I enjoyed life, I was very active, I worked, danced, went out dancing twice a week, very
active in the community. And from the time I think I had that spinal surgery and then
other issues coming into my life, I think about four years after that I was diagnosed
with polymyalgia rheumatica. And in a lot of pain, and as the years progressed from
the spinal surgery, I think pain levels increased. So I was starting to live in chronic pain,
which made enjoying any part of my life very difficult. And subsequently, at that point,
my marriage broke down and that put a lot of pressure on me mentally and emotionally,
which no doubt impacted also physically on me. And then I lost my home and went into
an independent living facility in an aged care place where I rented a little unit on
my own for nine months. And I didn't have family around me. That was one of the things.
I was on my own literally. I had nobody that I could really open up to share my pain with,
my personal pain. And then of course, I actually was admitted for pneumonia in 2015 to Kabul
Child's Hospital and took me a long time to recover from that. And then subsequently in
August 2016 was admitted for this parainfluenza virus. And I had been diagnosed ten years prior
with asthma. And the combination of it, I just fell apart on my admission. I was just
feeling so ill. I'll be very honest about it. I questioned whether or not I was able
to get through it. From what my body, my emotions, my mental state, whether I had the ability
to fight it. I think I spent most, almost a month in a hospital situation, in that environment,
from Kabul Child's Hospital and a transfer to Kilkoy Hospital to get over that virus.
And I know that the nurse navigator suggested this transition for me to improve the outcome
for me to recover from a health perspective. And that in itself just blew me away. It put
me back, I was a country girl born and bred, put me back into a little hospital situation
where I could look out the window and I could actually see beautiful hills. I could, you
know, on my wheelie walker, out to the front door and I could sit and look at the rose
garden and the beauty of the gardens out there. And I just started to feel as if, wow, I am
starting to get my health back. For a public patient, you know, in a healthcare system
that many people complain about and say, oh, it doesn't work for me or you know, they don't
do this, they don't this. Look, I haven't honestly got a bad thing to say about the
fact of the services that I have received. And I mean, I've been in a lot of hospitals
in a lot of states and overseas and my goodness, hats off, hats off to staff, every one of
them. That's a good question. I love the idea that, you know, as they say, horses for courses
and that we need, you know, the doctors because of the physiology and the anatomy of people.
We need the nurses because of, you know, being cleaned and cared for in a hospital
environment in a bed. We need the allied health professionals because of their individualised
services. But what I would love to see is people becoming more educated,
ordinary people, people becoming more educated and aware that they have a say and also that they
they really don't have to be, you know, like an IQ of 150 to understand their body. But to listen
to their body will kill you a lot. And then to have the understanding that with health professionals
that are very, very open to embracing a holistic approach and give them the confidence to take
back their own personal power. And I'm not dismissing the importance of the other roles.
They are so necessary. But ultimately, it is the patient's body. It is the patient who is feeling
what is going on and as good as any health provider can be. They are not sitting in that
same position as that person. And also, I think too, that a patient also educates a health professional
so that when you open up to a health professional, you are probably enlightening them in a lot of
ways about little things they had never thought of, which expands their role. And it can also
increase their skill set, which then has another effect of bouncing back. And so I just think
that apart from a holistic approach, a very integrated approach between professional
and patient with a two-way sort of conversation going on.
