<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You can review the Timeline of Events here<\/a> <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n You can read Part 1: The Bump <\/strong>here<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n The continued lockdown forced Maria\u2019s May 11 annual check-up to be rescheduled to July 27, approximately four months after she first noticed the bump. Fortunately, Maria (and her husband) had not noticed any visible changes, which was perhaps the only comforting thought as these constant delays kept her from a diagnosis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Again, the pandemic threw a monkey wrench into her affairs. One week leading to her appointment, Maria received a call from her doctor\u2019s office saying they would prefer conducting her annual check-up via a virtual conference. Since Maria also wanted her doctor to have a closer look at the bump, it seemed like an in-person consultation was warranted, if for no other reason than to ease her mind. Her doctor\u2019s office accommodated the request and rescheduled her appointment, yet again, this time to August 4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is important to note that Maria\u2019s family physician had recently retired and Maria was developing a relationship with a new doctor. This may seem like a trivial detail, but the bond formed between a patient and doctor goes well beyond what can be found on a chart and can take a long time to form. And sometimes, through no fault of anyone, things can be missed during this process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Continuing with the story\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Maria\u2019s new doctor did not seem overly concerned, but still prescribed anti-inflammatory medication and referred her to a dermatologist. The earliest available appointment was on November 26, approximately another 4 months later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes. That is a long time. And that is the situation with healthcare in Ontario, pandemic or not. Unless it is an emergency with a clear and present danger to life, seeing a specialist can take a while.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat is how it works, right?\u201d Maria says. \u201cIn Ontario, those in need of medical care are triaged based on priority, and the fact [that] I was not a priority provided some comfort.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But that all changed in early November.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Part 3<\/a> Maria experiences the helplessness of cancer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Visit www.getskinhelp.com\/get-started<\/a> today and have your suspicious moles or bumps checked virtually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Share this story and help us raise awareness about skin cancer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Photo by <\/a> Irwan<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The continued lockdown forced Maria\u2019s May 11 annual check-up to be rescheduled to July 27, approximately four months after she first noticed the bump.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":240372,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,49],"tags":[95,54,31,53,20,57],"class_list":["post-239149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","category-stories","tag-early-detection","tag-healthcare-bureaucracy","tag-melanoma","tag-patient-story","tag-skin-cancer","tag-skin-disease"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/getskinhelp.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/getskinhelp.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/getskinhelp.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/getskinhelp.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/getskinhelp.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239149"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/getskinhelp.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":247135,"href":"https:\/\/getskinhelp.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239149\/revisions\/247135"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/getskinhelp.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/getskinhelp.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/getskinhelp.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/getskinhelp.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}