Dear Editor, I am very unhappy with the Alberta government's recent decision to fund sex reassignment surgery. In 2004 my husband was diagnosed with breast cancer.
Dear Editor,
I am very unhappy with the Alberta government's recent decision to fund sex reassignment surgery.
In 2004 my husband was diagnosed with breast cancer. After he had a mastectomy, we met with an oncologist at the Cross Cancer Institute to discuss the proposed chemotherapy. Dr. Nutting told us that the best drug for this cancer was Paclataxel, that it was very effective, but also very hard on the immune system. Therefore, we were to request pre-approval from our insurance company for Neulasta, which was an immune system booster. We did that, and were approved; my husband had chemotherapy, and although it was very difficult, he survived and is still with us today.
In 2006 our oldest daughter, Robin, was diagnosed with breast cancer. She was a single mom, working at a job with no insurance. So, she was told that the best drug was Paclataxel. No mention was made of Neulasta, because she had no money, and no insurance. On the day of her second chemo, she had the treatment at 1:30 in the afternoon. We did some errands on the way home, but by the time we got home, about 5:00, she couldn't get out of the car. Her dad and brother had to come out and help her in to the house. She went back to the hospital, and the doctors told us that her immune system was destroyed. The normal white blood cell count should be between 4 and 11; hers was .2. Her doctor did not expect her to survive the night. Well, she did survive the night, but she was completely paralyzed from the neck down, and they still said her death was imminent. She lived for one month at the Cross, then she was transferred to the palliative ward at the Grey Nuns Hospital in Edmonton. She lived there for ten months, and was paralyzed the whole time. She couldn’t get out of bed; she had a catheter and bag. Her children were living with my husband, my youngest daughter (who was nine), and myself. Every morning I would take the girls who went to school to school, and either take the youngest with me to the hospital or arrange for someone to care for her. I would go to the hospital to feed Robin and spend the day with her, leaving to pick the girls up from school or from wherever I had arranged for them to be. After work my husband went in to feed her supper and spend the evening with her. However, instead of dying, she lived! When she was able to control her bladder and bowel, we brought her home. In a wheelchair, but she was home. But she still had cancer, and her oncologist did not want to give her Paclataxel again, because of her weakened immune system. So they gave her the next best thing. It wasn’t good enough. Robin died June 21, 2009 on Father’s Day. Her girls are living with us. I have MS. My husband had cancer, a heart attack in 2006, and is diabetic. We can’t go skating or for bike rides with them. I can’t walk to the playground with them, or go swimming with them, and my husband is often too tired to do those things with them. Their lives would be immeasurably better if their Mom were still with us.
I believe that there are many, many things much more important to spend our limited health care dollars on instead of sex reassignment surgery. What do I say to Robin’s daughters when they see that the Alberta government will pay $18,000 for a man to become a woman, or $54,000 for a woman to become a man, and their Mom died because she had no money for the medicine that could have saved her life? Or at least given her a fighting chance. We all miss Robin every day.
Marie-Jeanne Davie
