How does your area rank?

It seems that Healthcare is a major issue here in Canada. Of course, it is in my work as well. Here is a current report as from CBC.ca.

Hospital waits shortest in Ont., longest in N.B.: report
Tue Oct 24, 1:50 PM

Canada-wide waiting times for surgical and other therapeutic treatments increased slightly in 2006, a new survey suggests. The right-wing think tank the Fraser Institute released its 16th annual rating of wait times for 12 specialties on Tuesday.
The average total waiting time for Canadian patients between referral from a general practitioner and treatment averaged 17.8 weeks this year, up slightly from 17.7 weeks in 2005. Seven provinces saw increases while wait times decreased in Alberta, Ontario, and Newfoundland and Labrador.
Ontario's average wait was 14.9 weeks, compared to 16.3 weeks for second-place Alberta and a high of 31.9 weeks for last-place New Brunswick.
Too many cases that should be handled by family doctors are being passed on to specialists who are being overwhelmed, said New Brunswick's former health minister, Dennis Furlong. Specialists also need better tools and more time in operating room to do their jobs, said Furlong, who runs a family practice in northern N.B.
But Furlong disagreed with the underlying thrust of the Fraser report, saying with all its problems, Canada's publicly-funded system is still one of the top three or four health-care systems in the world.
The next-longest waits were found in Saskatchewan at 28.5 weeks and Prince Edward Island at 25.8 weeks.

Two stages of waiting

Co-author Nadeem Esmail says it's the second-longest average wait time the institute has measured, and Canadians shouldn't expect to see any dramatic improvements as a result of the latest federal-provincial agreements.

The waiting time between seeing a specialist and treatment - the second stage of waiting- fell to 9.0 weeks from 9.4 weeks in 2005. Increases in waiting times in B.C., Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island were offset by decreases in the five other provinces.
Patients waited longest between a GP referral and:

- Orthopedic surgery (40.3 weeks).
- Plastic surgery (35.4 weeks).
- Neurosurgery (31.7 weeks).
The shortest total waits between referral by a general practitioner and treatment occurred in:
- Medical oncology (4.9 weeks).
- Radiation oncology (5.0 weeks).
- Elective cardiovascular surgery (8.0 weeks).
The wait for neurosurgery increased significantly (by 12.9 weeks) over 2005 levels while wait times for otolaryngology (ear, nose and throat procedures) increased by 2.9 weeks, internal medicine by 0.6 weeks, and orthopedic surgery by 0.3 weeks. Wait times improved for patients seeking treatment in:

- Urology (decreased 1.2 weeks).
- Plastic surgery (decreased 0.8 weeks).
- Radiation oncology (decreased 0.7 weeks).
- Medical oncology (decreased 0.6 weeks).
- Gynecology (decreased 0.5 weeks).
- General surgery (decreased 0.3 weeks).
- Elective cardiovascular surgery (decreased 0.3 weeks).
- Ophthalmology (decreased 0.2 weeks).
The median wait for an MRI across Canada was 10.3 weeks. Patients in Ontario and Nova Scotia experienced the shortest wait for an MRI (8.0 weeks), while Newfoundland and Labrador residents waited longest (28.0 weeks).

What a day!! I can't remember when I've had a worse day!!
It started with me driving to work because I had a meeting near our house at the end of the day. When I got there, I discovered that I had forgotten my ID and my keys. So I had to use the spare key to get into the office. Then I realized that I had left my cell phone at home. How or when I realized that I had forgotten the phone was when my colleague and I went to get my car when I parked in my other co-worker's spot... and we got there... and there was no car. So I'm looking oh.. now where did I park? It was an apartment building space that the co-worker leases. Oh, maybe it is behind that one... no.. it's... not... here.. Ok, I calmly said. The car is not here. My car is gone. You've got to be kidding me. They towed my car. My colleague was like "what? where's the car?" "the car is gone." I said. "they towed it." When talking to someone else, they said how do you know they towed it, why didn't you think it was stolen? I told them we have a club and an immobilizer... unless someone hotwires the immobilizer, it is going nowhere. So I call my other co-worker to tell her that I will be late. Please tell the others at the meeting. We will just wait for our boss, whose car was in the next lot and ask him for the ride.

