The Waiting Room

Hi everybody.

Happy Tuesday!

In our Journalism class we were given an assignment to watch the documentary The Waiting Room (about the American health system, focusing on one specific waiting room at an Oakland, California hospital) and to write a little blog about it. So here it is, my doc-blog.

Firstly, I’d like to point out the irony in my day. I went to the doc with a friend and on the way home a not-so-good driver cut over three lanes and cut me off. BANG – accident! No one was badly hurt and MPI told me I was 100% NOT at fault, which is good, but my back and shoulders are killing me and mostly I’m just not impressed. She didn’t even ask if we were okay or apologize for just cutting over. The moral of the story is: don’t do school work on the weekend, especially if you have travel for it.

Moving on, this would not have been a documentary that I would have chosen to see on my own. I won’t get too much into it, but the thought of sitting in a waiting room be it at the doctor’s, dentist’s, or hospital, literally makes me feel like I’m crawling with germs. I just hate (yes, hate) the thought. But I feel like I’ve broken down walls after watching this doc (even though I didn’t watch any parts that had anything to do with needles, blood, or anything like that).

Comparing the American and Canadian health systems is not difficult. There are a lot of differences that lead me to believe I’m a very lucky girl to live in Canada and have the safety and protection of my health care. The most evident difference is America having both private and public hospitals. Private hospitals down there will refuse people because they’re not “members” – as we saw happen to the guy with a testicular tumor. This would never happen in Canada; everyone gets treated here (publications).

Secondly, another obvious is the insurance part. In America people have to have decent enough jobs to be approved for insurance and have health care and benefits. Here in Canada, we all have health care paid for through our taxes and varying amounts of benefits that can be purchased or provided through our jobs.

Third, Canada does unfortunately have a longer wait time to see a specialist or have a non-emergency procedure done when compared to states (NBER). This was a surprising finding for me, but I guess I’m just used to it. This leaves me wondering what happened to the man with a testicular tumor. Obviously, he left the hospital without having the surgery he needed, so when did he get in to have that done? It would have been interesting to see what happened to him a little while after even if only for this reason.

Both American and Canadian health care work on a priority system, not a first come, first serve basis like one patient in the doc thought – or hoped for. Public American health care and Canadian health care both have a lot patients every day. This is evident by the amount of patients always waiting to get in to see a doctor. As The Waiting Room doc sites states, “24 hours. 241 patients. One stretched ER.” Indeed it was!

Overall, it was an alright doc. I enjoyed the internal stories that were happening and finding out about the ‘characters’ lives and stories. I feel like the overall story was told pretty well by the people they followed. It was sad to watch and learn about, but that’s the point. It’s a sad reality. Everyone was showing real emotions – worry, happiness, and relief – and it was refreshing to see those emotions when I’m used to seeing scripted ones.

I felt the doc was fair without really having to try to be fair. It was just showing the way some people live in the states. As a Canadian, I really don’t understand how people can live like that, but it’s just the way it is, I suppose. Even though I also have traveller’s insurance, I still worry about getting hurt every time I travel to the state; I just couldn’t imagine living like that every day.

The shooting was good, I thought. The cameras were right in the thick of everything and go some really good shots of people just living out their waiting room experience. I was especially moved by the shots of the young boy who died. I’m happy that nothing was shown that would identify him because we literally saw someone die on screen (not that it makes it less real). So sad and moving – the camera people did a really good job capturing that moment.

The editing I thought was only okay. There was a lot going on and they definitely followed people well making sure we saw the beginning, middle, and end of most characters, but there were a few people that at the end of the doc I was wondering what happened to them. I wondered what happened to the guy who was shot and his legs were going numb, and what happened to the man who was angry at the world because of his dialysis, and why was there a woman who came in for a sandwich after her dialysis. Some of the editing didn’t make sense to me. Why include those people when there’s no time to finish their story?

All in all, I felt the filmmaker spoke to the most compelling people he could have. As I mentioned previously I didn’t really understand why some people were kept in the doc, but the people who’s story were seen through to the end were quite captivating. I felt awful for the parents of the young girl with strep throat. Of course I wondered how it got to the point that they had to go to the hospital for it, but either way I could feel the fear they felt when they didn’t know what was going on. I was almost in tears when the young boy died from a gunshot wound. I couldn’t imagine how sad and lost his family and friends would feel after that happened. I also liked the people who were chosen for this doc because nothing was really outright said. All of them showed us that they were scared about the cost of their visits and treatments, but no one came out and said much about it.

Music was really only played in the beginning and end of the doc, but it was effective. I loved the introduction. I loved how they showed us the hustle and bustle of the waiting room before jumping into anyone’s specific story. I loved the nurse who was taking all of the patients’ blood pressure and temperature while they waited. She was hilarious especially at the end when she was telling off this one guy for swearing.

