It has served me well, I have to keep thinking of the positives rather than the negatives, which is an easy pit to fall into.
I have three more tests coming up. And I want these to be the end of it.
Next up is a colonography next week which involves starvation and massive amounts of ingestion of disgusting materials. A couple of bottles supplied by the hospital itself and a few more from the pharmacy. Fortunately, unlike the others, there will be no invasion of the outlying crevices of my body.
A few days later, there's a new specialist investigating further why I went just about blind in my right eye the day after the colonoscopy. My eye doctor is baffled as the dye tests produced a normal.
And towards the end of the month there is a breath test scheduled which will validate/invalidate my own doctor's speculation that I have a hidden bleeding ulcer causing this constant, chronic and serious anaemia.
My gratitude circles around the assurance that none of the specialists think this is cancer. And I can't praise enough the specialist care this old woman has received in their attempts to discover what the hell is going on inside me.
And the big one? The universal health care we have here in Canada. Yes, it could be better, what system is perfect? But the fact that anyone from pauper to millionaire can access it for whatever medical crisis looms without going bankrupt or stressing about payment is one of the enormous benefits of living here.
Special hat tip to my own doctor, who calls regularly, monitors my blood, checks to make sure I attend my various hospital procedures and cheers me up with his humour and good nature.
And for those interested two charts.
First one is expenditures by country on health care - note universal health care spends less per capita.
The second chart is life expectancy in all these countries.
Here in Nova Scotia we have 75000 people without a GP and our Emerge rooms are paralyzed with ordinary folks lacking a doctor. I recently read a very enlightening article about healthcare in Costa Rica, where they have managed to raise life expectancies well above American ones on a shoestring budget. No matter how isolated, everyone gets a minimum of an annual healthcare house visit. We could learn from them. I hope your miserable-sounding tests will provide actionable results soon!
ReplyDeleteThat's dreadful Annie, I had no idea. What are they doing to attract doctors? I know my own doc was funded through MUN the medical faculty here and contracted to stay in the province along with his twin brother.
DeleteIt sounds like government needs to revisit the structure there and I do hope you have a family doctor!
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Good to hear from you again, and fingers crossed for a final and good result to all these not so nice investigation procedures. And as a Dane I wholeheartedly agree in your praise of universal, tax-paid health care!
ReplyDeleteThankyou Charlotte, it really feels like the end of this long lasting road of discovery. Fingers crossed.
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I hope all of this yields answers for you. Sending hugs.
ReplyDeleteThank you E!
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Well, that is interesting but not surprising. I wish we had your health care system here in the good old USA.
ReplyDeleteI wish you had it too, Gigi, you've come close a few times but health care is such a huge profitable industry in the US that I doubt it will happen. Those are powerful lobbies.
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I can't even imagine the added stress of not having universal health care, imperfect as it is. Thank gawd for good ol' Tommy Douglas and his childhood experience of what happened to poor children whose parents didn't have money for medical care. And you ... may your tests soon be over and the outcome all good. -Kate
ReplyDeleteYes a true Canadian hero, we have too few fighting for the so-called underdogs of society. We should all strive to level the playing field. I see too much poverty out there especially for elder women but at least they have healthcare.
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Like you I am endlessly grateful for our universal health care. It isn't perfect but leaves the alternative in the dust.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with those dratted tests - and hooray for your own doctor too.
And yes, I hear you on the old carcass front too.
We're still lugging them around, EC, in spite of the challenges and some days worse than others. But we are hanging in by the fingernails. I hope I will have answers and soon :)
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I, too, wish we had universal healthcare. One of my state's former legislators, who said "No-one dies from lack of healthcare" is now on the local public health board.
ReplyDeleteHopefully you'll get some answers from the tests. A friend of mine has chronic anemia with no known cause so I'll be interested in your result.
The irony of your first paragraph does not escape me Sheila.
DeleteI do hope I have answers and soon, this has been a dreadfully long haul of procedures and investigations with a corresponding exhaustion.
