An Ultrasound Story

The winter storm bypassed Toronto, it's just rainy and slushy so I was able to get on with my day.

I received a neat quiz from the Heart and Stroke Foundation, just in time for the holidays, have a go at it below!

Oh, I forgot to mention that the Chum City Christmas wish do not accept gambling toys or weapon type toys, except for nerf guns.

I drank 3 8oz cups of water (instead of the recommended 4 cups) in preparation for my routine ultrasound this morning. And that worked out fine for me. At the reception desk I encountered a lovely young woman wearing the prettiest scarf on her head, a burnt orange colour with a tiny jewelled flower at one end. I asked her if it was ok that I had taken my blood pressure medication by habit this morning, as I knew I wasn't supposed to have anything but water. She said that was fine, and just asked if I had had anything else as she processed me.

It turns out she was the ultrasound technician. She beckoned me into the ultrasound room and asked me a few competent, discerning questions, which surprised me and I found myself opening up to her, telling her little bits about myself. In turn, I found out she was the mother of one child so far. She mentioned as a young mother, how hard it is in Canada because there is no extended family to help out, it falls totally on the parents and they both typically have to work. She said it's also harder to preserve your culture this way. Then I mentioned Mumbai and the troubles in that area of the world and she said the terrorists are horrible people, she doesn't care which side they're on. They don't care, and they don't realize that by killing one man, they have destroyed a whole community. Typically in Pakistan (where she's from), the men would support the wives and extended family members who stay home. So, a community suffers when one person dies, not just a wife and her children. I suggested that maybe Obama would be able to help change the world and she agreed.

In between taking deep breaths, and releasing, I asked her where she had received her ultrasound training. She said she had been in Canada for 5 or 6 years and was trained here. Then she mentioned that she is a qualified doctor in her home country. You have to sit 3 exams here to be certified to practice in Canada and she has one more to go. Interesting that she was warned at the outset that the odds of her qualifying are very low. She mentioned most of the technicians in the area are qualified doctors from other countries. It's interesting that we have a shortage of qualified doctors in the Province and there are all these smart people around who would love to be able to practice.

I told her she's so good at giving ultrasounds and wished her the best of luck.
So I received an 'in-depth' ultrasound this morning, perhaps the most thorough one I've ever had. I was in there for at least half an hour. (Let's hope they don't find anything by mistake!)


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