A discussion / rant post about the Canadian "free" (from our taxes) healthcare system, and an update to my current struggle with it.

--- First, an excerpt from my February 21st post on the dilapidated state of the Canadian healthcare system: I've been dealing with abdominal pain for 6 months. It was intermittent and mild at first, but it gradually became worse. Then a few weeks ago, it got quite bad, and became mixed with a few other symptoms in the same region. Some of those symptoms were worrisome, so I made an appointment to see a doctor. (I don't actually have a family doctor "GP"... I have to see the specialist I was connected to when I had my heart surgery last year.) I saw him for about 15 minutes. He asked some questions and assessed a few things, then sent me for an ultrasound. This is a very cheap and easy test that can be done almost anywhere, any time for essentially no cost. A few days later, I spent the afternoon at the hospital, to get that scan done. The results were sent to my specialist, but the technician who did it said they didn't really find anything conclusive. That was 10 days ago. I haven't heard back from the doctor about the scan results. The pain and other symptoms are still there in my lower gut. Not good. Well, if he's not going to call me, I guess I have to call him. So I called his number this afternoon, and it went right to voicemail. The message said "leave all your personal details" and "give us 3 business days to get back to you". So now I'm waiting 3 business days (5 calendar days) just to hear back from the doctor's receptionist? At which point I will be given a telephone "appointment" "with" him... about 3 weeks from then? In other words, it's going to take me a month, just to speak with the doctor about the results of the scan he ordered (which apparently didn't even find the issue)! A month of my life, gone, while whatever it is continues to get worse, and slows me down. Even with acetaminophen and cannabis for pain, it often hurts enough to be distracting, keep me awake at night, or make me grumpy. I don't like to imagine how it will feel it it gets any more intense. --- UPDATE: I eventually got ahold of the doctor's secretary, who informed me the scan had not found anything conclusive. (Great, all that time waiting for it, and a day getting the scan done... "inconclusive".) I had been referred to a surgeon, and would hear back from him by phone. I replied that if the scan didn't find anything, why do I need a surgeon? Shouldn't I just go back to the specialist to get a different test ordered? Maybe the surgeon has some ideas for how to help you, she said. Well, that doesn't sound great, and it's annoyingly vague. But I agreed to speak with the surgeon. About a week later, I called her back, and said I hadn't heard from the surgeon. She didn't have his current number, but gave me his name. I looked him up and called his office yesterday (Tuesday). An answering machine picked up: "Office hours are Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.." so I hung up. Today (Wednesday) after breakfast, we had a power outage. When things came back on, it was 1pm, and I called the surgeon's office. The answer machine picked up again: "Office hours are Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, from 9am to 2pm..." Wow, they're available 15 hours a week? And not even really available, because there I was talking to their machine. I left a message asking them to call me back before they left for the day, and hung around the phone, but nobody called. So my next chance is Friday. And at that point, my hope is that I'll actually get through to someone, and that they'll agree to have the surgeon call me as soon as possible. I'd really like to hear the full results of the scan - what was found and what wasn't. I can't really make any decisions (surgery?!?) until I've got that information, at the very least. How frustrating that the scan was over a month ago, and I still don't know much about it! I first sought help for this in late January. I'm a competent person who understands the healthcare system and advocates well for himself. I've put a lot of nonstop effort into this. But after about 7 weeks, I'm almost no closer to getting diagnosis (let alone treatment) for whatever's wrong. I really don't think I'm the only person having problems like this. I know for sure there are people here in Canada getting some pretty amazing care. They're hooked up, they know they've got it good, and most of them are quiet about it, because they don't want to risk anything changing. But many others have it even worse than me. I've seen that firsthand, too. It's broken, but it's currently all we've got. Things could be - SHOULD be - so much better. Until then, I'm in pain, and things are going wonky inside me. I've fired off a legal request for information regarding my scan. If nobody will talk to me about it, I guess I'll just get the transcript and data and see what I can make of it myself. But that takes time, sometimes many weeks... and sometimes it just never shows up at all. In the meantime, I'll try calling the surgeon's office again on Friday. I hope that if you have health issues, you're getting adequate diagnosis and treatment for them. And I hope that if you DON'T have health issues, that you enjoy yourself, appreciate what you've got, and do what you can to maintain that as long as possible. Prevention is by far the best cure. (discussion post purposely has no formatting or images) DRutter