Alberta is a Community That Cares

In mid-May, I intended to blog about the Friends of Medicare rally at the Alberta Legislature that took place on May, 2009 and drew the support of thousands of protesters but apparently not that of the mainstream media.

Today, I write about this important citizen's movement in the wake of information that the government intends to downgrade rural hospitals and after yet another painful experience at the Foothills Hospital in Calgary on my journey with chronic illness.

My condition is called CVID - it essentially makes it difficult for me to fight bacterial and viral infections. On May 29th, I went with dread to the Foothills Hospital on the sixth day of struggling with a stomach flu that literally left me unable to keep even liquids in my system. I can tell you that by the fifth day of the episode, I knew that I was in a serious state and needed hospital care but I am actually scared to go to a hospital in Alberta after all of the terrible experiences that I've had with the health care system. Fortunately, I have an incredible family that urged me to go to the emergency room and bore the painful wait in the E.R. waiting room with me.

Before I continue, let me note that anyone who knows me well knows that I am incredibly tough and can handle a great deal of physical pain and discomfort...

I lay in the E.R. waiting room for 8 hours (which is standard in my experience) writhing in pain, having to haul my body to the washroom with diarrhea, shivering with cold and breaking down sobbing in front of dozens of people. Adding to the nightmare, was the guilt of exposing my parents who are in their 70s to this mayhem. (I recently broke up with my partner who is truly the most supportive man that I have ever encountered, so believe me that I was missing him terribly too.) Also adding insult to injury was the business channel being broadcasted loudly throughout the 8 hours, including disgusting attack ads from the Harper camp against Ignatieff. (Do I really need to see the propaganda of the ideologues who crawled out of Alberta to try to destroy the rest of Canada while I lie in the third-world-like conditions that their provincial counterparts have created?!)

And, then there was just the terrible anger and sadness and desperation as I lay there so ill and glanced around the room and saw so may others struggling...And, don't think that I am the only one who is angry. The conversations that I could overhear in my dazed state were punctuated by remarks that the Conservative government of Alberta has destroyed our health care system and demonstrates an offensive disregard for its citizens. How, people asked, could the richest province in Canada fail to provide basic medical care for its residents?!

At about hour 7, a nurse at the triage desk put an IV in me with saline and gravol. I was then sent back out into the waiting room. As someone who regularly receives infusions, I was not made less uncomfortable by the IV but I am not sure the other patients and relatives waiting felt very reassured. When the saline solution finished draining in roughly an hour and my blood began backing up through all of the IV tubing, I would say that all the bystanders were pretty freaked out.

Fortunately, my bloodiness got me a ticket into the E.R. beds...And, trust me, the poor conditions and the malcontent does not end there. I believe the Foothills Hospital has signs that say something along the lines of "just because we don't have a room for you, doesn't mean you're not being treated as a regular patient." The nurses and doctors are clearly over-worked and struggling to do their very best in spite of the conditions that make it so much more difficult to do their jobs. In my journey with illness, I have encountered the occasional nasty medical practitioner who you can quite obviously see is overwhelmed by his or her work conditions. But, for the most part, I am absolutely amazed by the emotional and physical stamina that these people exhibit to care for people in such substandard conditions.

I was fortunate to receive exceptional treatment by both my nurse and doctor. In less than 12 hours, they were able to stabilize me with medications and a few more bags of saline solution to hydrate me. Both were caring and kind...just like the people in the waiting room who seemed so dismayed to see me left out there is such a disastrous state.

There is a myth among the Left in Canada that Albertans are a bunch of spoiled, Conservatives. As a native Albertan, I would argue that we are a collective of people who care deeply for each other; who want the Conservative government out, but who do face obstacles of democracy that have been brought about by a powerful oil corporation lobby among other factors. I would also suggest that people have become somewhat hopeless over the years and certainly living in a place where you can't even get proper medical treatment leaves people in a mode of survival that is not conducive to participation and democracy.

Still, people continue to resist and come together as a community...

As someone who is often in the advocate role, I want to thank Friends of Medicare and all my fellow Albertans who rallied at the Alberta Legislature when I was too ill to attend in early May. I cannot fully convey how much your advocacy lends a sense of support, community and hope as I struggle in this health care system. I offer you my deepest gratitude.

I offer my readers a good video clip of Brian Mason speaking at the rally and photos for people to enjoy. This display of democracy in action must be celebrated. Alberta will take its health care system and its government back!

Link:

Friends of Medicare

Related Blog Entry:

Sickening: From Illness Identity-Marketing to Health Care Solidarity

Comments

[Chrystal Ocean]

My brief experience of Alberta, when I was studying at UA, was of a place where friendships are easily formed, people are open rather than secretive and yes, there's a sense of we're all in this together. The neocon stereotype of Albertans has nothing in common with the countless Albertans I met.

[Polly Jones]

That's nice to hear...I hear mixed feedback from my colleagues at graduate school who are from another province or country. The consensus, however, seems to be that the people are not a reflection of the image of the region in the media.

Just as an aside, I really like your blog...and actually I just went to check it out again and this podcast project "Policies of Exclusion, Poverty & Health: Stories from the front" looks absolutely amazing...

I know where I'll be spending some of my web time tonight/tomorrow.

[Herbinator]

Enjoyed your posting. You always have something substantive to say. Of course, I rarely agree with you as to the methods you propose.

In reading your post I had to wonder:
was your condition an emergency? In an ideal world wouldn't a trip to a local clinic have sufficed? and have been cheaper and more timely? and equally effective?

Obviously I was thinking affirmatively of the above. So then I have to ask myself, would greater expenditures in public health care bring about such a situation? ... I think not. Massive spending increases would almost certainly be swallowed up by wage increases (as historically proven).

So, I suppose I am saying that I would love to support you and Friends of Health Care, but can't.

In an ideal world I would like to see an end to monopoly delivered health care.

I am adamant that publicly-funded health care is the way to go but funding of the consumer of health care NOT the suppliers of health care.

These two points would re-prioritize health care toward consumer priorities as opposed to health provider priorities.

And you have had a nice visit to a neighborhood clinic, instead.

[Polly Jones]

Herbinator,

The situation was certainly an emergency in that I needed an IV (not available at a clinic) and I do have to take extra precautions with my immunodeficiency. I had not showered in four days...I was in the roughest shape I have been in for a long time and I am often in rough shape.

Having said that, I do agree that not only is funding needed for public health care but also creative solutions...

Certainly, a greater emphasis needs to be placed on prevention, etc.

I don't like the term consumer. I am not purchasing something - I am a human being who seeking the help of other human beings.

In any imagined health care system, one would hope that empathy would play a critical role...I'm not sure you're in a position to question the severity of my health problems...and as someone who has tried naturoptahy, acupuncture, massage therapy, various diets and so on...I find your comment somewhat hurtful.

[Herbinator]

Sorry, Polly. Not intended to be hurtful at all. Perhaps just hastily or badly written on my part. My point was not at all about your condition ... just used it as an analogous take-off point.

Only tried to state that pouring money will not resolve anything. And that supplier-driven health care (essentially monopoly health care) cannot resolve itself or reform itself. Friends of Medicare seeks to entrench the existing system and I do not support it.

The system is not responsive to health-consumer needs because it is not dependent upon health-consumer feedback.