On a completely separate note, Rob, my somewhat blurry memory keeps nagging me that you had a wife not all that long ago, and now it appears that you do not.
My condolences in all cases, but all the moreso if this is a recent event.
Hi Andrew,
Yes, until six years and ten months ago.
One November she found a lump; four Novembers later, five cancer ops and one broken hip on her card, she quietly left us.
Thanks for the sympathy - these things are often difficult for others to express - always feels either plain awkward or even, in some cases, almost an intrusion.
We became an item when she was fifteen; she died in her sixties. It was a wonderful time together that I wouldn't exchange for the world; hell,
I had the world.
The first four cancer ops were on private insurance; when she broke her hip she had the choice: private or public hospital. Private was 60 klicks away, public twenty minutes by road. She chose public to cut the time, and we discovered that public was every bit as good - if not better - than the private experiences. During checks for the hip they discovered cancer had returned. We asked the oncologist (public) about the differences in meds availability on the two sytems, and he said what you need you will get in the public service. Within ten days she had a new hip and the cancer out. During the many private visits for chemo, radiation etc. we were told by one private onco. that it was a constant battle between himself and the insurance companies over meds... and that's only
inside hospital: out in the wild, you're on your own in private care.
It was that last pair of ops that led her to suggest we cancel the private premiums, which we did.
Here (Mallorca), my own public GP used to run his own private practice too, and consult in both the state service one as well as his own. I've never asked him - not my business - but I'm led to believe that part of being put through medical school means a public practice responibility too. Irony: after dealing with me and my own problems for a few years, during a consultation he told me he'd joined the club. I thought he meant the yacht one or perhaps the art one to which I'd belonged for a couple of years, and he laughed, said no, heart attack! Now, whenever I have to see him officially, I never fail to give him a short consultation about hearts (been there first, more personal experience than has he!); he has a sense of humour, thank goodness.
Rob C