Well that was an interesting holiday.
Planned for a five week, four cottage Ontario tour, but it was cut short after the first week. Actually almost spent as much time in the Wiarton hospital as I did at cottages. Never even got to see the damn gopher either.
I did however get to enjoy the first leg of the trip, the sixth annual Going Nowhere adventure with 16 of my long time Eastern pals. It was a blast even though I was in a lot of pain the whole time. I am sure I could have gone to the hospital earlier but I know my body well enough to know that toughing it out was not terribly risky and I sure was having fun goofing around and catching up.
The culprit was my usual pancreatitis. Not 100% sure of the origin (blocked duct, infection, etc) but my oncologist has suggested I come back to the ecosystem that knows my complicated challenges, so here I am in the lovely Kitchener/Waterloo airport awaiting departure.
Truly bummed not to see my family and extended family and do the usual cottage things but thems the breaks.
Made some observations:
Small hospitals are great. What they lack in equipment they make up in protocols and service. They work the network of other hospitals well.
Had mostly male nurses at the Wiarton hospital. From what I saw it was probably an even split. And they were all awesome.
Sharing a room with someone that is not 100% capable or compliant makes for poor sleep. But I knew that already, it’s just this time I had someone with exceptional challenges like throwing urine and assaulting nurses among many things.
The protocols are definitely different and this hospital was more concerned with security than any other I had been in. I’m sure they had their reasons.
Knowing my health chart as well as I do enabled me to short cut many of the tests and procedures. While the docs kinda felt they were flying a bit blind I could tell they valued my ability to speak their language and fill in their blanks.
When traveling you have to remember that the provincial systems don’t talk to each other so it’s like starting over unless you come prepared.
Like anything in life it’s all about your attitude. Not being able to complete the tour is disheartening, of that there is no doubt. But on the other hand I was well taken care of and am able to fly back to get even more care. Not everyone gets to have that privelege.
I am again reminded of the wonderful network of friends and family that are helping me navigate travelling, pick ups, taking me in for a while to make sure I’m ok. I’m a lucky man.
Here are a few photos of the trip with the lads and the mandatory hospital shots at the end.
