Broken Hip in Australia Saga #3

Well, I've waited long enough to write this blog post, haven’t I? 

I've been battling trying to get well from breaking my hip. And it has been a battle. But I don’t want to sound really negative about the Australian medical system because I know so many people have good experiences with it.

It’s just that mine’s not been so great. And I attribute that to two major reasons.

1)     I think I was in a really superior medical group back in Oklahoma. I was in a very interconnected medical system based on a very good hospital. 

Actually, it was almost too interconnected at some times. I tried to get away from a specialist and everyone tried to send me back to him. I couldn't get away from him. 

But it had its advantages. Many of them. Any specialist or doctor or clinic I went to had all my records. And they had assistants whose job it was to double check everything on a list. Was I still taking this medication? What was my blood pressure? Why was I coming to see the doctor today?

 When the doctor walked into the room, he or she knew where to start from my computer profile. And everything they did or prescribed went right into the profile. That everyone else could access.

2)     Australia just isn't there yet, computer network wise. Many Australians are very computer savvy. Both my and my husband’s companies are on the leading edge with their computing and networks. 

But.  I've noticed that many smaller stores (example: Art galleries) that would be online in a sophisticated way back home, just aren't here. And the medical system. They just aren't.

My physical therapist (I finally got one by going to another GP) is trying to get my records from the hospital that performed my surgery and so far she can’t. She just can’t. She explained to me that medicine here is getting more computerized. They still write stuff down, but then they scan it into a computer. But no one seems to be able to access it. But maybe that’s just Nambour. I don’t know.

But the good news is that I am finally in physical therapy. I still can’t put weight on my leg and hip for another week and a half. I get X-rays on the 14^th of next month. Hopefully, at that point it will just be, get stronger and go forward.

I hope so, because I’m traveling to the U.S. to my son’s university graduation on the 21 of May. And he has a job! He will be working as a paralegal for a law firm in Washington D.C. after graduation. 

So I’m flying from Brisbane to Hartford Connecticut, then driving to D.C. with my son to move stuff, then driving with him back to my home town of Tulsa, Oklahoma. He wants to hang out with his friends for a few days before he begins grownup life. I’ll fly back to Brisbane from Tulsa and he will drive back to D.C. and start to work.

And life goes on.