"I have been given no real information about how my treatment fits in with my ability to work"

A little over ten years ago I began falling after a cartilage repair. X-rays showed a mass reported as a trabecular. I had my knee checked some years later by an orthopaedist after difficulty walking. In 2010 I fell and couldn’t get up and was told to bed rest for a month. Right Knee was painful. Right leg was weak. Happened again in 2011 and 2012 and a bakers cyst was found to have occluded the popliteal vein and was pressuring its accompanying nerve. Mid 2012 I was operated on and I gained a major increase in mobility immediately as well as a much better outlook. Late 2012 right leg ballooned and a DVT was found. The warfarin I was given was rough to begin with. Made me very depressed. I was told that this happens and, like the nurse said, it passed quite rapidly. In my opinion it is a hard medication to live with but it does seem to do the job. I have noticed that I can walk up stairs unaided and ride a bike to a standstill and increase pressure on the pedals and the bike moves again. I could not do this previously.

I have been given no real information about how my treatment fits in with my ability to work. There are a lot of times when I don’t feel well and if I do any work (even cleaning up) I will sleep for 3-4 hours after. This isn’t me. Antidepressants don’t appear to improve things for me but pain meds do. I have been diagnosed with chronic pain syndrome and I think the problem may be the cyst. From what I have read Epidemiological studies point to raised deep vein pressure as causing all kinds of vein damage. I can get no real answer to getting back to being productive. I don't blame the Charters Towers Hospital as I believe they are dangerously under resourced and in the present climate there may be little they can do. From what I have experienced there seem to be procedural problems which indicate to me that some people are working to an impossible schedule.

I have been waiting for 5 years to get my cyst fixed and I am told it should occur in 12 months. Unless a surgeon can tell me otherwise I would like that done ASAP under the public system as I don't have the resources to do it privately. Maybe I will have a pulmonary embolism and expire before they need to do anything. As I am writing I am experiencing pain on inspiration rapid heart rate and I feel lousy. I started my working life as a trainee nurse and was a pharmacist before I got sick so I believe I know what happens in the current situation. I would rather die than be labelled a hypochondriac!