As you may or may not know, my wife just went through a terrible bout with cancer, (non-Hodgkins Lymphoma) and although the disease will eventually be terminal we hope she still has some decent time left.
When the cancer went to what they call "aggressive" she was rushed to hospital and spent they next two months there.
She did manage to survive the ordeal (even though the chances were far less than 50/50) and is now back at home recuperating.
When I think of what the hospital costs would have been without the government health care I shudder, because the only way out of that mess would have been bankruptcy.
(I am self-employed so I don't have one of those fancy private health care plans like I would have needed in the States!)
Because all our hospital costs were taken care of by the Canadian and Ontario Governments, I don't have the financial worries I would have had otherwise incurred.
On top of this I just found out about some really interesting "after-care" services that are available.
First of all during the "Mrs. Herself's" first few weeks of recovery there was a Home-Care Nurse sent around every few days, and also a Personal Support Worker, to help her with things like taking a bath or doing stuff that she can't do herself.
On top of this there is apparently a whole tribe of volunteer support workers who can come to the house and do things like, (Listen to this!) give her Therapeutic Massage, Reikei, Reflexology and other things.
(I know all about Reikei since my sister is also heavy into this, although when my German Mother was describing it, with her accent I was under the impression that my Sister had suddenly taken an interest in Reggae!)
Now it's the "other things" that really caught my attention since they apparently have a volunteer "Harp Player" (Among other things) that will come over and play the Harp for an hour to "sooth the patient" and provide a bit of "tranquility and peace for the soul."
I started adding up all the volunteer services, (some more than once) that she could take advantage of and came up with this list!
(I kid you not! - * Sung to the tune of 12 Days of Christmas!)
*5-Relaxing Massages. *4-Aroma Therapies.
*3-Reikei sessions.
*2-Ha-rp Players........
* AND A PAR-TRIDGE IN A PEAR TREEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
God Bless Canada!
Allan W Janssen is the author of The Plain Truth About God-101 (what the church doesn't want you to know!) www.God-101.com
