The RUOK Thread

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I started a RUOK Thread on BNA sometime ago and it was well received by everyone that I looked after, so I thought that I’d try it here also. :thinking:

What it’s about is trying to get people to open up and talk about mental/health problems that may be troubling them and see if anyone can offer advice or just moral support even though the chances are that they don’t know you personally. There are plenty of people that may have gone through the same or similar issues or just act as a sounding board for someone and totally judgement free. So I see no reason why it couldn’t work here also because blokes especially are their own worst enemies for not talking about their mental health or some other issue that can have serious outcomes, so don’t be afraid to open up and ask for some support! :slightly_smiling_face:

( If mods feel this is the wrong spot, move it to where they feel it should be! :thinking:)

Foo

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Onya foo, another very important thread these days, it was well utilised on the BNA forum.

Cheers

Dave

(brumby33)

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Good stuff Foo :ok_hand:

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It seems like members are a bit slow on the uptake here, so I will start! :thinking:

I’ve had issues with my lower back (sciatica) since I was 18 and it prohibited me from challenging in an degree for distances over 100Klms. I was okay with that because my love was Track Racing due to it being fast and sharp.

In December 1979, I competed in the Gold Coast 6 Day and as riders usually did then, they didn’t race for 3-4wks after it due to the harshness of a Six. So out rolling along on the 14th January for my usual recovery ride, I was hit from behind by a 4-5t truck. :face_with_symbols_on_mouth:

I only blacked out for a short time and can remember to this day, the pain that was reeking havoc on my body. I could see the back of the truck and could see that it was the Courier Mail truck that did Country deliveries but he was earlier than previous mornings that I’d seen him but also new that he wasn’t dawdling along.

The ambulance turned up and a lights n siren trip to Ipswich Emergency was the order of the day. :pleading_face:

Due to the fact that I had obvious head injuries, there was no pain relief given. :pleading_face: Ex-rays and scans revealed no broken bones but there was a fracture across my ear canal.

My parents turned up but when my mother spoke to me, I couldn’t see her and I later found out that this, really destroyed her on the day but my vision came back some hours later.

The results were, I had a fractured head, a gash in my head that needed stitching, a gash that needed stitching in my shoulder blade, nerve endings that were torn away from the surface of my skin on the lower back, a huge hematoma to my lower back that eventually needed drain and slight compression of my spine. :face_with_symbols_on_mouth:

Since that time, I have had pain levels that range from a 4-10 but never a day that is without pain. It impacts me in a way that I have too manage it my way and this includes whether I take over the counter painkillers or prescription. I prefer not to take prescription painkillers but when the pain level reaches 8, I take them. :pleading_face:

On the days that I can function at a positive level, I will push myself to the extreme and usualy end up barely able to walk and look like a cripple. :face_with_spiral_eyes:

The icing on the cake is that I was diagnosed with ADHD and Aspergers at the age of 64yrs. :open_mouth: This was however a blessing in disguise because it answered many questions in regards to my mindset that no matter how hard I tried to change it, I couldn’t. :pleading_face:

So there you have it, a slight incite into my world and another reason why I believe blokes need to open up, so that others, that are possibly going through :poop: know that they are not alone!

I still have days that are a struggle but I’m also a stubborn bastard that pushes hard to function but that, in itself can be a problem, especially if like you’re like me, am very independent and have problems asking for help! :pleading_face: Just ask my family how much I have made them suffer. :cry:

I now have medication that helps me control my emotions/mood swings and those around me have seen the difference, especially my family! :slightly_smiling_face:

Foo

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Yeah continuous chronic pain is hard to live with, I can think the good lord that I’ve never had to deal with a dire accident that has left me to suffer but I guess your stubborness may have come from the fact that you’ve had to be strong to train your mind so that you refuse to become a burden…i think most of us have that mindset, just some more than others.

I think by losing weight over the past 2 years has helped me to not put up with constant lower back pain that used to hit me from time to time but I must admit, it’s my fault as I tend to be a bit of a couch potato :laughing:

I’m now having to deal with the fact that my social media world is closing in on me and that now I’ve lost the 3rd forum in the matter of 6 Months with guys I’ve known in a Cyber sense for 15 years, it’s like having constant penfriends (remember those from the 60’s and 70’s) but more instant in a way.

