I have just worked out that since 1 July i have travelled 3,200 kms to have treatment. No wonder i am worn out! Although I have to be honest that figure does include tomorrow and the return trip on friday. lol
Hi Julie,
I love that song by the Proclaimers, it brings back memories of when I was flatting with a friend, we were living in the city and both had boyfriends in the country, so every second weekend we would drive to spend the weekend with them.
The 'tape' as it would have been way back then, was belting out "I would walk 500 miles" for most of the way!
On your travel stuff, oh don't you wish you had actally 'travelled' somewhere that distance for a holiday!!! Think of where you could have gone!
I have only had my new car 2 weeks tomorrow and it is already clocked up 980km, and is booked in for its 1000km service tomorrow! Most of which has been this last week with trips into Hollywood and back.
Jill
Hiya Jill
Yup i do wish i had been on a holiday and gosh saying or thinking that phrase alllllllways reminds me of the move "chicken run" lol
Tomorrow i am catching the train up which means i have to leave my house by 5am and my appointment is not till 2pm and then another at 3pm and possibly one more after that. Now pats are saying that i need to get the doctor to sign saying that it is necessary that i stay overnight. Am really getting to be "over" the beaurocrats that clearly have not had to travel for their treatment. So to be able to claim i have already made one phone, now i have to call them again and tell them that i am there and they will fax a form to me, of which i need to get signed and get it back to them. One does wonder at times. You would think simply having to have such a long day already was enough. Combined with the fact that i am having a needle biopsy on a lump i have found. Whilst i have a handle on feelings etc... it is almost as if they just want to push us over the edge!
Sorry for the rant but am over it all at the moment.
Julie
oops nearly forgot to say about your car and travels ... i know its just imcredible how many miles we rack up going backwards and forwards. I am almost glad i didnt bother to equate my back n forwards bits too. haha I dont want to feel more exhausted. Was so glad to hear you are getting such practical help at the moment. One thing i have found with all of this is that although we sometimes see the not so good side of humanity and yet we are shown the wonderful bits where people go completely out of their way to help.
Julie,
Rant and rant, I totally agree about bureaucratic bu@*%()t.
I really hope the day isn't too draining for you tomorrow and that the appts go OK.
On the flip side, I have found that friends have stepped up to the plate when it really counts, despite my feeling a few weeks ago that no-one cared.
Another meal has just arrived on my doorstep, so it looks like it's shepherd's pie for dinner!
THanks Jill and its great to have good friends. Yummo re shepherdds pie, enjoy!! I feel better now that i have ranted and gotten it out of my system, but i swear when things improve for me that i am going to try and do something about the plight of country patients. It is certainly a tough gig at times!!
Consider yourself cyberly hugged again. :)
Julie
Hi Jules2
For my generation it is:
If you miss the train I'm on, you will know that I am gone
You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles
a hundred miles, a hundred miles, a hundred miles, a hundred miles
You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles
Lord I'm one, Lord I'm two, Lord I'm three, Lord I'm four
Lord I'm 500 miles from my home
500 miles, 500 miles, 500 miles, 500 miles
Lord I'm five hundred miles from my home
Patient transport assistance schemes suck!! It doesn't seem to matter what state you are in, you here the same complaints - bureaucracy on steroids, miserable amounts of reimbursement, inadequate accommodation payments, difficult forms to fill in, etc. etc. We've had a senate select enquiry on this one - result no change.
Maybe the politicians need to hear some whistles blowing.
cheers
Sailor
He who studies medicine without books sails an uncharted sea, but he who studies medicine without patients does not go to sea at all. William Osler
Hi sailor
I have a reply for you running around in my head, however, i am sooooooo tired after my trip to perth i dont want to write it just yet.
SO standby ... lol
take care
Julie
Hi Jill ... ack so sorry for writing that with no explanation!! I have had radiotherapy to a tumour that was on the base of my tongue. That means that my neck and mouth have been quite affected both outwardly and inwardly. What happens is that an enormous amount of scarring occurs, so intially they cannot do scans because it is impossible to tell whether what they are seeing is scarring or a tumour. So a scope is a little camera "thingy" (i love that word ... haha) that they stick up my nose (after spraying with numbing stuff) and down my throat, so that they can look and see what was going on. They scoped me when i was half way through chemo and there was only a very small part of the tumour left. I have apparently had a great clinical reaction (or rather my tumour did) to the chemotherapy. Then they give radiotherapy to mop up what or if anything is left. 🙂 The biopsy that i am waiting on has been taken from my previous cancer site. It could be just part of a the keloid scarring, lets hope it is. :)
Hope that explains it a little better. I am shocking at writing things without explaining, my apologies.
Julie
