ᶦ ˡᶦᵏᵉ ᵇᵘᵍˢ

hey elliot! this is a surgery question, so please take all the time you need to reply. you've mentioned you had top surgery before, and i was wondering what it was like accessing that kind of care as a little person? was it challenging finding a surgeon willing to work with you? what sort of considerations were needed for your surgery and recovery, if any? i was also curious if you had used a binder before surgery, and how you found it? i have a hard enough time donning and doffing mine with long arms, so i'd imagine it could be quite challenging for you, but maybe you found ways around it! thank you for all your hard work and patience in educating folks. wishing you bountiful spoons and lots of restful, easy days 💚

Hello! Thank you so much for your patience, I did indeed take some time to process this - I'm more than happy to answer questions related to surgery on here, as it's such a large part of my experience as a little person, but I may indeed take some time to respond as I have medical CPTSD.

Anyhoo lol Yes! I have had top surgery, and my dwarfism did effect how I accessed that care:

Because I'm at risk for spinal injury, my surgery was done at a hospital rather than an outpatient centre where most top surgery is conducted (I needed to be kept overnight for monitoring while most top surgery patients leave day-of)

Like for all my surgeries, my sleep apnea and oxygen levels needed to be monitored

But unlike my many other surgeries, this particular hospital (which will remain nameless for my own security) was incredibly inaccessible despite it being obviously well funded. No stools to be found, the wheelchairs were so high and designed with an almost bike-like frame that I needed to be liften in and out of them, and the staff was unfriendly and ableist.

My surgeon was picked for her experience with little people rather than her experience with top surgery. (I ended up unhappy with my results because my surgeon was more familiar with breast reductions and didn't follow through with my wishes. My top surgery was actually the worst surgery experience I've had - I was repeatedly dead-named by members of the hospital, overdosed on anaesthesia, and my surgeon had a terrible bedside manner)

But my touch up surgeon was my first choice! Dr. Armstrong at McLean Clinic did a fantastic job straightening my scars and removing my nipples (which I had hesitated on for the first surgery but firmed up for the second. I love having no nipples!)

Image description: a photo of my torso and lower face, displaying my healed top surgery results. Two wavy pink scars line the bottom of my pecks, and I have no nipples. With one hand on my hip and the other on my upper chest, you can see my tarot "the fool" tattoo, my kissing crows, and my sailor mercury star. On my right hand I wear a red glass ring to honor my deity Hestia. I have pail skin, a short brown beard, green curly hair and a gold vertical medusa piercing.

Post-op care was understandably different for me. Since my arms are already short and locked, the limit to my range of arm motion affected me even more. I needed even more help with care tasks than that of an average height/able bodied patient. I was lucky to several loved ones around to help :) Though compared to other surgeries, I was happy that I was able to walk and be more independent for the most part.

I also just want to add: something I see a lot on social media is trans and nonbinary folks seemingly bouncing back from surgery effortlessly. We see them at the beach, posting photos, and it gives the illusion that top/gender affirming surgery isn't the painful, emotional, difficult thing that it is. IT'S OKAY IF YOU DON'T FEEL QUEER JOY IMMEDIATELY AFTER SURGERY!! It takes a while to heal and bounce back because it is a lot on your body! Take your time, and give your body the love and care it needs!

Anyway I hope this all was helpful/educational - and I wish all my queer, trans, and otherwise gender diverse followers a lovely day!!

Ok y’all, I need you to drop links for free binder services. It’s November which means that parents won’t think it’s odd for their children to request that they not inspect packages. They’ll simply assume it’s a present for whatever holiday they observe. So please do your part by dropping links in the reblogs and trying to get this seen by those who need it

edit: I’m not going to guilt you into reblogging, because that might not be safe for you for whatever reason, but if it is possible, it would be greatly appreciated if you could reblog instead of/as well as liking. Reblogging ensures that more people see this, and the more people who see it the greater possibility for good.

edit 2: ok @the-maddened-hatter made a master list of what’s been added so far

You can tell if someone's actually pro intersex liberation by seeing their reaction to the phrase "abolish the sex binary" Yes I said sex. Like biological sex. It's not binary.

Thinking trans men aren't real men because they can have a period is such a stupid take.

You literally can't spell menstruation without trans men.

MENSTRUATION

reminder that cis people can use whatever pronouns they want. a cis person changing their pronouns does not inherently make them trans, they are allowed to express themselves through whatever pronouns they believe suits them best, just as much as any trans person. this of course includes cis intersex people. the freedom to use whatever pronouns you like the best is for everyone

I hate the type of moderate leftist/queer/whatever who will see the fucked up shit going on in the world and be like 'oh no this is horrible. I wish someone could do something about it' and then continue to mope around. Like yeah someone CAN do something about it. EVERYONE can. You can fight against any stage of oppression and we can fucking win, there's more of us then there are of them. Violent revolution is always an option. There is no point, nor will there ever be a point, where things are hopeless. If you can recognize that something is wrong, it's your responsibility to fight as much as you can. I'm a neurodivergent kid with a controlling family and I'm not even old enough to have a driver's license and I am still going to make things better and I can still fight. Always assuming that someone else will do something to better your life is literally exactly why we haven't won yet, don't let the inertia get you

fucking this, all of this. ANYONE can take action, anyone at all. If you think there's no point, or you're caught in apathy, follow this page, and get angry!

stand up punks!!!

[and sorry OP that i didn't post your ask for so long I accidentally saved to queue]