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You have my deepest sympathy, my friend. I do not want to play oneupmanship. Rather I just want to make the point that there is something to be said for socialized medicine. My baby sister (she's 70) is fighting stage 4 metastatic cancer - and she is making the bastard work for it - but thanks to our system of health care, her major expense at the moment is parking at the hospitals she has to visit. Everything else, bar a few prescriptions, is covered. She has never had to make a choice and she is at least 4 years past where the disease should have taken her. I sincerely hope you can look forward to a similar result.
MiTasol all the best to your wife
GTX uses as a tag line (You can't outrun Death forever...but you can make the Bastard work for it.) and we certainly will.
Wow. It never ceases to amaze me how many different stories people have to tell about cancer. They call Lupus the disease of 1000 faces, but man, the Big C sure seems to beat that.Thank you. I hope your sister continues to follow the message that
We are in the same position as your sister in many ways. Aus has a mixed private/public health system and we are fully insured. We elected to use private for this at our doctors suggestion as that started the treatment two weeks earlier. That cost us a whole $250 in hospital fees for the surgery.
Our biggest out of pocket was probably the fuel to/from treatment at the beginning due to the Iran debacle. The Health department paid $34 per round trip as a fuel subsidy and totally covered the accommodation for the night after the chemo each week. The offer was there for additional nights as well if she had a bad reaction to the chemo. As soon as the radiation clinic realized she was driving herself to/from treatment (I can't drive because my eyesight is not good enough) they also provided transport to and from radiation at no charge.
SWMBO had her annual medical in November which had an odd blood test result. The GP sent us to a hematologist who sent her for a full torso CAT scan which showed a thumb sized cancer in one lung. Surgery was booked for 8 days later but delayed a week as she was unwell. The next scan showed it had metastasized to the lymph node where the blood enters and leaves the lung which is inoperable for someone her age (75). Radiation and chemo started the second Monday after because the flooding prevented the earlier week. Her next full body PET scan is due June 8 with followup visit to the surgeon on the 11th and again the health department pay $34 each time.
When my fully insured mid 70's sister in the US had surgery this year to remove a 7lb 11"x 7" x 5" growth from her stomach she was admitted, operated on (split vertically from ribs to hair line), went to ICU, went to main ward and was discharged all in under 24 hours. Worse still they did not biopsy the growth until it was removed so no cancer treatment could start before the surgery. The somewhat smaller growth was found in August and the surgery was in February. The biopsy result took two weeks which is normal as they are done in another state. Here biopsy results, with few exceptions like when they have to grow things for an extended period, are reported within two days. Starting recently we get the results in an email. Our doctor is on the phone as soon as he gets the results with a telehealth call or to arrange an appointment.
Immigrating to Aus was the second smartest thing I did. Marrying SWMBO was definitely the smartest.
MiTasol
