They are doing my head in!!!!!
A couple of days ago I wrote about my current paper warfare! Chasing up a medical appointment and it seems somewhere something went awry.
Having heard nothing, despite the promise to call me back, today I followed up the situation.
The conversation went like this.
First I explained the WHOLE situation yet again!
Then the young lady said, “Oh it is all sorted, you have an appointment on May 17.”
I mentally rolled my eyes and replied, “Today is May 17.”
“Oh”, followed by a moment’s silence, “I’ll reschedule that for you.”
The first date offered was not good as I have a speaking engagement that day for the book.
So we eventually agreed on a date in June. *Sigh*
To be confirmed in writing. I’ll keep my eye out for the letter!
The joys of medical appointments
Fish Tank – ED Waiting Room, Royal Children’s Hospital
Before I launch into my current interesting situation, I must say up front I think our public health system is a wonderful thing and we must protect it at all costs!
However, there are times when I wish I was just “going private” and this is one of them! Yes, we do have private health insurance but right now the gap would be a bit beyond the budget, besides we’d probably end up at the RCH anyway.
Mr O Jnr 2 has a bit of a problem with his feet and/or lower legs. He tends to fall over his feet and walks with both feet at almost 45 degree angles (inwards). Dad says “But he was born like that”. I think we can improve the situation. When he was playing soccer, he would be limping badly by the end of the game. He denies he is in pain, but he must be to be limping, I think. If he has lived with this all his life, he would know no different, I guess.
Anyway, I consulted our GP (general practitioner) who suggested he be assessed by an orthopaedic specialist at the Royal Children’s Hospital. I asked whether we needed a referral. No, was the response, so I called the RCH. No, I needed a referral. OK, back to the GP. Got the referral and some x-rays!
On February 22 I faxed the referral to the RCH and hoped I wouldn’t lose the x-rays before we got an appointment. 
On March 8 I received a text message telling me I would be advised when we were allocated an appointment.
By today, May 15, I was starting to wonder if we had been lost in the system. Well, that wouldn’t be unusual for us, would it? 
I was prompted to follow up as the patient mentioned to me his lower back was hurting. THAT may have more to do with school bags and books, but it did remind me to follow up.
I called the hospital. They advised they had rejected the referral, sending it back to the GP for more clinical information – on March 8! The same day I received the text message. OK, seemed odd, but I then called the GP, wondering why I hadn’t been notified. The GP’s office advised the only letter they have is dated March 6 and advises the referral is being processed. Now, I think a perhaps an 8 could look like a 6 on a scanned copy (they scan all correspondence onto the patient’s file), but never mind.
An unusual Mothers Day
BHC
Today would, I think, qualify as an unusual Mothers Day. I left my four youngest in Melbourne and dashed up to Bendigo to visit my Mel in hospital. Mel is fine, had surgery late last night and is facing more surgery later this month. Naturally, I am a little on the worried side but am confident she is in good medical hands and I know her husband will take the best of care of her. This did kind of overshadow his recent birthday though, but I am sure Mel will make it up to him later.
Autumn has arrived well and truly in Bendigo as this streetscape illustrates.
Autumn in Bendigo
Fun Friday Frolics
I lied. Mr O Jnr 2 and I spent three hours in our wonderful Royal Children’s Hospital. I haven’t been there for years and this is the new, bright and shiny RCH! Even so, not much fun and no frolicking - but it was Friday! Mr O did offer to come with us, but I really couldn’t see a need for two of us to sit in the waiting room for three hours!
Fish Tank – ED Waiting Room, Royal Children’s Hospital
There is actually a small shark in that fish tank, but do you think I could catch a shot of the shark? Not a hope!
That climate change stuff
This time series, based on satellite data, shows the annual Arctic sea ice minimum since 1979. The September 2010 extent was the third lowest in the satellite record. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Personally, I believe we are damaging our planet. I’m not here to review the MANY scientific articles on the topic – they are everywhere and almost every politician in the world has an opinion one way or the other about the scientific opinions. Then the public have opinions about the politicians’ opinions about the scientific findings/opinion/theories/hypothesises. Confused yet?