I liked The Waiting Room. I've been thinking about it a lot in the last couple days and have been thinking about a lot of my time that was spent in a waiting room... there's been a lot of nights and days where all I saw were the insides of ugly white walls and smelled cleaning product and blood. It's not fun, but seeing what the experience is like for other people really makes me appreciate all the hospital staff.

When my grandpa was sick I went to the Health Science Centre every day after work. Every day I walked the same hallway and walked passed the Emergency waiting room. I never gave it a second thought, but maybe today I would knowing just how many people, stories, and lives are changed in that one white walled room.

Stay warm, friends.

 M

The hair-necessities

This week was a long week, but a great week because I finally go back to Pinning! Yippee! I pinned on a spare at school and I pinned before bed and weirdly enough I felt a bunch of stress just fall right off my body. I sighed a Pinterest sigh of relief. It was great. Do something for you every once in a while, I really recommend it!

This week, busy as it was, I felt like I needed to try something new. As I only had a couple minutes to spare between CreComm, University, two jobs, I decided I would try something new on my face and in my hair.

So Monday I bought new eye shadow, pinks and taupes because I saw a nice makeup tutorial using those colours. I tested it out before bed one night and it looked good, I love new makeup. I liked it so much that it even made its way on to my face for one day this week... that's commitment; I'm normally too tired to care about anything more than mascara during the week.

Also this week I varied from my normal pony-tail (long, curly-hair problems) and wore both a sock-bun (my Saturday grocery shopping / lunch-date look for the last few months) and a reverse braid ponytail (this one's new for me, I've been looking at doing one for a few weeks).


Well here's how they turned out -

Reverse Braid

It turned out alright, for the first attempt, anyway. And it was pretty easy... all I did was lay down on my bed and flip my hair over my head. A major plus to this was that my bun looked great (and huge) yesterday!

The sock-bun I didn't get a picture of because I've done it so many times before, but I did take a picture of it before.

Sock Bun

It still looks cool and somehow so relaxed!

It's times like these I want to tell myself to never cut my hair short again, but short hair is just so much fun (and so easy). I don't know what to do... the plan was to go back to short in the spring, but who knows! Long hair is so much fun too!

Happy Pinning (and weekend), everyone :)
M

I'm just a dreamer... a nightmare-dreamer...

Hiya!

I'm still thinking on the change in blog topic. It's a lot harder than I remember it being the first time around!

I'm also having a really hard time coming up with something to talk about this week... my brain's a little mushy this week, but how could it not be with the week I've had (I won't get into it... you don't wanna know).

The only thing that I feel like doing is sleeping this week - that's what four 8AM classes in a row do to you - so I guess the only logical thing to talk about is the weirdest dream I've ever had.

Well, it happened on Sunday night. I'm not sure what brought it on, all that I can think of is stress. Doesn't everyone have weird dreams when they're stressed out?? I'm going to with yes and make myself feel better. Anyway, I went to bed around 10:30 and was just exhausted so I don't remember even falling asleep, normally I do... I'm one of those people who take longer than seven minutes to fall asleep, apparently that's the average time it takes someone to fall asleep.

Well, I fell asleep and everything was fine. My dream started out like most of my good dreams do, I was at my boyfriends house and we had some people over. I guess it was a party. I knew everyone these except for this one weird looking girl who just kept fluttering around like a social butterfly. She was creepy and I didn't like it, but there were a lot of people there and I had to entertain.

After a while I lost sight of Mike - my boyfriend, but he didn't look like Mike, I just knew it was him - and the creepy girl. I was looking around for Mike when I spotted the two of them coming out of the spare bedroom. Well, needless to say the 'kick-some-arse' alarm went off inside of me and I started crossing to the room to get to him, but as I walked the room got longer and longer and he got further and further away. I hate when that happens. I hadn't even crossed half of the room when he looked at me with glazed over eyes and pulled out a gun!

Well that stopped me in my tracks and then he shot me 5 times. Everyone at the house ran downstairs and I was left dying in the hallway. Well the Megan in my dream was telling herself that she was dying, but I didn't die I just laid there and heard all the other gunshots downstairs. Then Mike came up stairs and got a towel and went to take a bath. I was holding my breath, but there was no point, he was in a trance.

So anyway, he took a bath and I got up and ran to the back window and jumped out. Suddenly I was in a western neighborhood and the streets were deserted. So I just started running down the streets looking for a telephone to call an ambulance because, you know, I was shot 5 times. Long story short (or shorter) I found a phone and called the police and then ran back to the house. Mike was still there and the creepy girl was dead and everyone else was fine.

He came up to me and said, "I'm sorry I shot you five times."

I said, "It's alright." And then I woke up.

Weird, right? I still don't know what it means. I'm thinking it's probably just a stress dream. I'm afraid of dying or not dying, but having a bunch of gunshot wounds? I don't know! So weird.

