Sounds like a great beginning to a joke right?  Well my experience on Monday night was anything but.  I had venoplasty on Aug. 30 of this year and things were going pretty well until around a week and a half ago.  I started to notice that I had some swelling in my neck at the site of my venoplasty, but didn't worry too much about it.  Then on Saturday I noticed the swelling became painful, especially when I was laying down.  On Monday, in the middle of cooking supper, the pain had become serious enough that I called the IR on call in Albany.  They suggested that I head to the ER for a neck ultrasound, so off I went.

I got to the hospital at around 3:30pm and after a pretty quick 30 minutes in the waiting room, I was asked to enter the emergency room.  The nurse triaged me and felt my issue was serious enough to admit me quick so I was pleased with the whole situation.  After another hour and a half wait, the attending physician finally decided to grace me with her presence.  She walked  stormed into the room that I was in and it became very clear, very quickly what I was in for.

"Mr. White I don't know what we you expect here from us.  We don't have any idea what was done to you nor do we have any knowledge on which way to go.  This isn't approved here in Canada and patients are taking a huge risk in allowing this to happen.  It's possible that you may have to return to the US because we may not be able to help you.  I'll call the radiologist on call to see what we can do, but we don't do neck ultrasounds here at this hospital"

"So what am I supposed to do?  I waited 2 hours for you to tell me that you can't do anything for me?"

"I'm just saying I don't know what we can do.  I'm going to have to call the radiologist"

"Then ok let's start with that so you can maybe find out what you can do"

Off she went.  Another 45 minutes pass and once again back she came.  This time I decided to take the offense side of the puck.

"Dr. P I get that you don't approve of this procedure.  I get that many doctors in Canada don't approve of this procedure.  But before you judge me and my actions try to understand what the last 3 years of my life has been like"

She replied, "I'm not saying that I don't approve of this"

"Well that's what I'm hearing.  I know I took a risk by doing this procedure, but by doing nothing there was a greater risk.  You don't know what it's like to have everything you know and love ripped away from you in a heart beat.  When I went for this procedure, I was ensured by the Minister of Health here in Ontario that every patient, who came back from out of the country for this procedure, would have follow-up care here in Canada.  You don't want me to be the next statistic like the poor guy in the Niagara region who was denied health and ultimately died.  You don't want me to go to the press about this and I guarantee you that the Minister of Health don't want to hear this just days before an election"

With a softer stance she informed me that they would try a CT scan to rule out thrombosis and that we would go from there.  Fast forward and the scan came back negative.  No blood clot.  Bonus.  I still felt like crap, but at the end of the day it was not serious.  I was scheduled for an U/S on Thursday and that would give us an idea of what was going on if anything.  The doctor there all of a sudden found a bedside manner.  Kudos to her for eventually finding that.  The moral of the story?  Lip service is something elected officials give to take the heat of the government.  Putting policy into practice is another story.  We MSers may face some blow back about our decisions to have venoplasty.  There may be physcians who don't agree with this procedure, but then there are perhaps physicians who may not want to treat a smoker for a bacterial pneumonia.  The real issue is that our health care system is universal and that physicians must do no harm.  We may sometimes need to ensure that our rights are fought for, but we will have what we are entitled to, whether an individual agrees with it on a personal basis or not.

The good news?  Well kind of?!?  I had to go to the same ER after my symptoms intensified yesterday.  The attending physician who treated me, did further work up and determined a virus was the most probable cause for my symptoms.  After she treated me, I thanked her for her care and the fact that she did not judge me.  She replied by stating that she believes that ccsvi has quite an amount of evidence and that she understands why people are going for the procedure.  I guess different folks have different strokes, but in the end it's just another small victory in this war.