Health Care? What's that?

Well, after some trepidation and requests for posting this I have decided to write about my (ever so personal) experiences with the NZ Health Care System.

Ah, Good old Canada. How I miss the days of running to the Medi Centers with sick kids and sitting in a petri dish of snotty nosed people and hacking children crying in the waiting room for hours on end trying not to breathe. While waiting for the Doctor to finally call our name I spend much of my time scrunching myself into the smallest space possible thus avoiding touching anyone or anything that is most certainly contaminated with this week's bug. But really, what is the sacrifice for "free" medical attention and a kick ass insurance plan to cover the meds? As a certain commercial would claim; "Priceless".

We have been most fortunate here so far as not coming down with anything. That said I did make it a priority to go and establish a relationship with a family Doctor down here. Things are a bit different Health Care wise with a pay to play idea of visiting your physician. I am almost sure that the waiting rooms back home would be cut to half if this were ever the policy back home. The cost to us is partially covered by the Government here but we do pay about $30 out of pocket each time we go. Of course the price skyrockets if you should ever need to seek the advice of a Specialist...if you choose not to be put on a 6 month waiting list. My thoughts are if you are in need of a Specialist? you are going to buck up the money if you are able. Good news on that is that you are almost certain to retain their services in a few days time.

Chris is going in for surgery on his knee. The Man has managed to rip something inside of his knee the week we moved into the house. Apparently he DID need help moving the Curio cabinet from the garage to the living room. He's lost so much muscle mass in his leg it's scary. Got him into the DR...which lead to an MRI which is leading to surgery with a scope to fix some bone chips in his knee and get him back to shape. Easy procedure i am told and the recovery is 4-6wks. Maybe we will get him a cane with flames on it like House? He's happy to finally have an answer and solution. We have had enough time to look into our health care policy and it *looks* like it will be covered for the most part. I am sooo leery of these policies after watching Micheal Moore's doc on the US health care system and ppl paying premiums and still getting screwed over for 10's of thousands of dollars.

So that kinda leads me to well, me; For the last 4 months i have been struggling with a growth in female plumbing department. At first i thought it was perhaps an ingrown hair.. I mean it started like that. A bump, tender and reddish. It would grow to about the size of marble and then shortly around the time of my period it kinda disappeared. There would be a week of fine-ness and then the cycle would start again. By month #3 I had an app't with my Dr. It was back again but now it's the size of an egg yolk. She put me on antibiotics and scheduled me with an OBGYN (private of course if i wanted to bee seen this year sometime). Went and paid my $200 about 10 days ago to see the Dr. Unfortunately there was nothing to really look/feel at as it was gone. She gave me a best couple of guesses and told me to make another app't if the growth came back. It did... about 3 days later (irony!) and WOW! it was fantastic! Of course at that point I was in full on period mode AND now we are talking the whole egg not just a yolk. It was all I could do to keep going thru my day with the pain. AND I caught a cold! YAY ME! Coughing was like almost tandem to passing out. So, here I am... trying to sit and drive to see Thabo every day... the in laws are still here ( a blessing really) and just trying... trying to make it till after dinner where i would finish cooking and creep quietly off to bed. So yesterday was my 2nd OBGYN app't. I went in, she confirmed what she thought it was.. my Bartholin's Gland was probably blocked... didn't unblock by itself and I have an abscess and cyst forming there. Maybe the cyst was on/in the gland... who knows until I go in for surgery. Well, this is where it kinda goes off the rails. So I am sitting on the bed with just my dress hiked up to my waist having this discussion on going in on Friday (booking the theater, getting the staff, anesthesiologist... and Ii interrupt her and say, "How much is this going to cost?" Well, you know Dr's... she gets kinda flustered and says she really is not sure and I would have to take it up with the staff behind the desk and I interrupt and say "This is in the thousands isn't it?" Looking quite uncomfortable she nods. I don't have that kind of money atm...( think of the shoes I could buy!) hell I am not even sure if we are covered. How many claims of surgery can you have in a given month before they yank you off the policy or jack up your already gag worthy premium? Ok, so I say to her, "Can we do this right now? Here in this room. Can you cut this out of me?" There is a beat and then a small "yes, I could do this but you understand that I could only put in a local." OK then. Tell me what you need to do in this procedure since I will be here with you and awake and i kinda like the details before they happen. So she tells me that she will cut an X and take out the cyst... drain the fluid and then stitch it open and the gland needs to heal from the root out. She says the local is only going to be good for (at most) an hour. She can give me pain scripts and details on how to clean the wound after and that's about that.

Yes, for a second I thought of just booking the surgery...but I also know that it couldn't come close to giving birth on a pain scale so hell... I just said "go grab your gear and let's do this!" I only hesitated for a second when my stupid vanity kicked in and I said something about how is this going to look after? LOL, I mean it's right beside my episiotomy scar... will it really matter? She assured me that it will look pretty much the same after it's healed. SOoooo ya. She made about three trips to the surgery to get her gear and I just laid there thinking my pretty thoughts and tried to remember the calming breathing techniques they teach you in childbirth. The needle was the worst. When a DOCTOR tells you "this is going to hurt" you KNOW; THIS IS GOING TO HURT!! Well the site was already under pressure with fluids and injecting even MORE into it... I tell you, it WAS like giving birth all over again. I was cursing like a sailor (oh those poor women in the waiting room!) and in the back of my mind I was saying "Do NOT grab the OBGYN and scratch her eyes out, DO NOT!" We kinda waiting a minute for everything to settle in and then we had some surgery to do. There were sample taken and are being shipped off to the lab to make sure the mass was ok. I think the funniest thing while I am there with her between my legs is her saying "Oops!" WTF?? I crane my head forward and I say "Look. Here's a tip; when the patient is AWAKE, they NEVER want to hear oops". What's going on down there? Well apparently she was having issues with the needle getting tangled in the thread. So there I sit about 20 min later with a big pad on me (wasn't I *just* in a pad a couple of days ago?) and she's writing scripts for pain and bots. She looks up at me and asks how far do I have to drive to get home? I am thinking (rush hour now) about 40 min...yes, we both know what that is going to mean. The local will be long gone before I can reach the safety of my house. Well, what to do? How bad can it be? Worse than the 10 scale that I walked in with? As it turned out about 2 minutes into my drive the local instantly disappeared and guess what? I was sitting on a 12 now! GO ME!

No one knew what I was up to that day. I mean everyone knew I was going in for a looksie but ya.... took me forever to get out of the car and to the front door where astonished looks greeted me as I handed over my scripts with a terse "fill. these. now." My father in law beat a hasty retreat to the Chemist with the girl and I was offered the only comfort my mother in law could think of at the time... a glass of wine. The pain killers are kick ass... I get one every 12 hours. I did take a mirror down there and peeked and it is just as the OB described to me, "It looks a bit like the dogs breakfast." Nice.

Now, no freaking out is required. Everything is "ok". I *promise* to pay my $30 to have the stitches removed even though I am thinking "How hard can it be?"..... God Bless the Alberta Health Care system!