MD. Her office was close to home being in the Woodlands area so I really liked that. She also has her own separate office off the Katy Freeway down in Houston where she shares a surgical room with other board certified doctors. The office itself was clean and looked fancy when you walked in. Instantly greeted by the receptionist Megan who gave me an iPad to fill out my information in. Once that was done I waited for the room to open up. My appointment was for 1130 am, I went back into the back from at 1135. The room was beautiful with windows on both sides, which the nurse made sure to tell me could only be seen out of and not into when the time came to actually take my top off. Dr. Rukmini was across the street at Memorial Herman checking on one of her other patients but her nurse said she would be right over. In the meantime she took my blood pressure and pulse and went over my information making sure it was correct. Of course the blood pressure was high, but she said I had something called White Coat Syndrome, which basically means I get nervous around doctors. Not a big shocker but made a lot of sense.
Finally Dr. Rednam came into the room with a big smile on her face, she shook my hand and said hello, even apologized for making me wait. She asked me to tell her about myself. Never being all that great at that question I asked what she wanted to know. So I told her the basics of where I came from and that I had been on Testosterone for 45 weeks. (One thing that really got me was that her sister was currently living in Michigan, since I am from there originally, and her scheduler was named Stephanie, which is my sisters name). Then the fun time came when she asked to see what she would be working with. Took off the shirt and stood there, she said where she would cut and that basically the fat (boobs) would just be thrown in the trash and my nipples would at one point be laying on the table next to me so she could cut them down to side. She also showed me where the new nipples would be placed and said if for any reason I didn't like the size she could always go back in and cut them down after 6 months for healing time. She also said there was programs that she offered to help lower the cost of the surgery. It was a fitness program that if you went to the gym for a month, three days a week all you had to do was tag her in the picture of you at the gyn and she would take off $500.
She gave me a chance to ask questions, which I didn't really have because she had answered anything I could think of. I left knowing that she would be the doctor to perform the surgery. And about two hours later Stephanie called to schedule it. The first date she gave me was March 16th. I told her I had to look at the funds, my work schedule and I would get back to her. To save the date would be $550. Twenty minutes later, I called her back and she told me that there was a sooner date of February 26th, a Monday. I instantly took it, put the $550 down and had my surgery date. Friday February 23rd would be my pre-op date and I would have to have blood work done by then, so after I got off the phone, I went to Kelsey Clinic and got my blood drawn.
Tomorrow is my Pre-Op for surgery. I already have work off until March 26th to allow one month of healing time, if more is needed I will just need another doctors note. I'll fill y'all in tomorrow after the doctors appointment.
