Don’t Get Me Started on the Canadian Medical Patient Experience
Yesterday’s hours all got sucked into the time vacuum that one is presumed to live in when one has need of medical attention in Canada.
Getting to a doctor’s appointment is rather a big production in itself when you can’t stand or sit normally, and cannot walk more than a short distance or without aids. I had thought this all well planned out in advance, until being detoured, directly from the appointment and without my full participation, to a hospital. I finally escaped at about 10 pm last night, more handicapped than when I had arrived.
Oh, how I wish this story could be over.
I’ve thought, on a number of occasions, of doing a blog or three on the subject. One could be simply horrific experiences, another ‘duh’ experiences, and a third more probing and analytic. For now, I just enjoy sites such as Multiple Sclerosis Sucks.
There is, these days, a bit of publishing, both via the internet and more traditionally, of very poignant and literary scraps and stories illustrating the doctor’s point of view. If this interests you, try local author Vincent Lam’s award winning collection called Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures. (I do hope this young man continues writing.).
More difficult to find is the well-written patient point of view, beyond individual experiences and general expostulations of complaint or frustration.
Having been, since 1980, a complex conditions patient and a caregiver for others in the same boat, and also a mom who was in charge of family triage, I know that the overwhelming majority of patients’ stories aren’t fully and coherently told. To a great extent, I believe that this is because dealing with serious medical problems drains so much of our resources that there typically isn’t enough left over for literary creations, activism, etc.
There is, though, a real need for better communication between the medical care providers and the recipients. Maybe we’ll get to that after we get to dealing with how to actually pay for half decent care.
Do please post, or email to me, any examples of robust patient/provider communication on the web that you’re aware of. Although my personal resource allocation doesn’t allow me to contemplate starting or running any large project in this area right now, I still can and do contribute when I can wherever others might benefit.
