Well good riddance to October 2009. This month started out great – finances were ok (or as ok as they get with me), Bumpy and TNT were doing well. Work was ok, the dog hadn’t eaten a piece of furniture in months, and I was all set to drop about $6500 on a new furnace and ac. And then the my little corner of the world went to sh!t.
Started out back mid month with my wife having a seizure. She was lucky – she was in a parking lot with my eldest in Newmarket when it happened. Had it happened ten minutes earlier, it would have played out by the car careening out of control down Hwy 11 and christ only knows the outcome. Suffice to say it would have sucked large for everyone involved and anyone who happened to be in the vicinity. See my seperate post here on what I think of the people in Newmarket.
So turns out Bumpy has Epilepsy. What’s whack is that she’s had it for 11 years, and nobody bothered to mention it to her. Goes like this – 11 years ago she has a series of seizures that lead to her seeing a neurologist. He scribes some medication, sees her a month afterwards, and that’s it. Headaches disappear, seizures disappear, and all is well with the world – life continues. Her drivers license was suspended for a few weeks until the neuro fills out some paperwork stating that she is unlikely to smell burnt toast and proceed to randomly drive her car into the closest object. Upon receipt of the good news the kind folks at the MTO reinstate driving privileges. Done.
At no time did Dr. Giftmt use the words and phrases epilepsy, continuous medication, refill, and so on. Nothing that would indicate that this was some very serious chit, and we need to monitor it. We – as in my wife and I, and Dr. Giftmn (which is an acronym for Gee I Forgot To Mention It). Not that I find this too hard to believe. After all, not that many months ago, we had a very close friend who went into another neuro who basically mentioned in passing that she has MS. You know – nothing major – just MS. Geezuz Crist doctors – could you try to be clear with your patients when you are telling them they have a condition or disease which will change their lives? You know – they could perhaps take precautions, learn about their condition and so on. And their family wouldn’t be crapping their pants wondering why life has suddenly turned upside down.
So now Bumpy’s licence is suspended, pending medical evidence that says shes unlikely to seize again. The original doc, which we are now not too fond of is booked until March, the two neuros in Barrie are now booking for April, and October of 2010. So we ended up going to one in Toronto about a week ago. Hey – what’s a 45 minute drive to get in quicker to see what’s wrong with your melon? Dr. C in Toronto seems pretty straightforward. We have a diagnoses (which we should have had 11 years back), we have meds, and we have appointments – although they’re a ways off – to get some more tests. All is proceeding ok.
The b!tch of it all is though, that Bumpy needs her licence to earn a living. She works in community care, and needs to be able to get from client to client to deliver healthcare and support. The company she works for – a healthcare company – has no short or long term disability. They can’t can her, because that would entail getting rid of someone with a disability (at least a temporary disability). She can’t collect EI, becasue she can’t be canned. They can’t modify her duties, unless they are willing to hire someone to drive around to clients. So we are still at this point, up in the air as to how we proceed forward.
October has been a really crappy month – I’ll be glad to see it go.