"Well, you are now an official Vancouverite. You've had your car towed!!" Ugh. whatever.

So I go to the meeting which is on the other end of town... the furtherest from my work. Normally, they tow cars to a spot close to work, near the Burrard Bridge. But this was not Busters. This was "In-Tow" who took my car to a lot in East Van. So my supervisor drives me to the lot, because she was towed at one of our other meetings, so she remembers it well. It took a bit to find, as it is out of the way... and I haven't even gotten out of her car and a woman is looking at me from a ticket window and says are you here for the red neon? Did you bring cash? our machines are down. No I didn't have cash!! Luckily, my "driver" had not yet left. We go to a gas station where I find an ABM and go back. Then I drove home... tired, exhausted.. went in the house and put my head against the door. "this has ... got to be... one of the worse days of my life" only to turn around to my husband handing me roses... "Okay, not the worse day, but a good way to end a bad day!!" Well it is only Monday, hopefully I've gotten the worst of it out of the way....

Music as prayer...

I had a key chain that I have since lost.. that said "Music speaks where words fail". Sometimes this is the mood or notes, and other times it is like poetry... saying that which one cannot often put into words. This is now my third year in my church choir. It has been a blessing to me in more ways than I can count. I often find myself singing practiced songs throughout the week. This is the song from this morning... it is one that I know by heart. It helped me through rough times last year and continues to do in different ways...

Do Not I Love Thee O My Lord?
Do not I love thee, O my Lord?
Behold my heart and see,
And turn each cursed idol out that dares to rival you.
Do not I love thee from my soul? Then let me nothing love.
Dead be my heart to every joy, when Jesus cannot move.

Within the darkness of this heart,
other gods would vie for my affections,
but thou art exalted, thou art exalted far above all gods.
Let nothing keep me from thy love.

Thou knowst I love thee, dearest Lord.
But, O, I long to soar far from the sphere of mortals joys,

And learn to love thee more.

CAPPE AGM

Yesterday was the AGM (Annual General Meeting) for CAPPE BC. There were more people at this meeting than at our April (Spring) meeting, which is good. It is important to meet for colleageality's sake and for support which is not often gained in our place of employ. I'm just glad it's overwith. I was so nervous about overlooking something necessary ... anyways, with my having to leave the room to look after things in the kitchen, caterer, etc. I didn't really get to hear all of the key speaker who went a "little" overtime...

It was tiring. Hopefully now I can focus on some other things, like work and my hubby. More later.

Faithful One

How long O Lord?

Have you forgotten me?

How long must I lie in bed

feel uncomfortable

Wonder why?

Why do you seem so far away?

How long must I grope in the shadows?

Light a lamp to guide me

Shine on me

Give me hope ...

I trust in you

Faithful One

You set my heart singing

Singing of your salvation

Celebrating your unfailing love

This was written by Nicholas Wilson, based on Psalm 13. This is a bookmark that was given out at his funeral. Nicholas was the chaplain for Children and Women's Hospital in Vancouver BC. I don't know for how long. He was from England and made the journey back, and that is where he died. He had liver cancer and had been waiting for a transplant. He didn't get one and ailed while visiting family for the last time.

This poem speaks of the despair and isolation that so many people feel in their lives. Sometimes we are suffering from a physical ailment, while other sufferings involve the mind, psyche or the soul. I think that despite the ailment, the poem, like the Psalms, speaks to all aspects of the human journey of life. It is hard to rely on God and not blame Him for our sufferings and pain. I have a lady in own of my wards is also in pain. She has been depressed for the past week, but today she said she woke up with a positive attitude. Despite the constant pain in her body, she still relies on God for her strength. It is probably a number of reasons that she "feels" better, but I would like to think it is because she remembered her faith in her Faithful One. Just like Nicholas.

