An Interesting Few Days..

Two days ago I found a lump in my breast. What does that mean to anyone reading this? Probably nothing unless you are also one of the thousands of women around the world in the same situation. But what it has illustrated to me is the current situation of the Australian medical system.

First of all, can I get in to see a doctor? Well yes, but you will have to wait a couple of days to get in. All the doctors are booked. Well why should I have to wait? Surely there are enough GPs out there to service the growing population? If not why aren’t there enough? But okay not a problem – if I have to wait, I will wait. So today I go in and my lovely doctor checks me over and decides I need a mammogram and an ultrasound and of course the obligatory blood tests. I say a thank you to my GP and pay my $58 and head off home to make a phone call to book in to have the ultrasound and mammogram done.

Thinking that I will be able to get in today or maybe tomorrow at the latest, I am told by the obviously harrassed girl on the phone that the earliest I can get in will be June 14. My immediate response was ‘Your kidding?!’ No, she tells me, we are currently in a situation and can’t get you in until then. My stunned silence must have been a bit awkward as she suddenly attempted to fill the void by telling me that if any cancellations come up she will be able to fit me in.

So if this lump turns out to be anything serious (which I am just assuming it won’t be) it will have three weeks to only get worse before I get some sort of treatment. But the worst part is that it will be in the back of my mind now for the next three weeks. Now I am into thinking positively so I know it won’t get the better of me but still it will be there and I would rather get the whole thing out of the way.

On a positive note, I was able to get the blood tests done almost immediately…..actually it was immediate… as soon as I got in the door and handed over my bit of paper I was ushered into their blood sucking room and drained of copious amounts of blood. “How many vials do you need?” I said as she got to the third one?

Unfortunately however they also wanted to do a urine test. Now if you are like most people in the world when you are told you have to go of course you can’t and because I rushed out the door that morning without even having a cup of tea the situation was even more precarious. So what do you do in situations like that? Well you can start imagining large waterfalls or maybe a trickling stream or just relax and it will come and fortunately for me it did.

So all in all it’s been an interesting morning but it can only get better!