Squatter’ Rights
Hello everyone, thanks for your encouragement so far. I left off with being scheduled to visit the OS for 9:00am on October 14th. We arrived at the hospital and happened to meet the OS in the hallway. She guessed who I was and I told her I had a copy of the ultrasound. She said she wanted to do her own. When I got into the clinic and was settled on the bed she took one look at my ankles and said she didn’t need an ultrasound, it was obvious they were both gone. She said it sucked to be me but she was going to try to get me in right away. Now if you know about the Canadian Health Care System, it’s free, the Dr’s are good, but as my Dad says, “you can die waiting”. She was able to get me a bed for on-call surgery and told me that now I had ’squatters rights’ and chances are they would operate sooner rather than later because I was taking up space. Then I waited, and waited, and waited… I had plenty to do. I had my books, my IPad, my phone, and magazines. What really drove me nuts was that I couldn’t get an internet connection nor cell service. My room was in a cellular blackhole. There were plenty of private wireless networks but no public ones. I really don’t know why our hospitals don’t charge a daily fee for wireless connectivity like many hotels. I am sure both my husband an myself would have gladly paid for it. During our long wait they kept telling me that prior to being released from the hospital I would have to go to the see the PT to discuss my needs at home. My husband asked them if we could meet the PT right away. They said that no it would have to wait until after the surgery because they didn’t know what the surgeon would do. Well, we knew I’d NWB and in a wheelchair so why didn’t they? Well, back to the waiting, I was disappointed that I didn’t get in for surgery that day and had to stay the night. Since I completely ruptured them I didn’t have any pain and slept pretty good.
Filed under: Uncategorized and
Cheryl, some people have lingering miserable pain from complete ATRs; it’s very variable from person to person. Mine was pretty painless, like yours, lucky us!
There’s been a lot of press very recently about long waiting times in Alberta hospitals — most famously, about some people calling 911 for emergency care FROM the Emergency Room!! But here in Ontario, and in most of Canada, I don’t think patients wait long for ATR surgery, because most surgeons believe that it’s urgent — that the results are better when the op is done on a “fresh” tear.
(My fancy 2nd-time surgeon was an exception: Before he gave up ATR surgery “cold turkey” based on the UWO study, he convinced himself that 2-week-old ATRs were better for surgery, because the torn ends had “neatened” up a bit from healing, so it was less like stitching together two horse’s tails.)
Back in 2001, when I wanted surgery for my first ATR, my surgeon had a long wait-list for knee and hip replacements, but I jumped to the front of the line with my ATR, after a week of inaction and tests and Doctor’s visits. . .
Also, I’m pretty sure that both Toronto General Hospital and Toronto Western Hospital now have free wireless, at least in all the patient areas. (I don’t know how secure it is — so if I start sounding like an imposter after Dec. 1, maybe I’ve been “Firesheeped”!)