Writing stories with a conclusion
I Bit The Bullet And Lived To Tell The Tale.
Let’s not leave you hanging, and thank you for reading my earlier stories
A few stories ago, I wrote about facing up to possible issues with my health and dealing with them before I flew 3,000 miles for my brother’s funeral. Many of you read the story, and the subsequent one about his funeral.
You deserve to know the outcome.
We had the story about me needing a diagnostic ultra sound and my blissful ignorance about the waiting lists in our rural area.
It was a very tight schedule to get it all done, but I needed to know before I went to my brother’s funeral
If I was facing imminent surgery to remove the collapsed prosthesis, financially my viable options were NIL.
I had been checking out the cost of one of two choices.
$8000 to remove just the prosthesis and retain the breast.
$ 500 to remove both. Not a lot of choice for an old lady, living on a pension.
It would have to be in a public hospital — I have no private health cover these days. I still have no idea what the waiting lists are like, and I suspect they would be long, given the waiting list for just the diagnostic ultrasound.
Physical pain and mental relief!
It wasn’t my Doctor’s fault that I wandered about for three weeks with the referral in my handbag, only to be galvanised into action by the pressing need to know BEFORE I went to Melbourne.
I also had no idea it could be another three weeks before I got my ultrasound. Fortunately, my local scanning clinic were happy to find a spot for me in Bunbury, 48 hours before my scheduled departure.
Triggered by pain.
A couple of weeks earlier, I started wearing a $5 sports bra I had bought on-line a couple of years ago, when I found that a bra with underwires was too painful over the ribs. I had bought two sports bras.
While it was too light to support my external prosthesis, it was perfect for supporting the breast and relieving the pain where the collapsed capsule pressed against the flesh.
It was a godsend! After a couple of days, there was no pain but there was still the question of “keep or lose” to be resolved.
Mental Relief
Nov 21. Tuesday: I saw the Radiologist on Tuesday — after a 54km trip each way from Busselton to Bunbury.
Knowing I was flying to Melbourne in less than 48hrs, the Radiologist was open, thorough, and very encouraging.
She agreed the sport’s bra I had started wearing to support my breast can be the answer.
She didn’t find anything of concern apart from the collapsed prosthesis which has been like that for over 20 years.
She totally ruled out any thoughts of surgery. She also noted there had been no change in my mammograms in over 12 years.
That was such a relief!
I had no pain when I saw her, explained about the gardening (90 hours in 18 days), and she recommended less gardening!
Seeing the Doctor an hour before my flight ✈
Nov 23. I did see my Doctor on Thurs as scheduled, but he agrees any surgery is off the table for the foreseeable future.
How lucky am I, that a couple of $5 sport’s bras from off the internet have saved me!
Since then I have bought half a dozen more, wear one every day and night, and I am deeply grateful that my Radiologist could cross check against my previous medical records.
That there has been no change in my mammograms since 2012 is something I need to remember in future. It might save a great deal of unnecessary angst.
For all its shortcomings, Australia does have a pretty awesome health care system, underpinned by universal Medicare.
Why our American friends refused to adopt a Universal Health Care system we, in Australia, will never understand.
Bringing a Medium story to a satisfactory conclusion.
Do you sometimes write a story “on the fly”? Excited to get it out there and intending to come back and edit it to finish it off?
It could well be that, as in this instance, there simply wasn’t time to write the conclusion because it wasn’t known at the time of writing — especially when it’s a personal, real life incident.
I will be making more effort to make sure my real life stories get a satisfactory conclusion, as far as telling the story goes. There’s no guarantee the conclusion — whatever it turns out to be — will be satisfactory on all counts.
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