“Ankh-Morpork did not have many hospitals. All the Guilds maintained their own sanitariums, and there were a few public ones run by the odder religious organizations, like the Balancing Monks, but by and large medical assistance was non-existent and people had to die inefficiently, without the aid of doctors.”
– Terry Pratchett [Guards! Guards!]
After reading some of Anneke’s hospital horror stories I feel lucky that nothing of the sort happened to me during my last three hospital stays. Though when I had an op at a private hospital 8 years ago I did get a lot of attitude from the nurses and nurse’s aides – like they were doing me some sort of huge favour whenever they were called upon to do their job. I was told that this was because in Spain the hospital staff are used to patients always having family members around to take care of ‘little things’, but I don’t accept this as an excuse for unprofessional behaviour.
As I’ve said, at the public general hospital where I had my last three ops the majority of the staff (there’s always one or two duds in any sort of job) were very efficient and professional. They were usually also quite friendly and didn’t mind answering questions. And by my third stay I was getting to be quite well-known by everyone, which was nice in a way, being greeted (and often treated) like an old friend. Though of course I’m also hoping I’ll never have to see any of them again. 🙂
I’ve been surprised to learn that some people are under the very mistaken impression that health care in Spain is just a notch above third world quality and it’s been suggested on more than one occasion that I return to Canada for some “real” medical attention. Yeah right… just like Anneke.
What are hospitals – and hospital staff – like where you are?
casa azahar 
I’m thinking the next time you see the surgery staff will be to give them some english lessons… and getting paid for it! That would be a much nicer way to interact with the staff.
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Oh that’s right! 🙂
Yesterday one of the surgeons asked me if I was still giving English classes at the hospital (he’d been talking to The Team) and I pointed to my incision … he laughed and said something like “oh right, I guess not”. But I told him that Nog would be happy to come and give classes there, so Gonzalo said he’d give me a call once he had a small group organised.
Not bad, eh? Bit of networking whilst having my belly prodded.
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You should have told him about “your sister’s” offer to give him some private lessons… heh-heh.
No, really, I liked that surgeon better than the other ones…. even better than Dr. Dirk.
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Oi! No Dr. Dreamy gushing here, spank you very much! 😀
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Hey, zoomer, I need to do something to amuse myself during those long hours waiting around the hospital.
The last guy — we’ll refer to him as Dr. Dufus — was definitely not Dr. Dreamy material, not by any stretch of the imagination. I’m still feeling annoyed by him. Anyways, who says he needs to be Dr. Dreamy for me to gush a little? Whatever gave you the idea that I have high standards?
Btw, I need to know where I can get some of that maple-smoked salmon. Know of any sources where I can order it online?
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He actually is Dr Dreamy material, zoomer, in that very tall, dark & handsome sort of way. And, like Pip, I also really liked him as a surgeon. I think he and MA (head of the surgery dept) are my favourites. As well as Carmen, with whom I had a check up appointment awhile back. She was the one who told me about the first peritoneal biopsy coming back negative. I remember thinking how well she and Amazing Nurse Person worked together.
Speaking of salmon, I still have the other smoked stuff you gave us, zoomer. Interested in coming over for lunch one day, Pip?
ps. the surgeon mentioned in that post linked to Amazing Nurse Person is Dr Dufus.
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This is wayyyy off topic, but… I went online to order the maple-smoked salmon after our lunch that day, but shopping online for it turned out to be harder than I expected. I found some that looked sort of questionable… some other stuff that looked too “commercial”… but there sure is a lot of salmon jerky out there. Hmm.
Zoomer: salmon jerky? Yea or nay?
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Wow. Way off topic, kids! :p
I know what you mean about family being expected to take care of the little things…in some countries, the little things are pretty much everything. In South Korea, your family is expected to change your sheets, change your catheter bags, bring you food…
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Harumph! And here in the States, the nurses are expected to run down to the gift shop for nail polish for their patients. Well, it’s really not that bad anymore, but it was when I was a young nurse person. Nowadays, everybody in the hospital is too sick to care about nail polish. Once you get that well, they boot you out.
From the other side of the bed, we have a lot of foreign nurses in Seattle. They are OK, most of them. And some are fantastic. But as you said, there is always a couple of duds.
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In defense of Canadian medical care (although by the end, it isn’t going to seem so defensible) ….Yes, I have had some bad care and, yes, there are long lines but I have to say that at least I don’t ever have to worry that if I need bypass surgery or get Leukemia I would have to sell my house.
My big complaint about the medical care is that they keep cutting down on general health care to the point where people can become debilitated to the point where they need serious medical care and then overwhelm the system.