Finally...

Guess what came in the mail yesterday? The marriage certificate. It was mailed direct to us, versus the postal redirect so not sure what happened there. Now I can finally get the legals in order!!

(Patience is a virtue but I wish things would hurry!!)

And STILL.. nothing

You know what... I still don't have my marriage certificate. It has been 8 weeks and NO marriage certificate. So I got fed up and called the Vital stats in town to ask if I wasn't supposed to have one for free. Oh yes, it was mailed 2 weeks later. Well where is it? Hmm?
So they are sending a new one to the proper address. Finally!! I will be able to get stuff done. Luckily, work has changed my name and gotten me business cards without the certificate, but most other places, like the bank, credit card companies, etc, need to see a copy of it in order to change my name. I figure if I'm doing that then we would wait to add sweetie as POA or joint account holder. Too much red tape some times. Now we have to get a will, and change the bank accounts, credit cards, passports, etc. This should be fun (sarcasm) and yes, I do want to get rid of the old name. Although the new one is longer to spell and I forget a lot and sign my old name from time to time.

Definition of grace

I have been very shocked at what is going on in the world lately.. shootings, wars, idiocy from various sources. I have been interested in the Amish shooting incident. My heart goes out to them. It is still seemingly senseless that this event even occurred, but when I read a recent article (posted below in case the link disappears) I truly believe that this community understands the meaning of grace.

Amidst mourning, Amish turn to forgiveness
'The hurt is very great, but they don't balance the hurt with hate'

Thursday, October 05, 2006

NICKEL MINES, Pa. - In just about any other community, a deadly school shooting would have brought demands from civic leaders for tighter gun laws and better security and the victims' loved ones would have lashed out at the gunman's family or threatened to sue.
But that's not the Amish way.
As they struggle with the slayings of five of their children in a one-room schoolhouse, the Amish in the Lancaster County village Nickel Mines are turning the other cheek, urging forgiveness of the killer and quietly accepting what comes their way as God's will.
"They know their children are going to heaven. They know their children are innocent...and they know that they will join them in death," said Gertrude Huntington, a Michigan researcher and expert on children in Amish society.
"The hurt is very great," Huntington said. "But they don't balance the hurt with hate."
In the aftermath of Monday's violence, the Amish are looking inward, relying on themselves and their faith, just as they have for centuries. They hold themselves apart from the modern world and have as little to do with civil authorities as possible.
Amish mourners have been going from home to home for two days to attend viewings for the five victims, all little girls laid out in white dresses made by their families. Such viewings occur almost immediately after the bodies arrive at the parents' homes.
Typically, they are so crowded, "if you start crying, you've got to figure out whose shoulder to cry on," said Rita Rhoads, a Mennonite midwife who delivered two of the five girls slain in the attack.
At some Amish viewings, upwards of 1,000 to 1,500 people might visit a family's home to pay respects, said Jack Meyer, 60, a buggy operator in Bird in Hand, Pa. Such visits are important, given the lack of e-mail and phone communication, Meyer said.
The Amish have also been reaching out to the family of the gunman, Charles Carl Roberts, 32, who committed suicide during the attack. Dwight Lefever, a Roberts family spokesman, said an Amish neighbour comforted the Roberts family hours after the shooting and extended forgiveness to them.
"I hope they stay around here and they'll have a lot of friends and a lot of support," Daniel Esh, a 57-year-old Amish artist and woodworker whose three grandnephews were inside the school during the attack, said of the Roberts family.
Huntington, the authority on the Amish, predicted they will be very supportive of the killer and his wife, "because judgment is in God's hands: 'Judge not, that ye be not judged.' "
Roberts stormed the school and shot 10 girls before turning the gun on himself. Investigators said Roberts may have been planning to sexually assault the Amish girls.
He revealed to his family in notes he left behind and in a phone call from inside the West Nickel Mines Amish School that he was tormented by memories of molesting two young relatives 20 years ago.
But police said Wednesday there was no evidence of any such sexual abuse. Investigators spoke with the two women Roberts named, who would have been four or five at the time and neither recalls being sexually assaulted by Roberts.
"They were absolutely sure they had no contact with Roberts," state police Trooper Linette Quinn said.
A deputy county coroner described a gruesome scene at the school Wednesday, with blood on every desk, every window broken and the body of a girl slumped beneath the chalkboard, below a sign that read: Visitors Brighten People's Days. Roberts's body was face-down next to the teacher's desk.
"It was horrible. I don't know how else to explain it," said Amanda Shelley, a deputy coroner in Lancaster County.
Funerals for four of the victims -- Naomi Rose Ebersole, seven; Marian Fisher, 13; Mary Liz Miller, eight and her sister Lena Miller, seven -- are scheduled for Thursday at three homes. The funeral for the fifth girl, Anna Mae Stoltzfus, 12, is Friday.
About 300 to 500 people are expected at each funeral, said Philip Furman, an undertaker. The church-led services typically last about two hours before mourners travel in horse-drawn buggies to a cemetery for a short graveside service.
Five other girls remained in hospital -- three in critical condition and two in serious condition. They ranged in age from six to 13.
Enos Miller, the grandfather of the two Miller sisters, was with both of the girls when they died. He was out walking near the schoolhouse before dawn Wednesday -- he said he couldn't sleep -- when he was asked by a reporter for WGAL-TV whether he had forgiven the gunman.
"In my heart, yes," he said, explaining it was "through God's help."

