Surgery is Postponed Again and Why

I found out yesterday that the surgery has been postponed again and they did not have a new date for me.

The issue has been a staffing one. Specifically, they are short perfusionists (the person who operates the heart and lung machine) and could only do emergency surgeries so as not to burn out the few they have. This is apparently a nationwide issue, but Alberta has been removing investment in the healthcare system and so the wages are not competitive.

They couldn't give me a timeline yesterday, because I assume it would be difficult to predict how long a search would take.

Anyway, I was informed today of the new date which is October 29th. You will notice this is literally one month after the original date.

I feel confident in this date.

But who knows? We will just hope for the best.

In the meantime, I will look for things to pass the next three weeks.

Surgery is Delayed

 Surprise!

The surgery has been postponed until Thursday, October 9th.

I was already in process of being prepared for surgery. I was in the gown, they had shaved me and I was waiting for the porter to take me into the surgery room when the nurse informed me that due to some emergency, my surgery was bumped. I knew that this was a possibility. Emergency surgeries will bump scheduled ones if a life is on the line. There may have also been a staffing issue from what I gathered.

My surgery was only bumped 10 days due to the nature of my surgery and the importance of it which is a saving grace because it would be awkward if it was much more than that.

So, now, I am in this space of time where I have to wait. It's like a surprise vacation that I was not expecting. I'm going to focus on taking care of my mental health and fortifying my constitution.

As the surgery got closer, it was harder to sleep. The night before the surgery, I only got maybe 15 minutes of sleep due to stress. I know the stress will spike again as the new date approaches, but hopefully I can be more calm.

There is a decent possibility that I get bumped again. I spoke with surgeon's assistant, and she mentioned that staffing has been a challenge. The surgery will happen and I know I am fairly high priority for the surgeon.

Despite this delay, I am still thankful for universal health care. I would not be able to afford this surgery under a privatized system. I don't blame the doctors or the hospital.

I fully blame Danielle Smith and the UCP government. Healthcare is under the purview of the provincial government and the UCP time and time again have undermined the public healthcare system. Public healthcare works when it is funded and supported. Like many conservative governments, they do want to cut spending to the detriment of services that the public needs so they can give tax cuts to the wealthy and corporations. 

Smith has been pushing to privatize healthcare since she entered office despite a privatized healthcare system has been the ruin of many American families. Her government have put unnecessarily cruel new restrictions on AISH that makes it harder for those with chronic illnesses to have a decent quality of life. She restructured the healthcare system unnecessarily and has put down a foundation that can lead to privatization.

The hospital wouldn't be having staffing issues if we put money into system so they can give healthcare workers a good wage and they can hire more.

This is not just affecting me. This issue affects all Albertans.

But if I do happen to die waiting for this surgery. It is her and her government's fault.

There is all this talk about how the physical violence enacted by Luigi Mangione is beyond the pale. However, the American healthcare CEOs enact violence and kill people all the time with a stroke of a pen. That is violence beyond the pale.

If the UCP doesn't want the deaths of thousands of sick Albertans on their hands, they need to fund the healthcare system.

Anyway. I'm coming up with more island-themed activities for my impromptu vacation. If you're around in Edmonton, hit me up and we can both live on #islandtime!