bless the brain surgeons

My mother came through 11-hour brain surgery yesterday to remove a benign, but very large tumour.  The operation was very successful, and I’m hopeful that her balance, which has been affected since the spring, will be restored before too long.  I saw her last night and she was awake and talking and not even groggy.  She was so chatty that the nurse hinted that talking to me was raising her blood pressure (they don’t really like visitors in the recovery room, anyhow). 

I’m happy to say that everyone I spoke with at the Jewish General Hospital was caring and professional (nurses, orderlies, surgeons).  My mother used to be an RNA, and she has both worked and been a patient in hospitals in three provinces, and she was stunned by how nice all the nurses are.  I think this is generational shift (or maybe something more?  maybe a larger change of approach within hospitals?) as I know a lot of very nice girls who have trained to be nurses over the last few years.  Maybe it is even silly to say there is any reason to be surprised by caring people in the health care system.  But it’s a nice thing, regardless. 

Say what you will about the Canadian health care system, but it is amazing that we live in a country where a family does not need to bankrupt itself or go into debt for critical procedures.  It is terrifying to think that if we lived somewhere else, my mother might not be able to get the operation she needed.

The operation was so long I finished both books I brought with me within the first four hours.  I did spot some evidence on the waiting room furniture of what somebody else had been reading, though: