Life Outside The Binary
Nonbinary Transgender Information Centre

Lane's Top Surgery

welkingender:

My name is Lane Patriquin, I am a 22-year-old disabled nonbinary artist and activist living in Toronto.

I’ve been pursuing top surgery for 4 years, and have gone through the time-consuming process of being funded through OHIP. On May 20th, 2016 I was finally approved, and it was one of the happiest days of my life. I was all the more overjoyed when I learned that I had the option of going to a doctor in Mississauga.

I have been living with gender dysphoria for all of my self-aware life, which resulted in severe depression, self-harm and suicidality before I was able to realize my gender identity and come out at the age of 17. I also live with chronic pain which prevents me from being able to wear a binder, and so concealing my chest relies on hunching over most of the time. Maintaining such bad posture for so many years has exacerbated my pain, and prevented me from being able to commit myself to physiotherapy.


My physiotherapist has agreed that top surgery needs to be a medical priority for me for my overall physical health.


Dr. MacLean’s arrangement means that OHIP will pay him the standard rate for the surgery, and he will charge on top of that. The estimate I received was $2000.


With the travel expenses it would require, and the fact that I have been very disappointed with Dr. Brassard’s results for the type of surgery I plan to get, my family and I agreed that Montreal was not an option.

I chose to go through the OHIP route because I did not want to have to rely on crowd-funding or accepting money from others in order to fund my surgery, but it seems due to the nature of this arrangement and my current financial and health situation, that I will still wind up needing all the help I can get in affording this.


I am asking for $3000, to cover the estimated $2000 for my surgery, as well as travel, lodging and food while I have to stay in Mississauga. I consider this to be a conservative estimate, given that after all the expenses it may cost much more than that, but $3000 is what I’m comfortable setting as a goal.

I will be attempting to acquire some form of employment over the summer to contribute to this as well, but unfortunately due to my disabilities finding work I can do has always been difficult, I am not able to work very many hours when I do find work, and due to the nature of my schooling I will also have to be putting money towards my tuition and student loans at the same time. But I assure you I will also be contributing whatever funds I can towards this.

I have so much love and gratitude for the support I’ve received in my transition from my friends, family, and the trans, nonbinary and queer communities. Even if you can donate a dollar it would make a big difference towards helping me start living in the world as the person I know I am, and recover from chronic pain.

💕 💕 💕 💕 💕 💕 💕 💕 💕 💕 💕 💕 💕 💕 💕 💕 💕 💕 💕 💕 💕 💕 💕 💕 💕 💕

Hey guys! I feel weird posting about this on Life Outside The Binary since it’s kind of personal, but I’m in kind of a tight spot trying to afford my upcoming top surgery, so if you appreciate what I do here and have a dollar or two to spare I would really appreciate it! If not, reading and boosting also helps. thanks everyone <3

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