My younger sister, she first went to the doctor complaining about a sore back. And she was told to go home, treat it with Panadols. This was at 8:30 in the morning. By 10:30 at night the pain was still there and it was getting worse.
Here in Opotiki we don’t have over-night services apart from the A&E. So we got one of her friends to go around and pick her up and took her to the doctors at the medical centre, and again the doctor told her to go home and have some pills. And then she just looked at me and said I don’t wanna go home, I don’t think that this is just a sore back, it could be something more. And she said what do I do? I said well you just push. Just push them and say to them you’re not going home. You want to go to Whakatāne and to get tested more.
I’m a little bit more…I’m not scared. Which is why she asked me, what do I do. I said you just push. I said you just tell them to prep the ambulance and put you through to Whakatāne.
She did this, she stayed overnight at Emergency, by about 4:30 she was diagnosed with lung cancer. You get pains, and if it’s something different. Then you yourself know it’s something different. It’s not the same thing as the back pain you get before. So you really push for it.
