Ever been side-lined by a BJJ Knee injury? Joey pulls back the curtain on finding the right healthcare guru for your injury and the unexpected journey of rehab—one that's filled with as much laughter as there is pain. Navigating Australia's healthcare system sometimes feels like a sport in itself, and not the fun kind. The second half of the conversation goes into the complexities surrounding MRI scans, Medicare, and the sometimes laughable experiences at bulk billing clinics. Whether you're a seasoned veteran in the game of medical imaging or just learning the ropes, these anecdotes offer a play-by-play that's equal parts informative and entertaining.
Ever been side-lined by a BJJ Knee injury? Joey pulls back the curtain on finding the right healthcare guru for your injury and the unexpected journey of rehab—one that's filled with as much laughter as there is pain. Navigating Australia's healthcare system sometimes feels like a sport in itself, and not the fun kind. The second half of the conversation goes into the complexities surrounding MRI scans, Medicare, and the sometimes laughable experiences at bulk billing clinics. Whether you're a seasoned veteran in the game of medical imaging or just learning the ropes, these anecdotes offer a play-by-play that's equal parts informative and entertaining.
Speaker 1:
yes, indeed, here we are. So, man, we've been talking about a few different things and you had mentioned recently you had gone for an mri. Do you want to talk about this? Well, yeah, I think I last week I shared the um copton knee injury, right, yes, yeah, so update on that. When did it happen? It happened last tuesday, so it's now just over a week.
Speaker 1:
I um, yeah, I saw my cairo immediately that day. He said, oh, I think it's an mcl thing. Then I chatted with you the next day and you were like, nah, bro, you're like. You were feeling, you're like I think that's meniscus, yeah, and then I was like I think you're right, jt, just walking around, I could feel it. On thursday I went to one instance where I did not want to be right. I was like I hope I'm not fucking you know, six and one half dozen. The other right In some ways, I guess. No, maybe not yet, because MCL would like if it's a minor teratorepair, but yeah, meniscus is potentially surgical intervention.
Speaker 1:
So I went to my physio on the Thursday. I booked in with him and you know, for you listening like we always talk about having different practitioners for different reasons, my chiro is really good at like, if I got some back stuff, I got some shoulder and neck stuff. If I need quick relief, I'll go there. But if I've got like particularly in a knee or like particularly in a joint that's not my torso, sure, you know and if it's something that I'm like, no, there is something wrong here. There's a couple of those. I don't just need an adjustment, I actually need to fix something. My physio is always the guy and he helped me a lot with my ACL rehab and whatnot. And so I went to him and he did a few checks and he said, brother, it looks like meniscus to me. Let's get an mri. So we know what's up, yeah, so, um, the mri thing. This is a journey in and of itself because there's so much different, like here in australia, right, we're fortunate enough that you can get an mri at like many different places.
Speaker 1:
Medicare chip in a little bit. Medicare will, yes, depending, okay, so. So Medicare will chip in If you're under 50, that's the first condition. You have a referral from a GP, like from a doctor, and the injury occurred, okay, in, uh, in one event like. So it's an acute injury, it's not a chronic, yeah, but even that said, sometimes you can fulfill those things, but depending on what the gp has written on the referral, sometimes that makes it ineligible.
Speaker 1:
Oh god, yeah, and so you'll g fucks, yeah, and so you could pay anywhere from 350 to kind of $500 for an MRI which, you know, it's this big, fucking high-tech machine, it takes 30 minutes. It's like, fair enough, it's legit, yeah, and you know, it's not the kind of thing that I think you should be doing every year. No, right, no, so it's special circumstances. But with that said, so I thought, all right, well, I've had plenty of MRIs over the years. I've been to GPs. I'm going to go to the doctor and get a referral. And you're like, well, I'll just go to like a bulk billing one, which, for those who don't know, bulk billing here is, we have Medicare, which is a government-funded medical system that covers a lot of things. You go to certain doctors, clinics where the entire fee is covered by medicare and they're called bulk billing clinics, but they typically don't care too much. No, that's like get you in, get you in, get you out, yeah, get you out. It's the numbers game. You know, it's not the fucking high level, you know, and sometimes you don't need that. But what you find with the bulk billing one, sometimes you'll go there, you'll wait in the waiting room for two hours and you see a doctor who's shit.
