24 June 2005
I’M SO SICK AND TIRED OF BEING STUFFED AROUND BY PEOPLE!!! I know Tim probably has heard enough of my whinging and complaining but he is so relaxed about everything and he thinks it’s not a problem not bening able to use the shower for 3 days. The bathroom people came to install the shower screen yesterday – 5 weeks from the date they (semi)finished the bathroom. I remembered kicking up a fuss when they finished the bathroom without the shower screen – how can you have a shower without the shower screen! They told me it’d take three weeks to make from the date of measurement. Hello! It’s been five weeks and I’ve been having showers without the shower screen all this time and of course, it has been a pain in the neck having to mop the tiles each time I have a shower because the water splashed everywhere. Tim is not bothered by this at all, which pissed me off even more! This morning, I was forced to have a bath instead of a shower. One may say what’s the big deal. Well, the whole purpose of having the bathroom renovated was to make life easier for ME – it all started when I was coming home from the hospital. The OT from MECRS came to check the house for safety issues at home and pointed out that the shower was not safe for me because it’s not a stepless shower and I would have to step over it. It was a bit of challenge when I first came home but I managed fine to step over it and have progressed to not using a shower stool at all. I honestly didn’t think we need to renovate the bathroom but Tim was so looking forward to having a new bathroom and nothing was going to stop him. When I found out that I couldn’t have a shower for three days, I was looking at the bath tub and was thinking of a way to get in and out of it safely. I noticed that I had nothing to hold on to when getting in and out of the bath. I spoke to Tim about this last night and he just said that’s ok I could sit at the edge of the bath and swing my legs around. When I tried to do that this morning, I realised it was almost impossible – I sat on the edge of the bath but because I had nothing to hold on to I could not swing both legs around so I dipped my left foot in the tub and try to stand on it so I could try to bring my right leg in but the tub was so slippery I could not stand on my left foot at all. In the end, I had to get Tim to help me getting in and out of the tub. It’s hard not to be angry. $30,000 + later, I still don’t have a safe bathroom to use. I think the architect is a bit of an idiot or shall we say, incompetent. He was asked to design a bathroom for a ‘disabled’ person. I wonder if he had thought about the issue with a slippery bath tub with nothing to hold on to.
When my taxi arrived at Epworth, I saw Gavin and Tracy walking this elderly lady around the footpath. I went straight to the physio treatment room and sat down on a physio couch and waited for Gavin. There was another patient in an electrical wheelchair next to me. He ‘drove’ his wheelchair closer and introduced himself. His name is Paul and he told me it’s his forth time here. Apparently he came all the way from Tasmania to have treatment here. He said they have the best physios here. I think it’s always comforting to hear that even though it does not guarantee my full recovery. I didn’t have a chance to ask him what happened to him because Gavin walked in with some tapes and wanted to tape my ankle. When Gavin was taping my foot, I asked him if he had other paitents who also had shoulder subluxation. He said yes, many of them had that. I then asked him if that’s a subluxation I had to have or could it have been avoided. He said it’s unavoidable and with the patients there, they can manage it better by give them some arm support but other than that, there was nothing could be done. I’m glad to hear that in a way because I always wonder whether I would have been better off if I had gone to Epworth in the first place. I now know for sure that as far as my upper limb is concerned, I would not have been better off there. On the other hand, I’m even more convinced that Gavin is not the person who can help me have a full recovery of my upper limb function. He is probably a gait expert but the fact that he said subluxation is unavoidable shows that he probably doesn’t know much about the arms. Neil and Tim have found a lot of literatures about subluxation and one thing they found that could have been done is by using electrical stimulation (stims machine). In fact, I think the stims machine have helped me a lot in recovering from the subluxation. I remember my shoulder was very sore at one stage and I used to switch on the stims machine while I was watching TV and just let it contracts my shoulder muscles and it actually made the shoulder less painful.
I mentioned to Gavin that when I went for my personal training, Mary got me to do some arm/shoulder stretches and exercises but afterwards my shoulder is quite sore and I’m a bit concerned. He thinks it’s good if what I felt was soreness in the muscle but not in the joints because it means the muscle is working hard. He doesn’t think trainging in the gym is going to cause any damage to my shoulder. He said if I were to injury my shoulder, it’s more likely to come from something with speed – such as trying to break a fall by landing on my hands.
After he taped my foot, he asked me to start with some walking practice in front of a mirror. As I was walking towards the mirror, I noticed the guy who annoyed the hell out of me the other day was sitting in his wheelchair parked right next to the mirror. He was doing the same thing again today. I think his name is Tyrone. I decided I’d just ignore him today. I walked up and down the room trying to practice bending my left knee and swinging it through. Tyrone was trying to get my attention by making some noise. When I looked up, he was moving his lips and blowing kisses again. I was very tempted to tell Gavin that Tyrone has something to tell him but I thought it might be better if I just avoid eye contact with him and igore him. My ordeal was finally over when Gavin told me to hop on the trampoline. He was going to set up one for me in the room right in front of the ladder/step like bars but I told him I prefer doing it outside next to the stairs. It’s a good excuse to get out of the room so I don’t have to put up with Tyrone.
