Category: General

I haven’t had a chance to talk about this even though I’ve been home for a week. Needless to say, hearing about declining standards of health care before going for major surgery often leaves one wondering what to expect. I was curious about how things would be, but am quite glad to report that, should you be sent off to our hospital, you don’t have to panic about the level of treatment you will receive.

This is particularly true when I apply the benchmark of what I see in other areas of Canada. I went into emergency a bit more than five years ago and saw a brand new doctor in town. He had come from Saint John, NB and was amazed that, at 10 at night, I was seen by him about 10 minutes after arrival. He was used to a longer wait period in Saint John, where he said that the average wait time in emergency was a little over 8 hours.  Apparently, in Montreal, it”s often a 12-18 hour wait in emergency.

The standard of care I received was nothing short of excellent. The nurses should be lauded daily… and I did. They are busy, and sometimes you need to wait for routine things like your daily dressing change, but they were skilled, caring and extremely cheerful throughout my stay over 2 1/2 weeks. They were always friendly and always interested in making sure that any problems you had were dealt with immediately.

Are there problems? What I couldn’t help noticing was that much of the equipment is old and some needs a great deal of help. When it takes the third blood pressure machine to finally get your blood pressure, after the first two simply no longer function, it does indicate that some things need repair or replacement. My IV pump, which Kristal, the nurse, named Fred, had a battery that wasn’t beneficial to walking. I was supposed to go for a minimum of three walks a day, and Fred’s battery would often last about 10 feet out the room door and then start beeping annoyingly (low battery were two words I began to despise).

So, let’s not panic about the level of health care here. However, let’s also keep a good eye on our elected officials to ensure that these standards are maintained. Let’s be honest. I’m a typical Canadian who sees universal medical care as a sacred cow and quite cheerfully capable of suggesting the cutting seats in the legislature as a cost-cutting method to ensure its existence. After all, one nurse is worth far more than 18 territorial representatives and costs far less…

I’ll admit it. I’m bored.

I’ve been home since Friday and recovery will be slow. I still can’t move very far, although I can go up and down stairs. This is important because it differs between sleeping downstairs on the sofa bed or upstairs on our real bed. Sofa bed mattresses are designed for two specific engineering functions. First is the ability to fold up and go back to being a sofa. This makes it need to be thin and uncomfortable. The second function is to make sure that your company isn’t encouraged to stay too long and ours certainly meets this important criterion. The alternative, upstairs, is a 14″ chiropractic mattress on a queen sized bed, so the ability to get upstairs is a big bonus.

I walk around the house a lot so I’m getting some exercise.  I went for a walk down the road a bit the other day but it’s been windy and I haven’t had much of a chance since then to do it again. Walking involves a bit of planning. I need to bring Clara with me in case I can only get so far and you have to really remember to plan for the walk out and back again.

We’re getting really good at changing dressings. I got a bit of a reprieve from that yesterday when Home Care showed up. I had a shower on Saturday which gave me the opportunity to actually look at the incision in the mirror. It’s about a foot long and is held together with about 30 staples. I go to the surgeon’s office tomorrow to see if they come out, or some come out, or we leave them in longer. Since I had two operations, the incision will take much longer to heal than if it had been used only once.

My big concern is that it’s very easy to come up with an incisional hernia after this. Therefore, the heaviest thing I can pick up is a coffee cup.

I’ll be off work for quite a bit longer. I may try to pop in for a bit in about a month’s time but am not expecting too much for the first while. I’m concentrating on getting everything ready for courses in January, which I have to be ready for early. I probably go back for the last little surgical bit, and I am quite glad it’s “little,” in early December. Then, I’m off until the new term starts. It’s kind of scary how much work I’ve missed with this and knee surgery in early June.

Well, that’s about how things are. I’m keeping low-key since I’ve picked up a bit of a bug and am less energetic than normal, which, sadly, isn’t saying much…

That took a wee bit longer than originally planned.

I went to the hospital on August 24th for abdominal surgery to repair a fistula, a connection between the colon and the bladder. This explains why I’ve basically been miserable since February and probably the February before. The end result is that I’ve basically had bladder and kidney infections for the past year and feel just miserable. I’ve been tired and had trouble working a full day since the winter.

I finally got it diagnosed when I came down with the bladder infection from Hell and had to go into emergency on a weekend. The on call surgeon figured it out based on a new symptom and since it’s very rare, was able to schedule a few more tests and confirm it.

I had surgery, which basically called for cutting a piece out of the colon where it was infected, patching the bladder and putting some fat in between the two to prevent it from recurring. I did not get to pick where the fat came from, although I tried. This was the original plan; however, as in 5% of these surgeries, I sprung a leak where the two pieces of the colon were reattached and had to have another operation to repair this and clean out the abdominal cavity. This represented another week of setback and means my recovery will be longer. Also, as a part of the repair, I will also have to have more surgery as well as several tests before hand sometime in early December to finish the repair.

