~HoPe~

I have been trying to work out what this funny little feeling is that I have had since Monday...

I believe it is HOPE

HOPE for change, HOPE for the future, HOPE for my son's life to improve

We had a thorough assesment Monday morning for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome - there isn't a specialist here in Tas and so we whilst we had been given the diagnosis,  it never felt 'official' somehow.

The doctor we saw was just lovely (Dr R), Small Man liked him which is always a bonus. 

In fact he received some of the SM CHARM that is usually reserved for people after he gets to know them.

The outcome of the appointment is that Dr R is going to discuss SM's case with his colleagues - he said it's not a straight forward case and he wants to work out the best plan of action.

There was one definite factor though, and that is that SM definitely has CFS.

There will be another trip (co-ordinated with our pre op appointment).

From there we went to see the surgeon at his rooms in Williamstown.

He was running an hour late, but that was ok, we had time to catch our breath and prepare for the appointment, you know sort of touching on 'worst case scenarios' in the waiting room, just in case.

Our turn finally came and I was relieved to meet such a gentle, kind, slighty older gentleman - who has 4,500 lap band surgeries to his name - OMG!!!

Now I know why we needed to wait,( not in the waiting room) wait for the right person to do this for SM - and he is THE right person.

We went through SM's history, obviously Matt had given him the detailed account, and basically he agreed with me that:

a: I don't want to wait until SM gets diabetes and then try and fix it

b: I don't want SM to get much bigger before he has the operation as it will make it harder to do

 - there is such thing as being 'too big' to get a lap band (gastric band for my overseas friends)

We left the appointment with SM on the waiting list, and a questionnaire to complete and return to the hospital.

It's all happening - and possibly in a few months time.

We have decided that SM will be a private patient in a public hospital for this, if we had to wait for the Royal Childrens to approve the funding it could delay things, and plus that is why we have private health, I'm not out to drain the public sysytem for all I can get - quite the opposite. 

It was my first thought to use our private health if possible (bugger them, we pay over $300 per month and Big A's work pays another $200 I think (?).

This will dramatically reduce the waiting time.

The surgeon is only going to charge us the scheduled fee, so there will be no out of pocket, which will be handy as there will be a few trips involved, and we will be staying over for a few days after the operation, just in case.  I don't want to bring him all the way home and something go wrong and so on....always better safe than sorry!

I will write the rest a bit later, that might be enough for now!!

G

x♥x