When I write pain, I actually mean agony. I cope quite well with the 24/7 version of pain that my TN gives me on a daily basis and when its especially bad I move myself away from people, this is partly to avoid the "helpful" conversations of, have you tried ...... from those that think TN is a bad headache!. However Im having a bit of a rough patch at the moment with the wonderful hot needles of pain thrown in for free!. Saw the Neurosurgeon last friday to arrange for the MVD to be done, filled out the admission forms and have since heard no more. Over here in Oz the system is different to some other countries (remember Im from the UK), here we usually pay for Operations in advance, claim some back from our personal medical insurance, some from Medicare (the countrys health system) there is usually a "gap" payment which is the portion we the patient are totally responsible for ... in my case about $3.5k ..then plus the anaesthetist cost etc. I have my knickers in a right twist, I think the Consultant is worried we wont be able to pay him his "gap" payment. He did originally offer "payments" but when I saw him last week he was talking about customers who hadnt paid him. He said that one of his admin would phone to discuss this side of things. We ALL know stress adds to our pain, I dont want to "assume" thats why I havent heard from him ... but WHY when he said the MVD could be arranged within a couple of weeks am I sat here waiting for the phone to ring or a letter to arrive? I would cry, but know that would make the pain worse.
Even more important I think is, IF he is only worried about the money side of things is he really the Neurosurgeon I want? What happened to the Hippocratic oath?
Oh, that's terrible. I'm sorry that you're in so much pain.
Maybe you should call his office to see what the delay is. If not, I hope you hear back from them soon!
Do keep us updated on this please?
Oh!! You poor thing. : ( The gap is an absolute killer! I live in Oz too so I know exactly where you're coming from. Yet you front up in Emergency with acute appendicitis and they operate for free. It's the whole "elective surgery" thing, like you are really choosing to be in pain.
I really hope that you hear something soon. Have you considered camping on his doorstep??
I have phoned his office in Sydney twice today, once to ask to speak to the secretary that is supposed to be arranging everything "she doesnt work from the office, she knows about you and will phone" ...forgot to ask when! Second time to ask the other admin that IF she speaks to the neurosurgeon today can she PLEASE ask him if there is anything extra I can take for this pain crisis. She said she will ask when he comes back from lunch. I dont want to go down the route of going to ED and explaining it all to people I dont know. My own GP, well I wont even get an appt today a friday afternoon and I see the weekend of pain stretching out in front of me. You know that time in the middle of the night when its dark and quiet and you are the only one in the world awake? You want to scream but now that will only make the pain worse.
Oh yes, I know how lonely it feels in the middle of the night when you're afraid of the pain. I'm sorry that you're going through this. I wish I had some words of wisdom. All I can say is that I'm thinking about you and hope that you have a better weekend than you are expecting.
Curlysoo said:
I have phoned his office in Sydney twice today, once to ask to speak to the secretary that is supposed to be arranging everything "she doesnt work from the office, she knows about you and will phone" ...forgot to ask when! Second time to ask the other admin that IF she speaks to the neurosurgeon today can she PLEASE ask him if there is anything extra I can take for this pain crisis. She said she will ask when he comes back from lunch. I dont want to go down the route of going to ED and explaining it all to people I dont know. My own GP, well I wont even get an appt today a friday afternoon and I see the weekend of pain stretching out in front of me. You know that time in the middle of the night when its dark and quiet and you are the only one in the world awake? You want to scream but now that will only make the pain worse.