Speaker 1:
And this happened with Raylene actually I don't know if she saw a doctor who was shit, but the doctor was like what's up? And she's like jujitsu knee this and that I need an MRI. Doctor's like no, you don't need an MRI. And she's like no, no, like go get a fucking ultrasound or whatever. So she had to do that. Then she had to go back and go.
Speaker 1:
Ultrasound was a waste of time, god. So I called my gp who's who's not bulk built, who's your guy because he's a good one, yeah. And they're like yeah, we can do a telehealth appointment. Like in two hours from now. He'll call you and deal with it. Cost me 98 bucks, right, but I didn't have to fucking wait for two hours.
Speaker 1:
I didn't get bad information. He goes what's up? I go man knee, physio thinks it's meniscus, it's catching and clicking. I need an MRI. He said I'll write you a fucking referral for that. Managed to book in on a Sunday night, 6.30 pm on a Sunday, wow, yeah. And again, here's the fucking thing when they give you the referral slip, the referral slip is from a particular company. It's often from, like spectrum imaging, ah, yes, and it's like the doctor just uses it because it's a handy notepad, yeah, and on the back it has all of the locations for spectrum imaging, right. But what I'd never done is just google it, like mri's near me, right, and there's all these other companies that offer it for sure. So, anyway, I found one, got in quick. I'm waiting for the results, so should be in maybe today or by the end of the week. Okay, fingers crossed, yeah.
Speaker 1:
So my suspicion is is that it's torn meniscus. It's going to require a surgery, which, you know, there's a really I find it a really interesting kind of mental Like I really have a strong view on. Like you should be strong enough and equipped enough to be able to handle things in a natural sense. Sure, as soon as you go to have a surgery, you're now just like there's nothing natural about that anymore. No, you're getting anesthetized, someone's going inside your body and making changes. Yeah, and it's like fuck, that doesn't align with the ideal that I have of myself. Yeah, you know, and I'm sure you can feel that too. Yeah, I get it. Fuck, if you can avoid it, it's great, yeah, like even aside from the fact that it is actually dangerous to be cut open and to be anesthetized and all this Risk of infection.
Speaker 1:
My auntie nearly died. She had to go to the hospital for a procedure and they're like oh, don't worry, we just got to put this thing in your arm and she got an infection from that and that nearly killed her, even though it was some routine shit. You know, we've got a good medical system, but cutting your body open is fucking dicey, dude. My greyhound died from getting anesthetized. Like that does happen very rarely, right, that you sign a thing saying like I realized that I could die, you know, from the fucking side effects of these drugs. Anyway, unlikely to happen, I've got a podcast to record so I'll push through. If it gets to that situation, of course they'll check your medical and they'll be like podcaster, give him the good drugs, don't Clear, don't Bring him back, bring him back Clear. But so, but yeah.
Speaker 1:
So, all that aside, it's like yeah, philosophically I'm like fucking surgery man. I've already had two of them. Well, actually I've already had more. I've had my fucking it's funny right Two hernia operations, sinus operation. Yeah, it's cool, you know. You know they rack them up. So you're like and once we start to get older and the plastic surgeries come in, we're just gonna fucking the facelifts, the resilient butt, lift the fucking cauliflower reduction or cauliflower ad, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go with it. Yeah, I'm gonna go with the silicone implants on my right ear to balance them out.
