A Certain Urgency: Adventures in Canadian Medicine
'More and more Canadians in their sixties are getting their first inside look at the Medicare system created when we were teenagers.' Illustration by Jessie Donaldson
Acclaimed playwright and author John MacLachlan Gray reports from the depths of his bowels and within the medical system dedicated to keeping him fancy (and polyp) free. His three-part medical memoir of a minor procedure gone sideways includes reflections on mortality, dependence on the kindness of dedicated strangers, and the vagaries of superbugs. It's a frank, funny rumination on the parallel universe of a hospital, ''the ultimate nudist colony. Even your insides are apparent for all to see.''
In This Series
A Certain Urgency
What John MacLachlan Gray learned in hospital about angels and polyps. A true life comedy in three acts. Here's the first.
A Balloon among Angels
John MacLachlan Gray's memoir of a particular polyp and what ensues. Second in a three-act comedy.
Attack of the Super Bugs
John MacLachlan Gray's memoir of the innards life of a Canadian baby boomer. The final chapter.
Real Cities Give Their People Places to Pee
Public washrooms should be plentiful and accessible, says one scholar. And cities that do flush, flourish.
