Anticipation

Readers recall that, since April 2015, I have needed a hip replacement. It's been a pastime of mine ever since to find someone in the health system who will help me get that hip. 

Results so far have been poor. Sunnybrook Hospital, through the Holland Centre, gave me a brochure and told me to go away. When I told this to my family doctor, she just gave me a longer prescription for pain killers. She had no other ideas about what to do.

A kind physiotherapist offered to put me in touch with a surgeon at another hospital. That endeavour took from August 2015 to February 2016, when I finally found myself in the presence of Paul Kuyzk at Mount Sinai Hospital. He agreed that I needed a new hip. I filled out some paperwork, left behind the usual sacrificial vials of blood, and have heard nothing since about when, exactly, they could offer up that new hip.

In the meantime, my condition deteriorates. I'm always in pain and am evermore disabled. My recent calls to Mount Sinai have netted me nothing more than patient assurances that they have no idea when I might get my surgery, but I should expect to wait another six months to a year. 

So, Bruce and I decided, when Aunt Arlie's remembrance of Bruce in her will gave us a bit of extra liquidity, to see what other options were available. 

A quick search on line brought my attention to the Duval Clinic in Laval, Quebec, where you pay cash money for your new hip - $20,000 - and you get it in two months or less.

It took me two weeks to gather and send the information they needed (more sacrificial vials of blood, an ECG, another x-ray) and another week and a half before I heard from them. 

I'm scheduled for surgery August 15, 2016.

So that's the end of the story, or so you'd think. But, there's a new development. A friend of a friend heard of my plight and contacted a pal of his - who is an orthopaedic surgeon - who may be able to get me into surgery, in Toronto, without having to pay $20K and without waiting another year. I have an appointment with the surgeon at Toronto Western Hospital on Tuesday morning. 

There are enough other things we could do with Arlie's gift that I would consider waiting a little bit longer for that surgery. If this fourth attempt to get that hip results in a date before the end of September, then that will be the date I wait for.

Otherwise, on August 16, 2016, I'll be the happy owner of a brand new hip and will thank Auntie Arlie every step I take thereafter.    

Thanks for reading!

Have a great week!

Karen