Gavin showed me what he wanted me to do on the trampoline – starting with standing on my right foot and left leg up, jump on to the left and then back on to the right foot. As always, it looked easy when he did it but it’s quite hard when I tried to do it. He left me there to practice this for a while until Tracy came to fetch me. Gavin has asked her to take me for a walk outside on a slope in the carpark. She took me to the carpark, which I haven’t been in there before. When we got to the entrace to the underground carpark, I realised that must be the slope Gavin was talking about. She said I had to walk up and down the slope about six times. The slope is quite steep so she stood in front of me as I was going down just in case if I fall over. I’m not sure what’s the purpose of this exercise but I was glad when she told me it was the last lap I was doing.
When we went back to the physio treatment room, Gavin set up a box for me in the walking rails so I could practice jumping. I couldn’t belive my luck – Tyrone was still there, right next to the walking rails. I thought if he bothers me again, I should tell Gavin to put him on a tilt table because I know he would hate it. I think it’d be quite painful for the lower limbs to bear weight after they haven’t worked for a while. I can’t really remember what it felt like when the physio tried to get me to stand up after I was in bed for weeks but I’m sure it was extremely uncomfortable. Gavin must have read my mind because as I was practising jumping in the walking rails, he and a student physio got Tyrone to stand up and lean on the table they set up in front of him. As I suspected, he didn’t like that at all and was complaining that he was in pain. Gavin left him there and told him that he had to stand for 20 minutes. Well, that should keep him occupied for a while so I can do my jumping practice. I did a bit of jumping practice until Gavin told me to get on the leg press and do some jumping there. When he was setting me up, Chris, an exercise physiology staff came up to Gavin and told him about someone from the hospital (administration) told him that the way he runs the session for one person is not cost effective etc. I couldn’t really hear the details but I guess the gist of it is that the hospital is very cost concious and profit driven I guess. It makes me a bit worried of my situation. When my private health insurance runs out, I would have to fund the sessions myself. According to the hospital, they would charge me $50 per session but if the health fund was paying, they’d charge more. If I were the hospital, I would prefer to take up patients who are not self-funded so I can charge more. That would make me a very unprofitable patient. Come to think of it, the hospital is making a decent profit out of the physios. I don’t know how much Gavin gets paid but if he sees 2 or 3 patients at a time, assuming they are not privately funded, the hospital is probably getting at least $200 to $300 per session. I’m sure he won’t be paid $200-$300 per hour. The overhead should not be too high given that there are only 2 receptionists there. It’s very hard not to think like an accountant.
When I was on the leg press, I was reflecting on my session. I’m actually not very happy with it. I feel it’s just another session where Gavin booked in a few patients at the same time and this time,2 in wheelchairs and since I’m walking, I don’t feel I was getting enough attention. I almost feel like telling him that his physio sessions are more expensive than the dance lessons I had. A private dance lesson is about the same price but in a private dance lesson you don’t have to share it with other people so you get the full attention from the dance teacher. I’m not sure how to resolve this lack of attention issue because the way the hospital is structured, it’s impossible for me to have a session without other patients.
When my taxi arrived at Epworth, I saw Gavin and Tracy walking this elderly lady around the footpath. I went straight to the physio treatment room and sat down on a physio couch and waited for Gavin. There was another patient in an electrical wheelchair next to me. He ‘drove’ his wheelchair closer and introduced himself. His name is Paul and he told me it’s his forth time here. Apparently he came all the way from Tasmania to have treatment here. He said they have the best physios here. I think it’s always comforting to hear that even though it does not guarantee my full recovery. I didn’t have a chance to ask him what happened to him because Gavin walked in with some tapes and wanted to tape my ankle. When Gavin was taping my foot, I asked him if he had other paitents who also had shoulder subluxation. He said yes, many of them had that. I then asked him if that’s a subluxation I had to have or could it have been avoided. He said it’s unavoidable and with the patients there, they can manage it better by give them some arm support but other than that, there was nothing could be done. I’m glad to hear that in a way because I always wonder whether I would have been better off if I had gone to Epworth in the first place. I now know for sure that as far as my upper limb is concerned, I would not have been better off there. On the other hand, I’m even more convinced that Gavin is not the person who can help me have a full recovery of my upper limb function. He is probably a gait expert but the fact that he said subluxation is unavoidable shows that he probably doesn’t know much about the arms. Neil and Tim have found a lot of literatures about subluxation and one thing they found that could have been done is by using electrical stimulation (stims machine). In fact, I think the stims machine have helped me a lot in recovering from the subluxation. I remember my shoulder was very sore at one stage and I used to switch on the stims machine while I was watching TV and just let it contracts my shoulder muscles and it actually made the shoulder less painful.
