Jigsaw pieces

When one gets enough pieces of the jigsaw, then one can often get the picture, even if the puzzle is not complete.

I have seen many court cases reported in the paper, where, even though the person has name suppression, their identity can be established. Newspapers can face hefty fines if they break court orders and they don’t, but put enough papers together reporting the same case, then there are often a mix of details that narrow down a person’s identity. For example, one paper might say a prominent entertainer is facing charges – that’s not giving anything away as there are numerous prominent entertainers in the country. The next paper might say, a 43-year-old is facing charges, while a third might say an Auckland male is facing charges. Each of those won’t give anyone’s identity but together they have narrowed down the field of who this person might be.

I am not sure if any judge has become aware of this but I have certainly seen it numerous times. I remember the care one had to take doing any court reporting, not that I did any myself. One junior journalist got into big trouble in one job I had, for naming a rape victim. That story would have been checked by the chief reporter and sub editor before it went to print. I felt sorry for her as these more senior people should have picked up the error. Instead, she, along with the editor had to visit the judge some days later, with the paper narrowly missing paying a huge fine.

So, what is the point of today’s story?

 I visited the specialist yesterday for a gynaecological issue I am facing. I saw a previous one a few weeks back. I had been given a device to use to try and fix the problem, but after only 36 hours I was in a lot of pain and everything was way worse than what it had been before. So, I didn’t use it again. During the first visit, I was told that exercises didn’t work, and to try this instead. Next step would be surgery.

I was expecting a bit of backlash for not using the item but was quickly told, by a different person this week, that because of the nature of what I had, they generally didn’t work. ‘’Throw it away.’’ Then I was given a big spiel about how surgery is not successful and generally doesn’t work either. Try exercises instead. ‘’I can refer you to the physio’’. So basically, putting these two gynaecologists’ spiels together, I can work out that either nothing works, or nobody wants the cost of lengthy surgery. I think it is probably a bit of both. I know mesh has been banned for many of these types of operation due to its post-surgical problems. While there are methods of doing the surgery without mesh, I am not sure there are many people around who would know how to perform these operations.

Now I am wishing I never tried the device in the first place as things were better before it. And it is not a great prospect knowing that there is nothing that can really be done for my condition that is most likely to worsen.

It was me who suggested, ‘’lets leave things as they are and revisit in a year.’’

‘’Great idea,’’ was the reply, the whole consultation lasting a mere five minutes – quicker than it takes to start this computer!