Another Day, Another Doctor
Went to the GI clinic again today.
By coincidence I was feeling kind of rotten with an upset stomach. I lay down on the examining table when I was shown into the room, and napped for half an hour*. When the doctor came in, I was feeling much better.
I have run out of Non-Toxic Medicine (Entocort, if anyone cares). As Fate would have it, my Section 8 (the permission from the Ministry for my insurance to cover NTM expired while I was away on my trip; I was informed this would happen the day before I left, when I was unable to do anything about it.
Cost of 1 month's supply: $170 and change. No can do.
So, I'm getting by on the Immuran (Optional Medicine for Crohn's) for the two weeks it will (ideally) take them to re-Section 8 me. Doctor DePew, who saw me today, said this short period on just OM would be alright, and I believe him. But I hope they hurry up.
I mentioned some of the weird hernia-like stuff that's happening around my stoma, and I was rewarded with an appointment with the surgeon.
I complained (politely) about the two+ years it's been without the followup operation, when I had been put on a 400-day waiting list. Okay, I knew then and know now that that wasn't a promise, but still...I could be job hunting in Europe right now.
I like Dr. DePew. First I learned that what's going on behind the scenes is some very bad resource allocation by the local authorities, prioritizing...less neccesary...cases over Crohn's patients. The GI doctors are apparently making Strong Representations even now. Which doesn't help me at all. So, Dr. DePew's two part Plan:
First, he's going to speak to Dr. Belleveau the surgeon, the guy who cut me open last time (and did a really good job, btw). Dr. Belleveau may be able to, um, expedite my case.
If Dr. DePew does not get in his words "a warm feeling" from his talk with the surgeon, he's going to set me up with one of a couple of surgeons he knows at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Toronto, both are highly experienced, specialists in this kind of surgery, and have done similar favours for him before.
He asked my ideal time frame, and I told him before the end of the year; before the spring certainly. There's a possibility that this may delay my trip to Europe, which is too bad but at least I won't be dragging a month's worth of surgical supplies with me all over the Continent.
Fingers crossed.
(*the wait in the waiting room is brief - they put you in an exam room as soon as they can, and that's where most of the thumb-twiddling and paintwatching happens.)
By coincidence I was feeling kind of rotten with an upset stomach. I lay down on the examining table when I was shown into the room, and napped for half an hour*. When the doctor came in, I was feeling much better.
I have run out of Non-Toxic Medicine (Entocort, if anyone cares). As Fate would have it, my Section 8 (the permission from the Ministry for my insurance to cover NTM expired while I was away on my trip; I was informed this would happen the day before I left, when I was unable to do anything about it.
Cost of 1 month's supply: $170 and change. No can do.
So, I'm getting by on the Immuran (Optional Medicine for Crohn's) for the two weeks it will (ideally) take them to re-Section 8 me. Doctor DePew, who saw me today, said this short period on just OM would be alright, and I believe him. But I hope they hurry up.
I mentioned some of the weird hernia-like stuff that's happening around my stoma, and I was rewarded with an appointment with the surgeon.
I complained (politely) about the two+ years it's been without the followup operation, when I had been put on a 400-day waiting list. Okay, I knew then and know now that that wasn't a promise, but still...I could be job hunting in Europe right now.
I like Dr. DePew. First I learned that what's going on behind the scenes is some very bad resource allocation by the local authorities, prioritizing...less neccesary...cases over Crohn's patients. The GI doctors are apparently making Strong Representations even now. Which doesn't help me at all. So, Dr. DePew's two part Plan:
First, he's going to speak to Dr. Belleveau the surgeon, the guy who cut me open last time (and did a really good job, btw). Dr. Belleveau may be able to, um, expedite my case.
If Dr. DePew does not get in his words "a warm feeling" from his talk with the surgeon, he's going to set me up with one of a couple of surgeons he knows at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Toronto, both are highly experienced, specialists in this kind of surgery, and have done similar favours for him before.
He asked my ideal time frame, and I told him before the end of the year; before the spring certainly. There's a possibility that this may delay my trip to Europe, which is too bad but at least I won't be dragging a month's worth of surgical supplies with me all over the Continent.
Fingers crossed.
(*the wait in the waiting room is brief - they put you in an exam room as soon as they can, and that's where most of the thumb-twiddling and paintwatching happens.)