I told Mike about it and he laughed at me for about 15 minutes and then said, "Aww babe, I'm sorry I shot you 5 times in your dream."

Anyway, I'm going to chalk it up to a stress dream especially considering Mike's the type of guy who apologizes every time he steps on your toe or bumps into you in the kitchen, he's a sweet guy. I just can't believe some of the things I dream up.

Well, I think that's enough awkward dream information for one night. I leave you with this...

Laura Teena's Pinterest

Don't I know it!

Happy Thursday peeps.

M

Caution.

Hi peoples.

I'm thinking I should really change the theme of my blog, for a while anyway. There's just no time for Pinterest and crafting anymore. I'll think on it.

As another off-topic bolg, I decided to get a little more opinionated than usual (I can hear my mom thinking "is that possible?" Yes, yes it is.) and talk about Winnipeg downtown.

Usually Winnipeg downtown is an alright place to be, during the day anyway. There's tons of people around, lots going on, a lot to see, and you know, school and work and all that. But yesterday it was not the place to be. Yesterday it was the worst place to be. Ok, here's my story.

Well it's no secret to anyone that I'm a bit of a germaphobe. Ok, I'm a major germaphobe. I guess it's a sign when you have bottle and bottles of hand sanitizer, tubes and tubes of lysol wipes, and wash your hands 50 times on an average day that your excessiveness to stay clean is just that, excessive. So what I'm about to say probably won't mean quite as much to anyone else as it did to me. Anyway, I was walking to work after school and looked down at the sidewalk to see I was standing a huge puddle of blood. Honestly, someone could have died right where I was walking because that was not a good sight. But I kept walking and inside I could feel my stomach churning. Churning! I was thinking "I'm going to have to wash these boots, because that's really not cool." I'm so sensitive, I know.

Then when I got closer to work a man I know to be homeless was walking toward me and had a huge gash on his forehead. There was blood all down his face and front and he looked as though he had been dragged down the street on his back. The woman in front of me stopped and asked if he called an ambulance and he replied no. So she did it for him - such a nice woman.

I found out today that when my friend continued on to her car, she saw another man who was equally bloody and out of it further down the street. What is going on?!

I realize that I might sound awful here, but I just don't handle things like that. You need me to help you dig a hole for your inground pool? No problem. You need someone to take to your sister's 4-hour long dance recital? I'm your girl. You need me to put a band-aid on your paper cut? You'll have to ask someone else because I will not do that.

It was a lot to handle in a 2-block walk. Too much to handle and more than that today when I was walking to work I saw the same guy with the head gash standing on the street begging for money. Same place he always stands, wearing the same blood-stained jacket he was wearing yesterday. I don't understand. And I never will so there's probably no point saying anything about it, but why is it like this?

There has to be something we can do to make it better because having it like this is just a waste of a could-be wonderful place. It's not fun to see all of that in a matter of 10 minutes just like it's not fun to be afraid you're going to be mugged when you're walking from the bus stop to school in the morning or to be harrassed for money when you're clearly a student and clearly dirt broke (I did not wear a boot with a forming hole in the toe for fun).

I don't really know what I'm trying to say, all I know is something has to change before no one goes downtown. Where to start? I"ll have to start looking into that.

 M

Back to blogging.

Happy New Year!

I hope all of you reading this had a great holiday season and spent lots of time with family and friends. My holidays were lovely this year. Went by like a flash, but I'm finding time in general has just picked up lately. Weeks are short, even 'long' weeks are short, weekends are short, even movies seem to go by in no time at all. It's weird. I'm not sure that I like it, but having the school/work week go by quickly is a nice feeling. Having said all this, my pinning time has taken a major cut between working over the break, sleeping in until -- wait for it -- 9 AM all break, and just purposely being lazy and unproductive. So, I don't have much to say about Pinterest or anything like that. Instead, I'd like to just to touch on something that is very important to everyone... Kim Kardashian's baby.

Kristen Miller's Pinterest

Yes, I know it's awful that more people aren't talking about it, but I'm sure at a time like this all she wants is her privacy...

Ok, seriously now. What I found interesting (and unfortunate) about it is that California law states that the state legally recognizes your **husband** as the father of any baby born in wed-lock. This means that Kimmie's baby daddy is not -- legally -- Kanye West, it is still Kris Humphries. Poor kid, doesn't stand a chance either way. Anyway, that's just a little tidbit for y'all. Interesting stuff (well, I think so anyway).

Well it's 12:09 AM on a Friday and I've stayed in all night to get ahead on some homework... that's enough nerdy-ness for one night. I'm off to watch some Harry Potter... I mean some Full House... I mean... well what can I say but I'm just a nerd, and you know what? I like it that way.

Happy weekend friends!
 M