Questions about lap surgery

[Ceejelz]

Hi ladies,

After 2.5years of fighting GP's to get a referral to a FS, hubby and I finally had our first appointment at QFG last Friday. Everything was going fine until I told him I had my appendix out when I was 18... Apparently when the appendix bursts, the pus that is released acts like tar and can stick to the tubes and cause them to block.... So I need to have a laparoscomy to make sure my tubes are open. He said just doing the dye will be useless because my wall lining is 11mm thick when it should only be 2mm so I will need a curette at the same time.

I just want to know if anyone else has had the same problem.
Also about prices, ive been told $915 for the lap and extra for the curette, plus anesthetist fees and day surgery fees so probably $2500-$3000

I've had a look on the forums at other peoples posts about prices and WOW! how do you women pay for all your proceedures? Hubby and I make resonable money but we will have to save hard for at least 6months for the lap surgery.

I've had a hunt around for private health insurance but there is 12month waiting periods for assisted conception... After 3.5 years of trying, what's another year right? If anyone knows of PHI that doesn't have so long a waiting period PLEASE let me know!!

[nothing2lose]

Hi
I don't have PHI but I have looked into it. I think they are all 12 months even for pregnancy related claims. Can you have the lap in the public system?

[Ceejelz]

How would I go about that? My FS does his surgeries at st Andrews private hospital. Would it be a matter of finding another FS to do it

[Trillian]

I've had two and the first time I didn't have PHI and my gyno did say I could get it done quicker if I paid for it but I couldn't afford it, and that was well over 10 years ago and didn't cost as much. So I had to go on the public waiting list and it was 6 months before I had it done. So that is one option for you, go on the list and just wait. The second time I had it done we had top level PHI which paid for everything bar the anaesthetist. If we didn't have PHI, we could have gotten the money together, but we'd have to have used savings.

[babyskye]

Hi have you thought about seeing a public dr for it? My FS does patients in a public hospital as a public patiant and i have only had to wait for 5 months to get the surgery done. As he said he prefers to do it that way to save people money in case they need ivf if the surgery unsuccessful

[Ceejelz]

So do I just call a public hospital and ask to
Go on the waiting list?

[MummyDuck]

I had a lap 3 weeks ago as a public patient. It was a category 2 procedure so I waited about 2.5 months but it cost me zilch. I went through a gyno instead of an fs.

[MummyDuck]

I had a referral from my gp to my gyno who I told what I wanted. He then booked me in. So find a public practicing gyno/ob. They will generally be practicing at the public hospital in consulting suites if you can't find one elsewhere

[babyskye]

i just had my gp send a referall to the public hosp then after the gyno there couldnt help with the surgery they sent me to a fertility specialist, maybe your gp might know of a FS that will treat you as a public patient?

[Trillian]

When I had my first one, my gyno worked at both the public and private hospitals and he just gave me the admission forms for the public hospital. I filled them in and sent them to the hospital. When I saw him again and went private, he gave me the admission forms for the private hospital. He did both surgeries though even though I went public the first time, he was just the nominated surgeon on the admission form. So see your Dr again, ask him your options for being treated in the public system and see if he will either give you a referral to a public hospital or if he will even have the admission forms there for you to take. It all needs to be done like that, you can't call them and ask to be put on the list because they need to know your referring Dr etc.