Medical Services in Sask

We all hear how slow the medical services take in our fair province. There certainly have been some horror stories in the news media in the last couple months. So far I have been fortunate in that I have received excellent service both from my doctor and from the specialists that I have had to visit.

My latest episode started in June 2006 when I went for my annual medical. Everything was fine, however, I have been bothered with a sore foot, leg and hip off and on throughout the previous year. So my doctor sent me for xrays. I had so many xrays taken I was worried about the radiation. They xrayed my foot, ankle, hip, chest and whatever else they could find. I also had to get an ultrasound on my neck area to ensure the cartoid artery was as it should be. On August 11th I got back to my doctor for the results of the tests.

Everything was fine according to my doctor. He says that possibly why I had some hip pain according to the xray was the break in pelvis may be causing some arthritis. I told him that was nice, but to my knowledge I had never ever broken my pelvis or any other bone in my body. Now as I'm getting a little older, I figured maybe I had broken something when I was young. I asked my mother and to her knowledge I most definitely had never broken my pelvis. So after telling the doctor this he figured I should get this investigated. He lined up an appointment for me to get a bone scan done at the nuclear medicine department at the RUH.

On August 31st I had to attended to the RUH at 10:45 a.m. to get myself admitted to the hospital for the test which was scheduled for 11:15 a.m. Everything went smooth as clockwork. At 11:15 a.m. right on the dot they called me in and had me lay down on a bench. The fellow doing the work told me that he first had to take a pre-picture of my hip/pelvis area to give them a starting picture. Then he had to inject me with some radiation isotopes. Bing, bang, bong and we were done. The hardest part was emptying my pockets of change, keys, etc. The fellow than advised me that I was free to go for the next 2 hours and to be back sharp at 1:30 p.m. Oh yah he says, you have to drink 4 litres of water in the 2 hours. Pardon me, but I don't drink that much water in a week. Well I could just drink any liquid as long as it added up to 4 litres. He said even beer would be fine, but with that much, just to ensure I was back on the appointed time. Now as I'm fairly quick in math I quickly did the figuring and thought that would be about 11+ bottles of beer in 2 hours. I'm not sure if I could have found my way back even if I could walk after that many beer.

I had planned to do a bit of shopping at Canadian Tire to get my articles for the lake closeup (ie mouse bait, antifreeze, etc). So I departed the hospital and headed to Preston Crossing Canadian Tire. When I drove into the lot I spied a Shopper's Drug mart, so I went in with the object of buying some bottled water. Seeing as I had to drink the water right away, I wanted cold water so I gathered up 8 individual bottles of the cold Life Brand water and took it to the till. The gal at the till said they sold this water in packs of 6 and it was cheaper. Of course these packs were not cold. I explained that I needed to drink the water right away so wanted them cold. Of course she looked at me strangely, but took my money. I did get a deal though as if you bought more than 4 bottles, it was a better price.

I headed out to the truck and sat for a few seconds trying to figure out how to go about the task of drinking all this water. I chugged down one bottle and started on the second as I drove over towards Canadian Tire. By the time I got to Canadian Tire I had downed the second bottle and opened up the third and chugged it down. Not too bad I thought so I went in and did my shopping. After a few minutes of shopping old mother nature took over and I had to start looking for the washroom. Nothing too serious yet though so I finished up my shopping and headed out to the truck and back to the RUH.

I did drink another bottle on my way back to parking at the RUH and then headed in to the hospital to use the facilities. I was half done my drinking but I only had 45 minutes left to go prior to my appointment time. Out I went to the truck and drank down a couple more bottles. I figured I was doing fine so I went for a little walk about and used the facilities again. Then I finished up the remaining 2 bottles and headed inside once again. I was actually ahead of schedule with all my water drinking, of course I gurgled when I walked!

I still had a few minutes to go so I casually strolled around the bottom floor of the RUH with one more stop at the washroom. As I knew exactly where I was going, I didn't have to rush to get back to the nuclear medicine's shop. When it was about time, I started heading towards the unit. However, just for good measure I made one more stop in the washroom.

