Help with Ophelia's Surgery and Recovery

For those who don't know me: I'm Ophelia. I'm 31, a full time psychology student, and I identify as transgender and non-binary.

On July 22nd, I am having top surgery (gender-affirming radical reduction). This is a major surgery that I have needed for well over a decade, and for one reason or another have had to keep postponing. Except for a few that I am close to, I have had a really hard time talking about this. And I feel like that’s saying a lot! If you do know me, you’ll know that I’m generally pretty open on social media and I am an advocate of personal growth and transparency. That said, I am also a realist. I understand too-well the stigma that surrounds the trans community.

But I also understand the need to normalize trans identities, regardless of whether they fit your idea of what is or is not trans. After years of confronting my relationship with my body, it's become obvious that I’ve been suffering from dysphoria for most of my life. Every year that this continues, my health and quality of life have declined. I’m exhausted, living every second of every day, feeling like my body is wrong.

That aside, I’ve been living with chronic neck and back problems for as long as I can remember, due to breast hypertrophy. It affects my breathing, my ability to exercise comfortably, it affects how I sleep. It aggravates nerve pain that I have been having since 2017, when I had a cervical neck injury affecting 3 vertebrae. I was never able to heal correctly from this injury due to the literal constant weight on my shoulders.

I don’t know how long I will have the opportunity to have this surgery, and this is a bit of a last ditch effort to pull it together. Summer is an especially difficult time for me, financially. I'm in between semesters and have little to no aid from school, which is my main source of income. It still happens to be when I am the least amount of busy, even as I’m in the middle of a summer intensive course. I will literally be finishing my associate’s degree the same week that I plan to have surgery!

The funding I’m looking for at this time is in hopes that I can pay for at least 2 months rent, bills, food, and the first few surgery payments.

If you would like to help, there are several ways to do so. You can donate to the gofundme link provided or if it’s easier, I have put together an Amazon registry list for items I will need for after the surgery.

A few people have also asked if I would like any assistance with meals or grocery drop-off while recovering. I greatly appreciate it and that would be a huge help!! If you know me personally, I’m happy to share my address. Otherwise, I also use instacart and ubereats, or am open to other ideas on how we can make food happen.

Thank you for anything and everything that you can do to help. Boosting visibility is also a way to offer support. Please share, comment, like, or whatever you are comfortable with.

Thank you, everyone

~O

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See below for links to registry and a couple food delivery services that I use:

Surgery Aftercare List

Instacart Grocery Delivery

UberEats Delivery

For immediate relief, you can also venmo @Ophelia_irlanda