Wait Your Turn

I was hoping to book a massage with my massage therapist a few weeks ago and called her up to discover some bad news. It seems she has had a really difficult summer. Back in march she was having problems with her arm and through some testing they discovered a tumor. They did a few more simple tests over the next few months never really figuring out anything except that the tumor that was 3 cm in March was 7 cm in July. That same month she was on vacation and swatted a fly only to break her arm! There is a 7 inch fracture in her arm that does not seem to be healing because of the tumor. Not only that but she hasn't even had a biopsy yet. She has another appointment scheduled this week and she is understandably concerned. An arm is a very unfortunate place for a massage therapist to have a tumor, not that there is a good spot to have one. She is a very active, determined and strong woman though and this has really damaged her spirit. Not only is she unable to continue much with her livelihood but she also is a highland dance teacher who is unable to show the students their positions. She also plays bagpipes. I realize this music isn't everyone's cup of tea but it has been something that she greatly enjoys doing and misses very much.

I have known this woman a few years now and though I'm not her most frequent customer I do know some of her character. For a long time she has suffered with MS and this would most likely be a daunting disease for anyone, let alone a massage therapist she has never let anything break her spirit. She has been nothing but determined to never let this slow her down or stop her from doing what she loves. To see her frustration, anger and broken spirit over this battle is heart breaking. She is understandably worried that this tumor is cancer and what will become of her if it is. The worst case scenario is that her arm would need to be amputated. I can imagine that faced with this knowledge she would be in a state of constant worry. I don't know what I would do in her situation since I tend to be a worrier anyway. My heart goes out to her and I am thankful that she has a strong support system of friends and family that have all rallied around her in this time of need.

The concern that I have is why is it taking so long for them to even find out what this tumor is? This isn't the first time lately that I have heard of people waiting month after month to determine if what they have is cancerous or not. It frustrates me that our medical system wouldn't speed up the process of testing in cases where cancer might be involved. If what someone has turns out to be an aggressive form of cancer then every day counts! The months they wait for testing could be months spent in treatment increasing their chances of fast and full recovery. After talking to Stacy, my massage therapist today I was discussing her situation with Randall and he mentioned that if it were him he would be heading down to the States for an immediate MRI. I had said that I'm not sure that is a financial option for her and he replied "At some point when it comes to something like this you would find a way to make it an option." As much as I am normally quite a fan of out health care system nothing is perfect. The wait times when something could be life threatening are unacceptable. I don't know that I prefer the "people with money get moved to the front of the line" approach that there is in the states but I have seen a few instances lately that I deem to be unacceptable. My hope would be that there was some sort of a triage system in place in order to speed up the testing for life threatening diseases. This doesn't seem to be the case right now and I wish I knew how to get this changed.

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