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earthkissed

Just me and my thoughts, most of them silly.

Name:
Location: brisbane, queensland, Australia

I am a daughter, a sister, a wife, a mother, a friend. Sometimes I am good at these things, sometimes I am not.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Beth and Pitfinder


"Beth": Imagine it before I'd been gargling stuff for almost two days and had taken almost two days worth of antibiotics (and ignore the small piece of chervil stuck on one of them, after I saw it in the photo I tried to get it off and yucky pus came off instead). Plus they are a lot redder then that - the flash made them appear a bit lighter.

"Pitfinder": When do you get here?

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Excitement

I passed my exam!!! No more exams for me, except for further things I sign up for! This piece of news would have been far more exciting if I hadn't come down with the worse tonsillitis I can ever remember having about 4 hours after I found out. My sore throat kept me awake half the night - everytime I swallowed the pain woke me up. Yesterday I was fine until the evening, this morning I woke up with pus all over my tonsils and they look feral! Thank goodness for penicillin, nurofen, and those little gargles with local anaesthetic in them!

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

The crisp air makes my cheeks cold
So the salt streams that sneaks down them
Feel welcoming and warm
Until they reach the bottom
And then the wet path they leave behind
Is even colder then when they began
And my fingers ache
Like an old ladies
And the tips stumble on these keys
Because I can barely feel them
Winter is here
But I am not

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Regret

Regret is the full moon shining
on a barren landscape in my soul
The full moon of retrospect
accentuates the eerie emptiness of the past
And I keep returning to the scene again and again
hoping to find something else to glean
But my tears have watered this field
so many times in vain and there is nothing
The immutable past stands resolute
unmoved by my sorrow
The seasons here never change
the moon stays full
lighting what I don't wish to see

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Pathology

I recently tried to write comments on everyones blog and to update my blog, but blogger kept failing on me and in the end I gave up. I have been so caught up lately with other things, that I haven't managed to come here and update anybody. Now I feel bad that my presence here is somewhat politically motivated, so let me start by telling you recent news.

#1 Thanks to Pitfinder, Matt and I successfully conquered the lemon layer cake recipe that had so failed us in February when we didn't have the lemon oil ingredient. Delicious, but not quite worth the effort (we don't have a mixmaster and doing the whole thing by hand got quite tedious). It is a very sensitive cake and doing the slightest little thing differently - ruins it. Photos to follow when I get home to my computer tomorrow night. Thanks Pitfinder.

#2 My beautiful blue parrot, Azure, got sick last week. I went to give him food, and he was disinterested. So Matt took him to the vet, who sent him to the bird vet, and after blood tests, faeces tests and overnight stay in hospital he came home with the diagnosis "internal bleeding/bruised muscles" and he hadn't eaten at all for the last 24 hours prior to the admission. It seems he must have had a fall. I now have to weigh him every day, make sure he has fresh fruit and vegies every day because it was all he would initially eat, and give him anti inflammatories twice a day. It takes me an extra 20 minutes to get ready in the morning. However, at least he is still with us, and worth now about twice his initial cost. Funnily my cousin's budgies were in the same hospital at the same time as Azure. The girl budgie (Andy) had cancer and had to have a hysterectomy. I have to be honest, were it my budgie, I'm not convinced I would have gone to the expense, but my cousin loves her budgies and takes very good care of them.

#3 The reason I'm at work and posting (which I would never ordinarily do) is that I am very cranky with the government, and I think you all should be too. You know how they say they're giving more money to the hospital system? Do you know where they're taking it from? Pathology. I have some friends who are working exceptionally hard to become pathologists, it is a long intense pathway that means lots and lots of sacrifices. Anyway.... Here's the basic deal, this is a direct "cut and paste" job from S&N.
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SOME FACTS
When your doctor orders multiple tests, only a few of these are paid for by the Government.
Typically, the pathology practice picks up the costs of about half of all tests and does them for free.

Over the past 20 years, all pathology companies have had a co-operative agreement with Governments to cap rebates for tests.

While rebates have stayed the same, average weekly earnings have risen by 197% and the CPI by 139%




Pathology is critical to modern healthcare and is providing new and better ways of diagnosing and treating illness. People are healthier and living longer. Doctors are needing more pathology tests performed for their patients, but pathology's share of Medicare has kept falling.

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So I have written to our prime minister, our deputy prime minister, the minister for health and my local member, and I encourage you to do the same!

Here is an example of the email to my local member in case you need ideas:
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I am a GP Registrar, near the end of my training and you are my local Member of Parliament, I live work in ****************. I am writing to you because I have concerns for my patients and the added burden that will now fall on them as a result of the cuts to pathology which have been snuck into the federal budget. Pathology have had a cap on rebates for tests which has remained essentially unchanged for 20 years, despite the rising costs of living, and instead of increasing these rebates, your government has seen fit to cut them.

What does this mean for the people in your electorate? It means pathology companies will no longer be able to afford to bulk bill investigations for my patients. This means whenever I do a test for someone, they will look at me and say "How much will this cost me?". It means that the divide between the wealthy and the working class will deepen, as the standards of health for the working class drops. It means that preventable disease such as diabetes complications, heart attacks and strokes will increase, as people won't be able to afford the blood tests to identify risk factors. It means that the cost of health to the government will increase as prevention is far cheaper than treatment. It means that your government will be blamed for a lowering of health standards in Australia and you won't be re-elected.

Apart from what I have mentioned, it is my understanding that this is in fact breaking an ongoing funding agreement which was signed in 2004 by the coalition and agreed to by the Deputy Prime Minister, The Hon Julia Gillard. You will not improve health problems in Australia by shifting the money around - by taking money from pathology to give to hospitals, you will improve it by increasing funding to health across the board.

So I am writing to you, as an advocate for my patients, and imploring you, their advocate in the Parliament, to stand up and question this move, to bring it before your fellow politicians and to ask for funding to be reinstated.

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Have a think about it everyone!