Lesson for today: Be assertive

On Tuesday night on CBC's The National, their medical panel had a discussion entitled Health care in the online world. They talked about  doctors using email, twitter, medical apps on phones and digital  medical records. May I humbly suggest that it is all well and good to use these new tools as long as we keep in mind that it is us lowly humans who must make it all work.

Recently I changed doctors. I am very pleased that my new doctor is a lovely woman whose office is within walking distance of my home. When I left after my "meet and greet" appointment on March 5 th, I signed a form consenting to the transfer of my records from my previous doctor. That doctor's office contacted me a few days later, when they received the request. They would transfer the records after I paid them $25.00.  I gave them my MasterCard number and thought that was the end of the story. (Silly me!) Knowing that such transactions frequently take time to process, I waited and made an appointment for April 28th, to get my new doctor's opinion on my ongoing knee problem.

When I walked in, I expected my new doctor would be able to access my previous records, including the MRI that was done on my knee. No such luck!  The answers to all my doctor's questions -  dates and results of my tests -  were in my hard copies which I had left at home because I had trusted that the transfer had been done. My new doc said she would have her staff double check the next morning and I was asked to call my old doc to see if they had actually sent them.

So the following morning I called the new doctor's secretary. No, they were sure they had never received them. I called the old doctor's office. Now these are the people who charged $25.00 to my MC on March 12th.  I politely enquired whether or not my records had been sent out. They sent the records out on March 13th! The secretary at the old office said she would call the new office. The records had been sent out on an encrypted disc and the password had been sent in a separate email.

After another couple of calls, the secretary at the new office confirmed that yes, they did receive the records a while back, but it was an unusual format and she had never figured it out. Now, however, she had the records and would make sure that my new doctor saw my file.

So, my lesson: Do not rely on technology. It is only as good as the people that use it. Do not assume that an electronic message or task has been done. I should have called to ensure that my records had been received.

Now my daughter Norah, who is way smarter than me, already knows this. Recently, on a Monday, a doctor told her that she would request a test at a hospital. There would be a long waiting period for the test. The next day Norah called the hospital to see if they had received the requisition from her doctor's office. No they hadn't. She called again on Wed and received the same answer. So she called her doc and was told it had been sent. On Thursday the hospital told her to get the doc to re-send the requisition. On Friday she called the hospital and was told that they had finally received the req. but they could not act on it because the doctor's office had failed to attach the clinic notes. So on Friday afternoon Norah called the doctor's office and asked then to attach the clinic notes to the requisition.

If she had not started her enquiry, she could have been waiting politely for a call from the hospital for months, knowing that it was a long waiting list. She never would have received that call and months would have been lost.

Fortunately neither of these cases are life and death. What if they were more serious, time-sensitive issues?  As patients, we have to be proactive and assertive. We may go to all kinds of super intelligent specialists and have access to all kinds of technology but we are the only ones who know our entire medical history. It's imperative to keep track of our health episodes and to follow up on doctor's orders so that we can advocate for ourselves. Sitting back politely is not a useful strategy.

Holy Week Walk

After a long winter, there is something special about those first walks outside  on warm sunny days. My first spring walk happened last Friday.

The sun was shining and the temperature climbed to a balmy fifteen degrees as we joined about sixty others for a walk in downtown Ottawa. That first warm day marked not only a welcome sign of spring but a significant day in the Christian calendar - Good Friday.   

This walk was organized by Kairos Spirituality-for-Social Justice Centre, a ministry sponsored by The Grey Sisters. It was a few of those sisters who organized and lead the walk. If this is conjuring up images of nuns in habits leading a group of people in costumes, with perhaps a big cross, think again. This was just a casually dressed group of people going for a walk together on a lovely sunny day. The only prop was a microphone and speaker, rolled along so that we could hear the reflection at each stop along the way.

Crossing the Laurier Avenue bridge, towards the National Defence Building

Anne Taylor, one of my former high school teachers, gave the welcome and introduction to the event. The former high school building where I first met Anne, is still owned by The Grey Sisters. They transformed it into the Bronson Centre, which houses many charitable agencies. It's just one example of the leadership and care for  marginalized people, that these wise women are providing, here in Ottawa.

Sr. Anne Taylor walks with a young participant

This walk, in its fifteenth year, was called a Social Justice Way of the Cross. We walked from our downtown parish of St. Joseph's to Confederation Park and made several stops along the way. At each stop a thoughtful reflection was read. It was similar to other Good Friday walks, in that the last days of Christ’s life formed the basis for the prayers and reflections.

