Fundraising... Should I or Shouldn't I

[Danielle_NZ]

What do you think you will acheive by going private? I would generally think that in this situation the public system is the best place to deal with diagnosing what is wrong.

We are hoping for an un bias opinion, and someone who actually wants to look into his symptoms and past the cyst for the problem. He has been passed backwards and forwards between teams and they believe because of this he has had his second opinions, even though the resident and registar were the same on both teams. Because of his past a lot of neurosurgeons will not operate on him (he had this problem in New Zealand) and if we decide that the risks outweigh the benefits for the surgery we will need to find someone who will take that risk with us... really there is so much information going on in my head I don't know what's here or there... there are so many what if's at the moment.

For example of one of our issues, Josh has had low sodium since day after his last operation, we are now 10 days past op and his numbers are slowly getting lower yet they haven't changed the course of treatment (1.2 litres of fluids a day max and no water) and they haven't even tried to find out which kind of low sodium issue he has. They have said it "COULD" be a side effect from his surgery and are going to treat it as such. I asked them how long they were going to do this and they basically said they won't change anything and when he changes to Rehab they will probably just remove the fluid restriction (which from my understanding will make it worse).

We've now been told that it will be at least a week before he gets moved to rehab and then will be there for about 4 weeks, and all this is because the doctors don't know what is wrong so want to try this option of treatment

[Mother Goose]

I also support the staying in the public system. But push for further reviews. Don't give up on it - even once he hits rehab.

As a side note, MOST Private Consultants also work in the Public Hospitals as well. Even if it's only a few days a week or month.

In terms of fundraising, wait and see how he goes in rehab. Depending on how he progresses and adjusts there, he may need some stuff at home or modifications - you could approach groups like Rotary to see if they can assist you. I know my work donates a lot of our old equipment to Rotary as do a lot of other major hospitals in Vic.

This must be very worrying for you - I hope he makes some improvements soon and you can get some answers.