This injury has left me plenty of time to think, and we all know that's a dangerous thing. I've had more time than I would have liked to go over every possible situation, scenario, action and consequence, and I'm a little bit amazed at how the likes of Descartes and Socrates never went insane. Or perhaps they did. This amount of thinking and pondering by itself is no good and needs to be balanced out with other things in life.
But I digress.
Anyway, one of the things I've been thinking about is the difference in healthcare between Canada and the United States. I'm not going to attack America and say their way of handling healthcare is wrong, but instead just say that it's different. It has many advantages and works for a lot of people, such as leaving the choice in its citizens' hands (there's something to be said about freedom of choice), having the world's best medical professionals and researchers, the waiting lists for procedures and specialists tends to be shorter than ours, and the proliferation of drugs and research of drugs (and that they're approved by the FDA means there are not only plenty of options, but patients can enter into drug trials where they may not be able to otherwise.
Of course, all this necessitates money. If you have it, great. The American world is your oyster and you can take advantage of all the beautiful and intelligent things it has to offer. But if not, then you're absolutely screwed beyond a doubt.
In talking to Americans about the financial ramifications about my type of injury, I'm horrified and sick to my stomach that they're being charged tens and tens of thousands of dollars for their recovery. We're talking about a very healthy middle class salary for an injury that takes months to years to recover from, and they're on the hook for it. Need a knee brace to keep your bones from slipping into a worse injury (that, incidentally, requires even more money)? Tough. Go ahead and spend the equivalent of a semester course on it. Faced with the option of having a life-bettering surgery that's priced the same as a midsize luxury sedan? Guess you'll be going without that ride for quite a while. It's wrong that people should ever have to choose between their health and putting food on the table, but it's the reality for far too many people.
That's not to say the Canadian healthcare system is gloriously better and different. It has its own foibles that make things just as shitty, but in a different way. here, the only bills you have to worry about are the ambulance ride ($45), prescription medication (variable), and assistive devices. Oh, and physio. For context, I've spend about $350 out of pocket so far and due to the good fortune of being on my scooter when the accident happened, my insurance company is stepping in to cover the costs.
Sounds good so far, right?
Not so fast.
While we don't have to blink an eye about restorative surgeries, doctor's appointments or medications, the waiting times are absolutely horrendous. I made a call to a specialist's office today...only to find out my appointment was scheduled for October 1. I'm seven weeks into my injury and trying not to freak out about how my bones are aligning and if they'll ever get back to normal non-operatively, and now I'm told I can't be seen for almost six weeks. Just hearing it put me on the verge of crying, as it made me feel like no matter what I do or say, nobody hears me. I haven't had x-rays in three weeks so I have no idea how my knee is doing, and I'm just left to be tortured with my thoughts and fears that everything is going out the window.
I know I'll walk again and I know I'll do things like go up and down the stairs and get back on my scooter, but that's in the very short-term. I don't want a total knee replacement in ten years' time, I don't want osteoarthritis before I become middle-aged, and I don't want people to pass me off because they're too busy.
Can anybody hear me?
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