September 7th – Bloody Hell

by annemariedemyen, posted in A Piece of My Mind - September 2021

I wrote a blog last night that I was going to post this morning. After this morning, I decided to cycle around to a different ‘piece of my mind’ that needs sharing.

I am waiting for surgery for a hernia(s). My surgeon wants to get this done ASAP but his office arranged for me to have a catscan because the ultrasound I had in May was inconclusive about some problem areas. I have my catscan booked for next week but I needed to get a routine blood test done before I could have the catscan – or the surgery.

My surgeon’s office sent a requisition over to our local lab for the blood test. All I had to do was go to have it done. Which I did, this morning.

I have no idea how the seriously ill or aged survive ‘health’ care. It is not a place or process for wimps. None of it!

My first step was to make an appointment for my test at the lab. Good freaking luck with that. Dan and I used to have an account with our lab to book appointments. After their system was hacked a couple of years ago we were locked out. There is no option for a reset unless one calls to speak to a real person. Hahahaha… After spending an hour on hold at 1-800-welcome to hell, I figure no such person exists. I decide to call the local clinic to make sure that they had received my requisition before heading down to stand in the walk-in line. The local clinic phone number is a recording advising you to call 1-800-welcome to hell.

So, I head down to the local clinic. I get into line (outside the clinic) behind maybe five people. A lab assistant came and asks the routine Covid questions. I ask if she could check to see if they have my requisition. That was a hard no. It would be in contravention of our healthcare ‘privacy act’. PHFTT!

So I stand in line – for an hour. While the line grows much longer behind me – growing past the lab and wrapping around Giant Tiger. Oddly enough, I am like the pick of the litter in this line. There are at least two women old enough to be my grandmother, one elderly man who was there to pick up a sample container for his wife, several people who are obviously seriously ill, one woman who is suffering from a possible miscarriage, and one very pregnant woman who is probably still in line and no longer pregnant. In the shade of the strip mall it is miserably cold and we are obviously in the company of a colony of wasps. I myself am not that uncomfortable, but I am seriously concerned that some of us are not going to make it through this sh*t show.

After hearing the lab assistant tell several people, that things are abnormally backed up because this is the first day after a long weekend, I watch as a number of lab techs drift in – hours after the lab was scheduled to open. 😒 Finally, I am at the front of the line and I am called in. I feel horrid taking my turn when there are so many who obviously need the relief of getting this over and done with more than I did. But, I need this blood test and will obviously throw the entire system into a tizzy if I let anyone step in front of me, so in I go. To stand in line inside. 🤦

I get to the counter and find that they have never received, or quite possibly have lost, my requisition. I am advised that I should call my doctor’s office and get it sent over. I ask if I should sit down in the office to make the call. I assume the receptionist says yes. Her head sort of nods. If she is speaking English, I did not recognize it as such. I sit down under the ‘No Cell Phones Allowed’ sign and pull out my cell phone, while the receptionist guns me down with dirty looks. What?? I am pretty sure she didn’t expect me to use their 🤣🤣🤣 phone.

I call my surgeon’s office and the requisition is sent over immediately. I hear the fax. I sit and wait while half a dozen other people are directed off to the various lab booths as they open up. The receptionist shoots me dirty looks until I step up to the counter and ask if they have my requisition. She asks for my health card. I hand it over. She hands it back and has me write my name on a paper so she can check the requisitions they have on hand. My name is on the health card she was just holding. The clerk next to her advises that he has my requisition.

Within a couple of minutes, I am directed to booth number one. It takes 30 seconds for the lab tech to verify my identity, draw my blood, and put a bandaid on my arm.

I am out of there! I stop at Petrocan to grab a coffee and a lottery ticket (because this is obviously my lucky day).

I am now home and one step closer to surgery.

I cannot imagine how our health system can possibly make things more difficult and uncomfortable for those who need their services. This is not a third world country. This is Canada. Surely to God we can afford to do a more humane job of taking care of the sick and elderly amongst us. It just boggles my mind every time I experience our health system.

That’s my ‘piece of mind’ for the day. 😁

Take care! Have a nice rest of the day and see you tomorrow.💞

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47 thoughts on “September 7th – Bloody Hell”

  2. What a mess! I’m sorry you had to deal with that, Annmarie. I’m sure the same crap happens here too. I’ve had to call my GP too to ask if they sent the fax to the other doctor’s office. Grr!

    Liked by 1 person

  3. No doubt and I in no way meant this as an attack on those on the front line who have been dealing with Covid night and day for a year and a half. Our health system has been dysfunctional for decades and the people who suffer because of it are those who can least handle the strain. I honestly don’t know how the elderly and seriously ill manage it.

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  9. Oh, my goodness! I almost got tired and frustrated reading what they put you through. In my opinion that was ridiculous. It is good to know you are one step closer to your surgery and I hope it goes a whole lot smoother than your lab work did.

    Liked by 1 person

  11. I wonder if the lady in line had a boy or girl😜? Oh my you crack me up! Come to an emergency room on a Saturday night in the States…it’s definitely a shit show. Sending positive vibes for your surgery.

    Liked by 1 person

  12. I worked an emergency room in Gillette, Wyoming when I was eighteen. 5′-1″ maybe 100lbs. A huge native came in one night with his arm slashed and wrapped in a flimsy towel. When I told him I had to look at his arm (cause yea I would know what I was looking at) he bolted out an exterior door and started running across a field. I ran after him, telling him I just wanted to help him. A minute later I had five cops and a paramedic chasing me. The cops blew buy and the paramedic grabbed me and asked what I was trying to do. I said I was trying to catch the guy. He said “what the hell would you do with him if you caught him?”. Yea it was a bit of a shit show. 🙄 Thanks for the vibes, Dwight. 💞

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  15. Thank you! Things have been delayed here too, as would be expected but the doctors are getting frustrated. I think my surgeon will do anything he can to get me through this asap.

