March 2nd, 2026Just sayin’…

I got a letter the other day. A real letter. From the post office. Most of mine are emails these days so it felt quite special. Until I saw who it was from. It was from Medicare.
Anyway, surprisingly, inside was a cheque. A real cheque. I thought cheques had been abandoned, pretty much along with cash and coins.
But no, there it was, a cheque. But not for me. For Lake Imaging.
Lake Imaging. The x-ray people. Well, they do a lot of other stuff as well and I seem to be there more than I like these days. Everything needs a follow up.
So what had happened was I paid my Lake Imaging bill, for being in the theatre doing something when my ankle was being pieced together.
And I got some money off from Medicare. But then that money had to go from Medicare to Lake Imaging. And instead of just posting it to Lake Imaging, they posted it to me, to take to Lake Imaging.
Any of their branches are fine, except Daylesford, I guess because they don’t have an office. Just very nice people. But, and this is where it gets tricky, I have a broken ankle in a big boot and I cannot walk. I could take the boot off and drive to Ballarat but when I got there I could not leave the car. I guess I could call them and ask them to come to the car but that sounds a bit odd.
I could, I guess, ask Kyle to drive to Ballarat but he is already doing a lot for me and saying the F word so many times a day I think the idea could send him over the edge – and I do really need him a bit longer.
So the cheque sits in the envelope in the car waiting for a trip to Ballarat which will happen Wednesday week when I see the surgeon for what I hope is the last time.
(I know Medicare used to work like this with doctors but I honestly thought that they had fixed the system. Oh well.)
Still on medical things. A trend seems to be happening here…anyway, in 2024, about August, I was heading off to New Zealand for my father-in-law’s 80th birthday celebrations.
I felt a little under the weather, did all the Covid and flu tests and then popped into the doctor’s on the way through to the airport. It does not matter which doctor.
I explained I was feeling a bit chesty, maybe a bit tight in the chest and wondered if I needed antibiotics. Rather than get any worse overseas.
The doctor said my breathing was fine but then became more interested in the tightness in my chest. They said they would let me travel but if I felt any issues I would need to go straight to emergency. They also gave me a referral to a cardiologist in Ballarat. Good grief.
So I had my holiday and all was well. No breathing issues and no heart attack. But then came the cardiologist visit. All was well but I was booked in for a stress test. But nothing was available that year. Factoring in a few weeks away on more holidays, the test did not take place until November last year. And the cardiologist was busy until the end of March this year. So a long time coming.
I rang just this week to see if I could get an earlier booking but he is booked out now until November. I was also told I needed a new referral. FFS.
So I made a telebooking for another doctor and explained the situation. They were really good and listened intently and after a brief pause they asked “why are you going back?”
Turns out they had the results of the stress test and all was normal. No issues, no real reason to head back to a heart specialist. Of course they said it was my choice but one, it will save me a couple of hundred dollars, and two, maybe someone who really needs to be there can take my spot. Just sayin’…