However, the stations of the cross served as a point from which we were connected to present day situations. At a totem pole in Confederation Park, the stop was Jesus Falls: Violence against aboriginal women and girls. Some of the other stops were:

Jesus carries his cross: Carrying one another’s cross: Palliative care

Veronica wipes the face of Jesus: Empowering and including women and

Jesus comforts the women: Defend mother earth

In Confederation Park, walking towards City Hall

It was a very meaningful gathering. One phrase that stuck with me is "active hope". After each reflection was read we sang a simple refrain, “What have you done? What are you doing? What will you do, now you know?”

It reminded me of a picture I recently came across on Facebook, from Guideposts. It is of former President Jimmy Carter, a man who has been such a giver, in his post presidential years. Here he is, dressed in work clothes, probably at a Habitat for Humanity build.

 

With the national and international news getting more depressing by the day, it's not easy to stay positive or hopeful. Thank goodness for the people of active hope, who  are doing such good work and encouraging us to do the same.

EQAO - a postcript

Well, I never really intended to follow up on my comment about scrapping EQAO (Ontario's Education Quality and Accountability Office) but this little video just fell into my lap. I saw it on Facebook, the day after my last post. The video shows a very young student addressing her Florida school board. Her remarks are very similar to what many of us think of Ontario's EQAO, which commenced in 1996. It is a waste of precious time, energy and money and causes untold stress for everyone involved. If only the EQAO money ($33 million annually) could be poured into special education, where it would actually result in much better results province wide. Here's an argument against standardized testing.

Learning Disabilities

Well, it's always fun to be on the radio. Last week, on March 23rd, while staying in baby land, I took a break from making baby food and changing diapers to make a call to CBC radio's Ontario Today show. The discussion that day was entitled, Why are schools not following plans for learning disabilities?

It's too bad they started with that negative slant but it certainly generated an interesting discussion. As a mother, grandmother and retired special education teacher, this is a subject that I care passionately about. I wish I could say that in 2015 we have made great strides and that students with learning disabilities are getting the best service ever. Sadly, as the radio discussion confirmed, that is not the case.

Today's great gadgets: the smart boards, laptops, chrome books and cell phones, all provide wonderful advantages to LD students. However, technology alone does not solve every problem. There is still a great need for individual attention and instruction which is simply not possible in today's classrooms, in spite of many teachers' heroic efforts. I won't go on and on about this here. If you're interested, you can listen to the program.

My main point is that students who are experiencing difficulty need to be given a complete assessment early - by grade one. People with a learning disability are of average or in many cases, above average intelligence. A few famous folks with LD are: Jamie Oliver, Whoopi Goldberg, Albert Einstein, Daniel Radcliffe, Steven Spielberg, Keira Knightley and Richard Branson. Many people are identified as both gifted and LD. If they do not get the help they need at an early age, their self esteem often suffers, as they see their classmates achieve milestones that they find impossible. LD students require intensive assistance in the primary grades. If they can master the basics by the time they hit the junior division (grade four) then they will fit in much better with their peers and feel so much better about themselves.

Elementary school years zoom by very fast. I was recently in a grade five classroom and there was a student there who could hardly read or write. When I spoke to his teacher about him, she told me that the spec. ed. teacher was currently in discussions with the parent, trying to persuade her that her child required testing. That mother was still in the denial stage - "There's nothing wrong with my kid."

What's really sad is when you have the big discussion with parents of grade eight students. They have to fill in their option sheets for high school and that's when some of them finally realize that their child may not be capable of following the academic stream. So much heartache could be avoided if we poured pots of money into testing, early intervention and intensive assistance for our primary grade students. In Ontario, where would we get these pots of money? Scrap the EQAO testing! But that's another discussion.

Here Comes the Sun

The 20th of March - the first day of spring! Can it really be true? I am writing this from Toronto where it really is a lovely, warm, sunny day. Everyone we know in Ottawa has been complaining about our long, cold winter. While it's true that February was especially cold, we certainly have not had the severe storms that have plagued Halifax, where our son Brendan currently resides.

While summer still seems like a long way off, many Ontario residents have been planning their summer holidays. Earlier this month we managed to snag a spot at our favourite provincial campground. I'm not even going to say the name because competition for spots is already way too crazy. You can reserve a spot at an Ontario park five months in advance, so today you can reserve any spot that is available on August 20th.

The strategy for making a reservation is complicated. Well, maybe not complicated, but it requires perseverance. First, you scout through your campground website to see what will come available on the day you want to book and then, on that day, get up before 7 am to prepare. For a solid week, in late February/early March, Pat and I were up well before 7 to attempt to make our booking. I logged onto my Ontario parks account, and went as far as I could go on the campsite reservation form. Everything was typed in and my finger hovered over the last button - "reserve", until the second hand hit the top of the clock at precisely 7. Beside me, Pat dialed the reservation number on the phone, leaving the last digit until the same moment.

