(Warning: This post is not necessarily related to snowboarding, and in fact may be slightly political in nature. I apologize in advance.)

As I have mentioned several times in the past couple of weeks, I recently screwed up my knee. I did it playing basketball. The summary of the problem: every time I moved to the left quickly on my left foot, my knee would buckle and I would fall over. This happened several times before I went to Whistler. Each time it hurt, but I was able to get up and carry on with whatever I was doing. To make a long story short,  I saw my doctor. He told me to chill, relax, build up the knee and avoid strenuous activity for a couple of weeks. I complied, but went right back to sports after the minimum time had passed (two weeks). Of course, the first thing I did upon returning was re-injure the knee. But this time it swelled up and I couldn't walk.


Of course, I opted to see if it would clear up. It didn't. I iced the goddamn thing all the time and it was still swollen like a watermelon when I went back to the hospital Wednesday. And I knew what that meant: draining.

I'll spare you the gory details, but suffice it to say the needle they drained my knee with was goddamn huge, and was filled entirely with blood. Even the orhopedic surgeon was surprised. At that point, he was 100% sure I had torn my ACL, and that I would need an arthroscopy. But once he drained the knee he was able to examine it, and was surprised at what good shape it was in.

So that's good news: it's likely not related to my ACL.

But now things get interesting: no-one can tell me what's wrong, exactly. And why is that? Because I need an MRI.

Well, that's not a problem, you think. Get an MRI. Here's the problem: the waiting times for an MRI are insane. At North York General (the hospital where I have been going) the waiting time is 55 days.

55 days? I have to wait 55 days to find out what's wrong? So then someone can figure out whether I need physio, arthroscopic knee surgery or otherwise?

I have to say, this is the first time I've really needed to rely on Ontario's health care system for something beyond a trip to the doctor in quite some time, and a 55 day wait is a joke. And really, I'm just a jackass that screwed up his knee playing recreational basketball. There are people waiting for treatment/procedures related to things much more serious: for cancer, bypass surgery and more.

And for better or worse, I still don't have an appointment. This is because it's taken two weeks for my file to get sent to the MRI clinic, reviewed, and then presumably put on some sort of schedule. I was told they'll call me back next Wednesday with an appointment. Maybe the appointment will be for next week. But given the wait times and the stories I've heard, I doubt it.


Finally, do you know what else pisses me off? That there's not a human around in the process to get pissed off at. The emergency staff at North York General, the administrative people at the hospital's fracture clinic, the x-ray technicians and the orthopedic surgeon who was juggling me and three other patients with a staff of himself and two nurses: they were amazing. Friendly, knowledgeable folks who seemed to genuinely enjoy their jobs despite the fact that the place was packed, they were extremely busy, and jerks in the waiting area were getting pissed off at them for having to wait longer than expected. Do you think it was their fault? They were busting their butts while some folks upstairs unveiled a new logo using money that could have been spent on, oh, I don't know.. more doctors? Nurses? A larger fracture clinic? Or maybe even put the money toward another MRI machine!

It all drives one to want and volunteer and help out in one way or another.

As I was getting my knee drained, I asked one of the nurses how he dealt with the constant chaos. "I don't know," he said. "But I don't think it's going to get better anytime soon."

It's been an eye-opening experience so far.