Speaker 1:
Fuck man, it gets, it does get. It does um kind of build up over time, doesn't it it? It does. And you're like all right, well, you know, whatever, like, I guess you know, the reality is, if we're going back to, you know, this ideal of mine, which is shouldn't need to have surgery in a natural environment. One, I probably would have been dead by now, probably, right. Two, maybe I wouldn't be dead now, but I'd be dead in a few years. So I'd have a sore knee for the last few years of my life. Yeah, no big deal, right? So in that way, it's like yeah, you just copped your injuries and then you, you didn't live that long anyways. So I guess now I'm like well, I'm planning to live for at least another fucking 85 years. Sure, so let's get a little clean out.
Speaker 1:
Well, here is my question for you, and obviously it's based on what the professionals say what is your stance? Are you cut it out and therefore quick recovery, back to business or stitch it in, based off what they say? So my understanding is that they tend to go one or the other, based on the severity of the tear and what I want to do. So, as my physio put it to me, he said look, if you've got a big tear, like a bucket handle or something similar, they're going to want to stitch it down. Okay, because it'll be too much tissue to cut out. He said, however, if it's a small tear, they're just probably going to cut that off, smooth it over and you're good. So in that way, I'll probably go with I'll. I'll see what the surgeon says, I'll refer to my physio and I'll get in touch with justin lang, who's the knee guy down here in caring bar, and make a decision based off that.
Speaker 1:
But the two very different paths of recovery, yeah, oh yeah. So if you go with the stitching down, it's long. Yeah, it's three, which is the same thing that I had done with my acl rico, right, so that was three months in a knee brace. Yeah, and you know, physio's like you're probably six months before you get back on the mats because you're waiting for the scar tissue to grow over the stitches. Yeah. So, yeah, you know, obviously really hoping it's just the latter and they can just shave some shit and I'm back in the trenches, golden, yeah, look, I think it's such a hard thing, man, because it's. Yeah, you know you're going down this path, you've got to do what you can. You make the decision for whatever you feel is best for you.
Speaker 1:
But it's the way it was always explained to me is that you've got these brake pads and once you start to lose them, like lose bits of them, then the exposure of cartilage to cartilage is greater and that, if you know, or bone to bone, bone to bone, you know you're losing. The more you lose, the less brake pads you got. And then you've got no brake pads, yeah, and then Arthritis, yeah, chronic pain is a big deal and all kinds of stuff. And it made me go, holy shit, meniscuses are so, they're so important. Yeah, what the fuck? So, yeah, man, look, it's a tough situation to be in. I hate to see it, man, but, um, fingers crossed, it's only a, it's a small ditty. Yeah, look, you know I'm not. I've kind of gotten past that thing of like this fucking sucks, whatever. And I'm just like, ah, whatever, yeah, great part of the process, you know. Next steps, um, keep us updated. But yeah, on that I think that you know.
Speaker 1:
We know a lot of people who had, say, this sort of scenario years ago and back in the day they used to just fucking cut out the whole meniscus. Right, they go, let's just rip it out, yeah, and without realizing all the problems that they're going to expose your knee to now, or not caring, yeah, exactly, whereas now I I do think that they're a lot more well, depending on the surgeon you go to. They're a lot more understanding of, okay, we can remove it, but there is a downside. And so, like when I had my ACL reco, they're like what is it that you do? Because what you want to do with your body is going to guide the choice that we make here. So in that way, I'm like I think they've come a long way.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I mean, I feel really positive about it and I think by the time either you or I have no meniscuses left, we'll just be able to grow them. Yeah, yeah, we'll just sprinkle a bit of DNA on it like a wet sponge, leave it in the balcony window and, just like little sproutlings, there's my new fucking meniscus. Yep, just slot it in, just open a little. There you go, knees fixed. Imagine man, once the fuck, once they figure out, isn't it amazing that it's like, of all the shit we can do, yeah, you know like, go to space, all that shit. You know fucking AI and whatever. No, we can't make meniscuses. You're not part of the billionaire club, sorry, you're Jeff Bezos. Yes, we have plenty of them. We're just pulling them out of these young children in Honduras. He didn't need it. No, they just, you know, play soccer with his other leg. That's right, perfect, all right. Keep you updated on the next chapter. Please do See you guys.