10 April

Dad is bad - I'm trying not to fall into the polite indirect phrases my mum uses so easily ('not good', 'not doing well'). He's been moved to a ventilator, which requires him to be sedated. It's intended to give his lungs a rest and to help them cough up the junk in them, but he can't stay on indefinitely with no prospect of change.
He's now running a fever, and there's no change otherwise.
This may be the end of a normal course of his illness (emphesyma and COPD), said one nurse - as opposed to something he can recover from.

I'm really impressed by the quality of the nurses here - they're all remarkably good at communicating tough messages, and actually ask you if you have questions, and encourage you to call.

It's about as unlike the wards at Sunnybrook and TO General as I could imagine and still be in the same province, under the same standards of care.

Either they have extraordinary managers, or it's the benefits of a small community vs a city teaching hospital. A wise friend commented about the self-selecting nature of CCU work, which is probably true.

Mum has bronchitis - she reluctantly saw the ER MD at the hosp today - she doesn't like using up emergency resources for GP type calls, but of course hasn't yet found a local GP after moving from TO. Antibiotics, bed rest, and not really supposed to visit CCU.

Oh, Canada...

ethnowoman  posted this, and I found it the most insightful comment about Canadian attitudes I've heard in years.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/what-are-canadians-really-afraid-of-when-it-comes-to-crime/article1978257/singlepage/#articlecontent

So effectively, Canadians are afraid of crime in the face of all evidence to the contrary about the real levels of risk, and someone rallying to the 'victims' side' appeals to them. And the more you prove gov't policy wrong, the more successful the Harperians are.

It's reminiscent of how Bush supporters reacted; screw the elbow-patched academics, what do they know? I'm tellin' it to ya straight, those guys in Guantanamo are bad men...

I'm feeling a rather socially conservative chill particularly right now, visiting in a small town. I'm taken back by how many 'support our troops' signs and stickers I see - I think of that as an American pastime, being militarily patriotic. But I've been out of Canada for most of the time that Cdn troops have been in Afghanistan, and have been watching that conflict's coverage, and Iraq's, from the Brit side of the pond. So I probably don't have a good clear sense of what Canadians think anymore.