{"id":4100,"date":"2019-09-27T09:25:47","date_gmt":"2019-09-27T16:25:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rodbinder.com\/journal\/?p=4100"},"modified":"2019-09-27T13:58:09","modified_gmt":"2019-09-27T20:58:09","slug":"sep-27-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rodbinder.com\/journal\/2019\/09\/27\/sep-27-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Sep 27 2019 The Waiting"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Waiting is painful. Forgetting is painful. But not knowing which to do is the worse kind of suffering.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Paulo Coelho<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"Here I am again. Sitting in Er Room 3 waiting for the doctor. I think I solved my health riddle.<\/p>\n

Now I need a doctors’ approval on my diagnosis.<\/p>\n

I will start at the beginning<\/p>\n

1977 I joined the Canadian Armed Forces. I wanted the Air force but was talked into joining the Navy.\u00a0 I did my time in boot camp. And then off to train as a radioman at sea.<\/p>\n

My ship was the HMCS Qu’Appelle. I was proud to have served my adopted country. I was born in Brasil, became a Canadian citizen in 1967 during the centennial here.<\/p>\n

\"\"

yup that’s me at the pointy end<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

My ship was built in 1962. It was insulated with asbestos as was the practice at the time.<\/p>\n

By the time I served on that ship, it was outdated by warship standards. A decision was made to refit the ship in its entirety. That meant stripping the ship to bare metal and redoing everything and upgrading to newer equipment.<\/p>\n

Since they didn’t have much for the 175 souls on board to do during that process, we were assigned to help with the refit.<\/p>\n

This included grinding out the old insulation. We were not given any protection against the asbestos dust. In the military you do as you are\u00a0 told, nothing else will do.<\/p>\n

I read stories now about sailors who got lung cancer just serving on their ships. For us doing the grinding, it is much worse.<\/p>\n

I have been having problems with chest pain, shortness of breath, dizziness, even one incidence of confusion.<\/p>\n

From the research I have done, all this could be contributed to the lack of oxygen. I don’t think my lungs are getting enough 02 to my body.<\/p>\n

My mission today is just to get a supply of oxygen and maybe even have an arterial blood gas test.<\/p>\n

I doubt I will succeed. I think the doctor on call here is one I met before. I severely bruised his ego on a visit here last year.<\/p>\n

I had cut my finger on my table saw, down to the bone. I had a half-loaded trailer on my van. That I couldn’t remove. I had to wait till the next day to get to ER.<\/p>\n

When I saw the doctor there. I said something that set him off. I had never seen him before, so I asked if he was a locum. A visiting doctor.<\/p>\n

He got angry that I didn’t know that he was one of the regular doctors here.<\/p>\n

After that, he refused to talk to me. My finger was not stitched up. Xrays were not looked at. It took many months for that hand to heal. I am sure that there were fractures.<\/p>\n

My glove had caught the blade and my hand was slammed into the table of the saw by a 10-inch blade spinning at 60 times a second.<\/p>\n

I am not sure the doctor I am seeing today is the same one. My memory just ain’t firing some days.<\/p>\n

The one I saw today, was friendly and seemed to mean business and during the conversation, I even ended up giving him advice about some computer problems.<\/p>\n

I didn’t get oxygen, I didn’t get the test I wanted to be done. I did get the promise of a pulmonary test in the near future We will see if that happens. This doctor told me that oxygen was actually toxic, I will have to read about that.<\/p>\n

I was promised knee replacement surgery two years ago, a referral to a spinal clinic in Edmonton, a home sleep apnea test, a carotid examine and stress test, none of which has happened. Like I said some of those things I have been waiting for years. Sometimes free medical isn’t free, we pay for it, suffering quietly.<\/p>\n

I just finished chopping wood I went out to take a pic and got a call from the respiratory clinic and before the appointment was made my phone ran out of battery power. I\u00a0 had a hard time talking I was huffin’ and puffin’ like an asthmatic Granny sitting in an all smokers’ bingo hall. My apologies to all asthmatic Grannies.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Not today’s load. Today’s was bigger<\/p><\/div>\n

I am trying to call back but my phone needs at least ten percent or it won’t make the call. I guess a promise was made by a doctor and it was followed through, some of my faith has been restored.<\/p>\n

Take Care and be safe<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

BP117\/74\u00a0 BPM 74<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n