The COVID-19 Wrench – Surgery Postponed

Like many other transgender people, the COVID-19 pandemic threw a wrench into my surgery plans. As I watched the crisis unfold in the days leading up to my surgery, I kept telling my fiance, “I won’t feel better until I get on the plane.”

The morning, of March 16th, we checked into our flights and I went to work. That morning, at work I got a call from the anesthesiologist asking routine questions related to surgery. When I mentioned the possibility of cancellation, she said they were doing their best to go forward given the directives in place at that time.

I went on about my day trying to finish everything I could before preparing to go on leave for surgery. News started coming in that the mayor of San Francisco was calling for a stay at home mandate to try and stem the spread of the virus. Sure enough, at around 330PM, a call popped up with the San Francisco area code. My gut sank. Dr. Safir’s physician’s assistant was on the other line telling me mine and all other surgeries were postponed.

Obviously I was gutted and frustrated, but by that point, I wasn’t necessarily surprised. Thankfully, I was able to get full refunds on all of my travel plans because at this point, companies knew that this was out of their customer’s control.

The real question that is on mine and every other trans person’s mind who was scheduled for surgery is how long will this go on before surgeries can be rescheduled?

While we’re all dealing with the stress and emotions that come from this situation, the COVID-19 pandemic has thrown a bigger wrench in my particular surgical journey because I am paying for COBRA insurance so I could have this surgery in the first place. You can read more about that here.

These are uncertain times, and hopefully I will be able to get some answers in the current week from the practice.