Thread Drift

[Trek420]

Nanci "It seems to me that, if you had to pick one or the other, whichever surgery was more likely to be successful/natural/functional would be the best."

ahhh gender issues, it's complex but not the same as "well it would be easier to die your hair red than to go blonde"

While I have no gender issues myself, I enjoy being a girl (everybody sing!) but I understand that for those who do it's something they know and very young and just kinda know in their bones. Anybody see Tales of the City? thinking of the Olympia Dukakis carachter.

"It also seems like way too much responsibility for a kid to have to choose!"

Usually quite young the kid is just going to know. And if assigned the "wrong" gender because it was easier to do it's very tough on the kid and throughout their life.

I can imagine, I like guys, really I do but I would not want to be one....except when out on a ride and nowhere near a porta pottie, bathroom or any civilisation it would be nice to just be able to find a tree.

Other than that, would not want to be a guy. ::: sings::: I enjoy being a girl.

But OMG, I don't care what Jamie Lee Curtis genetic makeup is she is soooo hot.

Speaking of hot, temps are high here, but going to bike to work.

Nanci, that is so cool that you can help these kids. If you are sucessful where other places these kids die, why don't more Dr's and hospitals don't know about your success rate and get these cases to you?

Oh never mind, probably all insurance/money.

[Nanci]

It's when the child has the urethra, vagina and rectum all meeting together with only one external opening.

Mmm, port. I like the Florida native-grape port a lot, and am hoarding a bottle of "real" port that I bought at a wine tasting.

[DrBee]

Yup - that would be a cloaca. I don't think I've heard of that in humans. That's great that your hospital can help babies/kids in need with nowhere else to go! That must be a good feeling to work there!

[Nanci]

This is one of my all-time favorite books on CD: http://tinyurl.com/mxzmb

Trans-Sister Radio.

The bestselling author of Midwives and The Law of Similars continues his tradition of incorporating social issues into his moving narratives. Transsexuality goes mainstream in this Scarlet Letter for a softer, gentler but more complicated age. Allison Banks--42 years old, heterosexual, long divorced, mother of a college student and a grade school teacher in a picturesque Vermont village--meets single, attractive, attentive, 35-year-old Dana Stevens when she takes his film class at a nearby college. Early on in the relationship, Dana confesses that he has always believed he was female, though he desires women, too--and he is soon to undergo a long-planned sex change operation. Despite this revelation, and despite her reservations, Allison invites Dana to move in with her, and they have great sex right up until the night before the operation in Colorado, where Allison has loyally accompanied Dana for post-op and moral support. On their return to Vermont, he--now physically and emphatically "she"--continues to share Allison's bed and her house, though nothing can be the same as it was. Allison's ex-husband, Vermont Public Radio president Will, now her good friend, and their daughter, Carly, cope well with the situation, but the close-knit community is less understanding. Questions of what constitutes community tolerance are explored here, but the novel's central focus is on the definition of sex and gender in the characters' personal lives. Allison, Dana, Carly and Will express their views in alternating first person chapters, and transcripts from a fictional NPR All Things Considered series on Dana and her operation provide additional narrative background. Gender is central to who we are, Bohjalian concludes, but not perhaps to who we love. Sex, on the other hand, expresses who we are. Bohjalian's sometimes simplistic characterizations diminish the emotional impact of the novel, and his abundant research on gender dysfunction often gives the book a curiously flat, documentary quality. Nevertheless, Bohjalian humanizes the transsexual community and explains the complexities of sex and gender in an accessible, evenhanded fashion, making a valuable contribution to a dialogue of social and political import.

[Lise]

Gender is central to who we are, Bohjalian concludes, but not perhaps to who we love. Sex, on the other hand, expresses who we are.

Indeed.

And where else, but "Thread Drift", would you post that on a cycling board? Long live TE/TD!

[Nanci]

Have you read the book "Midwives?" That was the first Bohjalian book I read.

Nanci

[Grog]

You know what this thread is kind of like, remember the eagle babies :-( On that forum, there was a thread called Egg Turning Frequency, which if you weren't familiar with the forum, wouldn't think was important, but it was the first place all the eagle-watchers checked in, and got to know each other, and talked about everything. It was _huge_.

