September 9th, 2018
I am a 75 year old man who has had a very serious back issue for 15 years and reached the point were I no longer could sleep or walk . I have had numerous 4 injections 2 public and 2 private and the last 2 had no effect . One Sunday this year my back was so severe my wife took me to emercncy and the gave me percecet but it was only after the trip to emergency the my wait for an MRI which I was told would be a 6 month wait was expedited. After reviewing my MRI my doctor determined that my back was so badly deteriorated that my back needed surgery but it had to be by a neurologist not an orthopaedic surgeon.
He referred me to a neurologist in Victoria as there isn’t any here. I contacted the said doctor's office and asked when I would have an appointment for the assessment I was informed that it would be a MINIMUM OF 18 months for the assessment and surgery would be sometime much later than that.
The local Ortho who reviewed my MRI told me that I should seek help from a private clinic. The MRI results were sent to a neurologist and that week I traveled to Vancouver on a Friday and the doctor that did the assessment informed me that my condition was very common and fixable, on discussion with my family we decided there was resources to have the procedure done. The operation was done with cooperation with my family doctor who done all my pre op. I was amazed when I woke up my back pain was gone and since the operation my quality of life has improved substantially.
Had it not been for the private system my quality of life would have been impacted for a minus of the next 3 years and when you're 75, three YEARS is a long time.
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