IPTAS or Interstate Patient Travel Assistance Scheme

I wonder how many people in the ACT are aware of IPTAS?

IPTAS or the Interstate Patient Travel Assistance Scheme provides assistance to permanent residents of the ACT towards travel accommodation expenses incurred when referred interstate for medical treatment that is not available in the ACT.

What you need to do to avoid making any errors is to ASK your referring doctor to get a copy of the form off the web and fill in his or her bit of the form BEFORE you leave the surgery after they have made a referral!

Then take the form WITH you to wherever you have been referred AND make sure you get the doctor there to complete his or her bit of the form AND GIVE IT BACK to you.

Keep all the receipts for travel and accommodation and other expenses you incur in the process of getting medical treatment and then when you are back home, complete YOUR part of the form and send it on WITH the receipts to the contact that is listed below.

While the contact officer only works part time she is wonderfully helpful if you have any difficulties with the process, so if needed contact her!

Do NOT expect your doctor to know about this process or to tell you about it. Yes they do know but they are probably too busy to remember it all so use the old Boy Scout motto and be prepared then you can most effectively help yourself!

Full details of eligibility and allowances are in a form called IPTAS claim form and instructions - July 2007

This is available for downloading from the IPTAS site

IPTAS Guidelines 2007 provide information about the criteria and administrative requirements for the ACT Interstate Patient Travel Assistance Scheme.

In particular, it provides detailed information on:

• The eligibility criteria for ACT IPTAS
  
• The requirement to refer to the nearest treating specialist and the referral process for ACT IPTAS
  
• Situations where approval of an escort under ACT IPTAS may be appropriate, including a list of the reasons where provision of an escort may be appropriate,
  
• Situations where approval of air travel under ACT IPTAS is appropriate, including a list of reasons that may make air travel appropriate and
  
• details of the process for obtaining approval for a patient/escort to travel by air.
  
  IPTAS Guidelnes are available for downloading from the same site as the document above and of course you can contact the IPTAS administrator,

Community Health Intake,
GPO Box 825
CANBERRA CITY ACT 2601

Tel: (02) 6205 3299
Fax: (02) 6205 2611

Email: IPTAS@act.gov.au

PET SCAN NEWS

For those who have been waiting with bated breath for the news here it is:

An FDG PET-CT was performed from the base of brain down to proximal femora. A low dose contrast CT was also performed for attenuation correction and localisation.

SCAN FINDINGS
When compared with the last PET scan from 08/10/2007, there appeared to have been slight reduction in the extent of increased FDG uptake in the right infraclavicular and right upper paratracheal region - and stable uptake in the left retrotracheal region corresponding to soft tissue thickening on the CT scan. There has also been no significant change of low-grade uptake at the previous surgical site in the mid -inferior mediastinum and gastric pull up region.

There was no new focus of increased FDG uptake to suggest interval disease.

CONCLUSION
There has been a slight reduction in the extent of uptake in the right. intraclavicular and right upper paratracheal region since the last PET scan from 08/10/2007, more in keeping with benign reactive/inflammatory uptake following previous treatments. There is no evidence of progressive disease or new focus of FDG-avid disease seen to suggest definite recurrence.

I don't know how others will read this - but I read it to mean that I have an explanation for the pains I have been suffering from over the last few months namely inflammation of the scar tissues left by the radiation therapy.

If the pain means that I can continue to my next birthday and perhaps beyond then I know that I will have to make a change to my lifestyle. I will have to study the writing of people who are masochists and learn to actually enjoy the pain - it's the least I can do to continue to find ways of enjoying life!

Of course this does NOT mean that I am not trying to find some ways of coping with the pain. In the first place I have sought and received advice which suggests that I need to adjust my work station and so I am being fitted with a chair that has every fancy doodad that you can think of including a pump up lumbar support. I am also attending a physiotherapist to ensure that whatever CAN be manipulated to reduce or remove the pain is being done and over and above that I have taken the liberty of using old fashioned methods for treating pain which is of course the hot pack option.

I will let people know how this is going.

In the interim I have to say that while I am quite uncomfortable some of the time I am also really glad to be alive and so try very hard NOT to complain. Well OK at least not complain too much!

Update

Have you ever had one of those days which turn into a mini disaster and then seem to come good?

Well that was last Friday.

I was driven up to Sydney to have the PET scan done and of course the night before the great adventure, I had more pain and suffering on the right hand side than I have had for some time.

With considerable effort, heat packs and analgesics we managed to get things right and somehow I managed to survive the three hour trip to Sydney. We then had to wait for another few hours until I was finally given the contrast medium and then sent off to have the scan. This was of course followed by yet more time to get rid of the radioactive medium and have a 'snack' consisting of a salad sandwich and a small container of apple juice!

Remind me to tell Australian hospital staff that the Meat Board has a point when it advertises "feed the man MEAT" after fasting for quite a few hours I am afraid that a salad sandwich with a slice of tomato, cucumber, a bit of lettuce and a hint of beetroot is NOT the most filling or satisfying of meals!

By this stage, I think it was around 2:30 pm and I was feeling hunger pangs which frankly, a salad sandwich did nothing to allay!

The doctor managed to come out and tell us that we could go and I received a CD with all the data on it for the doctors back home with an assurance that a report would go to the referring doctor.

Given that even with faxes this would probably not happen until Monday, at the earliest, it was back to Canberra for us!

We did of course stop off to visit family while on our way home and this actually managed to see us back in Canberra at some ungodly hour like 8:30 that night.

All in all a VERY long day.

Today, Monday, I have contacted the hospital only to be advised that my Radiation Oncologist was visiting a town some hundreds of miles away for the day and would no doubt return the following day. I asked that she be left a message which would alert her to the fact that the PET scan results should be available to her and that I was sitting at home anxiously awaiting the news of the results.

So with some luck and good management I will be able to get back to my readers - no doubt tomorrow, with some news about what the PET scan has shown and some idea of where this will leave us for the future!

Meanwhile I do have some excellent news!

I went to see the Physiotherapist again today and we discussed my symptoms and my aches and pains and I asked that he give some special attention to the thoracic lumbar area and we found that some manipulation of T7 seems to alleviate some of the pain.

I have to admit that I am sceptical as to how long this relief will last - but I am being an excellent patient and doing nothing untoward that could possibly have a negative impact on the relief that I am feeling following this session of physiotherapy.

I have also managed to obtain a report from the OT that has visited my home and we have discovered that gaining some comfort on the home front is NOT an inexpensive exercise.

She has suggested changes to my office set up and also some changes to my bedroom and lounge room arrangements. I can't really comment on the value of the suggestions as I first have to go and look at and then try the various pieces of equipment that she is suggesting we purchase.

The price of some of the suggestions does however have an impact I have to admit.

Being not well is neither for the faint hearted or those who are generally less than adequately well heeled.

I have visited some of the web sites where she has suggested I look for equipment and all I can say is that being pain free is NOT going to be a cheap exercise!

Still that's life these days I guess. You make money during your working life - ostensibly to enjoy retirement and then spend most of what you have put aside to just stay alive and mobile!

More as things develop.

In the interim dear readers I have to tell you that with the work done by the Physiotherapist today I am feeling like a new man AND I am going to enjoy it for however long it lasts!