My Referral w/ Neurology
Something I forgot to mention yesterday, my referral from Neurology arrived via snail mail on Friday. I looked at the envelope and thought who still does this? I mean phones still work, and you can always leave a message. Well, despite that I opened the letter to discover when my appointment with Neurology was: December 18th, 2007.
I know the wait the see specialists were long in Canada, but six months for a suspected brain bleed? Are they fucking kidding? I contacted Emerg to see if they messed up the paper work, cause the doctor in emerg said they wanted me to see someone in one or two weeks, not six months. Did Emerg mess up the paper work and not emphasize that or did Neurology mess this up? Or is the line really that long for emerganies.
To say the least my parents were enraged when the heard about this. There was a number left on the letter for me to call if I didn’t like the appt (which I don’t) but the office was closed on Fridays, so I’ll call them tomorrow to emphasize my position. If that plea falls on deaf ears, I have that appt with my new family doctor that I sent almost a month ago coming up this tuesday. Talk about timing, cause I can plea my case to him and see if he can bump the appt up. If he can’t, I’ll have to keep calling Neurology and leave a boadload of messages until they see things my way. That could take a while, but I have plenty of reason to do it.
Not exactly the dire speed I was hoping for. If that bloke in emerg happens to be right and my brain is bleeding, would I even last six months? Do they know something I don’t, and if they did why couldn’t they tell me to lower my stress levels? This condiction they assume I have is terrifying. I know there are many out there who have their doubts but I can’t afford not to believe anyone or question medical professionals. I want to see the Neurologist so he can question them and poke holes in their theories. That would make me feel better, and if it’s not wrong… we’ll at least be on the right track to get it right.
So that was the big news of the weekend. Not exactly something to go screaming to Michael Moore about because I think this is more of a cleric error that will be quickly corrected. I’m not letting it bother me and just have a quiet weekend with the boys. Leah and I saw the movie ‘Knocked Up’ last night and it was pretty funny. Hope everyone is having a good weekend, and I’ll be around.
Peter
Socialized health care, like any other systems, does have its problems. Here’s hoping you get this taken care of soon!
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Don’t give up with these guys, either. Just keep calling and bothering the hell out of them.
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I’d be going nucking futs and calling every damn doctor from Ontario to Whitehorse to try to get a sooner appt. December 18th… I mean, sure it’s Keith Richards’ birthday, but that is not enough reason to schedule it on that date!
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i hope you can get in on a cancellation…maybe there is something that they do know that you don’t (like a good thing) you could keep goin back to emerg and stress that your symptoms are really bad ALL the time even if they aren’t….they can’t refuse you forever 😀 the pre-baby boomers are retiring….thats why theres such a shortage on healthcare workers (i would end up working 60 hrs
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a week if i opted to be available for it because the staff just isn’t out there)
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I’ve heard that about the system in Canada. It’s got it’s flaws, just like we do here. I would say take it as a good sign that they think you can wait that long, but I doubt they even know why you need to come in, they just get the referrals and plug in the names probably. Thanks for the note. I’m hoping the next streak is a month long 🙂 I thought Knocked Up was hilarious! Hang in there
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Six months is crazy! Four years ago I had to have a CT scan (I had developed chronic migraines and the Dr wanted to make sure it wasn’t some sort of brain tumor). I was low priority (since brain tumor was unlikely) and still I only had to wait just over a month. I can’t believe they would make you wait so long! Not that any of that crap helped. I still have the stupid migraines.
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Thats a crazy long time to be waiting to see a specialist. Hopefully they can squeeze you in earlier. You’d think with a Neurologist they’d be attune to something called an emergency.
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i hope you can get it moved up!!
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I’ll cross my fingers that it’s a clerical error and that you’ll actually get in much sooner. *hugs*
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peter, i thought of you when i read this, though you’ve probably already seen it: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2007/6/prweb534642.htm
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