Reacquaintance

I can't believe how long it has been since I've made a post, so apologies to all.  The computer has hardly been turned on in the last fortnight for two reasons: 1) I've had other things to do and 2) I've not been all that well.

On 29 January I re-entered the operating theatre at Royal North Shore hospital.  Fortunately this time it was actually a scheduled event and it was only for a gastroscopy.  I've been having increased chest pain recently, and what with my costo-chondritis it is very difficult to tell where it's coming from.  Last year I was convinced it was the costo-chondritis, and was horribly wrong with dire potentially fatal consequences.  This year I reckoned it may have been the oesophagus again, and as soon as I saw a gastro-enterologist he immediately agreed that I needed a gastroscopy.  He also said that it needed to be done in a major public hospital (not a clinic as was being mooted by my GP).  The reason being is that 25% of oesophageal ruptures are actually caused by gastroscopes themselves!  And given that I'd already had one of them the odds for me were a lot higher than the person-in-the-street!

He also said if I wanted the gastroscopy at Gosford Hospital I could well be waiting three months.  So I was referred back to Dr Steve Leibman at St Leonards (who saved my life last year) to arrange it all at Royal North Shore.  It took just fifteen days under the public system, and it didn't cost me a cent.

The good news was, as Steve said visiting me after the procedure, it was all good - there wasn't even any inflammation at all.  It was great to meet Steve again - we do get on quite well.  He looks so at home dressed in scrubs inhabiting an operating theatre.  When they wheeled me in, he was playing with a power cable over in one corner of the room looking like he really belonged there!  All in a day's work, I suppose.  I certainly challenged him a lot less this time than on 7 Feb 2009!!!

You hear so many complaints about the public health system not working and how things go wrong.  I have nothing but praise for it, and can speak with some authority, having been an avid consumer of medical services for over three years now.  Nurses DO make minor errors, doctors DO occasionally misdiagnose things, but I can't speak more highly of a health system which is going to be without doubt one of the best in the world.  It is something we can really be proud of as Australians.

I woke up after the gastroscopy (they pump you full of valium) in the recovery ward at RNS (I've been there a few times before!) I was ushered out to the discharge ante-room, sat in a lounge chair, given a cup of coffee and a delicious ham sandwich (I had to fast for the procedure so I was quite peckish at the time) and I was like a pig in mud.  Steve came in to let me know the good news and about half an hour later I went home.  It was quite a good day.  I slept a lot the next couple of days (the valium at work) but the recovery was complete and overall it was a very pleasant experience.

Now if only I could shake off this morbid head cold!  The first cold I've had for probably four or five years....