Looking Back on 2012

Tags

brian, canada, friends, gall bladder, herchorn, hospitals, momma bean, munkie, uk

2012 was an interesting year for me. It started off so well, had a huge upswing in the middle of the year and has tapered off to a point where I am not quite sure what I am doing with my life. Hopefully 2013 will be better.

Some highlights – both good and bad:

• at the beginning of the year I was flying back to Canada from spending Christmas 2011 in the UK with Munkles, who I met on Twitter. I was feeling so high and sad at the same time – as I had a wonderful Christmas week.
• Finishing off the process to get my Lithuanian Passport – I’d been working on it since late 2010 but I was finally able to get all the documentation together – my dad’s Travel Visa issued by the Military Government of West Germany in 1948, birth certificates, old passports etc all being photocopied, notorised and professionally translated. I finally was able to get the passport in early July of 2012.
• While finishing off my LT passport application I got to spend 2 days in Ottawa with my Momma Bean. It was a bit bitter sweet as she knew what my goal was, but we had a lovely two days.
• Munkie came to visit me in March – I took a week off work and we went down to Niagara Falls, spent the night there with a spectacular view of the Horseshoe Falls, visited a bird sanctuary and wandered about.
• Momma Bean met Munkie.
• Exposed Munkie to the delights of Vietnamese, Korean and Eastern European cuisine.
• Dr Herschorn agreed to do the perineal repair – yay!
• June I had gall bladder surgery, or atleast theoretically – the perineal repair was done, as was the removal of a very large bladder stone. But sadly I had too much abdominal adhesions for the General Surgeon to see anything safely so the lapriscopic attempt wasn’t successful
• Both Jenn and Stephanie were lovely during my recovery – taking care of me. Stephanie took me to the hospital the next morning as I wasn’t able to get my catheter in and Dr Herschorn was able to fix me up and we got to spend some time with Brian at the Sunnybrook cafeteria. I had jello and 7-Up for “lunch”
• The purge of my wordly goods was quite painful – I still greatly miss my iMAC, my iPAD, and my books (1000+). The purge was good as I was too cheap to ship it all on a cargo ship. I managed to reduce my life down to two suitcases and a backpack.
• August I flew out to be with Munkie. Getting through Customs at Gatwick was a breeze – not once was I stopped, as with an EU passport I was able to bypass the huge line-ups
• Had a couple mini-holidays with Munkie – Harrogate and Ely
• Got to see my Ruthie a couple times
• Made a baby blankie for Geeklawyer’s & Mrs Geekie’s new prince
• Had a gall bladder attack and discovered how the NHS is about 30yrs behind the times with regards to care standards
• The UK government treats its citizens like simpletons when it comes to medication – I had to get permission to purchase some Lemsip, and don’t even get me started on a conversation I had with a pharmacist over my request to purchase Pepto Bismol .. it’s behind the counter here and you need to request it, even though you don’t need a prescription for it.
• Getting a urologist is extremely painful here – GPs can refer you to a hospital and it’s up to that clinic who you get assigned to. If I need one who specialises in bladder repair why not just refer me to them directly?
• I did not have a wonderful Christmas, it was pretty painful during certain points and I hope to whatever deity there is that I don’t have to go through such emotional pain again.
• And now I am contemplating how I want my life to go.

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR PEEPS!!!!!!!!!!!!

Junior Doctors – they are Funny

Tags

doctors, hospitals, interns, junior doctors, residents, television

I thought North America had a plethora of reality programming on television, but the UK has it beat. The one thing the UK does seem to do rather well, compared to North America, is in having a variety of reality programmes.

I have already mentioned in a prior blog post that I have become addicted to “24 Hours in A&E” but there’s another one I have been watching – “Junior Doctors” which is shown on BBC3 here. Like with any other programme which looks at a working/living situation there are members who you care about and others who just annoy you.

Last night’s episode was about the Juniors doing their last bit of their year before moving on to the next level. Watching the programme has reminded me that Junior Doctors (or Residents/Interns as they are known in North America) are the same the world over. They are usually in over their heads, sometimes try to bully their patients, and run across recalcitrant patients.

