It’s not that I thought I was about to die, but facing a cancer diagnosis provokes many thoughts about death and also about the really important things in life.
This new perspective on life is a blessing of my journey through cancer, one lesson of many that cancer provided. Allow me to tell you a bit about this journey and another important blessing.
At my regular dental check-up last April, my dental hygienist saw some white spots on the side of my tongue and invited the dentist to look at it.
“It’s probably nothing,” they said, “but let’s have it checked out.” As it happens, the dentist had viewed a photo of tongue cancer on Instagram earlier that morning. She rightfully sensed that this might not be nothing.
In June, just days before my 43rd birthday, I was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma on my tongue. As I was awaiting the results of my PET-CT scan to determine whether the cancer had spread, and as fear of the unknown consumed much of my thoughts, I came to another important realization and blessing: I am in good hands. By the end of summer, I would go through a 14-hour surgery to have the cancer removed and my tongue reconstructed.
Now, almost a year after the discovery, having gone through this journey, including a 10-day stay in hospital, I can say unequivocally that we are blessed with a truly outstanding public health-care system.
The quality of care, compassion and professionalism that patients receive day-in and day-out is simply remarkable. I received exceptional care. I can say that, without exception, I was treated by a large, diverse team of caring, compassionate and skillful professionals.
But I also saw a group of professionals that was propping up a strained system. I saw health-care workers picking up extra shifts and endless overtime to keep the ship afloat. I noticed — and this does not take away from the exceptional care I received — that there was no shortage of complex, competing demands on their time and attention. I noticed that understaffing took a toll that often appeared as added burden and fatigue on staff.
We are blessed to have an amazing health-care system, but I know that extended delays in access to care and an over-reliance on the sacrifices of health-care workers are critical issues that keep the system teetering on the brink of collapse. The day before I was discharged, I found some quiet time to talk to one of my nurses about her experience. I was dismayed, but sadly not surprised, that she confirmed my observations of the systemic issues facing health care. She told me about the high numbers of nursing colleagues who had left the profession or the province because they felt it just wasn’t worth it anymore due to the systemic issues and lack of support.
Sound familiar?
As a result of the pandemic, I think crisis-level issues in health care have accelerated, but teachers’ concerns are trucking rapidly down the same highway. We have the lowest funded education system in the country, and we have a workforce that is three-quarters the size of the national average.
I see two systems in crisis propped up by the exceptional efforts of workers. But this is not sustainable, and allowing these systems to teeter on the brink of collapse is completely irresponsible.
I believe that it is powerfully important to advocate for both systems. The advocacy of teachers in support of public health care and the advocacy of health-care workers in support of public education is profound. Doing so removes cynical perceptions of self-interest.
We have something really special in our public health-care system. We have something that deserves our attention and support. We, as citizens, need to make sure that we work diligently to support workers and to defend Medicare against those who will attack it.
I am blessed to have received the benefit of it. I am blessed to be able to see it. I am blessed for having received the call to action to protect it.
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There’s one more blessing. I am blessed to have received love, support and warm messages from many of you as I went through this. For that I am forever grateful. Thank you. It is good to be back.
I welcome your comments. Contact me at jonathan.teghtmeyer@ata.ab.ca.
ATA News Editor-in-Chief
