How a Marble Led to My Deviated Septum

A white marble caused my deviated septum.

Growing up, I was obsessed by a handful of games and toys. Breaking Point was the ultimate. Balancing individual blue balls with thin sticks on a hanging rack of connected white balls. It was the perfect game for my concentration and lung development, since I’d wail at the top of my lungs whenever I lost.

Playing with Little People was serious business / Photo credit: A brave mother

My overall favourite were my Fisher Price Little People. I’d spend hours playing with them and my treasured Tomy Merry-Go-Copter. The concept: Little People travelled via elevator and boarded a helicopter. The Copter dropped them onto a train. Similar to Queen Elizabeth and 007’s entrance during the 2012 London Summer Games.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzdTi7pXsbA

Board games? It was Mr. Mouth and Quick, Jump, It’s a Skunk.

I was obsessed by that Skunk Game. I’d watch the little white marbles roll when they were knocked by the skunk paddles. They’d disappear for a second then reappear. Where did they go? It was a mesmerizing game of split-second peek-a-boo.

Somehow we misplaced a marble, resulting in an uneven number. Literally an odd ball. So, I took the marble to sleep on my pillow at bedtime. The next morning, I placed the marble back in the box. But the lost ball hadn’t returned. Again, the same marble slept on my pillow. For awhile.

Continue reading “How a Marble Led to My Deviated Septum”

Pack Up, Class of 1994 – You’re Retiring in Arborg

It’s an idyllic thought.

The other night, when a childhood friend and I were messaging, retirement entered the conversation. We laughed about a fleeting thought, then when I went to bed, I expanded on their idea.

Because wouldn’t it be awesome if the entire Class of 1994 returned to our small Manitoba town to retire? Back to the Town of Arborg?

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From DJ to ETA: The Unique Journey of Manitoba’s Dave Greene

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What Happened to Winnipeg’s Epilepsy Monitoring Unit – One Year Later and the Only Person to Benefit was Premier Stefanson

On May 10th, 2021, Manitoba’s Health and Seniors Care Minister pledged $4 million for a “state of the art,” four-bed “Enhanced Adult Epilepsy Monitoring Unit” at the Health Science Centre in Winnipeg.

That was one year ago.

Heather Stefanson said, “The expansion of the adult epilepsy monitoring unit at HSC Winnipeg is a pivotal step toward reducing the need for patients to leave their support network behind to receive care outside this province and toward decreasing costs for anti-epileptic medications – costs that can then be reinvested into providing care for Manitobans.”

Stefanson made neurological care sound akin to a warm and fluffy feather duvet. But it was a pilled blanket with holes. When it comes to neurological care, $4 million is a start. But an EMU has operating costs. Those state of the art beds need state of the art trained epilepsy nurses. The EEG nodules that map a patient’s brain are thousands of dollars.

There’s little doubt the pledge was made to appease an under count of 23,000 Manitobans living with seizures and epilepsy.

Six months after this pledge, Heather Stefanson was upgraded to premier of Manitoba. During the same time, the current adult EMU was still graded as closed.

Since Stefanson’s announcement, two neurosurgeons have left Manitoba. By the end of the year, two epileptologists are fleeing the province, which leaves Manitoba with two overwhelmed epileptologists responsible for hundreds of patients. Recently, the neurology clinic was moved to a smaller clinic at the Health Science Centre. Fitting, because the department is shrinking faster than Shrinky Dinks®.

After a wave of resignations from neurology in 2020, there are approximately 25 neurologists left Manitoba, a province of 1.3 million people. Besides seizures, neurologists diagnose and monitor patients with multiple scoliosis, brain tumours, lupus, fibromyalgia, and other neurological diseases.

Stefanson’s defence could be, “I wasn’t premier at the time,” throwing her predecessor Brian Pallister under the bus. Or “We’re in a pandemic,” or she’ll pass the concern to current Health Minister, Audrey Gordon. While Gordon is the new minister, Stefanson made the pledge.

Continue reading “What Happened to Winnipeg’s Epilepsy Monitoring Unit – One Year Later and the Only Person to Benefit was Premier Stefanson”