FREE? there is always a price tag

From the time I left Durban to visit my daughter Kerry in middleburg (Rivers of Joy blogspot} My husband Andy fell ill. He had a severe pain in his left side, very severe. We re state patients where the first requirement is PATIENCE. Before proceeding, I want to make it quite clear that despite everything, we are very grateful that there is such a facility as not everyone has medical aid cover and the cost of all things medical could cause even the healthiest person to have tension, anxiety or even heart attacks. Medical aid conspiracy or medical aid scheme?

Andy went to casualty to see a doctor. After going through a screening process, that was to make sure he was REALLY sick, or simply had nothing better to do. She would decide whether he could go on or go home. He was to go on. He collected his file and joined a queue to have his name entered into a book. He was number 247, a long wait was ahead of him. By this time he had one foot in the grave, or so it felt A doctor eventually examined him, gave him tablets and sent him home. As the days went by there was not improvement, so back to casualty he went. The whole process was repeated. This time the tablets were different, however, there was not improvement. Third time around they admitted him to a 48 hour ward and a Doctor was assigned to him. He suffered exhaustion by this time due to lack of sleep (I shared in that bit) but worse still I was becoming less sympathetic and felt very guilty about it. Was I an awful person? He was discharged eventually with bottles of meds, but with the severe pain too.

It seemed impossible, but he had to go back again. This time he saw a surgeon. He did a special sort of xray and .... lo and behold! there it was! a tear in his gall bladder. He is scheduled for a GI which entails swallowing a camera and having the tear burned together from the inside. That took place during the whole month of March. There is only one maching working so he can only have his procedure done at the end of April and has painkillers to take until then. Two months of pain and suffering and me trying very hard to put myself in his place by reminding myself that I may have the sleepless nights but at least I was pain free. I can only thank the Lord for my patience because I could not have done it on my own. It has been a long and wearisome experience and still we wait, but it was all for free .......