- Three Cheers for Tommy Douglas

Well, I haven't blogged since Sunday...did you think I'd been kidnapped by aliens? I wasn't. I had a Port-A-Cath installed in my chest Tuesday morning and it was a bit more painful than I'd bargained for.

As a result, I've been getting stoned on painkillers and gazing at psychedelic patterns on my bedroom ceiling as I mumble incoherently (okay, it hasn't been quite that bad - I'm just practicing being a Drama Queen).

A Port-A-Cath (or a port, or a PAC) is a small medical appliance they install beneath the skin. A catheter connects the port to a vein; the chemo can be injected through it and blood samples can be drawn multiple times, eliminating the need for needles in my arm over the next 15 months. I've always had itty bitty veins, and chemo makes veins harden, so I insisted on getting this to avoid being in pain for the next year and a bit. A very practical decision, wouldn't you say?

They gave me a local anesthetic, which was interesting. I could feel when the doctor started to cut - ewww. So after I screamed, writhing about in pain and nearly falling off of the Operating Room table - oh, sorry, I'm being dramatic again - after I politely indicated to the nice doctor that I could feel the scalpel, she increased the freezing.

Again I politely noted that I could still feel everything. A third dose was administered. And then a fourth.

"Um, just curious - why don't you do this under a general anesthetic?" I asked her. "Well, we don't have enough anesthesiologists." Aaccckkkkk!!!

Now, I am really pleased, for the most part, with the care I've been receiving throughout this cancer journey, but....this small piece of information was a bit of a jolt, I must say.

Anyways, the doctor finally froze the area enough that I couldn't feel anything serious, but it's sure been sore ever since the freezing wore off. I've been tired all day, and about an hour ago, I started feeling flu-like symptoms and am running a slight fever. Another half a degree increase and we call the doctor, according to the information sheet they sent home with me.

So this is what it looks like when it's installed - kinda like a stack of dimes or nickels implanted in the chest. (By the way, that's not me in this photo - I don't have a hairy chest and never have - I got the pic from Google images). When I get bloods taken or treatment administered, they just prick the skin and insert the needle directly into the line, which is a lot less painful than trying to insert a needle into my small little hardened veins.

So I get to carry this lumpy thingy around for the next year and a half, and I've heard that sometimes they leave it even longer, months after the chemo & treatment are completed, just in case they find more cancer and have to do more rounds of chemo. Lovely to think about, that, so let's not.

Have you heard enough? All righty, then, let's talk about something more cheerful. Just finished watching the movie Prairie Giant, a made-for-TV movie about the life of Tommy Douglas. Wow, what a great movie! Every Canadian should watch this film, and probably every North American, come to think of it.

Tommy Douglas (1904 – 1986) is the founder of Canadian Medicare. Tommy's daughter is Shirley Douglas, Shirley married Canadian actor Donald Sutherland, and their famous son is Kiefer Sutherland.

Prairie Giant is a wonderful chronicling of the political fight Tommy pursued to ensure all Canadians had access to free health care. He was a Baptist pastor, but had to resign when the denominational heads told him he could not be a pastor and a politician simultaneously. Click here to see the Amazon.ca link.

Contrast that with Michael Moore's movie, Sicko. Moore's documentary focuses on the greed of the HMOs - Health Maintenance Organizations - and the absolute misery they allow to happen to their members.

Through ruthless maneuvering, HMOs manage to squirm out of millions of dollars worth of medical responsibility, allowing people who are ill to suffer and to die. Perhaps they should be named Sickness Maintenance Organizations, since they seem fairly adept at allowing a level of sickness to be maintained with large numbers of Americans every year. Click here to see: Amazon.ca link.

Of course, Canada and the States have very strong ideas about each others' medical systems. Americans seem to hear horror stories about Canadians and their socialized medicine, while Canadians hear the sheer awfulness of their victimized neighbors-to-the-south and the despicable practices of these health insurance companies. Any Americans or Canadians care to comment below or clear up some of the myths surrounding either system?

I, for one, will forever go on the record as being grateful for socialized medicine. Even though there are many obvious flaws in our system, and even though doctors in Quebec in particular do not get anything close to a fair deal from our provincial government, I cannot tell you what an enormous relief it is to be receiving free health services at such a time as this.

“We are all in this world together, and the only test of our character that matters is how we look after the least fortunate among us. How we look after each other, not how we look after ourselves. That’s all that really matters, I think.”   - Tommy Douglas

It is bad enough to be faced with constant health concerns, without having to worry about bills, payment deadlines and the like.

And so, while Kiefer Sutherland is a famous actor and gets lots of notoriety, it's his grandfather tonight that I am celebrating, and tonight I am thanking God for His humble, persistent servant Tommy Douglas, who took pity on the plight of the sick and the dying and who, at great personal cost, pushed for Medicare until he saw victory in the political arena, and saw Medicare established on a federal level. From the bottom of my heart, thank you, Tommy!

Well, I must collapse into bed. Hope you are having a good week!