Fracture Clinic

Today the alarm went off at such an unholy hour. It was 04:30am and we needed to be up and on our way to Tweed Heads Hospital for Mouse’s ankle examination. The sun wasn’t even peaking over the horizon when we began the drive. I loathe such early mornings. They simply hurt. But it’s fracture clinic day; a bi-weekly ritual since his release from the hospital. We rise before dawn, drive the hour and thirty minutes to the hospital, and stake our place in line. The clinic doesn’t actually open until 7:00am, but we must arrive early, otherwise chance being at the back of the line and waiting for several hours to be seen.

Orthopedic surgeons are in such high demand in Australia that they have multiple hospitals on their roster, visiting each one weekly. All of the orthopedic patients gather on that given day and wait their turn to see the physician. The line usually reaches the road by the time the clinic opens. Patients are seen and treated at an impressive pace. To an outsider, it seems to border on controlled chaos. This is one of the inconveniences of public health. Healthcare resources are limited, so patients forgo luxuries like scheduling appointments at their own convenience. We could have opted for private care and avoided this, since we have private insurance, but the best surgeons are at public facilities. So, we put up with the nuisance of early morning fracture clinics in exchange for quality care.

Mouse is six weeks post-op now and is healing quite well; we won’t need to return to the clinic for another month. He isn’t allowed to retire the crutches yet, but may begin bearing partial weight on that foot. Physical therapy will commence soon, too. It’s been a long process, but he is on the way to recovery. Now it’s time for me to catch a quick nap before going into work.