Grace Anne Stevens: Maybe, Just Maybe, Change is Happening

By Grace Anne Stevens

A few weeks ago, I had one of those head colds that just would not seem to go away.  I was congested and had a sore throat that had some ebb and flow to it.   I thought I was getting better and then…  my face turned a shade of red that would have made Santa a bit envious.

After a few days, I made my way to the ER and was admitted with an infection called Cellulitis.  Although I had never heard of this before, I quickly learned that this is a staph infection and required IV antibiotics.

Over the past decade since I transitioned genders there have been a few times I visited and ER and each time there was an interesting discussion about my being transgender.  However, this time it was different.   Being. trans was just another and what appeared to be an uninteresting piece of data for all of the doctors, nurses and helpers in the ER and the hospital.   “WOW!,” I thought, being trans is no longer that big of a deal.   Apparently, I was just another sick patient.   Somehow this felt pretty good.

I was admitted into the hospital and spent three nights with ultimately about 75 hour of IV antibiotics being pumped into me.   I had blood taken from me each day and blood thinners injected into me.  Being in the hospital seems like a constant exchange of bodily fluids.  I even had an MRI of my head to check to see if there was any infection hiding behind my eye – which was swollen shut.   Happily nothing was found, as the antibiotics were very effective.

Although always having my own awareness of being trans and wondering what the nurses and aids would be thinking of having a patient like me, after talking to a number of them, I learned that the discussion on the floor was not about my being trans but rather that no one could believe that I was actually 71 years old.  As different people came in this was a more consistent discussion with my being trans actually never came up.

So, I got better, my red face healed, and I was the 71-year-old female patient who most people thought I was close to 20 years younger.

Pretty sure that this helped my healing, lol, and a good sign that the times may well be a-changing.

Grace Stevens is a speaker and author.  Her latest book is Handbooks for Humans, Volume 1, Learn to Manage Your Attitudes in All Your Relationships