Leisa Rutledge struggles with her husband Dan in intensive care in Brisbane for the past month, as she details her husband Dan's treatment in intensive care.
Ms Rutledge, who usually lives in Yeppoon in central Queensland, pushed for her husband to see a doctor after what seemed like a harmless sinus issue made his snoring worse.
A follow-up phone call from a Brisbane neurosurgeon changed everything.
The doctor said the brain tumour was connected to a major blood vessel, and that it was quite large, Ms Rutledge said.
Mr Rutledge suffered a stroke in his brain stem after surgery in early July and has been in a coma since.
Ms Rutledge said the experience of nearly losing her high school sweetheart had been heartbreaking.
She said it was a really hard day.
Ms Rutledge said she had not previously thought about what living in Yeppoon would mean for her family if someone needed care that was not available locally.
Ms Rutledge said a doctor told her to think long term about her family's future, as her husband could be in a coma for months and any rehabilitation would take considerable time, and would need to happen in Brisbane.
It put the mother-of-three in a difficult position.
That shocked me because I don't want to give up my home in Yeppoon, because I want to remember what we had, if Dan does get to a point where he gets home, I want him to remember what we had, she said.
Queensland Health offers a patient subsidy scheme to help people from rural and regional areas access healthcare more than 50 kilometres away.
Ms Rutledge has access to the subsidy scheme, but she said the money it provided for rent did not cover the cost of renting for the family in Brisbane near the hospital.
They currently live with her sister, about a 50-minute drive from the hospital, while an online fundraiser has been set up to help pay the family's costs.
Queensland Health said in a statement that distance, geographical implications, and isolation were important considerations when managing healthcare services in hospitals.
Queenslanders living in rural and remote locations incur additional costs when accessing speciality health services, it said.
The government said that $97.20 million was allocated to the subsidy scheme in the 2021 -- 22 financial year.
Ms Rutledge said she was looking for an apartment but with the tight rental market her situation felt really dire. Ms Rutledge said her family needed more space, and that the only option available was a studio apartment.
She said she was on a waiting list for a bigger, family-sized hospital unit, but had been told that the hospital did not see her getting off the waitlist anytime soon.
Some people missed out on caring for their loved ones in capital cities because of the high costs associated with travel, accommodation and missing out on paid work, according to National Rural Health Alliance chief executive Gabrielle O'Kane.
I had six to seven months worth of treatment in Sydney when I lived in Wagga Wagga with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, so I had to have that experience, according to Dr O'Kane.
When you're away from your family for a long period of time, there's emotional support and those things that you don't have. I know how difficult it is to be separated from family, and there's some assistance in terms of accommodation and travel assistance. Travel schemes need to include the vast majority of expenses that people spent living away from home to make it easier for patients, according to Dr O'Kane.
The three teenage children of the Rutledges are now doing online-only lessons from their central Queensland high school, which they complete at the school onsite at their dad's hospital.
When asked if she would consider going back to Yeppoon and travelling back and forth to Brisbane, Ms Rutledge was resolute.