SUPERBOWL cheating and health care

January 21, 2015.

Passing Thoughts

Yesterday's post regarding other parts of the world that do ugly things, made it sound like Greg's problems were related somehow to inequality of women, and I need to clarify that passing thought.  Arresting him and accusing him of a securities fraud has nothing to do with the equality of women -
but his experience in jail is related to civil rights.  All of these subjects are ugly.  The terrorist attacks in the name of religion is ugly.  It is very easy to recognize evil when you point a finger, but remember that old saying "when you point a finger, remember that three fingers are pointing back at you", and I think that is the whole intention of my passing thoughts.  I would like to engage in an honest dialogue that identifies issues and disregard this politically correct language that tends to speak around issues because we use vague terms.  That, in no way is a statement that endorses insulting language, but we need to have a starting point in clear language that is clear and almost scientific.  And todays big news hits hard: scandal in football.  OH NO CHEATERS IN FOOTBALL?? No it cannot be.  But I digress.

The Tale

Greg was now engaged in a fixer upper project which meant that he could not live in the house.
He was still enjoying hotel life, now seven months into "look into the paper work" and ignoring a $30 million bond, now, that is UGLY!!!  Meanwhile, lots of things were going on many fronts but since I am not an author and not a journalist (that Egyptian journalist arrest story) it is difficult to tell the tale of the converging story lines.   I was the captain of the ship, and Greg was now in a safetly net/house in Alabama and some of my attention was focused on the girls.  Karina, the competitive rider, basically had her competitive career come to a halt.

Karina's story is actually another story of champion ambition.  Ever mindful of the world that surrounds me, I will just say that horse show people rest on Mondays and I doubt that it is an official religious day for any of the three major world religions.
Several years earlier, Karina had been tossed out of her saddle while riding and because she 'landed' on her feet, the mishap did not look like an accident.  The force of the landing however was deceiving.  And now I open the can of worms called public health care in Canada.

Karina had blown out her knee from the force of landing on her feet.  A regular X-ray said she was fine, but Karina knew something was very wrong.  She flew home after telling her Dad "something is wrong Dad".  I should be clear and admit that thanks to MBI Greg has some connections in Hamilton, and he called Dr. Romantic and asked for yet another favour: an MRI.  Normally, this would be months away if going through normal channels, but Greg would not hold back when his kids' health or safety was in question.   Three days after the 'fall' in Calgary, Karina had the MRI in Hamilton, and 'yadda, yadda' we were encouraged to go to the Cleveland Clinic, and Karina ended up having her knee surgery at the Cleveland Clinic two weeks after the accident.  Had we stayed for free service in Canada, even with connections and favours and disrupting the waiting lines, Karina's first appointment with an orthopaedic sugreaon would have been 8 months out!  YIKES!    Now in 2014, it was her ankle.

Karina contacted her surgeon.  He did not do ankles, but in short order her surgery was booked to fix her ankle.  I flew from Florence to be with her in Cleveland.  The point is, Karina had a surgery.  Thankfully, the Cleveland Clinic came through, and Karina's surgery was a success after a longer than expected surgery - the pilots flew us home to recover in Canada.  I am not a journalist, and I for sure, am not a nurse.  Karina was in a lot of pain and we had several difficult days.  Natalie had arranged for a wheel chair as well as a great thing called a scooter.  A scooter is the best thing ever for a foot injury.  Crutches are horrible, but this scooter thing makes mobility so much easier.  The three of us girls just powered through this difficult time, all the time calling Greg, who was worried sick over Karina's troubles.  There was nothing to do except keep on marching forward.  Karina needed to be in a cast for 6 weeks.

One week after the surgery, Karina needed her soft cast changed and Cleveland Clinic arranged for the cast change to happen in a Toronto hospital - it was a matter of a half hour.  Dr. Konfused came in and made no eye contact with either Natalie or myself, but obviously we assumed, he was very busy doctor. He briefly looked at the chart and instructed the tech to put on a walking cast for Karina. Sal the tech was great.  We had a pleasant time while he did his job.

Karina got a new cast.  Two days later we needed to come back because the 'nurse in charge' at home got the cast wet and Karina was most uncomfortable.  We drove into the city and Sal happily changed the cast for us and told us about the water proof cast covers that were available.   Five weeks later, it was time to get the cast removed.  Again, Dr. Konfused had no time to make eye contact with Natalie and myself, but he did tell Karina, that "You left OHIP, and because you did, I am not going to pick up the pieces and clean up after getting this surgery done outside of OHIP.  I want you to know I am not going to look after you."   He left the examination room.  We were aghast.  He refused care.
Sal came in took the cast off, and he told us he was leaving that hospital.  He hated the atmosphere there.

And that is how I learned that Cleveland Clinic is better than OHIP.