I decided I would make this page and keep it updated until I was out of Montreal, hopefully others can benefit from my experiences.
I am the second person my psychiatrist referred to Montreal, so she was still figuring things out. After my referral was sent I called Montreal and asked if they had everything. There answer was no, they still needed this other thing then they would have everything. That got in and I called and asked if they had everything their answer was no, they still needed this other thing then they would have everything. I got that to them then I called and asked again their answer was no, they still needed stuff from my endo so I got that to them. I called them up and asked this time they said yes.
Several months went by then on the day before the September long I got a phone call booking my first phone interview, that was the longest long weekend ever. After my phone interview I was told they where waiting on more information from my psychiatrist and Sask health. I called up my psychiatrists office knowing full well she was on mat leave but left a message.
Then I called up Sask Health finding out what was holding them up. They to needed more info from my psychiatrist, and Montreal. So that was fun.
My psychiatrists social worker got back to me asking what Montreal and what Sask Health needed. All I knew was they needed more information as neither agency would expand on what they needed to me. After a week or two I got the information from the psychiatrist sent to the two agencies, but Montreal was still waiting on information from Sask Health and Sask Health was still waiting on information from Montreal and neither agency would tell me what they where waiting for.
After about a week of me being frustrated as all h e double hockey sticks I get an email saying my file was moved to the medical team. I tried calling the new person in charge of my file, more than once cause you know anxiety and the such, no answer. I called Sask Health and asked a person who looked at my file, where it was at I was told that the letter was just mailed and that they could not tell me what it said over the phone. On a scale from 1 to 10 my anxiety was well over 12. The weekend happened and I tried making contact again on Monday, no luck. On the Tuesday I got a phone call that I can recite the first half by memory booking me a time, the second half I was so euphoric and I was in tears.
I was sitting playing a game on my iPad when the phone rang, I looked at it and it said it was Montreal. My first thought was, F word what are they going to tell me I need now? I picked up the phone and did my Hello Bonjour answer, being a public service worker that is how I answer the phone to numbers out side of Saskatchewan, in Saskatchewan I throw in a Tansi (Cree for greetings). The person says “Hello is Reann Legge there?” “That’s me!” The person on the other line says “ok I am … from GRS Montreal, and we are booking for the mornings of January 14, 15, or 16th when would you like to come?” I replied with “Well let me check my calendar,” looking back I think it is funny I needed to check my Calendar. I get to January and I am starting to cry, and I said the 14th. I am just crying as she starts saying other things, I apologize for my crying but she was completely understanding as it has happened before. All of my information was there Sask Health was covering me I was so happy. I wanted to scream from the roof tops, being scared of falling off roofs I kept to my blog and the book of faces.
I was posting on Facebook; I really do not like the term Gender Reassignment Surgery or Gender Affirming Surgery, as I do not need surgery to know that I am a female. I really do not like Sexual Reassignment Surgery as our sex is in our genes not our jeans. I saw Genital Reconstructive Surgery once and I liked that. When I was posting all over Facebook I was in such an euphoric state, I could not remember what the R stood for in the GRS term I liked so I called it Genital Remodelling!
I got my plane flights and hotel stuff figured out and wow the euphoria. I got my blood work done, wow the euphoria. I got all of the documentation together to send in my blood work and travel stuff. I emailed it in but the email got bounced so I asked all the wonderful people on a Facebook group I belong to and got some additional emails to send it in but I also faxed it in.
All of this waiting though is an extreme test of my anxiety. If it was a 12 the weekend before the scheduling it has been fluctuating between a 7 and 9 sense then, and wow is it ever freakin draining.
Reann’s Story 