Health

Jul 29, 2024 ∞

Keeping the health system busy

Our family is persisting in making sure the health system is keeping busy. I had to get one of my regular blood tests today, and when we got home, we discovered our daughter, who lives next door, had been referred to the main hospital ED today by her GP for them to check out a bleeding stomach ulcer. Probably caused by taking anti-inflammatories for her endometriosis. So my wife had to drive her into town, muttering, “I’m truly sick of that place.” Good result, though. The daughter has been admitted overnight and will be seen by the gastrointestinal team tomorrow.

Also, one of our nieces fell off her bike this morning and needed the paramedics to clean up a nasty graze and bruise on her knee. She also has two chipped teeth – harder (and more expensive) to fix than a scrape and bruise! Very grateful she was wearing her helmet.

Jul 21, 2024 ∞

Faith in dealing with illness

When my haematologist told me in November last year that, after 13 years of treatment, they had run out of publicly-funded options for treating my myeloma and I had, as a worst-case scenario, a few weeks left to live, it was a bit of a shock. “You could be dead by Christmas,” were his exact words. And yet, here we are, officially in the second half of the new year, and I’m still hanging around—a bit slower and shorter than before—but above ground!