Are intensive care triage protocols harming the disabled?
Are ICU triage protocols harming the disabled during the COVID-19 pandemic? This is a very important issue, one I’ve posted about before, as well as appeared on the TVO #onpoli podcast. And now, I’m taking it one step further through collaboration with the amazing Laurie Proulx and Emily Sirotich on an opinion piece for the BMJ. …
COVID-19 and RA: What to Pack in Your Hospital Go-Bag
Living in the middle of a pandemic while being high risk is the most scared many of us have ever been. When you have rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and are taking an immunosuppressant medication, there is a double whammy of risk. We have to consider what might happen if we need to go to the hospital…
Denied: Disability and Life-Saving Treatment in the COVID-19 Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic is a scary time for all. When you have a disability, it’s downright terrifying to know that your life is a risk, not just from the virus, but also from the very real potential of being excluded from lifesaving measures. The devaluation of our lives that used to be covered with a…
One Year Later
I’m so glad to be here. I wanted to write something for today. One year ago, on March 30, 2016, things went south after I was extubated, I flatlined, but through some highly skilled intervention, I survived. That is one hell of a miraculous gift. Although I am normally full of words about the experience,…
In Which a Zombie Is Conceived
Some people call it their re-birthday. This is more fun. A year ago today the seeds of my becoming a zombie were sown. Well, truth be told they were probably sown a few days to a week before that. If we are going to stay in this metaphor, a year ago today was the moment…
In which I Get Croup and Learn a Lesson
My vocal cords swelled so much I had to have a an emergency tracheostomy. And it has been haunting me since. By last Thursday, things had deteriorated from severe voice strain. I was reduced to only being able to whisper, the breathing was worse and so was the cough. Back to my doctor I went…
2016: One Hell of a Year
Well, that;s been quite something, hasn’t it? 2016 was a year that had opinions about what should happen, made it so, and many of us didn’t like it. For one, it was, in the words of the Toronto Star, “the year the music died.” David Bowie left us in early January and I’m still not…
Medical PTSD and Long-Term Effects of Ventilator and Tracheostomy
Updated April, 2020 Rheumatologist: “how are you feeling? ICU PTSD can happen after such an experience.” Me: “I’m fine.” This conversation occurred two weeks after I’d been discharged from the hospital after my medical adventure. And the very next day, my GP brandished a pneumonia vaccine and I burst into tears, terrified that it would…
A Chronic Christmas Carol: Healing You, Healing Me
Chronic Christmas: Surviving the Holidays with a Chronic Illness is now available in paperback on all the Amazons. Did you know I have a new book out? Could be hard to miss, what with me barely mentioning it. Okay, so I haven’t shut up about it, but it’s still theoretically possible that you might have…
High Anxiety and Jumping in the Deep End
“Relax,” he said. “Hi!” I replied. “Have you met me? I am not a relaxed person.” I have lived with anxiety since I was a child. My first memory of being really anxious was the first day of Grade 1. I remember the red dress I was wearing. I remember being one of only two…
Exercising My Lungs
After that medical adventure earlier this year, my lungs are quite miraculously unscathed. When I saw my doctor a couple of days after being discharged from the hospital, she listened to my chest and exclaimed in wonder that my lungs sounded completely clear. About a month later, I had a chest x-ray and in the…
What It Is Like To Wean Off a Tracheostomy
Updated December 6, 2020 Trigger warning: medical trauma. A quick recap: In March 2016, I got a bad flu, which developed into pneumonia. I ended up in the ICU in an induced coma and on a ventilator. Due to a bit of a mishap (understatement of the year) when being extubated, I had an emergency…