Medical Rant

I feel like I’ve been through the wringer with the medical runaround lately. First of all, I spent a good couple of weeks incapacitated with headaches and high blood pressure, filled with anxiety that another stroke was coming. I couldn’t drive, I lay in bed and at one point didn’t eat for 2 days. After seeing all my doctors, they decided that it was stress and fatigue. It had been the lead up to the stroke anniversary and I guess I had put a lot of pressure on myself about it.

Then the aha moment. I have a documented history of low tolerance to medication. Everything I take is started at a low dose and is increased only incrementally. I filled out a new prescription at my local pharmacy for my chronic pain medication. Turns out I was taking 300mg more than I should have been. My headaches coincided with taking this, which I didn’t discover until I had been on them for 3 weeks. By the time I did, my body had become used to it and the headaches were easing off.

It was a relief to realize I had not really regressed. The anxiety of having another stroke was diminished significantly after this episode as well. The doctors all assured me that the chance of having another one, specifically because of the type of stroke I had, was very slim. I have felt much better since. And am so back on track with my exercise and in general, with my life moving along.

The next highly irritating occurrence was with Blue Cross. I had extended travel insurance that should have covered at least part of my one-week stay in hospital in the Bahamas. The agents are now telling me I didn’t actually have extended insurance (3 months travel at a time) I only had the basic coverage (15 days). So the upshot is, I have already paid the hospital bill in the Bahamas, so it’s a done deal and I won’t get any money back. Bastards.

I moved back to Canada because of OHIP (that’s socialized medicine to my US friends). I have been happy for most of it, I know how the system works now, though I am still trying to work it to the best of my ability. If I was still in New York I can’t even fathom the total of what this would have cost.

So factoring in the overall potential cost of everything up to this point easily makes the the Bahamas hospital bill seem negligible, but it’s irritating nonetheless.