The Edmonton Journal picked up the Camrose obstetrician story (link will rot quickly). In brief, there are too few doctors in Camrose (pop 15,000, 1 hr from Edmonton) who are willing to continue delivering babies. The last two plan to quit at the end of this year. That means anyone in Camrose who wants to deliver their baby under medical supervision will have to come to Edmonton.
That's unpleasant, but certainly within the rights of those doctors. What's more unpleasant and possibly illegal is that the local hospital has taken extraordinary steps to try to woo the doctors back into the delivery practice. In particular, the hospital has adopted a new policy of "doctor's orders only" during hospital labor, a response to "extreme birth plans". This may violate the rights of patients; certainly I don't see how you can reconcile doctor's orders with informed consent and visitation rights that are generally accorded to patients.
But that wasn't what I wanted to talk about at all. I went to the doctor today, finally making a follow-up appointment after last October's ultrasound. My left kidney contains a 5-mm stone. This is no surprise, since I've passed two, possibly three fragments in my life; what's colloquially known as "having a kidney stone" usually means passing a fragment of a stone out through the ureter. The rest of the stone remains in the kidney until another fragment breaks off. Needless to say, the process of passing the stone (technically called "the attack") is extremely painful.
How painful? This painful. It compares with labor pain. About 50% of women who have had both a kidney stone and a baby say the kidney stone was more painful. Here's one.
Anyway, I was waiting to see the doctor and in came a nurse with a little paper cup full of pepto-bismol looking stuff. She said: "This will make your tummy feel better. We call it 'The Pink Lady'." It was obviously someone else's medication she was bringing me, and I was so shocked I couldn't talk straight. I think I said: "I beg your pardon! I haven't seen the doctor yet! Patient MIKES!" She checked the chart and backed out of the room. Two minutes later I heard her giving the same spiel in the next room, I hope to the correct patient.
The doctor eventually came and we talked about the stone. He said he wants to refer me to a urologist for shockwave lithotripsy (ESWL), and I'll go talk to the guy, but I'm skeptical. I haven't had an attack since 2000, and the major risk I see in lithotripsy is incomplete fragmentation of the stone. I do not want to spend the three weeks following the procedure doped to the gills and passing 0.5mm fragments -- I don't want to undertake the procedure at all unless it's very likely that passing the fragments will be painless.
Besides, here's a classic example of waste in the health care system. Why do an ESWL at all, when I have shown myself capable of managing the problem through diet and fluid intake, and we can treat the occasional attack with painkillers? Is it just because we have a fancy ESWL machine? Stones are very common on my mother's side of the family (both her brothers, two of my male cousins, my mother herself, though she's asymptomatic), and nobody's ever had a problem with kidney function. That's the problem with stones: they don't impair kidney function at all, they're just excruciatingly painful.
On the other hand, they are excruciatingly painful. So I'll go see the urologist and maybe I'll be convinced to do the ESWL. After all, they've bought the machine, and I'm sure it sits unused most days. May as well reap some of the benefit of Alberta's health-care investment.
I was filling up the car today at the 7-11 on Calgary Trail & 76th Ave. when a car full of middle-aged guys pulled up and they all piled out. They stood around collecting money for a while, then they sent someone in and put a couple bucks' worth of gas into their car. I had my nozzle locked open and was cleaning the windows when I smelled something funny.
Is somebody smoking?
Yes. One of the guys had climbed back into the car and was working on the end of his smoke, while the other guys were all inside paying. At least they had finished filling up their car and mine had stopped filling... but really.
I guess he had been working on it before they hit the gas station, and didn't want to stub it out half-finished. So he just saved it. I'm guessing he left it glowing in the back seat ashtray while they filled their car and I filled mine. What explosion risk?