I have platinum extras for the whole family, this gets us dental, optical, physio etc for free and then 80% off further treatments.
When I came to Oz, 3 months before I was 30, my rebate was ticking down. At 40 when I realised it was going to save me money at Tax time, it was $5k for the family... I'll look it at next year. Its now nearly $8k for the 4 of us and I probably will never have it now.
I was diagnosed with stage 1, low grade prostate cancer in December... which I was expecting at some stage but maybe not 49-50 due to a family history.
PSA was 0.9 at 48yrs old, creeping up to 1.5 at 48.5(DRE), 2.1 at 49(DRE&MRI), 2.8 at 49.5(DRE and test PSA 3 months later) and 3.5 one month before my 50th(Prostate Biopsy). Which revealed low grade cancer in both sides of my prostate.
The treatment I have selected is called Robotic Nerve Sparing Radical Prostatectomy, which is not covered by private hospital. The free treatment available on public and private is the regular surgical procedure. Private hospital will cover the hospital stay but not the operation.
Regular prostatectomy where you are cut open takes a longer time to recover from, a longer hospital stay, more chance of infection, more bleeding and arguably the robotic is more precise, allowing a better chance of maintaining potency and continence.
Luckily the early stage detection of mine lets me have a nerve sparing procedure, which means in
time, could be immediately, could be up to a year, I will be back to pre op potency and continence. In the mean time, they will supply me the blue tablets if needed
The nerve sparing enables you to still get a random stiffy as usual but these nerves need to be cut off the prostate gland and
can get a little bit annoyed getting disturbed and take time to recover... though as the the urologist says, this sample is from 50-69yr olds, being 50 I might have no issues.
So rather than an argument about the system, this is more a post to tell you burners to get a PSA blood test and get your fucking prostate checked !
This cancer is 100% survivable if got at an early stage. I have an appointment with the robotic surgeon tomorrow... 'walnut' removal imminent.