This is NOT a Merry Rant

So less of the merry and more of a rant!!!

Fucking doctors and their front of house staff, need a big lesson in honesty and humility.

I am completely fucked if I can work out what makes them so fucking smug and self righteous!

I fail to see how it is possible for a specialist, Selena Young to see me more than 2 weeks ago and identify that I have lymphoedema in my right breast and for her to tell other doctors about this but then tell me that, ‘It’s nothing, it’s ok, it will go away, It’s nothing to worry about.’ She all but patted me on the head and condescendingly sent me on my way. That’ll be a $100 , thanks!

More than a month ago when I first started to feel pain in my boob and noticed it swelling up, watermelon size!! I rang to get an appointment with the surgeon Kate Stringer. I spoke to the girlie on the desk – Stacey - on 2 different occasions and told her I had pain in my boob and needed an appointment. The best she could do was have me wait for more than a month. I asked her directly if she had told Kate about the pain and even though she said she had the hesitation in her voice led me to believe otherwise.

So since then I have had the ‘laying on of hands’ by my GP Jane and the useless Selena. I have had a course of super sized antibiotics, - courtesy of Jane cos, ‘It might help and can do no harm’. I have been out and bought bigger and bigger boob control equipment and have endured severely interrupted sleep because of the pain. Yeh I am grouchy alright!!

Yesterday I drove the hour plus to Brisbane for my 4 o’clock appointment with Kate and arrived early cos god forbid a doctor is ever kept waiting. At 5 o’clock it was finally my turn. Kate turned to the right page on the screen and read the report from Selena in which she had diagnosed lymphoedema. Kate had a look and agreed. She said that treatment was possible and when she tried to find the name of someone on the Goldie who could help me she was stymied because they had all gone home because it was so fucking late!! She said her staff would look into it and give me a call today.

Then Stacey took over, and tried to make appointments and take money. I told her that I was not inclined to come back as ordered as I have another option and the other doctor had not kept me waiting even ONCE is more than 20 years. She harped on in her girl voice about my need to be seen for 7 years, even though she appeared to know nothing of my history ( she started by asking me if I had had any surgery). I do not know what made her think that she was an expert, or indeed even better placed to know my body and my needs than I am, but thus was the case.

Stacey who had, I believe, been instructed to find the name of someone to help treat the lymphoedema had done precisely NOTHING by 11 am this morning, so now I have found someone myself. Stacey refused to come to the phone when I rang. The girlie who answered the phone put me on hold twice and only finally gave ME the name of someone I could ring for helpful hints after I insisted that she did so. This number went straight to answer phone.

As I have now delayed the start of treatment for more than a month, because Stacey, with all her medical training and knowledge, didn’t deem it important to make an emergency appointment, there was for me, an urgency to get started. Quite apart from the pain, I am very very keen to avoid the swelling  continuing down my arm. This situation has filled me with fear for the last 20 years on my left side!! I did some sleuthing on my own and have an appointment for tomorrow morning. The people calling me back now from all sources that have already fleeced thousands from me, are just confirming what I have already discovered.

It might be possible to be more sanguine about all this had I been treated at the behest of the government, but this has all been private care, and I use the term very loosely, at enormous expense.

Just who the fuck do these people think they are.