Still Inconclusive
December 1, 2008 | Filed under Australia, Family & Friends, Politics
Still inconclusive. We went to another appointment with the eye specialist this morning, and they still can’t find the cause of the bleed in her eye. As far as they can tell, there’s no tears and no sign of detachment in the retina. Yet, there’s no sign of any burst blood vessels either.
We return Wednesday next week for another examination to see if there’s any difference. In the meantime, we’ve been told to report to the Melbourne Eye & Ear Hospital immediately if there’s any dramatic change in the situation.
Since our first appointment on Thursday, we’ve spent $320 in specialist consultation fees, only to be told absolutely nothing. We’ll get about $200 of that back in government Medicare rebates (yay, universal healthcare!), but it’s still a hefty amount. I can’t even begin to imagine what it would be like if this had occured in a country without socialised healthcare, and where we could conceivably have spent up to a thousand dollars without being provided with a result or answer.
It’s situations like this (and also, situations like when my dad had kidney stones) that make me thankful to live in Australia. Sure, our country is fucked up in other ways (rant coming tomorrow), but I could never fault a country too much when it actually cares enough about its people to offer free basic healthcare, and heavily subsidised specialist healthcare.
9 Responses to Still Inconclusive
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I hope that someone can provide answers soon. Expenses aside, I’m guessing it’s not nice for your mum :(
Jem on December 1, 2008 #
I’m sorry it’s taking so long to figure out what’s wrong with your mom’s eye. Hopefully you’ll get an answer soon.
Healthcare in the United States is utter shite. I wonder if they’ll ever do any good with it.
Veronica on December 1, 2008 #
Over here, it is better to die than to get terminally sick. Sometimes I am worried what would happen if my parents get ill and I have to pay the hefty medical bills. I wouldn’t mind if I can afford it but right now I know I can’t.
Wendy on December 2, 2008 #
oops….I posted my comment about your Mom’s eye on your other entry….I don’t usually comment but something about this problem with your Mom’s eye makes me think of my Mother and her macular degeneration in her eye. She has what you call “wet” macular degeneration and what happens is it bleeds inside her eye. She has like a black dot in the middle of her eye and can see only out of the peripheral. There is no cure for it but the vitamin “occuvite” is what she takes daily now so it (hopefully) wont occur in her other eye. Here in the states macular degeneration is the leading cause of blindness in people over 60 years old. There are two forms of it …one is the “wet” kind and the other is the “dry”. Don’t know if this helps but reading your entries just makes me think how what you are saying is so much like what happened to my Mom. I googled it and came up with this link…good luck and I hope your Mom comes through.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/macular-degeneration/DS00284
Passionfish on December 2, 2008 #
Wow I’m sorry about all this going on with your mom. I can’t imagine how hard it’s been on everyone.
One of the things I’m really looking forward to when I move to New Zealand is the healthcare, like you said. Here it’s just borderline ridiculous how much money you must pay to get basic care.
Caity on December 2, 2008 #
Oh my goodness. I just read the news about your mum and I’m sending healing vibes her way. It’s got to be so frustrating having all these specialists still say they aren’t sure the cause. I hope that another specialist will be able to narrow down the problem and find a solution for her soon.
It must be very frightening worrying about losing one’s vision. Your family is in my thoughts.
Erin on December 2, 2008 #
I hope they figure out what’s going on soon!
Noellium on December 2, 2008 #
I used to live in Canada, where there’s universal healthcare too. That’s probably one of the things that annoys me most about America, as much as I love it, just because it’s so.. necessary. It bothers me that I have friends who are all like WHY SHOULD I CARE I WANT MY MONEY WHO CARES ABOUT HELPING PEOPLE? When really, what if you fall on hard times and need healthcare and you can’t have it?
In any case, I really hope this gets sorted out! This sounds quite frustrating..
Shen-Shen on December 2, 2008 #
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