Yesterday Amieth said something which any junior doctor would say. He had an elderly patient with fluid in his lungs. And he’s had it drained twice before, the last time being way too painful, messy and complicated. When Amieth tried to convince him to accept a fluid drainage the old fellow declined because he did not want to spent overnight in the A&E. Amieth called in his supervisor over for assistance. The old fellow still declined. The comment from Amieth was – I can’t force him to accept the drainage tube, it would be assault and I might go to prison, and it’s probably not a good thing to force it on him.

I have run across this with residents in Canada – they get so frustrated when an opinionated patient declines listening to them. I had one instance where the Chief Resident in Urology tried to discharge me 5yrs ago, about 2 weeks after my surgery and one week after I got out of ICU. I refused to be discharged and he was so angry with me – but my comment to him was “ you are not my doctor, you are just a trainee, let’s wait until my doctor returns from a training juncket”. And lo, there was nothing he could do about it.

Trainee Doctors are a funny breed – they are so eager to learn, but once they get some knowledge they can be rather arrogant. As one nurse told me, Urological Residents are the worst cos they have to deal with wee all day.

pediatrics only ER?????

Tags

emergency, hospitals, minister of health

Seems there is a push on by the local Health Services Agency in Hamilton to convert the ER at McMaster University Hospital into a pediatrics only Emergency Room – http://www.thespec.com/News/Local/article/437922 with a walk-in located someplace else for the adults and non-emerg issues. Theoretically this proposed change is to better improve access to medical care.

To achieve this adults requiring emergency care would have to go to other area hospitals, if they happen to be adults – and last as I understood it is the adults who pay into the public purse for “universal healthcare”, not the sprogs. I have never heard of such restrictions being applied to an essential service.

Having struggled in the past year with health issues I am very much in favour of having full access to an ER when necessary, with the option of choosing the closest hospital to me geographically. To be told that an otherwise fully functional hospital is closed to me because of my age is tantamount to ageism and in my opinion (though I am no lawyer) a violation of the Canada Health Act. I hope the Ontario Minister of Health, David Caplan, steps in and reverses this decision made by the local Health Authority.

I invite all my Canuck readers to read the URL and write to David Caplan or Dalton McGuinty and share your dismay and disgust with this severe curtailment of “equal access to healthcare”.

Religion & Hospitals

Tags

catholicism, hospitals, public health, religion

I went in to St. Joseph’s Health Centre here in Toronto to have some staples removed. Early last week I went in for a very minor procedure – to remove a rather large cyst on my head (near the hairline). I had an appointment today to have the staples removed.

I went in to the registration office of the “Ambulatory Care Centre” – a fancy way of saying out-patient clinic – to register and let them know that I had shown up for my appointment. I dutifully gave them my hospital card and my  health card, so that they could then in turn update my patient file and charge OHIP for the visit.

During the registration I got the strangest question which just shocked me… “what is the name of your church?”. I was flabbergasted, to say the least. What does my religious affiliation have to do with my requiring a medical professional to pull some staples from me? It’s a publicly funded hospital, therefore it doesn’t matter what the patient’s religion is, the hospital still has to treat them. My answer was “I prefer not to say”. The response I got was a long stare, as if she was daring me to give in and tell her.

For me this goes to the heart of the separation of Church & State. It’s a Catholic hospital which got grandfathered into the public health system. As a Catholic hospital it does not recognise same-sex relationships (so if your partner is in the ER or ICU you are not considered a family member) nor does it perform abortions; though, as per a Supreme Court ruling abortions are no longer illegal, but a doctor cannot be forced to perform one. I personally do not like the idea that an institution that receives public funding can inflict, yes inflict, it’s religious mores on the general public.  I had no say in the matter as to which hospital was the site of my minor surgical procedure – that’s where the plastic surgeon has surgical priviledges. So if  I have no say in where my treatment will occur, therefore being forced to go to a catholic hospital, I am in a sense being forced to abide by religious tenents which do not fit in with my outlook on life and spirituality.

I personally hold to the idea that institutions with religious affiliations should not received public funding unless they are prepared to abide by the general rules – i.e., don’t ask me my religion when I go in for an outpatient appointment, don’t ask me who my spiritual advisor is, and don’t assume that I will want to be receiving the eucharist while recovering from surgery.