22nd
May 2013
Today Barry
braved the Melbourne rush hour traffic to get Merry to her 9.30am appointment
at the hospital. As luck would have it,
there was a vacant 1 hour parking lot right outside the hospital which was much
appreciated and only cost $2.40 for the hour which turned out to be more than
adequate. The alternative had been to
use the hospital parking but you can only use it on a day basis for $11 dollars
plus when we got there it only had 1.9 metre clearance which would have removed
our roof rack Being an early appointment there hadn’t been time for them to get
behind their schedule so Merry actually had her treatment and was on the way of
the hospital by the time she should have been starting it. On the way there we
spotted an area where Barry may be able to park for 2 hours that is a
relatively short walk from the hospital.
23rd
May 2013
The
afternoon parking was also quite fortunate but due to seeing the nurse and
doctor as well as the treatment Barry had to move from one 1 hour parking bay
to another, but in this case only meant reversing into the bay behind him. Today was an even earlier appointment and
Barry was able to use a 2 hour bay which still had some time left on it so only
had to pay $1.20 to top it up. Being
early meant the treatment happened straight away and allowed time to have a
blood test sample taken by the vampire department. Even allowing for this, we were back at the
car very quickly and probably didn’t need to have put anything in the meter,
but you never know in advance. Merry actually had a pretty rough day
yesterday as eating and drinking is getting more difficult and in the afternoon
became nauseas, developed a bad headache plus leg cramps. It was this that instigated the blood tests
but she has since discovered that she feels a lot better if she stays off the
morphine, so the blood test may not prove anything but we shall see. The afternoon treatment took a while as they
were running late again so Barry had to juggle parking bays.
24th
May 2013
Today
shouldn’t have been a problem as we arrived early and Merry received the
treatment early but had to see the doctor and nutritionist. The doctor turned up early and checked
Merry’s throat which apparently is looking good, however, it was suggested that
a gastro nasal tube be installed to assist with eating and drinking, as
swallowing is becoming very difficult and painful. She then saw the nutritionist for a while and
in theory that was it for the day except now she has to go back downstairs and
have the tube installed which then meant having an X-ray to check that the tube
is positioned correctly. Meanwhile Barry
returns to move the car which has now got a $70 parking fine attached to it because
Melbourne can’t, or won’t provide adequate parking within the area. Barry moved to a 1 hour bay expecting Merry to
emerge soon, but that didn’t happen as she had to wait for the nutritionist
again to have a bag of food drained into her, so Barry had to move the car once
more before Merry finally returned to go home for a short break before
returning for the second treatment session. This time we found a closer cheaper parking
bay which is not usually available as other people get there earlier than us.
25th
May 2013
Being the
weekend Merry doesn’t have to present herself for treatment so we can relax in
the knowledge that we now have to order and therefore buy the nutritional packs
and gravity bags so that she can maintain her weigh, and eat in some form of
comfort. If we were Victorians this
would be freely given to us, but being West Australians we have to buy our own. Paying into the so-called National Medicare
scheme for years means nothing because when you need treatment etc it suddenly becomes
State based, and having not lived in WA for the last six months we get nothing
from them but we are expected to go out of our way to vote in their mandatory
elections, or face a fine. We haven’t
been in Victoria for six months either but it probably wouldn’t help if we had,
as we aren’t on a Victorian electoral role. In many ways the health system is as archaic
as the original Victorian age. On the
brighter side, the nursing staff and Merry’s specialist are absolutely great.
27th May 2013
We had a very
clear run through to the hospital as it was after the mad rush that is usually absolute
bedlam, and makes you wonder what it would be like if some dramatic event took
place. There would be more people killed
in the panic on the roads than from the actual event We
found a 2 hour parking reasonably close but the hospital was running on time
and we could have got away with a 1 hour bay which would have been closer still
and would have been of benefit to Merry who is now struggling to walk any
distance beyond 20 metres. Future visits
will involve dropping her off at the door and then find a parking bay.
28th
May 2013
Today was
another early appointment that meant battling with the rush hour traffic again
but we usually allow extra time to allow for it. However, the twelve 1 hour parking bays
opposite the hospital entrance had been roped off for some sort of major maintenance
but we did manage to grab one beside the hospital. The treatment was over quickly but Merry had
to also see the nurse which took a long time so the car had to be moved. After that session she then had to get some
prescriptions made up and are told it will take an hour. After waiting as long as possible Barry went
off to move the car again but as there were none available to move to simply
decided to slowly circumnavigate the block a few times. Fortunately Merry called him on the phone
just before finishing the first lap and was able to pick her up and head
home. The afternoon appointment gave us
the opportunity to use the same parking area and we got away with only one
1hour session by a few minutes. We
noticed that the work across the road from the entrance amounted to half a
dozen star pickets being driven into the ground and tape attached to keep
traffic out. Not bad for a day’s work,
Barry wants a job like that. Overall,
today was a much better day for Merry who was feeling a lot better.
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