I’m thinking seriously of leaving this town of Albury next year, pending the property market, sell up here and head back to Sydney as all the medical facilities are there and I don’t have much confidence in our hospital system here, lets put it this way, I hope I don’t have a heart attack in Albury NSW. as the medical system here is managed by Victoria and we all know what a basket case that state is atm…which is a pity as theres so much beauty and History in Vic.

Apart from the medical side, I’m really struggling to have anything of a social life here, even though I do know a few here from my job driving buses, I haven’t found a mate to go and have a beer with and talk shit with like I had in Sydney and as lovely as the town is, it’s kinda boring and cliquey. So if the timing is right, it could be sometime next year that i make the move again, that would make it 4 years + since moving down here…I gave it a go and my wife is not happy here either.

Heading back over to japan again in November for the 2nd time this year…going to do some travel this time within the Country, Deb/march this year we spent 4 weeks at my M-I-L’s place. She’s getting old. O’baa-chan = Grandma lol She is 85 and still rides a bicycle down to the shops but she’s had a couple of falls of it recently so it might be the end of her riding soon, she not long bought an E-bike…goes bloody good too :grin:

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There is a cath lab there. Sure if you need bypass surgery a major city is where you will need to go. Bendigo has a cath lab but no bypass surgery. Melbourne for that.

i am in Vic and you are ill informed with it being a basket case with respect to medical services as you imply.

Sure if you want to return to the big smoke and head back into congestion and expense then do so. Medical services should not be a reason to do so.

I grew up in Melbourne and fark that! I do not miss it one bit. Nice to visit as our Son is down there, but even nicer to leave in the rear view mirror. :wink:

If you have friends there then maybe it is reason to go back. There are negatives too. Expense and congestion are 2. Plenty do the tree or sea change and make it work. Go gack to Sydney and visit a few times first. Maybe it will work for you.

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Yeah Warty, I’m hearing you and the cardiologists are not for me but rather for my wife who has left atrical Cardiomyapathy and there’s no one that specialises in that condition here, not Albury or Wodonga. Melbourne is where we need to go if we stayed here but otherwise my wife has now found a specialist in that field in Sydney as part of the RPA Hospital.

As for friends and people around you, i’ve always been a sociable person and need a certain amount of social stimulation to be happy and it’s hard to get in this town, my wife has never worked here as within a year of moving here, it’s when she’s found out about her condition that was not apparent before, it’s hereditary and her Father had it too. So she hasn’t been able to meet new people and has become a home body…so it’s very difficult to have a social life here. I try and get out with a group on the motorcycle at times, too cold now in the Mountains but in Summer it’s great.

We do have a pedal power BUG here so I’m looking at joining them soon too now that i’m not working anymore.

Sydney isn’t as bad as what you might think, I don’t mind the City life in a way, always something to do and see, put my bike on a train and go ride anywhere in the Sydney region… I used to have a mate I meet up with at Central station and we’d go and do a bicycle pub crawl, first pub at Coogee beach, ride all the way down to Botany bay and stop for a beer on the way back to Sydney and end up at the rocks on Sydney Harbour after doing about 40 plus kms of uphills and downhills of Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs a very hilly part of Sydney that you definitely need the granny gears for and if one of us has to stop and get off to push the bike, then that one has the next shout…I really miss that lol.

I like Melbourne too and want to go down there for a weekend or two and do some Photography in and around the City.

Albury is a good place to ride around, mostly flat and easy, can ride from my house to the township in about 20 minutes and another 15 minutes to Wodonga or another half hour to ride the wetlands west of Albury. So it’s not all bad, but as I said before, I’m not sure if I’d want to suffer a major medical issue in Albury…

Cheers

brumby33

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Fair enough Brumby, I am less of a social creature, happier with a small group of family and friends. If your family and friends are in Sydney and your wife wants to be there then happy wife- happy life. With respect to the cardiologists who specialise in your wife’s condition, they shouldn’t need to be in too close a contact. Annual or twice yearly review perhaps and contact if her condition changes. They are unlikely to be available in an emergency situation 24hrs a day wherever you live I expect.

