Today I headed to Toronto to meet up with my Orthodontist for what I thought was to put brackets back on for braces. My appointments have always been at The Hospital For Sick Children as I have been going there since I was a baby. There was a gap in time where I fell through the cracks, my mom didn’t pursue treatment and they didn’t contact me until I was older. I had braces put on back on December 19th, 2004 they were to be on for 24 months at which point I was to have a procedure to rebuild my jaw.

Pic of CN Tower on my way out of Toronto

After over 2 years the surgeon who was to do the procedure had his own medical issues and instead of having surgery the braces stayed on, and year, after year, after year passed. I kept bugging my orthodontist and even at one point writing a not so nice letter to the surgeon that I was very much NOT impressed at being ignored. HE never reached out to me never provided any explanation. The last time I met with him was before the braces went on and he was saying what would need to be done, how it would be done and the timeline. He also left me with the impression that my case was a difficult one since 2 previous attempts to fix my jaw had failed due to massive infections once when I was 7 and another when I was 16. The impression I get 11 years later (yep ELEVEN) is that it was just not worth his time, I’m also frustrated at my orthodontist for not looking at other options or surgeons who could do the work.

I’m very much used to getting appointments and procedures at the snap of my fingers, I’m also very much aware that this is not the case for most people. I know that there are many Canadians that have to wait long times for specialists however I have been extremely lucky that this has not been the case. Need a neurologist? Sure we have an appointment for tomorrow. Need an MRI sure how is next week? Need a colonoscopy and specialist sure how is 2 weeks from today (actually think my wait was even less than that)? Compared with my sister, friends, family, co-workers I have been extremely lucky and I know it however when it comes to the ONE procedure I was counting on, the one that really matters it seems that it will never happen.

It’s frustrating to say the least, I’m not blaming the Canadian health care system, heck I will defend it to my last breath. I’m blaming my inability to advocate for myself and making my position more clear to those it needed to be clear to. As of today i have been officially kicked out of Sick Kids as a patient. I understand it, I’m 33 for heavens sake I should have been kicked out a long time ago and I’m very thankful for the 33 years that I have been treated at Sick Kids, I LOVE that place, the staff are amazing and the care is above anything I have seen elsewhere so it saddens me that from now on I’m stuck with adult hospitals.

I don’t know what the next steps will be, I spent over 2 hours today getting the dental cement taken off my teeth that has been there for over 10 years but I know I can’t leave it alone. My only jaw joint is failing and over the last week it hasn’t gotten any better it’s worse with the 2 visits to the dentist and now 2 hours in the Orthodontist’s chair but I don’t know where to start. I have one tooth that will be extracted on the 23rd of January and I will keep in touch with my Orthodontist but to be honest I feel lost. Without Sick Kids supporting me I will have to navigate the health care system truly alone as an adult and that scares me.

Now on to the good! Because that’s how I get by I balance the tough stuff with the fluffy good stuff.

After my appointment got to spend a brief amount of time with my friend Akemi, no selfies this time but check us out the last time we were together last month!

Me & Akemi

Akemi in front of Eaton’s Center giant Christmas tree

Her boyfriend is hard at work getting a new Sci-Fi series off the ground! You should check out his blog and you can follow the shows progress on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook here are the links.

Dark Matter

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/darkmatterseries

Twitter: @dark_matterTV

Instagram: DARK_MATTERTV

You can follow Joe’s blog using this link: https://josephmallozzi.wordpress.com/ Today he hit a milestone by posting his 3000th entry! CONGRATS! I have a LONG way to go before I hit that but I aspire to get there…somehow.

Today after a frustrating day it was nice to come home to a bit ol’ box (heavy I might add) of book! Mostly Sci-Fi but got a word game book and 2 knitting books. All told 14 novels to add to my book shelves, which remind me I need to go buy more shelves as I currently have no room on the one I have now.. Good problem to have.

How was your day?