I mentioned to Gavin that when I went for my personal training, Mary got me to do some arm/shoulder stretches and exercises but afterwards my shoulder is quite sore and I’m a bit concerned. He thinks it’s good if what I felt was soreness in the muscle but not in the joints because it means the muscle is working hard. He doesn’t think trainging in the gym is going to cause any damage to my shoulder. He said if I were to injury my shoulder, it’s more likely to come from something with speed – such as trying to break a fall by landing on my hands.
After he taped my foot, he asked me to start with some walking practice in front of a mirror. As I was walking towards the mirror, I noticed the guy who annoyed the hell out of me the other day was sitting in his wheelchair parked right next to the mirror. He was doing the same thing again today. I think his name is Tyrone. I decided I’d just ignore him today. I walked up and down the room trying to practice bending my left knee and swinging it through. Tyrone was trying to get my attention by making some noise. When I looked up, he was moving his lips and blowing kisses again. I was very tempted to tell Gavin that Tyrone has something to tell him but I thought it might be better if I just avoid eye contact with him and igore him. My ordeal was finally over when Gavin told me to hop on the trampoline. He was going to set up one for me in the room right in front of the ladder/step like bars but I told him I prefer doing it outside next to the stairs. It’s a good excuse to get out of the room so I don’t have to put up with Tyrone.
Gavin showed me what he wanted me to do on the trampoline – starting with standing on my right foot and left leg up, jump on to the left and then back on to the right foot. As always, it looked easy when he did it but it’s quite hard when I tried to do it. He left me there to practice this for a while until Tracy came to fetch me. Gavin has asked her to take me for a walk outside on a slope in the carpark. She took me to the carpark, which I haven’t been in there before. When we got to the entrace to the underground carpark, I realised that must be the slope Gavin was talking about. She said I had to walk up and down the slope about six times. The slope is quite steep so she stood in front of me as I was going down just in case if I fall over. I’m not sure what’s the purpose of this exercise but I was glad when she told me it was the last lap I was doing.
When we went back to the physio treatment room, Gavin set up a box for me in the walking rails so I could practice jumping. I couldn’t belive my luck – Tyrone was still there, right next to the walking rails. I thought if he bothers me again, I should tell Gavin to put him on a tilt table because I know he would hate it. I think it’d be quite painful for the lower limbs to bear weight after they haven’t worked for a while. I can’t really remember what it felt like when the physio tried to get me to stand up after I was in bed for weeks but I’m sure it was extremely uncomfortable. Gavin must have read my mind because as I was practising jumping in the walking rails, he and a student physio got Tyrone to stand up and lean on the table they set up in front of him. As I suspected, he didn’t like that at all and was complaining that he was in pain. Gavin left him there and told him that he had to stand for 20 minutes. Well, that should keep him occupied for a while so I can do my jumping practice. I did a bit of jumping practice until Gavin told me to get on the leg press and do some jumping there. When he was setting me up, Chris, an exercise physiology staff came up to Gavin and told him about someone from the hospital (administration) told him that the way he runs the session for one person is not cost effective etc. I couldn’t really hear the details but I guess the gist of it is that the hospital is very cost concious and profit driven I guess. It makes me a bit worried of my situation. When my private health insurance runs out, I would have to fund the sessions myself. According to the hospital, they would charge me $50 per session but if the health fund was paying, they’d charge more. If I were the hospital, I would prefer to take up patients who are not self-funded so I can charge more. That would make me a very unprofitable patient. Come to think of it, the hospital is making a decent profit out of the physios. I don’t know how much Gavin gets paid but if he sees 2 or 3 patients at a time, assuming they are not privately funded, the hospital is probably getting at least $200 to $300 per session. I’m sure he won’t be paid $200-$300 per hour. The overhead should not be too high given that there are only 2 receptionists there. It’s very hard not to think like an accountant.
When I was on the leg press, I was reflecting on my session. I’m actually not very happy with it. I feel it’s just another session where Gavin booked in a few patients at the same time and this time,2 in wheelchairs and since I’m walking, I don’t feel I was getting enough attention. I almost feel like telling him that his physio sessions are more expensive than the dance lessons I had. A private dance lesson is about the same price but in a private dance lesson you don’t have to share it with other people so you get the full attention from the dance teacher. I’m not sure how to resolve this lack of attention issue because the way the hospital is structured, it’s impossible for me to have a session without other patients.
posted by Teresa Liu at 12:27 AM
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