What Happened -Part 3

 A summation of the previous four posts:

Ever since my spinal cord injury some fifteen years ago, I was able to climb into our family van from my wheelchair for transportation to wherever I needed to go.  In fact I last did so in the last week of March of 2022 when I visited my out-of-town dentist.

Then, on April 6th & 7th of the following week, I experienced excruciatingly painful, explosive spasms which lasted all night till dawn with only a slight reprieve during the day before they resumed again the following night.

The spasms were so intense and devastating that I could no longer place my weight upon the leg for support during transferring.  I could lift my left leg upright and hold it taught; the right leg would sag and bounce when trying to do the same.

Here lies my frustration with the Canadian medical system:

I am now on my fourth family physician in five years.  I left my previous physician when I moved back to my home town.  Family physicians accepting new patients are rare in Ontario Canada - with some wait lists as long as five years.

Doctor No. 1 (2019-Summer 2022): Though some distance from home, I found a doctor accepting new patients.  I was with this doctor in April 2022 when my debilitating spasm event occurred.   He told my all I needed was rest but ordered an ultrasound to humour me.  I showed no abnormalities and the leg slowly did recover but not to pre-April capabilities.  I tried but could not raise my left leg while balanced on the wobbly right leg, high enough to step into the van.

Just when I was about to approach him again, I received a letter in the mail telling me he was closing his practice as there was no candidate willing to take it on.  I left my name with the clinic should events change and then the search was on again.

Doctor No. 2: (January 2022-May 2023) I received a call from the clinic that a new physician had arrived and was accepting patients.  I immediately signed up and shortly thereafter went to the meet-&-greet.  I explained my spasm event to the doctor during our initial meeting.  He ordered an EMG and an MRI [along with other tests unrelated to my spasms - trigger fingers, shoulder pain from torn tendon, etc.]  Whether do to the demand or Covid backlog, the tests were scheduled into the following year.  In May of 2023, some four months after establishing his practice, he decided to leave [for personal reasons].  There was another doctor at the same building but not with the same clinic who was willing to accept Doctor No. 2's patients.

Doctor No. 3 (June 2023-?): So I go to my third meet-&-greet for my fourth doctor in almost five years.  But I don't meet the doctor; I meet who I presume was a medical clinician for the doctor.  They listen to my gripes and take my notes [which will be scanned into their black hole, never to see the light of day again.  They suggest I meet with another doctor in the same office who manages pain.  When the time came to meet this pain doctor No.4, I meet with the same clinician.  So I have yet to meet my new doctor(s).

Results ordered by Doctor No. 3 began to come into his office. Negative results are not called but I finally did hear the voice of Doctor No. 3 when he called regarding the MRI. The hospital's neurology or orthopedic doctor's clinician had already contacted me regarding the MRI results, telling me that a bone "spur" was causing my spasms and that I needed immediate surgery. They continued by telling me that I should keep taking the bacolfen for spasms and gabapentin for nerve pain. That left me wondering if I really had a "spur" or whether they were misreading my original injury as something new. When Doctor No. 3 called, I explained my reasoning to him which he took in and didn't challenge.

The more I think about it, the more confused I become.  Was there something new and abnormal in that MRI?

I guess it's up to me to make another appointment and pound on the good doctor's door [or his clinician's] for I still am housebound and unable to get into your family vehicle.  Something suddenly happened to me in April of 2022 which robbed me of my ability to get into our family vehicle; the problem remains.  Though not solved, it appears Doctor No. 3 had dismissed my medical complaint and it's up to me to continue to raise a stink.  (Oh, you were serious about that issue?)

I remain housebound, having been off my property some thirteen times in the last seventeen months (since April 2022 to present) and all for medical or related appointments.  All trips were by public disability transit.

And so it goes....