Just some questions...
How do stupid people get sick in this country? How do you deal with the hospital, the pharmacy, the x-ray clinic, Medicare, health insurance and all the other bureaucracies preying on sick people if you're stupid? I am not stupid. I have two degrees. I have no idea what's happening most of the time. I just hand over my credit card and sign on the dotted line.
I paid my hospital excess at the beginning of the year when I went in to have a port put in. As you know that operation failed. A couple of weeks ago I got a call from that hospital saying that because the operation wasn't a success they were refunding my excess. The fact that I still had AN operation, and was still in hospital seems to be irrelevant. Then the other hospital where I have chemo, who had been asking for excess for weeks (interestingly, a different amount than my acutal excess) and who I had been telling I'd already paid it, sends me a bill for three different things that made no sense - but funnily enough adding up to $500 - my excess. I took the bill in and asked them to explain and they had no idea. So I paid it anyway.
Great news at the pharmacy though! I've reached the safety net and all my drugs are free for the rest of the year! I am happy. But then I have a quick look at the form they're about to send off, and ask about the limit - I thought it was a bit low. Turns out they decided some time in January that I had a health care card. I'd queried them when my drugs got cheaper and was told that it was because I had a 'chronic' condition. But they put on my file that I have a health care card. So the chances are now good that they will ask for the backpay on all my drugs. $25 by over 60 prescriptions - you do the maths.
Of course, I am actually eligible for a health care card - IF I go to Centrelink and tell them all about my income and everyone who buys me dinner and how sick I feel on Tuesdays and everyone I snog and how often I poop. To be honest, it's worth the couple of thousand each year to not have to deal with Centrelink. Cancer patients are bludgers who rort the system too, you know.
So how do stupid people get sick in this country?
And my next question. Sounds simple, but there is really only one person I can ask, and she is very busy and it's a bit stupid to call your surgeon to ask such a dumb question. However, it is a burning question.
Do I have a cervix?
Not that I even know what a cervix is or what it does. I asked my doctor here and he says he has no idea (whether I have one, he probably knows what it is and what it does), but it's a question no one has ever asked before.
I am off to Sydney tomorrow and very much looking forward to it.
Love you all,
Jess xoxo
I paid my hospital excess at the beginning of the year when I went in to have a port put in. As you know that operation failed. A couple of weeks ago I got a call from that hospital saying that because the operation wasn't a success they were refunding my excess. The fact that I still had AN operation, and was still in hospital seems to be irrelevant. Then the other hospital where I have chemo, who had been asking for excess for weeks (interestingly, a different amount than my acutal excess) and who I had been telling I'd already paid it, sends me a bill for three different things that made no sense - but funnily enough adding up to $500 - my excess. I took the bill in and asked them to explain and they had no idea. So I paid it anyway.
Great news at the pharmacy though! I've reached the safety net and all my drugs are free for the rest of the year! I am happy. But then I have a quick look at the form they're about to send off, and ask about the limit - I thought it was a bit low. Turns out they decided some time in January that I had a health care card. I'd queried them when my drugs got cheaper and was told that it was because I had a 'chronic' condition. But they put on my file that I have a health care card. So the chances are now good that they will ask for the backpay on all my drugs. $25 by over 60 prescriptions - you do the maths.
Of course, I am actually eligible for a health care card - IF I go to Centrelink and tell them all about my income and everyone who buys me dinner and how sick I feel on Tuesdays and everyone I snog and how often I poop. To be honest, it's worth the couple of thousand each year to not have to deal with Centrelink. Cancer patients are bludgers who rort the system too, you know.
So how do stupid people get sick in this country?
And my next question. Sounds simple, but there is really only one person I can ask, and she is very busy and it's a bit stupid to call your surgeon to ask such a dumb question. However, it is a burning question.
Do I have a cervix?
Not that I even know what a cervix is or what it does. I asked my doctor here and he says he has no idea (whether I have one, he probably knows what it is and what it does), but it's a question no one has ever asked before.
I am off to Sydney tomorrow and very much looking forward to it.
Love you all,
Jess xoxo
posted by Jessie at 5:28 pm
2 Comments:
I'm looking forward to you coming to Sydney too!
Can't wait to catch up. Have a good flight Jess!
Rach xoxo
Little Jess, how I wish you were still in Sydney this week and could have come along to a Life Force meeting. We are starting again tonight after our Easter break.
I haven't read your Blog for a while and felt overwhelmed with sadness to read how dark things were for you for a while. Never let anyone tell you to 'pull yourself together' (even you!). You know what we at Life Force know: the only way out is through. The healthiest way to deal with things when you are depressed is to talk about them and tell it like it is. Anyone who tells you not to is just trying to avoid their own pain, not alleviate yours.
Do you read your emails? I'm not sure if you have my email address and I would like you to email me your address so I can send you a copy of my book. Yep, it finally launched last month at Gleebooks. At the start of it, I definitely tell it like it was. There's far too much glossing over the horror of the cancer journey, that sometimes makes those forced onto that road think they're not normal because they don't think they are supposed to feel the way they do feel. That leads to isolation and which only compounds the pain. So Jessie, whenever you want to off-load, go ahead and do it - that's healthy!
In another comment, someone suggested that if you did cry with your loved ones, even though it hurts them, it might also be a relief for them to cry with you. I'd like you to think about that.
Much love, dearest brave girl.
Jane xxx
Post a Comment
<< Home