Boreal

A PET Adventure

"It was still about 12 degrees below zero, not counting the wind chill, when we arrived at the world renowned Ottawa Heart Institute where she was scheduled for a PET scan at 9:30 that morning.

We had come to the Heart Institute because the other, older PET scanner serving the greater Ottawa area and Eastern Ontario (about two million people) had broken down and the Heart Institute was helping out with the backlog of patients.

My wife’s scan was only postponed for three weeks because of the malfunctioning scanner at the Ottawa General Hospital. But, any delay can make a big difference if you are searching for cancer cells hiding in the bloodstream, looking for another place to call home.

After delivering her into the hands of a technologist, who told me the procedure would last about two hours, I went out looking for a newspaper. I had noticed a magazine and souvenir shop next to the entrance, so that is where I headed.

“Do you have the Ottawa Citizen?” I asked the elderly volunteer behind the counter.

“No,” she said, “but you can get it from a vending box outside.”

I still had my winter parka with me, therefore, going outside was not as much an imposition as it would have been for others milling around in the Institute’s lobby. Problem was, I did not have the exact change, and no change could be had.

I knew that a small magazine and souvenir shop at the entrance to the somewhat massive meandering Ottawa Civic Hospital complex sold newspapers.

I asked a volunteer at the Information Desk if there was a way to get to the Civic Hospital without having to step outside and risk the still icy sidewalks.

There was, and he showed me a door that led to the basement and, going from one well-stocked basement to another it seemed, I finally made it to the entrance of the Civic Hospital and found the shop that sold newspapers and bought that day’s edition of the Ottawa Citizen.

I made my way back to the waiting room at the Heart Institute and joined the thirthy or so of my fellow men (and women) waiting there for something to be performed on them or being performed on a loved one.

I was the only one with a newspaper. I shared it, or most of it, until someone who obviously had a long wait ahead of him, decided to try the Sudoku, thereby interrupting the circulation of the Comics and the Obituaries sections, which, considering where we were, probably held the most interest.

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PET scan came back, and no, the cancer had not spread.

Bernard Payeur

Canadian vs. American Health Care