© The Edmonton Journal 2006

And the world goes crazy....

What is going on with the world? The latest thing to hit the news is the shooting of girls in an Amish school by a "32 year old man with a 20 year old grudge". Oh my goodness!! http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2006/10/03/angry-shooter.html

There are all sorts of theories about this event. Copycat theory based on recent shootings, didn't have anything again Amish (supposedly), and I'm not sure what this 20 year old grudge is... the innocents are the ones that suffer. And the world weeps with them.

Odd week ... hope the next one is better

Well work has been a little wierd lately. Stressful at times due to "reconfiguring" of some staff positions, makes you wonder what/who is next.

So today, I did an inservice for 10 nursing students about what pastoral care is. I mentioned things like the morgue, spiritual assessment, misconceptions that people have about our work. Just last week, a patient asked me if I sent to see him beecause he is dying. Oh no. I had to tell him. I'm part of the team. You've been here a while and I haven't been able to meet you. That seemed to calm him down. But then he wanted to know what I was... what tradition. What box did he put me in? Was I there to preach at him, I suppose is what he wondered....

This weekend was hubby's bday. We had 15 people come to the house. It was good to have all the people come. Of course there were some that didn't make it, but that is to be expected considering the large number. I didn't cry over the ones that didn't come. More cake for us.

On Friday past, I went to a patient's wake. It wasn't a funeral and it wasn't really a memorial either. It was at the family's home. The man was in his 40's and had been in hospital on and off for a number of months/years. Even spending one or two of his bdays there. It was like a big party. Just what he would have wanted. He was always waiting for the next party/family gathering. It was good to go. The family really seemed to appreciate that I came. There were a few other staff from the hospital and residence where he lived as well. But it was a hard week overall and some stress. So far this week is going better.

Wheels of Life

... and they didn't tell me!!

