Take a Number

Today was one of those days where I  was cursing the health care system...not because its government run and has moments of inefficiencies but because I think I had to deal with 5 or 6 of the grumpiest, nastiest people in Calgary.  The test I needed today was to measure the glucose in my blood 2 hours after eating.  You cant make an appointment for that nor can you be a walk-in to take a number.  You have to go in, tell them you wont take a number but you don't have an appointment.   This seemed pretty straight forward to me...and being as this test is used to monitor for diabetes, it cant be all that rare.  So imagine my surprise when the lab at "Sloane Square" seemed angry about my visit there this morning.  To add to it both the transplant centre people AND the appointment hotline (Calgary Lab Services) told me to eat, come right to the lab and sit for an hour and a half.  So I did.  Much to the annoyance of one Grumpypantess at the lab.

"You are way too early.  Why would you come this early?"
"They told me to on the phone and at Foothills"
"Well you should just go shop or something because we can't deal with you yet"
"That's fine I'll just go read my book"
"Do what you want".

So for an hour and a half I did just that.  Finally it was time to go back up to the counter of warm (hostile) faces.  A new lady was there. Let's call her the Number Nazi.

"Do you have an appointment?"  I opened my mouth to start to attempt an answer.
"Take a number!!" She barked.  Thankfully one of the other ladies saw me and said "No don't-I will help you when I am done with this lady". The other lady looked irritated "Oh you have been helped?".  I thought no but someone who doesn't hate people is about to.The nicer lady at the desk was quite helpful and did my paperwork.  I took a seat and waited for my name to be called. 

The Number Nazi came out and yelled "Lorraine?  Lorraine Henswell?"  No one moved.  My name has been butchered in the past but really?  This much?  I timidly asked "Do you mean Lauren??" "Ohhh.  Yes" she sneered.  "My apologies".

I was brought to a room where I was told to wait.  Eventually a man walked past the room...the Number Nazi told him he should be helping me next.  He looked at my paperwork from about 6 feet away and barked "She doesn't have an appointment-appointments first!" and walked away.
A few minutes late he circled back and apologized for the wait and told me I wouldn't wait had I just made an appointment (I wasn't complaining!!).  I told him I couldn't make one.  He insisted I could.  After a bit of back and forth he actually looked at my forms and said "Oh...no you can't" and looked nervously at his watch to see if the 2 hour mark where they were supposed to take my blood had passed.  Thankfully it hadn't.  He then tried to still lecture me on how in general its better if people make appointments when they can and explained why my type of visit disrupted things a bit.  I listened but then politely pointed out that none of that was my fault or really my problem and it wasn't great to be treated as an irritant by a team of professionals. He responded by reminding me I needed to pee in a cup before I left. 

While hanging out in the waiting room and then going through this less than positive experience today, I realized I'm in a unique position. Going through the health care system as a totally healthy person brings an interesting perspective. Sometimes I'm treated differently (better) and other times I'm not. But what it gives me is a a really objective look at things because I'm not worrying about what's wrong with me or stuck in a waiting room feeling sickly or in pain. It gives you the freedom to just observe while legitimately using the system, which for the record I still think is pretty awesome.  I'm not saying it's perfect but if seems far superior than the alternative to the south. With all the medical fun I've had in the last few weeks between this and Charlie's mysterious joint ailment, I shudder to think what this would cost in a land where not everyone has the same access to health care. Somehow bad treatment from service providers is easier to tolerate when its free.

Friday Facts

I have taken the liberty of gently lifting some facts coloured with opinion on this subject from a website I found called "Kidney Mama".  Sometime people have already said something as well as you could ever hope to so why re-invent the wheel right?

• There is no kidney shortage. We have about 300 million excess kidneys in this country (Note from LH:  She is talking the US but we can scale it down for us Canucks) walking around in people who think that donating a kidney is a huge surgical undertaking (it isn’t) and doesn’t make that much difference because people can survive just fine on dialysis (they can’t).
• Organ donor cards will never solve the kidney shortage, because very few kidneys from deceased donors are usable. Until we can grow kidneys in a lab, living donation is the only viable option, no pun intended, for retiring “the list.”
• The medical profession needs to wrap its brain around non related donors and find a way to make the donation process more accessible to them. Do outreach to encourage living donation! (Read more about the reasons for the medical community’s discomfort with stranger donors in this Wall Street Journal piece from 2007.)(Note from LH:  We are actually much more medically open here in Canada although I do believe more steps could be taken to make people aware that it is an option here.  I do understand though why the medical community is leery of taking a perfectly healthy person and removing their kidney-it does go against their oath to a degree))
• It is ludicrous and unethical to let thousands of people die each year for lack of a kidney because it is supposedly wrong to compensate donors. Countries that legally compensate donors have no waiting list.(Note from LH:  I don't think I should be paid money for the kidney itself but costs like travel etc should be paid by the healthcare system, insurance or the government)
• It is not theoretically possible to save someone’s life for “the wrong reasons.” It is always the right decision to save someone’s life if you can.
• Kidney donors are not superhuman heroes. “Hero” puts a person on a pedestal as different, and lets people avoid considering that they could do what that person did. Kidney donors are ordinary people who were bold enough to step up and do something truly loving and obvious. Of course one should save another’s life. Of course.

So there you go.

Moms the Word

Making the decision to have a child is momentous.  It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.  ~Elizabeth Stone

I called my mom tonight and told her about my potential plans. Despite the fact I could tell she was uncertain and worried, she was very supportive.  She listened, asked questions and tried to understand why I would even think to do this.  She said it might even be worth another trip to Calgary (Ha!).  I am surprised how well she took it to be honest.  But really everyone's reaction is surprising me in someway; everyone I have told has said or done something I wasn't expecting based on my previous experiences with them. Interestingly enough, the men are the most "on the fence" or aloof  or critical of the situation. Granted I've only told three but its not looking good here guys! The ladies on the other hand have been overwhelmingly positive and supportive wanting to learn more.  They have also all offered to help if they can. I am not ready to make assumptions based on gender but if the shoe fits....

I am glad I've told her and am thrilled she reacted as well as she did. There are a few others I'd like to tell before putting this blog "out there" and that likely will have happened right around the phase one test results coming back so it will be good timing-if I am not eligible to move ahead there won't be anything more for this blog to tell right?

Funny side note.  A coworker I told my plans to yesterday actually read this whole blog last night.  My boss, John, said that if I got people to read my blog and comment, that would be almost the same as "being published" as far as my Part B goes at work.  While I am fairly certain he would say "Sally"doesn't count, it is pretty cool that I almost obtained a personal goal within a day of forming it!