O Canada!

Recently I had the opportunity (not by choice) to be reminded how lucky we are that we live in Canada & have free health care!

My son had a bump on his neck, just below his ear, that I thought was a swollen lymph node due to perhaps him fighting a bug - he does go to daycare with kids, lotsa germs and he is a boy after all who would pick up anything & put it in his mouth - especially if it's a candy!! When his daycare provider told me she'd never seen anything like it in her 20 years of experience I decided to take him to his peditrician... who had no idea what it was & sent us to the hospital for tests. After a 7.5 hour wait at the hospital, they determined they didn't know what it was either - but they knew what it wasn't - an infection, so we went home.

The next day he was back to his VERY energetic self! The day after he awoke with a second lump so back to the Emergency room we went. After 12 hours & being seen by over 10 doctors (peditricians, ENTs, Infectious disease & specislists in each area) we were sent home to come back the next am for a CATscan. The next morning he had his scan & then we had to wait 7 hours to hear from the ENT specialist who told us they still didn't know what the lumps were specifically - but they had a greater idea of what it wasn't... it wasn't cat scratch fever or a bunch of things. It most likely was a microbacterial infection that is a fluke thing that reacted oddly with his body.

Now some who know would think that spending hours and hours in an emergency waiting room, see Dr. after Dr. would be a waste & others would be pissed that it took so long to not have a final answer! I think it coulda been better, but it was great as is - he saw over 25 doctors and they ran every test to determine what it was (by determing what it wasn't). Within 1 day he got a catscan to determine & they were all 100% sure that he was good enough to go home. Not only am I lucky to live in Canada I am lucky to be in Montreal - I know in many other remote places across the country (like Newfoundland) I'd have to wait weeks/months & take a plane to get a catscan!!

O'Canada you may be flawed at times, but I wouldn't wanna live anywhere else!!!