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Hello again Twitter! Here's a little thread on how life can change in an instant and why Medicare needs to be protected and strengthened. It also explains why I've rarely Tweeted over the last month or so….
Australia Day 2019, I hit the floor of my mouth with my electric toothbrush in the morning when I sneeze brushing my teeth. Lump blows up. Ignore it as just a passing inconvenience......
February 3, the lump is still there. Convince myself it's an infection and make appointment with GP for antibiotics. Visit GP on February 5 and am told the lump needs to be looked at by specialist.......
February 7, visit specialist who advises me the lump could be an infection but that she was referring me to the Ear. Nose and Throat unit at Monash Health in Clayton for a definitive diagnosis.....
February 8 (a Friday), get two texts, the first for a specialist ENT appointment with Monash Health, the second for a CT scan and head and mouth x-ray at Monash Health Imaging. Both on February 11, the following Monday.....
February 11, attend specialist clinic with Senior RMO who takes a biopsy and tells me that the lump is most probably cancerous. Rock up for X-ray and CT scan. Find I'm allergic to the CT scan contrast dye. Develop an itchy rash in just over an hour!
February 12 receive a text from Monah Health advising me of an appointment on February 14 with ENT consultants. Rock up to this on Thursday February 14 and am told that my little lump is cancerous but the it's small and the cancer has not spread at all.......
Consultant tells me that the good news is we can talk about curing the cancer. Then tells me the bad news is the operation to to this is lengthy and complicated. I agree to have the surgery. The fact it's Valentines Day does not pass me by!.....
February 15 - more texts from Monash Health! (I've kind of retired from 'life as I used to know it' by now!). MRI scan on February 19, Head and neck clinic appointment on February 21........
February 19, MRI scan. Find out I'm not allergic to the contrast dye they use for MRIs. See, there are upsides to the story!
Attend Monash Health Head and Neck Clinic at Monash Moorabbin. I never knew there was such a hospital! Face, literally, a panel of 125 health specialists who prod poke and photograph my new little mouth 'friend'. After this I'm asked to take a break for an hour.......
Still February 21 and meet again with the specialists. They confirm in more detail that I'm going to have the tumour removed plus part of my jaw and the lymph nodes in my neck - the latter as 'insurance'. I then spend 20 minutes while the Drs tell me everything that can go wrong.
The Doctors tell me that they think the operation will take place on either March 12 or 19. I sign an endless range of forms.......
March 1, another text from Monash Health! Pre-op anaesthetic assessment on March 4, which I duly attend. While waiting between assessments get another text from Monasah Health asking me to come and meet the surgeon on March 7 who will be leading the operating team...
March 7, meet the lead surgeon - an Irishman of Indian parentage. More warnings, including the possibility of permanent speech changes due to the jaw and mouth 'restructuring' they will do. Dr tells me if I'm lucky I'll end up with an accent like his.......
Arriving home, I get the official letter advising me my surgery will be on March 13 and another text arrives telling me to attend my re-admission consultation on March 12 at Monash Casey at Berwick. I've now attended every Monash Health hospital!
March 13 at 6:30am arrive at Monash Moorabbin for my operration together with around 10 other folk facing the knife that day. One lady muses on whether it's only Friday the 13th that is unlucky, or the 13th of each month in general. A really, really helpful comment.......
Eventually I'm rolled into the operating theatre. My las memory is of the clock showing 11:30 am. My next is of another clock showing 9:30pm. It's over and I'm in high dependancy post op care where I stay for another three nights.....
I can't talk, swallow (and ergo eat) and feel like my head has been used been used as a soccer ball but my little 'friend' has gone!
March 19 - discharge from hospital after a few days of speech therapy and dietetics advice as I won't be able to eat a normal diet for another week or so. Follow up meeting with the Monash Health Head and Neck clinic for March 28 for a course of radiotherapy.
For non Victorians, Monash Health is one of our PUBLIC Healthcare providers. I received treatment worth over $100K at no cost to me due to Medicare. The Coalition would like to see this stopped as a cost saving. Put another way, they'd rather see people die than receive treatment
Morrison and his Morons think that I should have private health insurance, ignorig the fact the as a cancer sufferer I'm not able to insure for this with PHI. They don't see what I received in care as anything other than a drain on the public purse that needs to be plugged.
It deeply offends Morrison and the Liberal Party that health care should be provided to those without PHI. Indeed, I'm sure he cries over it at night - a $20 billion plus saving on Medicare looks after a lot of Liberal Party donors......#auspol
And my final thought is if you find a lump that shouldn't be there - get it checked out quickly!
