I found our family GP

As part of the 457 visa you are required to carry private health insurance. I am in the process of submitting our first medical claim with our carrier Australian Unity. The insurance works via reimbursement. You send in the receipts and they credit your bank account in about one week. One form required the doctor to date the onset of the condition. Australian Unity wants to be completely confident that they are not paying for a pre-existing condition. I was told the form needed to be filled out by the first practitioner I saw. No worries, I waited until the after hours clinic was open and went in to have the form filled out. Of course, there is a large rotation of doctors and the one I saw was not in and on holiday for three weeks. Ugh.

I called Australian Unity and they said I could have another doctor sign the form. Enter Doctor Neo. I saw Dr. Neo the following Monday after having very intense abdominal pains Saturday. This is the same doctor that personally called me to see how I was doing. So on a raining Tuesday, (remember we still don't have a car) I ride down to the clinic to see Dr. Neo. I was already annoyed because I had to make an appointment for a 5 minute discussion. I had a nice chat with Dr. Neo as he completed the form. I told him about making cremation arrangements for the baby, how we had seen the heart beat flutter during the ultrasound, how then I had a car accident the next week, blah blah blah. He listened intently and said that he could tell that I was still needing to work through a lot of emotions with this miscarriage. He was right about that. Then he did an amazing thing. He asked if he could pray with me. We bowed our heads there in his office and he prayed that God would continue to heal me and my family. What a blessing. What a tremendous witness of his faith. Oh, and he didn't charge me for the visit.

Next time anyone in our family needs medical care we will be making an appointment with Dr. Neo who works to heal body and soul.

Lessons Learned

A car is not critical. Until it is critical.

As you may have read in the previous post, Erika was involved in a car accident. Thankfully nobody in either car was injured and Erika was not at fault, so it isn't going to cost us anything financially.

WA not only stands for our state name, Western Australia, it is, we are told by the locals, also an abbreviation for Wait Awhile - the unofficial state slogan. Being the most isolated capital city in the world, it takes some time to get things that you need... like auto parts. So, while we wait for car parts - hopefully we'll be back on the road by Christmas after a three week delay - we are doing a lot of walking and biking (push biking in the local vernacular).

This has taught me some important lessons:

1. As the comedian said, EVERYWHERE is within walking distance if you have the time.
2. Living on the top of the hill makes it easy to bike nearly anywhere... coming home... not so fun.
3. There is a strong correlation between exercise and weight loss

Some of the ways in which this has impacted me :
> I have to leave the house 15 minutes earlier in order to bike to the train, but Erika now gets to sleep in.
> I sleep better.
> I can only wear a set of clothes once (as opposed to hanging back up a "clirty" shirt - biking up the hill home makes me sweat
> The kids can't go to evening activities due to the distance involved, it being dark for the ride (sometimes on the side of the road) and the time involved.

We may have figured out a way to get a rental car finally (living without credit cards is nice, but sometimes you REALLY need them), so we can become a bit more of a NORMAL family again.

My only real concerns is what to do if there is an emergency. James caught a Red Back (an Aussie Black Widow Spider) in the kitchen the other day. If he had been bit, I could not throw him on a bicycle and a recent train accident saw a man wait 20 minutes for an ambulance to arrive after he had his leg severed by a train... and that was minutes from the hospital and ON the large freeway.

Not our typical Aussie post - apologies. Was just on my mind.