Thanks so much for your kind support Ginger, I really appreciate it 🙂
I’m sorry you’ve had to go through that journey, and it’s great to now hear you have compassionate care from your current oncologist. I’m unable to get a second opinion without going without monitoring for extended periods and I’m concerned it’ll result in delay in potential disease advancement discovery to SMM considering I’m high-intermediate risk, with symptoms. I live in Australia so getting private quality care is extremely expensive, and I do not qualify for private health insurance due to having way too much pre-existing health conditions (so the way I understand it, what is already in existence is excluded of has long waiting periods before it’s covered, and the monthly premiums would be extremely expensive due to a combination of existing diseases and age). The last private specialist I saw cost $450 for 15 mins, and the out of pocket was around $420.
So I’m within the public health system. I’m thankful to have it, however the wait times are in the years.
I actively advocate within the current system (both with the medical staff I interact with for my own medical situation, as well as on a state and federal level, raising awareness with govt and other organisations for the benefit of vulnerable people in society) however there is somewhat little onus for medics to be receptive / responsive to individual patient needs, so often individual circumstances are overlooked (like social situations, variances from mainstream symptoms or unusual reactions to mainstream treatments - in my case, due to not responding to treatments, I have been declined further care because I do not fit the current offerings of meds/standard of care.
Hence why I engage in systemic advocacy 🙂
Thank you again for your reply, I really appreciate it!