Funny thing is, last time I checked, they still were using this thread title for their own "thread drift", which is funny because the eggs are... well, not eggs anymore. (Quite a bit of jumping around yesterday, by the way...)

[Trek420]

I missed the eggs not being eggs anymore. Why would eagle-dad do that?

Long live TE/TD, chocolate, wine and living through Lises date life (well actually hope you meet someone and no longer date....'cept for date-nite).

[Nanci]

Well, the eggs were apparently not fertile, so were rotting the whole time, and one morning one was broken, and in the dark you could see mom disposing of it, then, a few days later, dad was sitting on the remaining egg, and stood up, and moved it around, and it broke. He sat back on it a few times, but eventually mom came back, and they both knew it was not right, and threw the bits out of the nest. Dad, in particular, looked so (yes, anthropomorphic) heartbroken when he realized it was over.

There are tribute videos/slideshows- heart-wrenching. Also Sound Guy's story.

Nanci

[Nanci]

But then they moved the camera to a new nest and all was well after everyone got adjusted to the new babies.

[KnottedYet]

Google failure....

Boy, I think I'd suck as a librarian when I can't even find what I'm looking for on Google. I found a ton of blogs, referring to her telivised interview about being intersex (but no links to the interview) and her address to congress (but no links to THAT) but none to the article in Newsweek or Time or whatever about intersex kids that I read which first pointed her out to me.

I don't think she addresses it in her kids books about adoption (she and Christopher Guest adopted their kids, obviously) and I don't know if she's ever written about it. Just interviews.

There are also some pretty funny comments about snopes.com claiming she's an urban legend... don't believe everything you read on the internet!

I'm gonna try one more time, but then I've gotta get ready for work.

[Nanci]

I thought Snopes said her parents refused to comment.

[Nanci]

Yikes! My last patient was a 23-weeker born June 22! What a puny little thing! Cystoconray enema caused expulsion of a meconium plug a good 8-10 inches long! I bet he feels better now!

My co-worker is taking home a couple of his left-behind diapers for her daughter's baby doll, but is afraid they are way too small.

I can't believe how easily the nurses handle those tiny babies- I'd be so nervous.

Nanci

[KnottedYet]

I'm going nuts trying to find this! It wasn't her parents who commented, it was her. (as an adult, and in the last few years) I didn't see the video of her address to congress, but they showed a picture of her at the podium, and remarked on how shocked the politician were.

Dang, dang, dang!

[Lise]

Yikes! My last patient was a 23-weeker born June 22! What a puny little thing! Cystoconray enema caused expulsion of a meconium plug a good 8-10 inches long! I bet he feels better now!
Nanci

Dang, that's young. When I started in nursing, 18 years ago, we didn't consider 23 weekers viable. 8-10" meconium, the kid can't be much longer than that himself! Poor little boo-boo. He's got a long road ahead of him.

By contrast, I just delivered a 9# girl! More muscular than fat.

I did not read Midwives. It pisses me off when a work of fiction with a midwife character comes to represent all midwifery practice in the general public's mind (if such a thing can be said to exist). When that book was popular, I spent plenty of time explaining that, no, I don't do c-sections on the kitchen table (with a kitchen knife) in a blizzard when I think the patient is already dead. At the time, I was involved in a law suit (since resolved in our favor--ie, the judgement was that I did nothing wrong), and the thought of reading a fictionalized version made my skin crawl.

The most accurate fictional representation of hospital-based midwifery I've read is an older book called Delivery. A bit dramatic, but then, who would want to read about the time we spend sitting around at 2 AM eating junk food and commenting on Flava-Flav's outrageousness on TV? Sisters On A Journey is a collection of essays by midwives about their work. It's a good read, if you want to get a sense of the wide range within my profession.

I really feel for the little human beings with cloacas. Impressive that they can do intrauterine surgery to repair a diaphramatic hernia. Scary when they're born with an undiagnosed d.h. Everything shoved over to one side of the chest and can't expand the lungs. So far (knock wood), I've only seen one of those.