Good News! My thyroid's perfect!
Bad news! It was supposed to be someone else's thyroid.
My potassium level is very low, and consequently I’ve been directed to see an endocrinologist. I saw him once, briefly, several months ago, then received the letter above telling me that a followup appointment had been booked in Halifax.
Note the bright pink sticker ordering me to have some very specific blood tests at least three weeks before the appointment. I take this stuff seriously, so last Tuesday I dropped into the Queens Regional Hospital and had three vials of blood drawn out of my left arm.
Still though, because a year of Nova Scotia health care has taught me to pay attention, I was left wondering why I was having a raft of tests of my thyroid. That gland has more or less nothing to do with potassium, which is more connected to my adrenal glands.
The answer came two days later by way of a phone call from Dr. Imran’s office person: These tests were for a different patient, and a different doctor, and had nothing to do with me.
An hour later I had had time to really ponder this mix up, and suddenly was left asking: how the hell did I wind up being tested for someone else’s condition; someone who was being treated by an entirely different doctor?
And the more that I thought about this, the more it truly terrifies me.
Does this happen a lot in Nova Scotia? Just how bad could it get? Am I now at risk of getting surgery intended for someone else? Or, when a specialist disappears for months at a time, is it possible that someone else is getting the treatment that I need? Or that my ailments are being listed as resolved because of the results of another person’s tests?
Once again we’re asking seriously if it’s safe for us to live in Nova Scotia if the health care system is this sloppy. More and more it feels as if the answer is no, we’re not, unless we’re willing to take the time to understand our medical conditions in enough detail to provide oversight for the doctors and nurses that we rely on.
Scary stuff….