Aan 25-9-97 0:17, in bericht
<[log in to unmask]>, Dennis Greene
<[log in to unmask]> schreef:
> I have been following with interest the accounts of various
> listmembers who seem to have 'droped in' to the hospital
> for a pallidotomy. Here in Australia, (Perth specifically)
> where the procedure is performed in govt funded hospitals
> with no direct billing to the patient (we do pay of course -
> indirectly via a 1.5% levy on every taxable $) the patient
> enters hospital nearly a week before the surgery
My pallidotomy too was performed a hospital which does not cost one cent for
all inhabitants.for doing extensive testing I was hospitalized some weeks ago
for three days.
I met than the surgeons who were responsible for the pallidotomie's and I was
before one night hospitalized for making an MRI scan, for which I needed a
sleeping pill to be able to keep my head motionless. Theday for surgery only
some easy test had to be done as blood pressure and level of blood coagulation
and an ECG. BUt some hours after the surgery I walked through the hospital and
the next morning my husband took our lap top to the hospital and I could go on
translating a book, which I was doing.
Within a few months I will be hospitalized again for the same tests I had
before and than the same will be rehearsed about six months after the surgery.
I agree with you Dennis if I had to choose doing it on an oupatient way or to
be hospitalized a week I'd choose the latter. I did met in effect a very
interesting roommate, who happened to be a neighbour of ny youngest sister in
Amsterdam. She and her husband and children had lived 13 years in Albania, but
did come from Indonesia. They had been lefties( members of the PKI) in
Indonesia, had as such come to Albania to study. But during their stay there
Soerkarno was put aside in INdonesia and Soeharto came to power and communists
were persecuted. So they could not go back and they had managed to come to
Holland as refugees. Having now a benign brain tumour which asked for a long
lasting surgery, she felt so happy to be in Holland now in a country with
excellent health care. We'll keep in kontact and I or my sister will help her
to master more of our language. To make hospitalisation less boring I take
always my portable CD player with me, so I can listen to music that is often
too long-lasting.
Ida Kamphuis.
> . As most
> Australian centres performing the surgery are involved in
> research, I suspect this is to accomadate the battary of
> tests they want to do, rather than any advantage to the
> patient. Most are sent home for the week-end, reporting
> back on Sunday night to be available for more tests
> monday morning. Surgery is scheduled for Tuesday, and
> tuesday afternoon and wednesday morning are spent in the
> High Dependency Unit. More tests wednesday afternoon
> and thursday morning and home thursday pm or friday am.
> You wouldn't think it was the same operation.
>
> I am in awe of those superbeings (eg Barbara Mallut) who
> report being back at work the day after surgery - they must
> be made of sterner stuff than I am. Whilst I certainly felt
> better in PD terms from the next day, it took me weeks to
> really feel 'well'. Perhaps in my case two procedures in as
> many weeks gave me an atypical reaction.
>
> Asked to speak at the recent Australan Conference as the
> patients representative on the surgery forum, I said that
> pallidotomy had given me back my life, but that it was not
> something to be undertaken lightly. It is a procedure for patients
> with very specific criterior, amoungst which was that they
> had to have used up all their other options. This is not
> having a tooth pulled. This is having a hole drilled in your head
> and a bit of your brain zapped. Whilst I applaud those of you
> who have felt happy to leave hospital early I am troubled by a
> system which demands that so serious a matter be treated on
> an outpatient basis for fiscal reasons. Someone always bears
> the cost, and I fear that the savings of the Insurence companies
> is being underwritten by the patients risk.
>
> Dennis.
>
> ++++++++++++++++++++
> Dennis Greene 47/10
> [log in to unmask]
> http://members.networx.net.au/~dennisg/
> ++++++++++++++++++++
>
