Elevator Friday - near Jarvie, Alberta

Thank you Dale Redekopp.

About the walking . . .

A relative was kind enough to pick me up last Tuesday and take me to Drayton Valley to visit mom. My mother is in a retirement home. Before the accident I used to visit once or twice a week. My sister has been great filling in with visits even though she lives much further away. The first thing when we got there is I had my driver stop at the local Dairy Queen so I could bring mom a hot fudge sundae. There are reasons why I am the favourite.

My driver is my father’s brother’s daughter’s daughter. Or my first cousin’s daughter. Whatever other term there is for this family relationship escapes me. I will refer to her as Kay. This is the third time she has done this for me since I got out of the hospital last September. I make a point to spring for lunch and overpay for gas for the day.

Mom is eighty three and looks healthy while also managing to look older than her years. Her memory is shot, she does not remember her birthday nor does she remember Kay. I am glad she is in a place that takes good care of her.

I spent the day on crutches. For longer excursions I had been using the walker but I use crutches exclusively these days. I have become a wee bit more flexible as I have noticed I can get in and out of a vehicle just a bit easier. You do not notice some of the everyday hazards for handicapped people until you become one. My accountant’s office had a weird step rise to get in the door. Sidewalks can have high height stepping from the road onto the sidewalk. You have to be so damn careful.

Walking with crutches I could navigate the height getting onto a sidewalk from a parking space. I could not do the reverse, I had to walk to where there was a ramp built into the sidewalk at the handicapped parking spot so I could get down. Starting yesterday I can finally step off a sidewalk without searching for a ramp. The problem was I previously did not have enough strength in my knees. This is welcome progress.

At home I have tried to do the flamingo thing. I can stand unassisted and have done that for months. I cannot stand unassisted on one leg. I feel I can get to that point. I have not fallen when I was in rehab or since I have been home. I have been scared of falling a few times. I no longer have that fear. I am confident that if I do fall I can manage to get back up. I did not have that feeling before. Onward.

I got asked how the medical system is working for me

In Canada healthcare is free. Of course nothing is truly ever free, we pay a lot in taxes to support it.

I really have no complaints. I live in Alberta so I do not know what it is like in other provinces. When the accident happened I received good care in a timely manner. I have had no problems booking follow up appointments with my surgeon. Anytime I had a follow up with the surgeon I had to check in, then go for x-rays, then back to wait for the surgeon to see me to discuss my progress. Every time I arrived early and they started the process right away. I never had to wait long.

Everyone I have dealt with as a patient seemed to be competent. Practically all were pleasant. I am sure there are true horror stories that people had with the system. I am grateful for what they did for me.

Recently I had to book an appointment with a doctor to get disability forms filled out. I do not have a family doctor and getting a family doctor these days is difficult, there is almost zero availability. In the past I rarely went to a doctor unless I was really sick or something happened that demanded medical attention. So I never had a family doctor in the first place. I never went for a checkup or physical. To get my forms filled out I booked an appointment at a walk-in clinic, talked to a doctor and suggested I leave the forms and pick them up in a few days. The office phoned me later that day to say they were done. When I picked them up it cost me $85.00 which I had no issue paying. That cost is minor considering everything else.

Truth be known I have had more issues with insurance companies during this ordeal than with the medical system. 

Elevator Friday - Primate, Saskatchewan

Thank you to Dale Redekopp.

If you die in a horrific accident you get to avoid all the subsequent paperwork

The insurance company that is paying me disability payments wants proof that I am still damaged goods. That was part of the reason to visit my surgeon on April 9. The next day on the tenth I received a package with a bunch of forms from them asking for even more information. That irritated me because I could have had those filled out when I met my surgeon and that they never told me they wanted all this additional stuff. He is fairly accommodating when it comes to paperwork.

Before the accident I rarely if ever went to the doctor. I do not have a family physician and these days it can be damn hard to get one. I lucked out when I phoned around and I found a walk-in clinic that will give me the once over and fill out my forms, for a fee of course. The fee is worth it to get this done.

I have to forward some forms to my disability insurer and the remainder to the government. My disability insurer wants me to apply for the government disability program. They want to get me partially or completely off the books I guess. I did some research and apparently this is routine. According to the government’s own forms it can take up to four months to rule on an application. I have to order another medical report to submit with one of these reports. After reading through the forms several times and filling out over twenty pages in my questionable handwriting I think I have this figured out. I know I am nowhere close to going back to work, unfortunately I have to gather a bunch of documents to prove it.