Most days my screen went blank or I was completely kicked out of the parks site, as soon as I hit the reserve button. Some days my screen froze and then, when it re-awakened, all the spots that had welcoming green triangles beside them at 6:58, now sported angry red triangles. The best spots are always gone by about 7:05. Somehow Pat got through on the phone two days in a row. The first day the operator slowly went through all the preamble; "Now which campground do you want? How many people in your party? How many tents will you have?" By the time she got around to asking which sites we wanted, they were all gone.The next time we got through, we were rather rude and immediately told her which campground and which site we were after and asked her to do the other details later. It worked! It is not a perfect spot. There is no shade or privacy. However it is close to a magnificent beach and close to flush toilets so we figure we're lucky.

It was a strange feeling, sitting up in bed, in the darkness of an early March morning, with the phone and latop all fired up, ready for action, knowing that at that precise moment, hundreds of other snowbound folks were in the same position, sitting in their beds, preparing to compete with us for these same spots. We are desperate people, longing for summer, for warmth and long sunny days.

Today's sun and temperatures are a hopeful sign. Spring and summer are on the way! It's a day for one of my favourite Beatles songs, Here Comes the Sun. Enjoy!

New Sex Ed Curriculum for Ontario Schools

Hard to believe almost a month has gone by since I last posted. What a month - a record breaker here - the coldest February in many years! You would think that with being stuck inside I would have written up a storm but no. It took the topic of sex ed to get me writing again. My letter to the editor appeared in today's Ottawa Citizen.

"There are all kinds of interesting discussions going on this week, about the new sex ed curriculum being introduced by the Ontario government. From the little that I have heard, I think that the new curriculum will be of much benefit to students and their families. A few of the callers I heard on radio today were upset that their kids would be exposed to facts too early but the sad fact is that children and adults, all of us, are surrounded by sexual images and expressions every day.While many parents are no doubt doing a terrific job of educating their children on sexual matters, I think I speak for many parents when I say that parents can use some help from schools to keep up with the changing times. If parents are able to follow along with accompanying textbooks, this could lead to very worthwhile dialogue and reinforcement of lessons at home. 

For those who believe their kids are too young, I offer a few t shirt slogans. Recently, while visiting at a local school, I saw a four year old wearing  a shirt that read, "Lock up your daughters" . A very young looking grade 7 student was wearing a shirt that simply read, "Stud". I do not think that either student understood the meaning of the slogan that they were displaying for all the school to see. I think it's a shame that their parents thought those slogans were appropriate for their children. Yes, sexual expressions and ideas are all around us. Better for kids to receive accurate information from a well researched, province-wide curriculum, rather than pick up their attitudes from T shirts, TV and the internet."

Harperland…without John Baird

Whoa!!! Now, that was a surprise! John Baird's resignation from politics has rocked, not only Ottawa but the whole country, as we head into an election year.

For Harper's opponents  this can only be seen as good news. A major Conservative player is gone. Years ago, I could name many of the federal cabinet ministers. Back then, Prime Ministers let their cabinet colleagues  speak for their departments. Cabinet ministers were well known characters. However, under Harper, most of the cabinet has remained tightly controlled. There have only been a few who have been granted permission to speak and Baird was one of them.

I have always found John Baird extremely unlikeable. His rude style was nothing like most parliamentarians  He has often been referred to as an attack dog, a pit bull. Who would want that reputation? On most news sites there are only the bare bones of his resignation speech in the House of Commons. However, here is how he started off: " I am overwhelmingly optimistic about the future of this country.  I am optimistic because over the past nine years I have seen the stature of this country grow in the eyes of the world…In short, the world has seen the best that Canada has to offer."

Excuse me? Many Canadians would beg to disagree.  The world has not seen the best of Canada. Canada had a much better reputation in many areas (the environment for one) before Harper and Baird took control. Many people I talk to are extremely saddened by the backward steps Canada has taken under Harper. Baird went to say,"When I joined my good friend Mike Harris" Yikes! Who even mentions that name anymore? He may be the most reviled name in Ontario politics. 

Baird's goodbye gift? Well, in ten years time he'll start receiving a tidy little souvenir of his time in Parliament. As the CBC site points out, "By not running in 2015, Baird also qualifies for his pension, under an old rule, at age 55. Parliament increased the qualifying age to 65 years old but that policy only covers those who are elected or re-elected in 2015."