(0:00 - 2:13) I recently had an experience which highlights just how badly our health care system has degraded since 2015, and we all know what happened that year. Those of you who have been watching my show for some time may know that almost 10 years ago in 2016 I had stage 4 throat cancer. It wasn't a lifestyle cancer, I've never smoked, but rather a bad luck cancer, although more in the sense that I had the bad luck to marry the wrong woman, well, the first time. My cancer was caused by the HPV virus. Human papillomavirus is the world's most common sexually transmitted disease. It's estimated that approximately 90% of North American adults have been infected with at least one of the 200 different strains. There's no cure, however, in most cases our body will kill the virus within a couple of years. Most of the time the infection is asymptomatic. This means you have the virus but you have no symptoms, so you don't know you have it. That was the case with myself. With some strains of HPV, 20 or so years later you can develop cancer. It most commonly causes cervical cancer in women and throat cancer in men, and to this day some 600 to 800 men and women die every year from HPV cancer in Canada. I've been married to my current wonderful wife Valerie for 28 years. However, I was married to another woman for a few years in my late 20s, and unbeknownst to me she was cheating on me. I've had many sexual partners in my life, so the timing of the cancer made it almost certain that my first wife was the culprit. The cancer was found by a doctor at a walk-in clinic. I thought I had an ear infection, which was odd as I'd never had an ear infection in my life. The doctor was very thorough, and after checking my ear and finding nothing, she palpated my neck and got a very alarmed look on her face. She found a hard lump on the side of my neck here. I hadn't noticed it. The lump was biopsied, but the result was inconclusive. I was convinced that I'd picked up a parasite. Shortly before I'd developed the ear infection, my family and I had been in Mexico where Valerie and I went snorkelling in a lagoon where there were several restaurants on the beach. Being Mexico, I assumed they might have been flushing their sewage into the lagoon. (2:14 - 2:29) Following the biopsy, I went back to my family doctor, who was also very good, but unfortunately has since retired. He didn't disagree that it might be a parasite, but he said, just to be sure, we should get a CT scan. A week later, that was done and covered under Alberta Health. (2:29 - 3:20) The result showed that I had a large tumour in the base of my tongue, and it had spread to a lymph node on the side of my neck. In neck cancers, that is considered a stage four, because if it spreads from there, it would go to my brain or my lungs, and at that point, there would be nothing the doctors could do to save me, at least not with traditional chemo and radiation. Which brings us to now, 2025. Two weeks ago, while my wife and I were away on holiday, I developed a gum infection, something else I've never had in my life before. It was quite swollen and sore and rather distracting, so I decided to deal with it myself. Having been a paramedic in my youth, I sterilised a needle and lanced it, hoping to let off the pressure. When I did, there was no discharge and no pain where I'd stuck the needle in. In fact, I couldn't feel the needle at all once it passed my skin. Tumours don't have nerve endings. (3:21 - 3:41) Feeling around in my gum, I found a hard lump about the size of a watch battery, right here. Upon our return to Calgary, I immediately went to a walk-in clinic, where once again, I had the good fortune to find a very competent doctor. If you're in Calgary and looking for a His name is Dr. Khalid Ishfaq, and I've taken him on as my new family doctor. (3:42 - 3:55) If you're watching this at the Iron Wire, you'll find his contact information below this video. He is taking on new patients, and has a large number of five-star reviews online. Given my history, he ordered a blood test, as well as an x-ray and ultrasound. (3:56 - 4:13) That was on Sunday of last week. On Monday and Tuesday of last week, I got the tests done, and on Thursday, Khalid called me into his office to discuss the results. While I will still need a CT scan and possibly a biopsy to be sure, the blood test shows that this tumour is almost certainly benign. (4:13 - 4:30) I don't remember this test being available nine years ago, so there at least is one improvement, although it's a scientific one, not one that can be accredited to our healthcare system. Apparently, malignant tumours release a protein into the blood, and this very sensitive test can measure the levels of that protein. My levels are quite low. (4:31 - 5:01) Dr. Ishfaq explained that the only possible reasons for that would be either the tumour is benign or it's very early stage. However, while a tumour the size of a watch battery could be considered early stage, it's not very early stage. Very early stage usually isn't large enough to be felt. And so it seems unlikely there's anything to worry about, at least not in my case. But there certainly is for many other people. Remember that in 2016, I got a CT scan paid for by Alberta Health within a week. (5:02 - 7:07) When I spoke with Dr. Ishfaq last week, he informed me that the wait for a CT scan under Alberta Health is now, wait for it, six to 12 months. I had a laugh when he told me that because in the unlikely event that my new friend here is malignant, and it is a recurrence of my HPV cancer, in six to 12 months, I'll be halfway to dead. So I've opted for a private scan, which will cost $600. I put the requisition in last Friday, and I'm waiting to hear back from the private clinic with an appointment. I expect to hear from them this week and have the scan done no later than next week. Valerie and I are in the fortunate position that while $600 certainly isn't petty cash for us, it's manageable. But what about the many Canadians for whom that amount is not manageable? The millions of Canadians who simply don't have an extra $600 to spend, even when their lives are on the line. And it's not just CT scans, it's everything. I did some research looking into recent statistics and found the following. While the degradation of our healthcare system in Canada began in 1990, it accelerated dramatically post-2015. The Fraser Institute's long-running survey of specialist physicians tracks median waits from GP referral to treatment across 12 medical specialities, showing a national increase from 18.3 weeks in 2015 to 30 weeks in 2024, a rise of 64%. Over 1.5 million Canadians are currently awaiting procedures representing about 3.7% of the population. Alberta's wait times have deteriorated more sharply than the national average, rising from 21.2 weeks in 2015 to 38.4 weeks in 2024, a nearly 81% increase in just nine years. However, this places Alberta mid-tier among provinces, worse than Ontario at 23.6 weeks in 2024, but better than Nova Scotia at 56.7 weeks. Yes, that's the same province that has imposed climate lockdowns and will fine you $28,000 for going into the woods. (7:09 - 9:06) With improvements in medicine, diagnostic procedures, and communications, healthcare is supposed to get better over time. But instead, it's getting worse, and not just in Canada. I couldn't find a single nation on earth that has shown improvements in the past 10 years, although Canada is worse than most in the degree to which our healthcare system is spiralling into the ground. The question then is why? What's happening that's destroying healthcare around the world? The primary answer is the COVID pandemic. It led to the firings of healthcare workers who refused the shots, the early retirement of many others due to burnout as a result of the increased load on them, and massive backlogs of non-emergency procedures. And add to this systemic underfunding that's been building for decades, and you've got a perfect storm, the slow-motion implosion of healthcare worldwide. Unless we have a change of government, some significant associated change in priorities, the downhill slide will continue. Staffing shortages alone will take years, if not decades, to balance out, if they ever do. In Canada, for example, staffing shortages in nursing nearly doubled in some regions by 2021, almost entirely due to pandemic-related firings and early retirements. Across Europe, the World Health Organisation projects a shortage of over 4 million workers by 2030, building on issues like inadequate pay and violence in the workplace. Violence in the workplace that's the result of rampant immigration, another attack by the globalists on Western society. And since we know the pandemic was an intentional attack as well, this leads to only one conclusion. While government ineptitude can be blamed for some of the collapse of our healthcare system, it's mostly intentional. Yet another weapon in the globalist arsenal to reduce the numbers of us useless eaters.