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So good to hear you've only a little bit of investigative effort to come to a final conclusion. Your physician sounds very good, and I'm glad for that. I'm at the end of my many pictures 'n prods and will have minor surgery the end of the month. So maybe you and I will celebrate together - albeit online. Truly I have sympathized w/ all you've gone through and am quite cheerful reading your offering this afternoon. Hugs and all the best, always. From the base of the mini-mountain in Maine.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your good wishes, Regina and Good luck with the minor surgery though as we know, it's never minor to those who undergo such procedures.
DeleteYes, I do hope we can have a virtual joint celebration.
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The graphs are simple and very telling. It seems the 'communist' health care systems yield much better results at a cheaper price.
ReplyDeleteIt must be frustrating to have an undiagnosed ongoing problem. I hope you have some helpful results.
Thanks Andrew, my hopes are high this is the end of all of this with a firm diagnoses and a "fix".
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Those graphs are very interesting. Half of America probably would not believe them.
ReplyDeleteI agree Joanne, I hate that the words "Liberal" and "Socialist" have been completely trashed in the US. As if caring for the poorer of our society is a crime.
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Does that blue line mean USA spends more on health care that any other country? How is that possible when so many can't access any sort of care at all?
ReplyDeleteI see by the second chart people in the USA seem to die before they are 80, yet live longer everywhere else.
USA spends a fortune on healthcare because it is driven by corporate interests = shareholder demands. It should never have been inserted into capitalism at the detriment of society as a whole, including the poor and people of colour. Plus Americans are lied to as to the real cost. It should be like fire services, school, police, water. A right of all citizens.
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I hope you eventually get to the bottom of all these mysterious ailments. All very perplexing. Right now Canada's health service sounds a lot better than the NHS, which is virtually collapsing because of overwhelming demand, staff shortages, underfunding and covid.
ReplyDeleteNick I was reading, with horror, what is happening in the UK.
DeleteAlso, I dislike the two-tier system in Ireland. I fondly remember a close friend there who told me waiting for national health care and treatment with her breast cancer was 3 months, private was immediate (and she was covered) but opted for the "peon" care as she felt it was so unfair. Outrageous when one thinks of it.
In the "good" old days, I remember my granny hopping the ferry to visit my aunt and getting her teeth and glasses on the UK health care system.
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Other friends in Canada also write good things about your health service and since we don't have one in India and we are left to fend for ourselves, we can only envy you. My best wishes that all the tests eventually solve the problem that is bugging you,
ReplyDeleteThanks Ramana for the good wishes. How on earth do the poor manage in India? Left to themselves to die?
DeleteAs I say, ours is not perfect but honestly they way I have been treated through these myriad issues leaves me with awe at how wonderful and caring our system is. In one of my procedures I was assigned a nurse who took care of me throughout and never left my side.
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The poor have access to free medical help but, the middle class is the one that suffers most.
DeleteI too am keeping fingers crossed for your final results. How good it will be to have answers. Thank you for the graphs, so discouraging for those of us in the US, and frustrating!! The political dialogue is hard to believe when it comes to healthcare! Always has been. Your doctors sound exceptional!
ReplyDeleteOnce profit is made off the backs of those in poor health there is something inherently flawed with the system Marge. I have the same issue with the pharmaceutical industry, as their profits, too, are enormous while I know people in the US toss up life saving decisions between, say, insulin, and food.
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I hope you find the problem with this round of testing.
ReplyDeleteA few years back an elderly friend of mine left the group morning tea to go to the bathroom and eventually came back looking very green and sweaty. She insisted she was ok to go home and I insisted she needed an ambulance. She'd had a massive bleed from an ulcer she was unaware of and was in hospital a fortnight!
The good news was she was stabilised and went on quite happily after that.
Thanks for the good news Kylie, I am hoping this is it and it will be sorted. It is hiding away somewhere in my body.
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The not knowing is very frustrating. I do hope you're getting some answers soon so your med issues can be resolved.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if the U.S. will ever resolve our health care system issues as we surely do need that to occur.
Yeah, our healthcare system sucks. Or, rather, access to it sucks. I had excellent care when I was going through my surgeries and chemo, but only because I had good insurance.
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