When I was living in Winnipeg a number of years ago, I hung out a lot at the provincial legislature.  Despite working my butt off and having very little spare time, I stayed true to my political nerdism and was such a frequent visitor at the public galleries that I actually became acquainted at one point with Ron Schuler, a sitting MLA.  Quite a nice guy actually.

Anyhow, as I hung around so much, I even went into some committee meetings to listen in and see what went on.  As I watched a health care estimates meeting, I ended up chatting briefly with some one who initially thought I was a fellow bureaucrat.  He said that he was fascinated with the health care estimates because it was something that would eventually touch most every single Canadian at some point in their lives.  He was of course right and it touched me just this previous evening.

I have been experiencing some chest pain for a little over two weeks or so now.  I had made the determination on Friday that I would go to a clinic today to get it checked out so as to make sure that these pains were not the result of some odd problem.  I wasn’t too worried being all of 25.  That and I’m some what physically active and not horribly obese or anything of that nature.  That being said, chest pain is still chest pain and when it gets to the point where it feels as though some one is jabbing a knife into your man boob (or moob) with some vigour, even a hospital hater like me concedes that perhaps its time to go see a doctor.

I managed to get to the Royal University Hospital here in Saskatoon by 7:30PM and spoke to the triage nurse on duty.  Perhaps the only high point of the evening was this well built and imposing fellow.  As friendly as he was, it’s a little difficult to figure out how best to respond to some 7’0″ or so guy looking you in the eyes and greeting you with a pointed “What’s goin’ on tonight?!”  I didn’t mind that, it was just quite different.  Really, he was the best part of the night.  The rest was entirely downhill.

Remember, check in time was 7:30 and about four hours later, I finally shuffled into the ER and was shown to a bed.  I was told to remove the top half of my clothes, put on a gown and wait.  Some one would be around to see me.  I got into my flattering gown and sat on the bed.  Before too long, I decided to lay down and wait…and wait.  I thought my time in the waiting room was punishment enough but nope, apparently I was in for more waiting.  About 20 minutes later, a nurse came by to take my pulse and all that good stuff.  After a machine determined that I was indeed alive, she left.  Her exact words?

“The doctor will be by to see you and I have no idea when that will be.”

She was a ray of sunshine.

I waited some more…and kept waiting.  I actually fell asleep for a few minutes at least and then awoke at about 1:15 or so in the morning as a friendly vampire came up one side of me and a Dr. Frankesteinette came up along side my left.  I say she was a Dr. Frankensteinette because she had an ECG machine and it just reminded me of the whole “zap em alive” kinda deal.  The vampire dude just had vials with which to suck out some blood.  At least these technicians were fairly friendly.  I asked if either of them knew when I would be seeing a doctor but alas, they couldn’t help me out.  At least some tests were ordered.

Shortly after that, I got to wander upstairs and get some x-rays of my chest.  Zap zap zap and I was all done.  after that, I got to wait some more.  Yeehaw.

All this was done by about 1:45 or so.  I might be ahead on the time frame a bit but whatever the case, I then had to wait until 3:30 when I finally saw my doctor.  The phantom doctor who had decided to remain hidden up to this point came to tell me the results of my tests.  The verdict wasn’t terrible and it didn’t cause me any concern in any major way.  I’m scheduled for more tests now to be on the safe side and properly determine that it’s just muscle pain possibly induced by some kind of stress junk or whatnot.  if you wanted to know, blood work showed some minor abnormality and my ECG was slightly abnormal but not horribly so.

Really, I’m kinda pissed about having to wait 8 hours for medical tests that would have taken all of an hour and a half (maybe) in a private hospital.  I am upset that I have no option to buy private health care insurance in Canada to prepare for incidents of this sort.  I have to go to a public institution where I am almost guaranteed to have to wait for hours on end before even seeing some one on a Friday night.  Add to that, the doctor who sees me apparently doesn’t place a high priority on keeping their patient informed as to what the heck is going on.

Really, that’s what angered me the most.  Every time something new came along (A test was done) I found out pretty much because some one came to do a test.  I had no one tell me even once that some one was coming to do something or what kind of tests were planned for me.  I was kept in the dark and had no idea how long I would have to wait for something.  I was entirely lost in terms of time frame and on top of that, had to deal with a grumpy nurse who probably would get along well with a potato patch.  I tend to talk back.

Public health care sucks. can’t some one offer me up some health care for sale? Oh no wait…that’s illegal in Canada.