I ended up at the nuclear medicine right at 1:30 pm. A different fellow took me right in and had me lay on a table. About the only comparison I can think of for this table is a 2 X 10 piece of lumber. It was narrow and hard as cement. However, they were nice enough to have a little piece of a thing that they called a pillow for my head. I got horizontal on the 2 X 10 and the doctor said to get comfy as I was going to be here for a while. He then got a nice fluffy pillow and put it under my knees. I was advised this was for support. I guess heads/necks don't count with this unit. But then he had me spread my ankles apart and point my toes in until they touched each other. Believe me this was not comfortable. After only a few seconds I could feel my hip, leg, ankles and foot starting to hurt. I didn't figure I could hold this position too long. However, the good doc had a solution. He taped my feet together at the toes. It was something like masking tape and he put about 10 good swirls around the toes to ensure they didn't come apart. The pain started!

The doctor then asked if I was comfortable. Yah rite! But what could I do. I then looked up and this huge piece of machinery was coming down towards my face. It was about 3 feet square and about a 1 1/2 foot high. This was the camera. There was one above me and one below me. The doctor brought it down until it just about touched my nose and then lifted it off about a centimeter. Of course I was still wearing my glasses so when I looked straight up all I could see was this big hunk of white. In an instant I went cross eyed. Did I ever tell you that I'm a bit claustrophic? A couple deep breaths and I settled myself down.

The doctor told me that this was going to take a picture of every bone in my body. It starts at the head and ends up at the toes. Of course I was not to move one little bit or the pictures would not be correct. The doctor told me not to even flex my fingers. Just lay flat, quiet and still. Oh yah, he said I could breath every now and then if I wanted. He punched a few buttons and the thing above me started to whir away. The doctor said eventually it would move along but for the first while it wouldn't appear to be moving. I wondered how I would know as every time I looked up I got my eyes all cross eyed and was unable to get any bearings.

However, eventually the contraption did start to move down the length of me. Then when it got to my foot area it seemed to stall again. All told, it took about 50 minutes for the camera to do it's thing. The good doctor raised up the camera and cut my poor feet loose but he told me to continue to stay on the bench. He had to check with another doctor to see how the pictures turned out.

He came back in a short while and said that he needed to get some more pictures. These ones were going to be 3D types. Oh guess what, I'm floating with all the damn water I drank and had not been able to get rid of before the test started. I asked the doctor if I could relieve myself and he was kind enough to allow that. It was either that or they better get some new sheets for the piece of board as the ones I was on were going to be soaked. When I tried to climb off my 2 X 10, I could hardly stand up. My whole right side was so sore and now my back was sore from being tense for the last 50-55 minutes. When I got off the bench I could hardly stand up let alone walk.

After a few minutes I got my legs under me and as quickly as I could I headed out and filled the urinal to almost overflowing with all that good Life Brand water and then headed back to the torture chamber. Once again I had lay down on the plank. Thankfully this time my feet were not going to be taped up. Nope no siree. This time my arms were to be raised over my head and interlocked and left there not to be moved for the whole test. Once again this is such a nice comfortable position to be in! The cameras were placed right next to my hips, top and bottom and side to side. The doc punched in the buttons and away the camers went. About every 20-30 seconds the cameras in unision would move about a centimeter rotating around my pelvis area. After a few minutes the doc decided he would put on some music so I could listen to something other then my teeth gritting from holding my arms above my head. I had no idea who the artist was but it wasn't too bad music. Thankfully this test only took about 30-35 minutes and then I could get down off of my perch.

The good doctor took a quick peak at all he had done on the computer and said that I was done and he and another fellow would look at the pictures and see if they could figure out what the problem was. I was free to go. You didn't have to tell me twice, I limped out of that room as fast as my poor hip/leg/ankle would allow. First stop was of course the washroom again. I finally made it out to the truck and headed for home. For the rest of the evening it seemed like I was always going to the washroom though.

Now just over a week later my leg is still hurting. Of course it hasn't been too bad for about the last 6 months, but after my ordeal on the plank it hurts no matter what I do.

So yesterday I got a call from my doctor's office and they want me to come in to go over my tests. I set up an appointment for Tuesday morning to see the doc. Hopefully he will be able to let me know what may be causing some of my discomfort.

But getting back to the orginal statement of how the medical profession is treating me, I feel that in actual fact I have had some very good service. My doctor got right on my complaints, got me xrayed, into nuclear medicine and results back for me in just over 2 months. Some folks I've talked to have had to wait 6-7 months just to get into the nuclear medicine for the bone scan.

So I'm happy so far :-)