On top of that we have Carbon Prices, Emission Trading Schemes, agreements between countries to reduce emissions and so it goes on. And on.
The question for me, a non-scientist just hoping we leave a liveable planet for future generations, is more simple. I ask myself, are we damaging the planet in more ways that we are willing to recognise?
I look at what we do to sustain our materialistic lifestyle.
We raze forests, we dam rivers, we kill other living species to extinction, we dig much “stuff” (minerals, natural gas, etc) out of the ground. We destroy ecosystems and pollute our oceans and waterways. We generally talk about climate change being the result of just our emissions, but I wonder to myself, is that the only cause of damage? Are we not continuing to upset the balance of nature, the balance of the planet overall?
We drive cars massively bigger than we need, we build mansions instead of homes, we use electricity like it is as necessary as water for our survival.
Health, guilt and recovery plus another cheat
How does one value health? More importantly, how does one get it back? Not the generic “one”, specifically me! Between the coughing and the codeine I am trying to write what I feel about myself and how frustrated I feel.
If that isn’t your cup of tea (tea is always good for the sick) then I have some options for you! Three great articles relating to women and the USA elections by some very astute people. I did this cheat stuff about a month ago in Pain and writing are not good house-mates, so here is a cheat! and given I really, really liked the articles below I’m sharing them with you.
- Are men wrecking sport for women? – Ben Pobjie. Ben claims to be a comedian, but he sure writes some serious stuff for a comedian.
- How women voters became the King makers – Jane Caro. I watched Jane on QandA once and was instantly a fan!
- Florida, I do declare – Diane Roberts. Diane pretty much confirms what Dr Paul Lehman commented on my article about western civilisation yesterday.
If you have decided to share my miserable complaining venting, let’s get to it. I was SO pissed off yesterday I vented my frustration on Twitter. Twitter was about the only thing that kept me sane yesterday, between my bouts of codeine-fuelled napping. I am not good at doing absolutely nothing. That and checking on the USA election results, of course. Twitter requires a short attention span and with a limit of 140 characters, massive brain power is an optional extra.
Venting on Twitter
Jet lag is crappy
English: British Airways Concorde, Heathrow, London, England – by P.B.Toman (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Jet lag has to be the bane of all travellers. Sometimes it isn’t too bad, other times it is horrible. This is one of those times. I was awake at 5 am this morning. A colleague popped into my office yesterday to ask if I was sick as one of my travelling companions had gone home sick. No, I replied, I’m fine! So what happens? I’ve been up several times during the night with a sore throat and a blocked nose, plus I still feel SO tired.
Someone said to me yesterday that it takes a day for every hour of time difference to recover from jet lag. Then there was a debate about whether it was 15 hours or 9 hours, on the basis the body doesn’t know about days, only hours, therefore the jet lag difference is 9 hours even thought the actual date/time difference between Florida and Melbourne is 15 hours. 9 am here is 6 pm the previous day in Florida. Personally, I don’t care! I just want to sleeeeeeep! Preferably not at 3 pm in the afternoon!
Yes, I tried the Melatonin. Can’t say it worked very well for me.
Yesterday was better than Monday, so hopefully by the end of today (Wednesday) I won’t feel like death warmed up, although I’m not sure about the cough, sore throat and blocked nose!
I wore flying socks/stockings both over and back, but it didn’t help the feet much, so Monday I was off to the doctor to get fluid tablets to shift the fluid in the hope I can get some shoes back on my feet some time soon!
Why is it I have a sneaking suspicion in the back of my mind this is somehow “age related”? Why can’t I be 30 again?
I’m grumpy. I feel bad about that. My poor husband was thrilled to see me home and now I am grumpy! 
