My Sad Story Continued.

I remember the last week of August of 2005. The weather here in Walla Walla was wonderful. Things where cooling down after what seemed like a long and lazy summer and I was particularly excited about preparing to travel down to Scotsdale, Arizonia for sex reassignment surgery with Dr. Toby Meltzer. It had been a long two year process involving monthly visits to my doctor, the taking of many drugs and a whole host of psychiatric evaluations by two seperate psychiatrists and one clinical psychologist. After all the tests and evaluations, after all the drugs and blood work, I was finally ready for the surgery.
At the time, I had no real idea about the tragedy that was unfolding in New Orleans. Like most folks, I had been watching the news and reading the reports about hurricane Katrina and its plotted path toward the city. But at the time, none of it really seemed to register. I was so focused on my surgery and the whole process of sex reassignement, everything else seemed like a dream. The reports of pending doom and the call for the evacuation of the city, all seemed like something that had no real relationship with what I was going through. If someone had told me at the time, the impact hurricane Katrina was going to have on me, I would have simply laughed at them. Afterall, I was living safely in Washington State. I had a good job and many close and wonderful friends. Never in even my dreams could I have possibly imagined what was really about to happen: the long conversations with a doctor who, at the time, I did not even know, the words of support and comfort, the please dont worries God loves you very much and everything will be alright, the endless crying, the multiple attempts at suicide and the rushed visits to the emergency room at Saint Mary Medical Center and the nights spent in ICU and above all else, the lonely nightmares. If someone had stepped out of the shadows and told me these things, I simply would have laughed. Afterall, I was safe in Walla Walla. Or was I really!!