Diagnosis.
The next morning. Early wake up and a 90 minutes drive. OK, it was 60 minutes. The mood is still hopeful, Nicole’s bleeding has not worsened. I drop her at the CHUL hospital entrance and drive the car to the garage. The big service (whole day) was scheduled well in advance.
Rain starts. I drop by quickly at Simon’s to pick up a few things left on Panic Day. Nicole calls saying she has already been through admission, including making a hospital card. That was blazing fast compared to CHRTR.
I continue to the garage. Service there was excellent as usual. This was the first time I made use of their complimentary shuttle service. I usually try not to cause more expenses than necessary and just take my notebook with. This time was different. They immediately understood the situation and drove me A.S.A.P. to the hospital.
In the meantime, in less than one hour, Nicole has been through admission, triage and a doctor performed an initial sonography on her. A three minutes procedure. When I arrived she was waiting to be taken upstairs for further investigations, though she already had a sense that it was only to confirm the inevitable.
Compare this: Same symptoms description. Simple prescribed solution: a three minutes sonography to diagnose what causes the symptoms. Same country. Same province. Same government. Same ministry. Same money. CHRTR: nine inconclusive hours of waiting. CHUL: One hour until provisional assessment plus two hours for in depth verification and decision over the course of action. Spot the difference? The emergency admission room was smaller and more crowded at CHUL than at CHRTR, but at CHUL things were moving forward.
We overheard a nurse talking to another patient. He had severe burning all over his face. The nurse noticed he was from Bécancourt, near Trois-Rivières. “Why didn’t you go to CHRTR?” she asked. “A 90 minutes drive to CHUL is quicker than waiting 12 hours at CHRTR” he replied. We could relate to this! In the current situation, the day we lost at CHRTR did not make a difference, but what if it did? we won’t take that chance next time.
It was not yet lunch time and we were in a sonography room. The first doctor (or maybe she was just a technician) zoomed in on Nicole’s womb. Left ovary, right ovary, the embryo. “What week are you in?” 9-1/2. “This is pretty small for 9-1/2 weeks”. She called a more senior doctor. He confirmed: the size is max. 7th week. “Happens one out of five pregnancies, it’s common. You’re unlucky that it has happened on your first attempt. We don’t even analyze this unless you have a history of 3+ miscarriages.” It had not flushed naturally, it will have to be removed.
We arranged for Nicole’s parents to fetch us. Her dad even shaved for the occasion. For the past ten weeks Nicole had followed recommended pregnancy diet. The first thing we did out of the hospital was breaking that diet. Sushi.