<p>Sending you a hug and a happy Metamorphosis Day.</p>
<p>Regarding burned-out-ness… could you possibly take a small sabbatical? I know many people who have done that and come back refreshed and with new career goals formed.</p>
<p>And congratulations on successful completion of a VERY difficult year!</p>
<p>I will echo NSM: Happy Metamorphosis Day, and thank you for being willing to share your journey with us. You’re an inspiration.</p>
<p>I’ll echo NSM too, so “Happy Metamorphosis Day!”</p>
<p>Thank you, Donna, for taking the time to tell this community that we were of some help.</p>
<p>Blessings.</p>
<p>Has it been a year already?:eek: Time does indeed fly. Happy Metamorphosis, Donna. BTW, have you ever considered writing your memoirs?</p>
<p>Happy anniversary (rebirth?) and my best to you.</p>
<p>I second the idea of the memoir. Happy Renaissance and lots of love.</p>
<p>happy metamorphosis, just met with a colleague who went through the surgery this past year, she too is so much happier, and we shared all she endured to get there. good luck with dipping your toe in the online dating world…have fun with it Donna!</p>
<p>Ooh! Happy Renaissance. 
That’s a great phrase.</p>
<p>Congratulations, Donna. Still wishing you the best!</p>
<p>Donna, hope this year goes more smoothly for you with less stress all around! Congratulations on your momentous metamorphosis. I hope that J is doing well and enjoying college.</p>
<p>Happy Anniversary. Echoing others’ wishes for much happiness.</p>
<p>Some of you may be interested in reading a synopsis of a documentary about a college professor who transitioned from male to female. </p>
<p>[Film</a> & History](<a href=“http://www.uwosh.edu/filmandhistory/documentary/women/blinders.php]Film”>http://www.uwosh.edu/filmandhistory/documentary/women/blinders.php)</p>
<p>I’d like to also congratulate you and thank you for your openness. You have allowed people to know what is going on and kept us up to date, something many people would not do. You have been so gracious and generous yourself!</p>
<p>Congrats also. From my experience with a different life altering surgery, the one year anniversary is the most emotionally laden - it’s got all of the “one year ago today this and now that”. It will get more mellow. Enjoy the long weekend.</p>
<p>Donna: We all need a vacation from time to time. Your “vacations” over the past year were to (a) have surgery and be horribly sick and miserable, and (b) move. How about a week on the Riviera? Or a trip with J to the Grand Canyon? Or at least, a long weekend at a spa or something like that? Seems to me you could use a real break from your day-to-day, along with a little pampering.</p>
<p>Donna, may your personal metamorphosis and continued good health continue for many years to come.</p>
<p>I just re-read this whole thread, since I was recently thinking about the experience for the first time in a while, and must admit that it made me a little anxious all over again about whether the story would have a happy ending! (And made me deeply grateful, all over again, for the kindness that so many people here showed me.) In some ways, it’s hard to believe it was only two years ago, because if I want to call them up – which I really don’t – some extremely vivid sense memories are still there, not so far under the surface. In other ways, it seems like forever, because I <em>don’t</em> really remember anymore what “before” was like, and it sometimes astonishes me that there was a before. But that’s how memory works, I suppose.</p>
<p>And, hey, only a little less than 6 months to go to reach my goal of my first hospital-free year since 2003! Fingers crossed, etc. </p>
<p>Even better, only 3 weeks to go before my vacation starts and my son and I head off to Berlin together for 11 days. (For me; he’ll stay on for another five or six weeks to do research for his senior thesis). It will be the first real vacation I’ll have had since 2008, since no matter what my employer thinks, my “six weeks off” in 2009 definitely didn’t feel like a vacation to me!</p>
<p>Donna</p>
<p>Congratulations on your personal transition, and also on your move to an “empty nest” and new place. It has been very educational following your progress as an extended family member has been going through something similar. Hope your son is doing well.</p>
<p>You have had some journey and I want to thank you for sharing it with all of us. You have done so much to hopefully enlighten people that may not understand transgender. I wish you continued joy, and hope you have a wonderful time on your first real vacation since 2008, with your son.</p>