Dental care is so prohibitively expensive that people don’t go in for basic care and children go without proper dental care that would prevent serious medical conditions. I haven’t been to a dentist in about 12 years. Luckily, I don’t need anything done and now have private insurance to pay for it, should I have to.
The government is so “anti private system” that they will not contemplate licensing outside clinics to perform CT, PET, or MRI’s outside the hospital. If they allowed private clinics to do this and OHIP (the provincial insurance plan) pay for the scans. You can get your bloodwork and urine testing and X-rays at outside clinics but major scans can only be done at hospitals.
People wait months or even years to get scans which, in the US would be done the same day in a diagnostic clinic like any other test…. no waiting times.
People die before getting these tests.
As well, I can’t find a personal physician. My wonderful doctor retired about 8 years ago and I have been unable to find a doctor taking patients.
I have to attend walk-in clinics where I have to wait for hours to see a doctor and can only ask about one problem during the visit. The clinics are cold (both literally and figuratively, dirty, and crowded).
I once had an appointment for a “full physical” which was for 9am. I arrived at 8:45. I did not get to see the doctor until almost 2pm…. I kept saying “I have an appointment” but was told that there were 50 other people in front of me who “had appointments”.
When my name was FINALLY called, I was led in my a clerk who weighed me, took my height and then told me to take my glasses off and look at a chart posted 25 feet away. I can’t see two feet in front of me without my glasses and said so. After arguing back and forth for some time, she finally asked a co-worker who said that people with glasses left their glasses on…. DUH! (And, as I told her, I had had my eyes tested by my ophthalmologist just a few days before)
Then I went in to see the doctor who took my blood pressure and listened to my heart and lungs…. and then I went home.
That, according to the clinic was the “full physical”. I am sure they CHARGED for a “full physical” but it was not a full physical. And I have not had the appropriate female testing in years because I can’t get a doctor I trust to do it properly.
That is the other problem. I am not allowed to pick the doctor I want. I can find a doctor who is taking patients but if I find that we just don’t have a rapport, I can’t just go to another doctor. I am stuck with this doctor.
The Ontario government treats medical care like going to a gas station… If the lineup is too long in one place, go around the corner. Doesn’t matter that the one around the corner is almost as crowded or that the station is watering the gas and the attendants are rude….
Things COULD be worse… As I mentioned when I had my miscarriage, it was during the days of the Rae NDP government (Bob Rae is now a Liberal and is going to run for leader…. idiot!) and doctors had a certain number of hours that they were allowed to work… no more….
X number of patients per month…
The problem with this is that in some fields, you can’t count on X number of patients…. OB/Gyns for example. Women don’t give birth exactly on schedule and if two women went into labour early, the doctor’s number of patients for that month was exceeded and she had to close her office. She could even be fined for seeing too many patients.
If a patient required emergency medical treatment, that cut into her overall number of office hours… she had to close the office.
I was experiencing major “female” problems which required many visits to the doctor. More often than not, I would have made an appointment a month before and arrive for my appointment at the office to find it closed. I would call to make another appointment and be told I had to wait another month…. only to arrive and find the office closed again.
Thanks GOD it isn’t like that, now, but it was a traumatic period and I don’t want it to EVER go back to that, again.
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So, I have no frame of reference from which to discuss this subject. The last time I was treated by a surgeon or in a hospital overnight was when I was 4 1/2 and had my tonsils removed.
I am now over in my corner counting my blessings over and over.
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Yep, my only experiences with hospitals have been visiting friends in maternity wards and visiting my mother after her knee replacement surgery. For myself, only as a day patient coming in for monthly blood tests while I was on a medication which can be toxic to the liver. I got in there, and out again, as fast as possible every time.
The only thing which bugged me was the cost of car parking for people using the hospital – I mean, its the NHS right, we pay National Health Insurance tax for it, and then they charge you to park your car there, having signally failed to provide any decent public transport infrastructure to the new hospital they built miles out on the outskirts of town.
But, yes, I’m over here counting my blessings 😉
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Hmph. European medical care is world class, from what I’m aware of.
I love Pratchett’s Discworld books. “Ankh-Morpork…” That name just kills me.
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I’ve had very good care, and most all of it in public/county facilities. BUT, I’ve always lived in major metropolitan areas, with a plethora of teaching hospitals. County health is there to pick up the slack for folks who can’t afford private care. For as overcrowded and underfunded as they are, they do an *amazing* job, with only a few glaring exceptions.
I always used to run into people who’d make faces over “LA county” (that big hospital facade seen at the start of the soap ‘General Hospital’? Yup, that’s “LA County”, or more properly LAC-USC Medical Center), all of whom have never *been* in the place. Kinda like the folks who bitch about how bad the buses are, when they’ve never been on one in their lives.
