Socialized Medicine - Patience Needed

So let me tell you how things work here in Canada for those of you who don't already know. You have a problem, in my case my eye and you go off to your friendly Primary Care Physician (GP). He is the gatekeeper of all and he decides who you need to see next. He doesn't order tests, at least not expensive tests he just sends you up the food chain. Problem is the food chain has many hungry people so you wait your turn and hope for the best. In case you think your health care is "free" let me disabuse you of that notion. We pay for it in the form of higher taxation and payroll deductions. There are also things not covered like the Optometrist and the eye scan in my case although there are many more on that list. Of course if you need a sex change operation, yup that's probably covered especially if your a prisoner, go figure...

In my case (we'll talk about Steve later) it was an appointment with the Opthamologist who had a look see and said, "nothing serious, just some floaters" things will sort themselves out. Ya right... here I am three months later half blind in one eye. That was early November, 2008.

In early January when we returned from our lovely (freezing) holiday in Calgary, I suddenly had flashes and waves in my eye. I thought maybe it was a stroke or some such nonsense and off we went to the ER. Many hours later I was told it was an eye issue and needed to see a Retinal Surgeon, call your Opthamologist I was told. The next available appointment was 10 days away and being an impatient person I took myself off to the Optometrist (which is not free). She had a good look at told me it was a macular hole or pseudo hole but couldn't be sure. Only a dye x-ray would show it for sure.

I waited patiently to for the next appointment with the eye doc. He then referred me to the retinal surgeon. That appointment was yesterday after a three week wait. Now I'm assuming rightly or wrongly that he is a good surgeon since the wait was so long and because the appointment was at a major hospital assumed (wrongly) that a resolution was not far off. Never assume, dam it, I'm always wrong.

He also had a good look and told me it was retinal scarring, huh...were did that come from. From the best I can glean after googling, it could have been the floaters back in November that started this unlucky chain of events. Now the problem is if the scarring is too thick it can't be operated. Great, said I, book the surgery. Not so fast...it all takes time.

Two more tests yesterday, a dye x-ray and some fancy MRI type scan (not free) and more waiting. This doc is so busy that even though I had the tests done right away and had the results available, he can't see me again until March 18th to discuss those results!

His gatekeeper is the receptionist and even though I was all done with the tests in half an hour and had the results in my hand she wasn't budging, March 18th was the date. I almost begged for an earlier appointment and came close to breaking into tears. How long does it take to look at two test results and decide yes or no and book surgery? I would gladly have sat and waited no matter how long.

It was not to be and the wait goes on. Remember, this all started early November and as each day goes by my eye gets blurrier and I am scared that by the time "my turn" comes around it will be too late and my vision will be lost.

Now this is not an anomaly here in Canada. I waited TWO years for a hip replacement, four months for gallbladder surgery and 5 months for heart ablation. Oh yes I almost forgot, there is a ONE year wait for a foot surgeon to fix my foot. In the U.S. my cousin had her gallbladder out within weeks with her choice of surgeon and another cousin got a pacemaker in 24 hours.

My mother, in May of 2007 died of heart failure because it took the hospital 4 weeks to give her a lifesaving pacemaker and never did get her MRI even though she was in the hospital. If I'd know that would happen I'd have taken her stateside for that surgery. My husband has been waiting for surgery on his torn tendon since last October. He has been sent from one doctor to another and is still waiting for an MRI booked for March. He has now missed the "window of opportunity" and requires TWO surgeries instead of one. We also still don't have an appointment with the surgeon.

My offspring and I disagree about this all the time but I would rather have had the option of paying for insurance and having some sort of private system running concurrently with the public system as is the case in many other countries. This system is broken. The people with money go to the U.S. for immediate treatment and those covered under Workers Compensation jump to the front of the line here. It is an unequal system in spite of what our politicians like to tell us.

That's it for ranting, I'm going to go have a shot of cognac, might as well be dizzy for a good reason...