Jacquelinne's GCS fundraiser
Edited: Saturday, June 6, 2020
I am excited to announce...I have a date! September 21, 2020 I am scheduled for gender confirmation surgery with Dr Brad Erickson at the University of Iowa. I will be undergoing Vulvoplasty.
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Edited: Thursday, December 12, 2019:
I did it! I submitted my application to the University of Iowa! Going to school and utilizing the Student Health Insurance Program will allow me to get my desperately needed gender confirmation surgery AND I will finish my college degree.
I never did well in college but I am motivated to make the most of this opportunity. I want my kids to be proud of me and I want my (eventual) grandkids to see me as an example of what we can do when we are properly motivated.
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Okay folks, I am plan C'ing it now. The insurance company and the VA have made it clear they will NOT be covering any portion of my 'cosmetic' gender confirmation surgery (it is life-saving to me but they don't care about that). And the t-shirts and jewelry have not been moving as well as I would have hoped. So...
Hello, everyone. I am a US Navy veteran (1986 - 1991) and I served in Operation Desert Shield, Operation Desert Storm and Operation Deep Freeze (Antarctica). I am a transgender woman (assigned male at birth) and I have been actively transitioning since 2013. I live full-time, I have made all of my legal changes, and I have been on hormone replacement therapy since 2014. And I am now ready to take the final major step and undergo gender confirmation surgery (also called sex reassignment surgery or bottom surgery), but the Veterans Administration and the insurance I have through my employer consider this surgery 'cosmetic'. I have been unable to express to them this is a life-saving surgery for me.
I live in Iowa, and if I become a student at one of the state's big three universities (University of Iowa, Iowa State or the University of Northern Iowa) and get student health insurance, that insurance will cover my surgery. And since I live near the U of I my ancillary costs for the surgery (hotel stays, travel, food, etc) will be relatively low. I need to take 5 semester hours per semester and it will take two semesters (Spring and Fall 2020) to go through the consult and scheduling of the procedure (timing is everything).
I am working to raise $4000 to cover these two semesters. I can cover the $200 per month insurance costs myself, but I will definitely need some assistance getting into the classes. Any help you can give me to make me whole would be so very much appreciated.
Thank you.
And in case you were wondering...
The first of my facial feminization surgeries (FFS), called a Blepharoplasty, will happen on December 23, 2019 at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. I am still working to get Rhinoplasty and Buccal far removal, but GCS is the most important surgery I can ever hope to have and for the sake of my mental health I MUST have this procedure soon.
Any help is greatly appreciated and I will gladly pay it forward in the future.
Jacquelinne