Now, two and a half weeks later, I came home. It is kind of scary to give up my 24 hour nursing care. I guess I have to leave the nest eventually. I still have a lot of pain, tire very easily and am quite weak. I also have to be very careful to avoid causing an incisional hernia by overdoing it. I’m allowed to pick up a cup of tea and that’s about it.

Thanks, all, for the many wishes. I am extremely grateful to each and every one. Now, I promise a more consistent posting schedule…

So, tomorrow is surgery day and there’s no internet at the hospital. Therefore, I’m going to be offline for a bit, so this will be my last post for a while. The estimate is that I’ll be in hospital for about a week, so I assume my next post may be longer.

Other than that, take care all and I’ll catch you next week.

All the best, Doug.

Well, I got a phone call from the OR scheduling people this morning. I go for surgery Wednesday morning. Now, I get to run around like a chicken with its head cut off for a few days to get everything ready before hand.

I have a few things to do. I have to check the forecast to see if I’ll be able to get the boat out for a last run tomorrow… sometime between seeing the dramaturg about my play at 8:30 and pre-op clinic at 4. If not, I have to put my motor and boat away for the year since boating season will probably be over by the time I’m back in business. A few lawn things have to be taken care off before hand too. I have a few things to wash (my new jammies are washed already though) and have to get packed as well as other minor things.

Oh, well. They could have called and said I had surgery tomorrow…

I had a follow-up appointment with the surgeon today and got a few more details. I now have a date of sorts: next week or the week after. I realize that this isn’t still pinned down too tightly but it’s better than what I was working with the day before.

The doctor commented on Clara’s point that Dr. Poole, who is on vacation until next week, said that he would probably want to do it. “Of course, she said. This is rare. Since you don’t commonly get to do one of these, it’ll be fun.”

“Fun?” I asked.

“Oh, yes,” she said, “unless something goes wrong.”

Hopefully, nothing goes wrong. And, quite frankly, I always thought the “fun” in surgery was directly proportional to how vertical you were during the procedure…

I figured that, by now, I would have found out when my surgery would be scheduled. The main point for waiting was the results of my biopsies; however, they were back a week ago. I know I was happy when they were clean but I’d like to get the surgery done and over with. I will be out of commission for at least six weeks afterwards and without knowing the date, planning for this is impossible.

Therefore, I guess I’ll try to get out fishing tomorrow or Wednesday and I’m aiming to go camping this weekend, since it’s difficult to determine whether or not I’ll get out again. At least, I’ll feel like I’m doing something other than just waiting.

I did come up with a new description for my upcoming surgery, though. Everyone seems to wince when you tell them you’re having a small piece of your colon removed. Therefore, I’m trying out the new alternative: due to the number of complaints about its length, I’m going to have surgery to have an organ shortened. Same thing, worded differently…

I popped into work today to do a few adminstrative things and to see the Dean. She’s actually not back until tomorrow so I get to go back in again tomorrow.

But, while I was there, I went into HR to see about converting some of my holiday to sick time since I’m sort of stuck waiting for surgery. I was told that it would be no problem and all I’d need was a doctor’s letter.

Clara and I both went to the doctor’s and did a few things, including getting my letter. However, my doctor also mentioned that he had gotten back my biopsy results. These confirmed the scope I had almost two weeks ago that there is no malignancy, so all is happy with the world. Since my family doctor has them, the surgeon has them too. The results were what was holding up scheduling my surgery and their results would dictate how they approached it. I should be receiving word on when my surgery is sheduled soon.

Actually, all is not totally happy with the world as I’m cleaning the oven, but I’m sure I’ll get over it…

I’ve been busy working on the boat. That being said, I had two biggish jobs to do. I got them done, only to discover two more biggish jobs. OK, one was a big job.

When I went to position the height of the keel roller, I noticed the boat is actually sitting on the wheel fenders. That meant that I needed to raise the bunks the boat sits on. This is fun since the boat is actually sitting on them at the time. With a little ingenuity, and a tire jack and some 2×6 blocks, I raised each side high enough to be able to lift the bunks to the next height. It should actually be a bit higher, but I might get by. If necessary, I’ll get 4 aluminum blocks cut and use these under the bolts the bunk height adjusters rest on. This should give me a bit more height.

Next, I was getting a bit panicky on the weight on the trailer tongue. That’s because there really wasn’t any. The trailer is for a 14-17′ boat so it’s a bit longer than the boat needed. So, I moved the axle back another 7″ which should give me a bit more tongue weight. I really have to road test it to be sure whether or not it should come back a bit more. Why 7″? I couldn’t make up my mind as to whether to bring it back 6″ and 8″, and I am fond of compromise.

All in all, I have probably overdone it again but I did get all done. Now, there are only two things left. First, I have to attach the boat seat to a milk crate. Next, I discovered that the tie down I bought for the boat is too short. I eyeballed it and said 10′ would be fine. Actually 10′ 6″ would be more in the realm of practicality. Back to Canadian Tire, I’m afraid.

Now, I am having a beer and thinking of taking it easy for the night. A shower, since I had to douse myself with bug dope to work in the shelter of under the trailer, would be the next totally strenous thing I have planned on the agenda…