Atypical Transgender Late Bloomer

I checked into a hospital in the South for a full knee replacement. It was a well run facility with a good reputation. They asked me about my gender identification. I said, genderqueer. I have not wanted to mess up my medical records with multiple name fields. Someday, I'll do them all at once. They did ask the Depression/ Suicide protocol questions. I told them the truth. Yes, I think about suicide. Yes, every day. No, I don't have a date or method in mind. Yes, I have a weapon in my home. Man, they did not like that. I think they were more worried about their institution than about me. I get that, but: don't ask the question if you don't want the answer. They wanted to assign a person as my suicide watch. I really objected to that as intrusive. In the end, they blinked. I told them, nobody whose about to kill themselves puts up with a knee replacement. It's a lot of short-term pain for long-term gain. That's not suicide thinking. I realised that telling ...

I had the occasion to spend two days in a Brooklyn, NY emergency room with my daughter who had mono. Then she spent a few days on a hospital ward. I was very impressed at the quality of care. Various doctors, each with different specialties, came and checked her out and ordered lab tests within their expertise. Two ER physicians, a cardiologist, an epidemiologist, etc. Although the shifts and names changed, they were always checking my adult daughter (24yo) out. I was apprehensive at being in an emergency room on a Friday night. When I was a kid in Brooklyn, ERs were dangerous places to be. People got stabbed in ER waiting rooms. Patients got into conflict with each other. This was a completely different experience. People were civil. One man, sitting with a patient, got into a loud badgering argument with the patient he was supposed to be supporting. Staff took him out of there. It was crowded with beds and patients filling every space. But it went just like it was supposed to. ...