Best news of the week…

Got the blood test results today. Liver is back to normal, the kidney function test indicates a slight lowering, but something that the doctor and the nurse are not concerned about (figures are 84 down to 70 something if anyone knows what they are?).

The week has been rather good, The doctor had prescribed a estrogen patch to have in addition to the normal drugs last Friday and Ally and I have noticed the effects this week. I have been a good person again, no mood swings, no depression type symptoms, no upsets, just happy bouncy me again.

Back to the doctor…

I had to visit the doctor today to get a medical certificate signed so I could join the gym.

At the same time I let the doctor know that I had been having problems, personally and with Ally over the last few weeks, particularly since the drugs change, and that Ally had helped some of the problems by getting me to switch to taking them in the morning. The doctor seemed none to keen about changing anything, but decided to add a seven day patch in addition to the morning pills. He also took blood to see if the Liver damage is receding or progressing, only time will tell with that….

The law is an arse, well some of the time…

Well today I learned about what happened when I was at AusCERT and why everyone knew when I got back to the office. I had a great chat with a friend, whom I had not gotten to speak to since the conference.

Turns out after the management conference call, one of the managers pulled every member of his team into a room, and asked them if they had heard the rumors and would they have a problem if Matthew arrived at work on Monday morning in a skirt or a dress. I don’t know whether anyone answered yes, but no more was said on the subject of me, nor what was happening in my life (no doubt for privacy reasons). For those, who hadn’t heard this was quite confusing for them and they had no idea what it was all about.

Fortunately I had already spoken to one of the members of staff and he passed the URL of this blog to those who asked questions, and they understood.

So looking back because of privacy law, the manager wasn’t able to tell anyone what I was doing (or even point people at my public pages telling them what’s happening). However, because of anti discrimination law and the need for diversity in the work place, they had to ask people if they would have a problem with Matthew turning up to work in a dress. Leaving people to thing I would be turning up in drag (ie a transvestite not a transgender person). How stupid are those laws when applied together?!?

# In the Navy! # (Well the army).

Today I got a surprise, one of the people that I thought would not take the news of my transformation well, approached me and said it was such a shame that I had made the blog private. Why did I think he wouldn’t take the news well? Well he was in the Australian Army (not the Navy :-)) and held rank (though I don’t know what), and I know he still has a lot to do with the army and I think he’s still a reservist. I don’t know what it is, but I thought he would be the straight man and not deal with it. Interestingly, he commented on that’s what most people would think, but referred me to a story about an army colleague that had a full sex change whilst in the army and was able to continue on active duty.

Any way, back to the story, I was astonished, and asked, “you read the blog?”

He replied, “yes, it’s quite funny, I never knew you had a sense of humor like that.”

Seems he was one of the avid readers who was disappointed when the blog was made registered users only. It seems he thought that he didn’t fit into “friends and family”. I said, “don’t be stupid, you’re a friend aren’t you? Just register and I’ll add you, the registration is so that Joe Random on the Internet can’t see what’s going on in our (mostly) private lives.”

Jumping the gun… Maybe…

Ally and I have had some terse emails and a long talk again, and both have agreed we need to talk more. Ally, I feel, is still having trouble accepting and she has indicated that she will never accept until she understands. This sounds very much like another, and I have asked her to accept me as me until she can understand it.

We are still together, though I don’t know how long for. I’m hoping that the latest round of talking will kick off more talking about things and that will lead to a better life for the both of us, together.

Today I (as Matthew) straightened my hair as best I could in the shortest possible time, two goals in my mind. First I want to be able to straighten my hair myself, and second, I want to be able to do it regularly so I can’t be taking 60 minutes or more. I did what I think was a reasonable job within 15 minutes, and whilst my hair was not Michelle straight it was tidy and nice, I was pleased.

Ally was not too happy when I met her, though she did seem to accept it a little more when I pointed out that it was not completely straight and my goal was only to look tidy/good, not to have Michelle’s hair style.

I’m hoping that I can keep it tidier for work over the coming weeks as it’s at that length where left to it’s own devices it’s an unruly mess. Straightened it is manageable for most of the day, and it will make colleagues at work a little happier about me going to see clients.