As I start writing this I am sitting in a chair in the Emergency room at the new Abbotsford Regional Hospital.

A cyst in my neck has developed an infection becoming painfully swollen, filled and bulging with pus and other ichors. The pain and the desire to deal with the infection before it spread throughout my body sent me off to my doctor.

Who said it was a matter that needed to be dealt with at the hospital so I headed off to Emergency.

The hour and a half spent in the waiting room was not unexpected and I relaxed and wiled away the time watching several cooking shows on the food network which was playing on one of the several TVs situated around the much more spacious waiting room.

My name was called and I followed the nurse into the emergency room where I entered one of the curtained cubicles and sat down to await the doctor, who arrived shortly.

Taking a look at my neck he expressed his displeasure and upset with the fact that my neck had not been opened and the cyst removed at my doctor’s office rather than sending me to Emergency.

However when this same cyst had developed an infection last year, the doctor at the walk-in clinic only lanced the infection to allow the pus and assorted ichors to drain telling me , as I was handed a prescription for antibiotics, that I needed to go to the hospital to have the cyst itself removed.

Now I really do not care who was correct about where the cyst should have been removed.

What I do care about is the ER doctor expressing his displeasure with me being directed to Emergency, then stalking off to deal with, as he put it, “…real sick people” and leaving me sitting around for hours wondering when he would get around to treating my neck seemingly fallen to the bottom of his list because of his displeasure with my doctor sending me to Emergency.

It was unfair and unprofessional for the ER doctor to allow his pique with my doctor sending me to Emergency to affect his interactions with and treatment of me.

Running out to plug more money to feed the voracious appetite of the parking meter machine I did find myself wondering if part of the reason it takes so long in the ER is because it costs $2 an hour to park with no maximum set as to the amount that can be extorted. I wonder how much faster people would be in and out of ER if a maximum parking charge of 2 hours was set for ER patients?

When the ER doctor deigned to return to me, again raising the subject of my doctor’s action, I was very careful to be noncommittal to avoid spending more hours sitting in the ER. He opened up my neck, cleaning out pus, ichors, and digging out the cyst then sending me off saying I probably did not need antibiotics and that I could have the packing removed in three days or even remove it myself.

Later that night as I was washing the blood that leaked out of the wound and into the collar of my shirt, sincerely regretting the lack of pain medication as the freezing wore off and contemplating the use of alcohol as a pain killer and/or sleep aid, I decided to pay an official office visit to a nurse of gentle hands and compassion the next day. Who did indeed carefully and gently change the bandage for me

When she heard I had not been given a prescription for antibiotics she handed me some extra bandages instructing me to change the bandage every day and pay careful attention to the discharge and if it looked like an infection was setting in to see a doctor for antibiotic treatment.

I was told that I should seek out someone to remove the packing in the wound, rather than remove it myself as suggested by the ER doctor. Preferable someone with access to wound packing materials in case it needed to be repacked. That I should have the packing removed sooner rather than later to avoid any complications or problems.

Fortunately she also informed me as to what over-the-counter pain medication I should seek out to provide relief from the pain.

It was much more pleasant, helpful and informative to deal with a medical practitioner behaving in a considerate and professional manner.

I spent some extra time with some homeless friends today as a reminder and reality check.

There is this kafuffle going on concerning the building of safe, affordable, supported housing in Abbotsford with BC Housing and Social Development picking up the cheque.

It was not the fact that none of us know what type of housing were are talking of at this point and won’t know what type of housing it is that is proposed to be built until the submissions are made in response to BC Housing’s call for proposal submissions that had me seeking a reality check.

The reality check was set in motion by the comment from someone experienced with politics in Abbotsford who said that the way to win a council seat was to come out in opposition to building this type of housing or housing of this type on these sites or for building this type of housing only in the “right place” and that supporting this housing, no matter how badly needed, was political suicide.

I had found myself thinking along those lines as I sat at both Wednesday’s and Thursday’s public meetings. It was on my mind when I got up to speak on Thursday evening. When speaking to someone after Monday’s council meeting I found myself wondering if I should admit my name and that I was a candidate for council. I knew what the proper course of action was and I took that course of action but I was aware of the political implications and was tempted to take easy way out.

That temptation had me heading off to spend time with some homeless friends for a reality check and a reminder – of who I am and what I stand for.

Abbotsford has some serious problems it must address such as homelessness. A major reason homelessness and related social problems have become such a large and pressing issue is the failure to deal with the problems. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say the failure is the result of avoiding having to make unpleasant decisions and tough, unpopular decisions.

To often the politically astute choices are the wrong choices because the politically astute choices are choosing not to deal with the problem in an effective manner to avoid conflict or making an unpopular decision.

So it was that I sat down to talk to my homeless friends about this because they have a way of cutting through the angst and inner conflict of such dilemmas to ground one in the harsh reality of the streets and remind me of who it is that I am and that I am prepared to stand for something rather than rolling along whichever way the wind is blowing.