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  17. Thank you so much for your concern. I am so sorry about your sister’s diagnosis. I have had all kinds of blood tests and all seems fine. (except for my lungs and I had them scanned a few months ago). I am sure the issue is all hernias (abdominal muscle tears). Just a matter of how many and how bad. 🤷‍♀️

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  18. That’s a heck of a note. I live in a state that’s pretty darn close to being 3rd world, New Mexico, USA. Maybe that’s the answer to the problem you are facing. You need to be a bit more third world.

    My GP retired 10 years ago and I haven’t had a GP since. I’ve been through hell with cancers, so I have an oncologist and I also have a rheumatologist, but they are specialists and are not much help with general health care. Three weeks ago I called the health group my insurance is under and I asked if they had any real MD GPs available. They did.

    That was on a Friday, they had an appointment available on Monday. I went to the doctor with my various issues. He referred me to a dermatologist for two of my issues. The Dermatologist’s office called me within an hour after I saw the doctor and we scheduled and appointment for Friday of the week before last. I got labs done at 8 am on that Friday morning, easy process compared to what you described. I even picked up some stuff for my wife from the lab while I was there. After the labs, I went to my dermatology appointment. She did a biopsy, sent it off to the lab and referred me to a vein clinic for my leg issues. Monday morning 9/30/21, the vein clinic called to schedule an appointment. That was today. Last Thursday, the dermatologist called with the results from the lab. I needed to go in for a treatment. They scheduled the treatment for the next day, Friday 9/3.

    Other than post cancer checkups and appointments with my rheumatologist, I haven’t dealt with the general medical establishment since 2010. They are pretty darned efficient despite doctor and nurse shortages and being a third world state.

    Liked by 1 person

  19. Pretty impressive! My respiratory specialist referred me to a cardiologist and an ENT in February. Still haven’t heard from them. Plus my respiratory specialist was supposed to book me for a complete respiratory in function test this summer. Still waiting. I can’t imagine what those who are seriously ill do.
    Why is New Mexico 3rd world? I have never heard that. I thought the poorer states were around Kentucky? Mississippi?

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  20. Have you seen “Breaking Bad”? I’ve only seen the clips my programmer at the office was in, but it’s not far from reality. New Mexico comes in last in everything good, and is on top of everything bad. We have it all: corruption, crime, poverty, addiction, road rage, traffic fatalities, bizarre murders, you name it we have it. Albuquerque has the the Big-I interchange where I-40 and I-25 cross. All the weirdos traveling across the country breakdown in Albuquerque and stay. But we seem to have an efficient health care system at the moment.

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  24. It’s the “land of enchantment”. Were we live is paradise. The “enchantment factor” is a real economic term for people who give up better wages, and deal with all the issues, to live in the beautiful and enchanting environment of New Mexico. The environment is amazing.

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  26. It’s the same in DK too. It doesn’t work, the people who needs help the most don’t get any. Old people standing in line for more than an hour and treated like cattle, no benches anywhere (removed because the upper crust get scared if they see a homeless person getting a bit of sleep before they’re caught and run out of town – for being poor) Just yesterday: old guy falls and hits his head on the pavement bleeding everywhere, someone calls for an abulance. Five times! No ambulance. A cop car comes by and they call for one. Then it came and the old guy who’s heart stopped – fortunately some bystanders knew cpr, – and he finally got help. More than an hour after he fell. Or: a woman who’s been in and out of the psyke ward for nine years with a ton of medication just found out that the only thing wrong was a low metabolism. Nobody bothered to check. System’s sick. Some things are nice here but don’t get sick. Health care is payed with tax money, but it doesn’t work properly. I hope your surgery goes well and nothing goes wrong. I’ll cross my fingers for you. Take care.

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  34. I feel for you Anne! No one deserves any of this! No one!

    I’m not even going to begin to rant lol but I’m happy you eventually got out of there alive. I’m surprised there aren’t any dusty, cobweb covered skeletons in many of the waiting rooms around this country…maybe they have them stashed in their supply closets somewhere? 🤣 Or perhaps the hanging skeletons we see in our facilities, are in fact, the lost souls of the waiting rooms from this country? 😳

    I fully support the hardworking people who genuinely care about others in this field, but the system is completely dysfunctional and broken, and it’s not their fault. I’ll leave it at that lol!

    I hope you get feeling better soon and that all goes well. I hate to laugh about the shitty situation during your waiting period outside of the building with the bloody wasps, but you made me spit my coffee across the table 🤣🤣! I’m happy you found some humour in this ugly reality, but I truly do hope you get patched up and feeling well again soon 😊.

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  36. OMG that’s terrible and I’m sorry to say I just spit more coffee out while laughing lol! 🤣 Ugh! I hope that gets taken care of sooner rather than later and that you don’t lose any of your precious parts in the process…heebus that sucks! 🤣

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  40. When politicians say their idiotic policy decisions are based on science I scoff. Politicians are mostly people who have failed at various ventures in life, especially math and science.

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  44. I’ve heard many horror stories about healthcare and had more than my share. You’re absolutely right. How do we “survive health care”? But , but, but, I’m American. You’re Canadian. I thought it was better up there. Sigh.

    Liked by 1 person

  46. Great article. A guy they used to have on the radio here in Iowa, his first response would be, “What’s their incentive?” Meaning what motivation do they have to be fast, thorough and efficient? Will they make more money if they are the best? Will they make less money if they’re not?

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