You know things have gone terribly wrong with Canadian healthcare when people start taking matters into their own hands.
And I mean that quite literally.
Last week in Paraguay, I was chatting with a client of mine when he pulled out his phone and showed me a photo.
He asked me to guess what I was looking at.
My first guess was an image from a gastroscopy. My second was a colonoscopy.
It was an ear.
Specifically, his wife's ear.
You see, his wife had somehow managed to get a tiny pebble lodged deep inside her ear, and she couldn't get it out.
Understandably, she went to see her doctor, who attempted to flush it out.
No dice.
The pebble stayed lodged in her ear canal.
Next move?
A visit to an ear, nose and throat specialist to put this issue to bed and get this dang pebble out.
Oh, wait… you thought that just because you've paid outrageously high taxes your whole life and live in a “first-world” country with a “top-notch” medical system, you could expect timely care?
Oh, silly, you must be confused!
“We can get you an appointment in four or five months.”
That's what they were told.
Look, I wear a lot of hats, but doctor isn't one of them.
Despite my lack of expertise in the medical field, I don't think it's a stretch to say that having a foreign object lodged inside your ear canal is something that shouldn't be left unattended for nearly half a year.