on Tramadol. You know, I am not just making this up to make some sort of point. And I know that my troubles have greatly reduced my reach but not slain me, and I should be grateful, and am, that they are not worse and for the care I have received. But allow me to throw off my reasonable demeanour for a moment and just tell it like it is:
The system is broken.
I have been waiting for months, since November, to get into the Pain Clinic here in Ottawa, where I was a former patient. I waited over two years for that first appointment back in 2010, so from 2008 approximately. I have not been there, it is true, since the winter of 2011/2012, as it turned out that I could attempt to have my pains reduced surgically, with a re-sectioning of my inguinal nerve and a coincident repair of another inguinal hernia. That surgery was a success, but it has turned out that I still have some sort of underlying groin injury, and now a damaged hip from the years of walking with a poor gait.
The pain recently escalated, and everyone laughs when I tell them I was chopping ice. Oh, they say, you shouldn’t be doing things like that. But I am stir crazy and have to sometimes do something, and there has been very little light at the end of the tunnel. But it turns out this was a lucky thing. If I hadn’t made my hip worse, and therefore gone back to my GP, I wouldn’t have thought to ask him to find out how long the waiting list actually was this time for the pain clinic, to which I had needed to be re-referred, and could not apparently just go back to as a returning patient. He told me he was scared to tell me how long the wait was this time.
2 1/2 years.
And that was the only thing teed up to look at the MRI I had back in October after twisting the arm of the system and convincing one doctor to continue to look into my case, as I was turning up healthy all over the map, while suffering greatly internally. So now I will be referred to an orthopaedic surgeon, but we will have to look for one who practices outside the capital city of Canada, to see if we can find one with a shorter waiting list. Great criteria for selecting a specialist. For an appointment just to look at the MRI. Our poor doctors, servants of the state, are gate-keepers to the system, and they have nowhere to send their patients, if their patients can even get in to see them.
And now I am back on heavy pain killers, can barely walk, and everything is perfect in our socialist paradise.
i don’t have the right answers, but neither do our leaders. what i do have is compassion, and i will be thinking of you today. 🙂
As described here, I would say that I have empathic concern for you, Xty.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empathy
If you are able to rally, this is a fun place to listen and look around.
http://www.waywordradio.org/
Also have concern for our wild friends and neighbors. I had noticed they were coming closer to the house. This is from upstairs window.
Then I noticed tracks on the sidewalk.
I realized they were after the Indian corn that had been hanging from the sign.
They came right up onto the patio.
I gladly share my globe arbor vitae and will be setting out some grain.
Great snow line in the cedar. Like some sort of crazy natural topiary.
this song got in my head today, somehow, so when i got home, i had to find it. all i had to go on is “ocean”. it took a while to find. someone needs to invent a search engine that you can just hum into.
i am starting a water themed painting. this is what i have so far.
Good morning!
I guess the question re your painting would be what are you wanting to say? I was struck by the obvious when offspring #3 came home from photography class and had four things that every photo should have, and the last one was that it should tell a story. It has made me look at taking pictures differently, and the same certainly holds for painting.
Water, water everywhere
and not a thought to think …
it is saying that i long for better weather. i remember a few years ago swimming in the Gulf near Tampa Bay Florida in January. the locals thought i was nuts. i think at this point in time i’d swim anywhere in the USA where open water isn’t covered with ice!
i’m kind of stuck on where to go with the painting. i was considering adding the tips of my toes, but i have such hideous feet.
perhaps a certain sea bird gliding above the waves? but with the weather we have had, some angry and spiteful snowbird would shoot the thing. we would surely have many more months of winter then.
hope you are having a decent day. 🙂
Hey folks, what up? Haven’t been around cuz I’m swamped with crapola.
Have stocks found a bottom? Who knows?
Why is silver stinking up the joint? Who knows?
I heard Obama made a speech the other night. Whatever.
The republicans are still as stoopid as ever, that much is clear.
This Schell’s Pils is tasting mighty fine. That’s for sure.
Thoughts are with you, Xty. Chronic pain is a bitch and a half.