On Friday, I was trying to log on to the network at work.. and couldn't. Oddly enough, I could do so at noon but not at 2 pm. The IT person was telling me that I had been typing in my password wrong and so it locked me out... or that I had "forgotten" my password. I don't think so.. a person doesn't forget something like that .. well not me. Well, the reason was explained this morning when I came to work. There was a note on my desk.. FYI from the departmental secretary. Email sent from IT telling me that they changed my user name to my married name so I may have some problems accessing email if I didn't know... NO!! I didn't know. HOW am I supposed to know my user name is changed when they send it to the "new" one? and don't tell me? The thing is that I was told I have to have my marriage certificate to change all this stuff so they had sent back my form requesting this and then do it ANYways... argh!!
So that ... was cool. My new name is official. Then I went to send an email. Someone asked for a file.. so I go to attach it and ... no files!! They transferred my email and FORGOT about my files that were on a separate drive. So interestingly enough, someone from IT showed up about 30 minutes after I report the problem and fixed it within an hour of my request. I guess the "oops, I did something" reports aren't too much of a priority but the "um, where's my files? that YOU lost" speaks louder on the priority list. Wierd how life works eh?

Hearing Things that People Didn't Say

Okay, so I sometimes hear people say things that they didn't. I don't mean body language or reading between the lines.. I mean that I hear them say this ... when they really said that! For those you who don't know, I have a hearing problem. I do not hear high pitches; last eight notes of the piano, nails on a chalkboard, birds, cell phones, pagers, certain female voices drive me crazy .. Mariah Carey, for example. So I heard my colleague say something that she did not.

I heard her say... "So I hear "Jane" (co-worker whose name is changed) has a new interest. His name is Alan." really. I said. Oh yeah. Oh yes, she went on. "For at least 6- 8 months." Really? I go. Is this person staff? My colleague gives me this wierd look and says "Who's Alan?" She goes.
"Her name is Anne." Oh really ... I say. For 6 months you say, hmm. That's interesting. (To myself, I'm thinking. she's dating a WOMAN?! Oh my, that's different. Oh well, everyone has a right to their own preferences." ) "Who's Alan?" She repeats. I looked at her and realize I have no idea what has been saying for the whole conversation. I'm sorry," I said. "Could you start over?" My colleague then said " She has a new intern. Her name is Jan". I was so embarassed. Then I told her what I thought she had said. We had a good laugh.

CBC News In Depth: School Shootings

CBC News In Depth: School Shootings The world is going crazy it seems. A few days ago, all the news would talk about was the trauma of 9/11 (01) and now we are hit with another trauma in the Canadian news. How do you make sense of these people that do massive.. well massacres? Columbine comes to mind... Montreal massacre, the shooting of the women... Crazy world we live in. Makes my job necessary.

We're pastoral care... we don't do those kind of things.

Yesterday, my colleagues and I were having lunch and one of them said "We're pastoral care. We don't do those things". I forget the context but I remember one of them laughed and said that should be our new motto. What those things might be we aren't sure, but we liked the irony, because we seem to do so much.

Later that day, I had 2 of my staff ask me 20 minutes apart, if I had lived with my husband before we got married. I replied, "in the words of one of my colleagues, 'we're pastoral care. We don't do those things." Good for a laugh, so every once in a while you may hear us say.. "we don't those things! We're pastoral care!"

Hope for a better life

Today, I was sitting by the elevator waiting to go for lunch, when one of my former patients got off the elevator and told me that she was getting a transplant. They told her while she was on dialysis and so she wasn't prepared. Just showed up at the hospital with what she had and checked in. At first I wasn't sure what she said. I thought she was just there for short stay. That is common, I didn't think that she would be there for a transplant. I haven't seen her for a few months as she has dialysis at a different location now. So I walked her up the hall and we were escorted to a room right then. So when I left a few hours later, she was about to go to surgery for her transplant. I wonder what people go through with that. I mean, they spend months or years waiting for a transplant and when it happens.. are they really prepared?
So we talked about what she would go through. Was she nervous? Had a prayer and then I left. Her surgery was to take about 4-6 hours. So that'swhere she is now and I will see her in the morning. Usually, I don't know the people before the transplant. I meet them when they are admitted to the hospital for treatment or when they come as outpatients for dialysis. So this was a bit different for me even. Despite the transplant, there is not always a guarentee that the kidney will be okay, not be rejected.
There are two ways that kidney transplants occur; through living donors, or cadaveric. Because we can't plan on the cadaveric showing up when you need it, most transplants are through living donors -- family members or friends. There can be issues with both. We hope that the transplant takes, but when it doesn't I can imagine the guilt that some people feel. Having a person give up a kidney that was working for them. and now it doesn't work for any one. I can't imagine how hard it would be to face the other person.

