I dream of being tonsil-free...
Hmmm. Life moves a bit too fast to keep up with it on LJ, as always.
So, I'll just pick one thing.
I probably won't be getting detonsilified this year. It took a fair bit of pain and illness in the first place to decide to ask my doctor about having them out; and it's taken two years to get to the point of being on a public hospital waiting list so long that I took out private health insurance.
Yesterday I found out that the operation, anaesthetic, etc will cost a lot more than I was first told. I have other expenses I can't put off in the next year, so I won't be able to get it done this year, and it won't be able to happen quickly next year, either.
The one good thing is that once I come up with the money, it will probably be fairly quick to get in. (Haha... ha. What a reassuring thing to know about Australia's health system. As soon as I have the money, I'm in. Great.)
My doctor's already written a couple of times to the surgeon suggesting that I'm a fairly urgent case and need to go in sooner rather than later, but cancer patients tend to be classed as more important than people waiting for tonsillectomies. And, y'know, rightly so. Having just (hopefully) finished the rollercoaster ride of surgery and rounds of doctors' visits for a more pressing reason myself, I get it. But I've been lied to twice about the length of the waiting list (first it was 12 months, then 22 months, now it's 2 and a half years). If I had known that at the beginning, I would have got private health insurance right away, and been saving my pennies a lot longer. And I would be tonsil-less by now, because it is two years since I went on the public hospital waiting list.
Many of my friends have been subject to this saga (most memorably, some of them begging to have a look at my mutated tonsils at that afternoon tea last month). I haven't felt like telling people yet. I suppose not many people look forward to getting their tonsils out, but I really have (and do), and I've talked to a lot of people about it (not least to try and counter a couple of people's thoughts that I don't need the operation). A number of people have been totally interested in and supportive of this, some of them being unlucky enough to have seen me through the very worst attacks.
Actually, no, I guess there are another couple of good things. One, it shows my resolve to have this done. I've done some research recently on tonsils/tonsillitis/tonsillectomies, and my suspicion that having ginormous tonsils is affecting how I sleep and eat seems to be confirmed by the numbers of this operation performed for those reasons. I could just opt out and not bother with the surgery, as it's supposed to be a totally painful recovery (hello, what surgery isn't?). But I want to try it. And I will get the money; it will just take a bit longer.
Also, I never would have looked into naturopathy as much as I have because of this, and that really has improved my overall health.
Oh well. Just a few months longer. Maybe by this time next year I'll be tonsil-less. :)
So, I'll just pick one thing.
I probably won't be getting detonsilified this year. It took a fair bit of pain and illness in the first place to decide to ask my doctor about having them out; and it's taken two years to get to the point of being on a public hospital waiting list so long that I took out private health insurance.
Yesterday I found out that the operation, anaesthetic, etc will cost a lot more than I was first told. I have other expenses I can't put off in the next year, so I won't be able to get it done this year, and it won't be able to happen quickly next year, either.
The one good thing is that once I come up with the money, it will probably be fairly quick to get in. (Haha... ha. What a reassuring thing to know about Australia's health system. As soon as I have the money, I'm in. Great.)
My doctor's already written a couple of times to the surgeon suggesting that I'm a fairly urgent case and need to go in sooner rather than later, but cancer patients tend to be classed as more important than people waiting for tonsillectomies. And, y'know, rightly so. Having just (hopefully) finished the rollercoaster ride of surgery and rounds of doctors' visits for a more pressing reason myself, I get it. But I've been lied to twice about the length of the waiting list (first it was 12 months, then 22 months, now it's 2 and a half years). If I had known that at the beginning, I would have got private health insurance right away, and been saving my pennies a lot longer. And I would be tonsil-less by now, because it is two years since I went on the public hospital waiting list.
Many of my friends have been subject to this saga (most memorably, some of them begging to have a look at my mutated tonsils at that afternoon tea last month). I haven't felt like telling people yet. I suppose not many people look forward to getting their tonsils out, but I really have (and do), and I've talked to a lot of people about it (not least to try and counter a couple of people's thoughts that I don't need the operation). A number of people have been totally interested in and supportive of this, some of them being unlucky enough to have seen me through the very worst attacks.
Actually, no, I guess there are another couple of good things. One, it shows my resolve to have this done. I've done some research recently on tonsils/tonsillitis/tonsillectomies, and my suspicion that having ginormous tonsils is affecting how I sleep and eat seems to be confirmed by the numbers of this operation performed for those reasons. I could just opt out and not bother with the surgery, as it's supposed to be a totally painful recovery (hello, what surgery isn't?). But I want to try it. And I will get the money; it will just take a bit longer.
Also, I never would have looked into naturopathy as much as I have because of this, and that really has improved my overall health.
Oh well. Just a few months longer. Maybe by this time next year I'll be tonsil-less. :)