On the one hand, I applaud you taking responsibility for your own health care. If you don’t, no one else will.
On the other hand, given an ache or pain, a person can go on the internet and convince themselves that they only have months to live. Been there, done that. It’s horrifying.
So, moderation in all things, especially internet health research.
Yes, and don’t drink and blog…
Tunes…
DP, even the folks in Florida yearn for better weather. Our snowbird friends who are on the panhandle Gulf coast emailed us whining about their 27 degree temp yesterday. We will be visiting them in three weeks, so of course we hope that it warms up there and is colder than a witch’s tit here by then.
You said “perhaps a certain sea bird gliding above the waves” that reminded me of the bald eagle that glided above me on a country road yesterday. Been avging one sighting a year for the last four years, now this is two this winter.
EO, I would buy that beer just because of the buck on the label. Haven’t ever seen that one, hope it’s good. Savin’ up to buy many different kinds I encounter on our trip that aren’t available here.
And no, stocks haven’t bottomed yet, but my basket of five profane propane are doin’ ok so far.
Xty, hang in there gal. And to help you keep that fighting spirit alive, here’s a vid to piss you off.
Wie geht’s Pete and DN? Sehr gut here.
A picture for just you two that I took in August and of course it’s amped up but I think it’s even better this way.
From one of my early morning walks on our road with my dog Ozzie, there was some fog in the valley as the sun was rising over a profusion of Joe Pye weed (eupatorium maculatum).
Dude,
Next time you are in MadTown, get thee hence to Woodman’s. They carry a bunch of the Schell’s line. All good, but I especially like the Pils and the Dark.
The deer (it’s on the bottle caps too) comes from their old flagship brand ( they’ve been around for 150 years), a standard American lager called Deer Brand.
I was watching some YouTube beer reviews recently where the know-it-all guy was musing about what-the-heck-is-the-deer-thing-about? So now you know more than those guys.
crap. resize…
We were drinking Schell’s Dark on tap one time at a hotel bar in Minneapolis, and when it became clear that we were never going to join the wives for dinner reservations (spicy bar snacks and beer, what more do you need?) a buddy says “There’s a pork chop in every glass!”. Lol, I’ll never forget that as long as I live. Mrs. O and I say that to each other every time we have dark beer.
Maybe this is what you need.
Schell’s Sampler Pack
There is oftentimes a good seasonal trade on nat gas, heating oil, propane, and related equities, but you need crackerjack timing on the sell button, or else, oops you stay too long and then you lose. 😥
Same as anything though, I guess.
Wow – what a view. One day we will retreat to the country, but it is hard to imagine leaving this house. I keep saying we need to take all the oak with us.
If it weren’t for internet research, I would never have found the doctor who found my hernia. Or had the MRI that shows the damage to my hip and adductor muscle. And the piriformis was unfortunately a diagnosis from the athletic guy. I think that is why they laughed when I said I had chopped ice.
But we have a sad case across the street of internet fuelled hypochondria. And as the wee thing slumps over her computer, day after day, half the stuff becomes true. Anemia, arthritis, early osteo (she is 25), depression. All things a walk a day might have fixed, if implemented when she first showed signs of retreating from the world.
And hanging in there – new drug much better. Only once a day and I have a slightly higher dose of Lyrica. But has kept me away from the anvils and tylenols, and I think I slept better. Except for the strange noises at 4:30 and finding mum sitting on the floor in the hallway. But at least she was fully clothed. Things have been a little too interestingly scatalogical lately.
And speaking of dark beer …. it can make one a little gassy.
Oh and perhaps DP you could just paint the lot of us on the beach, beer in hand, with a wisp of smoke for realism sake. But it is a balmy -2 C here right now, so there is hope! And the canal normally melts for Winterlude (yes, that is the dumb name of our attempt to bring in tourists and pretend winter is fun. The locals tend to refer to it as Winternude because, well, who wouldn’t.) We boast the world’s longest outdoor skating rink, like it was a good thing.
And good morning.
Away from the anvils. Now there is a freudian slip if ever there was one.