Operation number 2... AUS

Posted by peterj116 @peterj116, Mar 11 2:05pm

Fairly quick meeting with the surgeon yesterday.
I showed him my bladder diary from last week & he was a bit horrified.
But it gave him all the answers he needed.
"How many pad do you use per day?"
"All of those entries are a pad change".
"Oh".

So if you're considering an artificial urinary sphincter, I totally recommend that you walk in there with a completed recent bladder diary. It's much easier to have numbers to quantify your leakage, rather than sit there & guess.
Here's mine.
That was enough to put me on 3 waiting lists.

One to join the public waiting list, one to join the private waiting list & another one to put me on standby so I can be rushed in at one day's notice, if someone else cancels their surgery.

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Prostate Cancer Support Group.

heavyphil | @heavyphil | Mar 12 8:05am

Peter, I hope you get your procedure soon. Are these lists all different drs? Do you have confidence in all of them?
If it’s just one, that’s a weird triage system for sure!

peterj116 | @peterj116 | Mar 12 1:57pm

It's actually one urologist.

I'm on 3 waiting lists.

The normal waiting list in a public hospital
A standby list (like an airport) where I can jump in at a moment's notice if another surgery is cancelled
An application for a private hospital

We have a good public health system down here.
Public hospitals are free (paid for with our taxes)
That's the first option.

Private hospitals do exist (generally paid for with private health insurance)
But we have a Government (i.e. taxpayer-funded) system called Accident Compensation.
It means that if approved, you can bypass the public hospital waiting lists & go to a private hospital instead - for free.
That's what I'm hoping for.

Fun fact: Accident Compensation offers free medical care to anyone - including tourists.
So if you break your leg skiing... free hospital.