Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Discrimination in Dallas

This past week has been like a roller coaster ride!  I went through a major cancer scare and subsequent surgery on 12/4/12 which put those fears to rest. Through all of that rough ride, my close friend Tegan Marie Smith has been so supportive!  Her late wife Margaret had the same kind of cancer that I thought that I might have and died from it 4 years ago.  Tegan was so informative and such a rock for me during that scary time!  I finally had the chance to meet her in person last week!  She flew into town to visit with her son and daughter-in-law, whom she hasn't seen in a good while. They had a wonderful time!  Her and I had lunch at the Macaroni Grill near Love Field Airport and had a great visit all day long!  I got to see her again on Monday for breakfast and a brief visit before she went to the airport for her flight home to Atlanta. Here's a picture of her and I having Lunch at the Macaroni Grill:

Tegs and I at the Macaroni Grill on 12/7/12

Later on that day she messaged me from the airport to say that her flight was delayed.  When I didn't hear back from her several hours later I began to get pretty worried.  Finally, several hours later I was shocked to read her post that she had been arrested at the airport!  I couldn't believe it!

She said that her plane had been delayed and she and a few people went into the bar that was near the gate and had a couple of beers to wait for the flight to arrive.  When the plane arrived, they all lined up to get on and she boarded the plane and sat down.  She said that a gate person came in and sat behind her and said that she needed to come with her, so Tegan got up and followed her out of the plane.  When she got outside of the plane there were several Dallas Police Officers waiting to arrest and handcuff her!

I'm not going to provide any of the detail that she told me due to what I hope will be an impending lawsuit against the airline and police.  All I will say is that they had no grounds to arrest her and that she was profiled and harassed from the beginning because she is a transwoman. 

They handcuffed her and took her back to the police station, where they harassed her for several hours.  Then they released her without charges.  They put her into a cab to the nearest hotel, which cost her over $200.00 for the night.

I cannot believe how terrible she was treated here in Dallas!  She is such a kind and nice person and does not deserve this kind of treatment!  I hope that the people who abused her receive their just comeuppance!  She is understandably traumatized by the whole thing!  I know that she is strong and will be able to rise above this quickly and gain justice for the terrible deeds done against her!


 

Monday, December 10, 2012

Happy Tuesday

This post is a sequel to my last two posts. To make a long story short, I had to have a complete Hysterectomy on Tuesday, December 4th at Medical City Dallas Hospital.  The surgery was scheduled for 4 PM and was to be performed with a DaVinci Robot unless any pathology was noted.  If pathology was noted, a full laparotomy would be done to check surrounding organs and take biopsies. So going into the surgery I didn't know if I was going to wake up hearing if I had cancer or not.  It was not a good feeling!

So I checked into the hospital at 2:30 PM and it ended up that my surgery got postponed until 7:00 PM because there was another doctor still using the DaVinci Robot.  This didn't help my nerves any and to top it off, the Anesthesiologist told me that my EKG was abnormal, which freaked me out!  The EKG Tech retook it twice and it was perfect, so there was a lead not placed in the right place on the first test.

At 6:00 PM someone finally came and took me up to OR Staging Area so that they could get my IV in and I could sign all of the scary papers acknowledging everything that could go wrong during surgery.  The Anesthesiologist then put the "I don't care" shot into my IV and that was all I can remember until I woke up in my hospital room several hours later.

The first thing that I did was look at the spot right underneath my breast bone to see if it had a vertical cut on it.  I was so happy to see that there was no cut!!!  This meant that the surgery was conducted with the DaVinci Robot and that no pathology was found!  The doctor confirmed that they found no cancer and everything went well!  This was the best result that I could have hoped for!

Thank God that things turned out the way that they did!  I also want to thank my family and some special friends for their support during this trying time!  I especially thank my daughter Nicole and my dear friend Tegan Marie Smith, who were so supportive to me during the dark hours I had before the surgery.





Tuesday, December 4, 2012

An Angel to Watch Over Me

This post is a sequel to my last one named "Alive and Kicking".  I sit here this morning in anticipation of undergoing a full hysterectomy at 4:00 PM today.  The procedure will be done using a DaVinci robot and is scheduled for 2-1/2 hours.  If any pathology is discovered,  I will have to undergo a full laparotomy where the doctor will examine my other abdominal organs and take biopsies.

I pray to God that they don't find any pathology and that I'll be done in less than 2-1/2 hours!  I want to stay my requisite night in the hospital and go home!  I want to go on my cruise to the Panama Canal on the 19th of this month!   I want to be healthy and be here for my family and friends!

I woke up this morning and found a sweet note from my daughter and a note and picture of a beautiful angel from Tegs on my Facebook wall.  I saw this as a sign that there will be angels watching over me and everything will be okay!  Here is the angel picture that was on my wall this morning:

Teg's Angel

I pray that God and his angels will watch over me today and keep me safe!  I also pray for anybody else undergoing surgery at this time as well.