With respect to not feeling safe to have a major medical episode in Albury, there will be an ICU there and the ED will be able to do telehealth with specialists if they aren’t there. I would feel safe living there and I come to that opinion from 24 years in health services.

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I’m hoping you’re right in that regard mate about being ok if something happened…as soon as this rain is gone, i’m desperately wanting to get back on the bike.

The Sydney thing is not set in stone, I’m trying to convince my mrs that by living here, it’ll be cheaper rather than paying strata money in apartments.I just need to get out there and meet new people.

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I expect Albury would be clicky as it’s really just a big country town.

I’d love to tree change on a huge block with a massive shed for my toys and away from people. But being out of town by myself - how to get to doctors etc if I can’t drive etc.

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Many years ago dalai in 1977, my family moved us all to Grafton from Newcastle where I grew up and yes it was hard not knowing anyone but I got lucky as I moved there exactly the time that CB radios first came out and every young guy with a car had one so I got to know people rather quickly and had plenty of eyeballs (meetings) at certain places around town. We also had fox hunts which were hiding seek with our cars and others tried to find the fox by asking only questions like “Are you east of xxxxx street” and you as a fox could only say yes or no…and as these fox hunts were held regularly, the cops supported us because we were always driving around with CBs, if we seen somebody doing stuff suspiciously, we’d just get on the blower and the cops would be around there pronto. It was a great era back in the late 70’s up there, riding trail bikes in the bush to flying aeroplanes without controlled airspace…we did it all. Only probs…not many jobs up there.

Unfortunately I can’t emulate those times in Albury but i still ride motorcycles up and around the snowy Mountains but only in the warmer Months.

I love regional towns myself but the mrs is a City girl from Tokyo and she loves the conveniences of the City…even though we are now both in our 60’s.

Cheers

Dave

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Some great riding / driving roads out of Albury. Went to a number of LuftWasser meets (a yearly national Porsche gathering) and ended up pretty familiar with the better routes.

Still need to head up with the motorbike to ride them also.

Cheers Martin

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If you’re on facebook, the Albury Wodonga Motorcycle Group often puts up rides in the area, nice bunch of people that would be happy to have you tag along with rides in the Mountains https://www.facebook.com/groups/1277018902362670

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You have phone consultations but surely there would also be some sort of medical support base that could transport you or arrange support. :thinking:

Foo

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There is and the Ambulance service has established protocols to do so. :wink:
Medical staff will make the call. I expect there will be an Emergency Consultant Dr in the ED up there. Towns with a large population like that are not left stranded without competent medical care.

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Over the past 15 Months or maybe even 18 Months, many ambulances have been ramping allowing their vehicles to be beds for those who can’t be admitted into Hospital, furthermore, the cancer unit was taken over by the Hospital and used as general entry. A friend of mine from Wodonga was admitted to the Cancer unit after he collapsed at work, they put him in a room with 5 women, he was the only male there and was there for 2 Months till they completed the tests. Unreal.

There were two doctors who spoke out about what the AWH were doing and were sacked from ever working at the hospital. The CEO wasn’t even a Doctor but a bloody Lawyer…anyway, Albury lost those Doctors, the community are angry but nothing could be done. And AWH spent Hundreds of thousands of dollars on artwork for the Hospital while the hospital was short of other medical supplies…it’s a friggen basket case!!

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That is a bed capacity issue at the hospital. You will find ramping is worse in Melbourne and Sydney I expect. We get the same in Bendigo.

You will not be ramped if critically unwell and the Ambulance service has people and procedures in place to mitigate ramping.

I feel for the hospital staff.

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So do I mate, they do a great job and often overworked as it is…this is why I’m so against the current level of Immigration, the services and infrastructure are under absolute pressure Australia wide, not just here where I am but nationally.

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I am not against immigration. We are all immigrants a generation or a few back. I love what different cultures bring, but yep, the numbers are too high currently.

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