Gifts in our lives...

I have a somewhat motley collection of friends. I met most of them at church, which is also where I met my husband (I'm still amazed at that!), and we have done many outings together. Formal outings organized as part of the church group that I am in, and informal ones too, such as hanging out at PNE or playing blitz. (The girls and I haven't done this for a while. I will have to organize a get-together or at least brunch to visit since the move ...)
I first came to Vancouver in November 2002 and joined in activities at my church pretty much right away. That is just how I am. I was a member of an organizer/leadership team for the social group that we have for our age group, but dropped out earlier this summer. With the wedding, becoming the secretary for the executive board of CAPPE BC, and starting my next level of certification, I decided that this year I really would scale down my extra activities. I have said that I would but this time I dropped from the leadership team. Partially because I was frustrated by the politics of the team as well. As you may know from social theory on groups, that the more people and characters you add to a group, the harder it may be to communicate effectively.

character roles : joker, rule-keeper, sloppy, defiant, worrier, peacemaker, self-pityer, apathetic, clever, devious, hypocritical, sports player, uncertain, outgoing, impatient, generous

When you have too many of the different characters, it can get messy.

The thing is that my husband is still in the leadership group and it is hard not to jump in with my traditional organizational skills and my desire to be invovled. The question is .. what is the point of a group? or activity? Some people are good at planning for the long-term (I am not one of these people) a go with the flow type person. This can be like at work. In the hospital, we spend our time focused on the one goal: helping our patients to be healthy, have good quality of life and all that. We do this from our perspectives/or bubbles. Hence, everyone has a different idea of what the end result should look like.

Physio, dieticians, nurses, medical teams, pharmacists, and spiritual care all have their own way of looking at the situation and even though we use the same terminology about care, we may have very different meanings about how the "work" should be done. This is the frustration as there are many voices to listen to and depending on who yells the loudest, that is what the team will follow and some people are left feeling that they are shut out or given very little opportunity to demonstrate what they can offer to the patient.

Let me get back to what I was saying about my friends. I met most of them at church. Some I am closer to than others, some come and go, but in the end, they have given me a wonderful gift. I am "Kathryn" to them, not "Reverend", not "Chaplain", but just Kathryn. I am allowed to be myself when I am there... I am thought of or introduced as "This is Kathryn. Oh yeah, she works at the hospital as a chaplain." The fact that I am ordained as clergy, to which they all witnessed in October past is not really a big deal to them. I was not ordained when they met me, and I am not their chaplain. Not expected to have an official role with them. This is something that came about because of who they are, but also because I worked at it. I was training at a different school and when certain people in the area found out "where I was from", I was classiifed as "one of those". I did not want that here in this new city/province. And it has worked out well. While my church has ordained me, they set me "aside" to the work of chaplaincy. I am not required to "do work" in the church for them, but I will offer what I can. They free me to attend and give as I am able and to be fed by the Spirit, and fed socially. There are those in my church who give me special treatment because of my role, but not as many as if I had been living where I grew up. This is very freeing. It is a part of the psalmist statement "Be still and know that I am God" A lesson that I have struggled to learn. To be instead of to do. It is very hard in this society at times, due to expectations, but also due to personal expectations as well. A gift that many are not able to embrace.

Enlightened Religion?

Bruised ego

Yesterday as I was on my home, and fell on the subway escalator near the bottom. I was so embarassed. I was wearing strappy shoes and one came off my foot, and the other was partially off. I fell flat on my butt and had scrapes and bruises up my right leg and right arm. People asked if I was okay, I said yes, I'm jsut wearing the wrong shoes for this. Just silly shoes.