Whew, had no idea I was feeling so ranty…
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Like others here, I luckily know very little about medical care. I do know that it’s a political hot potato in this country. The position of the Minister for Health and Children is not envied.
TRiG.
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Touristy, so more expensive than what I pay, but good quality:
http://www.salmonvillage.com/?gclid=CIycgaOZk5cCFQ8Qagod7yF7jg
(the herring roe is a local First Nations delicacy, delicious but an acquired taste)
A little cheaper but still excellent:
http://www.bcsmokedsalmon.ca/
Cheaper yet and reliable:
http://www.stjeans.com/cart/itmidx1.htm
…you get the idea, Google “BC smoked salmon” and compare prices- those three are ones that I’ve seen around so they are reliable.
Good to hear your standards are low, gives a man confidence! 😛
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Weird, I posted a long post with links to salmon places and it didn’t go through …
Anyway, check the label on the salmon I left, I think it’s these people:
http://www.bcsmokedsalmon.ca/
They are a little more expensive but reliable.
Here:
http://www.stjeans.com/
is cheaper but less well known.
And here:
http://www.7seas.ca/retail/smoked-seafood.html
Is one place I shop but it’s unclear by their site if they ship.
Anyway, it’s good to hear that your standards are low, Pip. Gives a man heart …. 😛
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Or, if you talk nice to me I could send some over for Christmas (maybe even some OR Popcorn…) Email me.
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It doesn’t show up on my Mac but it does here at work on a PC?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
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Ha!
No dearest. I just found the first one in Spam and de-spammed it.
Another mystery solved…
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Re: West Coast Salmon…
Back in 1992, when the Gwich’in Land Claim settlement took place, the Gwich’in hosted a celebration at the Museum of Civilization, here in Ottawa, and they had a huge feast with smoked and baked salmon, as well as smoked and dried eulachon…
As good as the salmon was, I couldn’t get enough of that eulachon…. Man! Is it good!
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I’m sure purchasing salmon is easy for you Canadian-types, but it’s utter confusion for me. Cold smoked or cooked smoked? Sockeye or King salmon? I didn’t find any eulachon, which sounds tempting too.
Anyway, I’m going for the cooked smoked Sockeye. Who knew that shopping for salmon could be so exhausting? Thanks for the linkage.
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Eulachon is scarce these days, they used to cover the beaches when mating. I think you might want to try a little to start, it’s a very, very oily fish.
Cold smoked has a very delicate flavour, much like lox. I like the Indian (First Nations) style- either sweet hot smoked (Indian Candy) or Alder hot smoked. If there is any hassle, drop me a line and I can pick up some ready vacuum foil packed and boxed down the road and Fed Ex it to you. I suppose I could pack it in popcorn . 😉
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btw, King is the US name for Tyee or Spring Chinook salmon and Sockeye is the name for Red salmon, the ocean equivalent of the fresh water Kokanee. Tyee is bigger, Sockeye is tastier in my opinion but you’ll get a lot of people who disagree.
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“they used to cover the beaches when mating”
Sounds like my high school class. Ba-boomp.
I’m so glad you & Az gave me that lesson in First Nations people when you were here. I was so crude and politically incorrect before that, but now the phrase “First Nations People” just rolls right off the tongue. (not really.) Anyway, I have salmon on order and ready to ship to family in Florida, who will be very appreciative of it. I’m still curious about the salmon jerky, but not curious enough to purchase 10 bags of it (which seems to be the minimum order). And I’ll have to add BC to my list of places to visit soon… who can resist the temptation of Kokanee? Not me.
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Eulachon is a smelt and smelt are usually found in huge numbers when mating… But the Eulachon is dwindling, for sure. I don’t know that you can actually buy it retail at all (or could when there was a lot of it about).
Eulachon oil was like gold for the West Coast peoples and wars were fought over it. Actually, the oil was worth more than the fish.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eulachon
This is an interesting site where the Haisla show the making of Eulachon oil
http://www.livinglandscapes.bc.ca/northwest/haisla/index.html
This is another from the U’mista who call the oil T’lina
http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/pm.php?id=exhibit_home&fl=0&lg=English&ex=00000120
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Dig that crazy topic drift, man. 😎
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“they used to cover the beaches when mating”
I can’t do that, people tend to call Greenpeace and try and drag me back into the ocean.
Badda bing!
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😀
http://www.kokaneebeer.ca/
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“I can’t do that, people tend to call Greenpeace and try and drag me back into the ocean. “
Ow! Damn, my staples!!! 😀
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For anyone who would like to see what this amazing maple-smoked salmon looks like … check it out.
That’s a still taken from a video (in three parts) that I still have to edit. Which I will do as soon as I learn how to edit. Which first requires me to get my video editing gizmo to recognise the video files … can’t seem to get beyond that point.
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